Jelena Lijepa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jelena Lijepa (English: Helen the Beautiful) was Queen of Croatia. She was born a Hungarian princess (Illona) and was the daughter of Arpad King Bela I, sister to King Ladislaus I of Hungary, grand-daughter of Polish King Mieszko II Lambert, and a great-grand-daughter of Csar Samuil. She became Queen of Croatia during her marriage with Croatian King Dmitar Zvonimir, a distant relative whom she married in 1063. They had a son, Radovan, who died in his late teens or early twenties.

Jelena was very popular with the Croatians, and they often called her Jelena Lijepa. She is thought to have been a joint ruler with her husband Zvonimir, and they saw their kingdom expand during his 14 year rule until his death in 1089. Upon the death of King Zvonimir, Jelena was said to have been quietly plotting the inheritance of the Croatian Crown for her brother, the King of Hungary, which caused a decade of war and instability in the kingdom. Jelena died around 1091.

She is not to be confused with Jelena of Zadar, who was the wife of Mihajlo Krešimir II in the 10th century.