Anna of Celje
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Anna of Celje (1386 – May 21, 1416), was Queen consort of Poland and grand duchess of Lithuania, 1402-1416 as second wife of King of Poland and Lithuania Władysław Jagiełło (reigned 1387-1434).
Anna of Celje was born as the only daughter of William (1361-1392), Count of Celje (a Slovenian state) and Anna of Poland (1366-1425), the youngest surviving daughter of the late king Casimir III of Poland (1309-1370).
When Wladyslaw Jagiello's first wife the reigning queen Jadwiga of Poland, young Anna's second cousin, had died in 1399 (without surviving children), Wladyslaw sought a wife amongst heirs to the kingdom of Poland, Jadwiga's patrimony. The about 50-year-old king married the 16-year-old Anna in 1402.
Her mother Anna of Poland, Countess of Celje tried to gain influence in Poland, mostly to advance her daughter's and granddaughter's position.
Anna bore an only surviving daughter, Princess Jadwiga of Lithuania (born 1408) to her husband, and then died in 1416, at about the age of 30.
Jogaila then married in 1417 Elisabeth of Pilica, and in 1422 Sophia of Halshany, both of whom did not descend from Piast kings of Poland, as Jogaila was not able to find any more brides with a hereditary right to the kingdom of Poland. Jogaila's sons and heirs were born of Sophia.
A party of Polish nobles wanted Jadwiga and her future husband to succeed Jogaila (in Poland at least), instead of her father's sons by Sofia.
In 1425 the late Anna's mother Anna, Countess of Celje, died. And in 1431 her daughter Jadwiga, without any issue. Anna's descent went extinct before Jogaila's death.
