Catherine of Poděbrady

Catherine of Poděbrady (11 November 1449 – 8 March 1464,^[1]) was the first wife of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary.

Biography

Catherine and her twin sister Sidonie were born at Poděbrady, to the Bohemian king George of Poděbrady and his first wife, Kunigunde of Šternberk. Kunigunde died from complications of the birth. Her father eventually remarried; his second wife, Johana of Rožmitál, bore George more children, including Ludmila of Poděbrady.

Matthias Corvinus had lost his fiancee, Elisabeth of Cilli, at a young age. On 1 May 1463 he married Catherine at Matthias Church^[2] in Buda. Matthias was eighteen, his bride thirteen. The wedding negotiations had begun in 1458 when Catherine was nine years old. It was agreed that George would make Matthias King of Bohemia if he married Catherine. Soon after the marriage. Catherine left her family and went to live in Hungary with her new husband. Janus Pannonius helped teach Catherine Latin.^[3]

The queen was very young, so she played little part in the politics of her husband's two kingdoms. When Catherine was fourteen years of age, she gave birth to a child. The child and Catherine died a few days later, an event that caused Matthias to lose hope of siring a legitimate heir. He eventually married Beatrice of Naples, daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples and Isabella of Taranto, but that marriage also failed to produce an heir. Matthias's only surviving offspring was an illegitimate son, János Corvinus, by a mistress named Barbara.

She died at Buda in 1464.

References