Jelena Gruba

Jelena Gruba (Church Slavonic: Єлена,^[1] Cyrillic: Јелена Груба; born c. 1345 – died after 18 March 1399) was Queen of Bosnia from 1391 to 1398, first as queen consort until 1395 and then as queen regnant. She was the only female head of state in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Born into the Nikolić noble family, which ruled a part of Zachlumia,^[2][3] she was the wife, widow and elected successor of Stephen Dabiša, a member of the House of Kotromanić.

Name

Jelena's given name is the cognate of Helen (Latin: Helena^[4]). She was also known as Gruba,^[2] which is a nickname^[5] and can be translated into the "Coarse",^[6] or the "Ugly",^[7] or "Ugly One",^[8] or the "Rough One".^[9]

Queen consort

Stephen Dabiša's charter by which he granted a village to his and Jelena's daughter, specifying that it should pass to their granddaughter and her heirs

Jelena first became Queen of Bosnia as consort to King Stephen Dabiša.^[10] He ascended in 1391, on the death of his relative, King Stephen Tvrtko I of Bosnia. While Dabiša was a Roman Catholic, it is not certain which religion Jelena practiced.^[11] Their only surviving child was a daughter named Stana, mentioned in a charter by which Stephen Dabiša gave her an area in Zachlumia to govern. The charter, issued on 26 April 1395, also says that the area is to be inherited by Juraj Radivojević, husband of Stana's daughter Vladava and thus grandson-in-law of King Dabiša and Queen Jelena.^[12][13] Vladava and her husband had already had at least two children by the time the charter was issued, making the King and Queen great-grandparents. Assuming that each of the three women – Jelena, Stana, and Vladava — married at the age of 15 and became mothers by the age of 16, the Queen must have been more than 50 years old when she succeeded her husband.^[13]

Queen regnant

When Stephen Dabiša died in September 1395, Jelena ceased to be queen consort. Her husband had designated King Sigismund of Hungary, the husband of his cousin, Queen Mary, as his successor. Mary, however, had predeceased Dabiša, dying in May the same year. The Bosnian nobility refused to recognize Sigismund as king, as his right had rested in his status as Mary's husband. Instead, the nobility installed Jelena as the successor to her husband.^[2] Thus, during her reign Bosnian nobility grew in power independently from the crown. Amongst them were Sandalj Hranić, Hrvoje Vukčić and Pavle Radenović who all ruled their own demesnes independently from the Queen. The Queen's demesne was a small territory in central Bosnia, while she lost direct control over the territories of Usora in the valley of the river of Sava. On the other hand, Jelena's reign saw successful trade with the Republic of Ragusa.

She spent the end of her reign in western Zahumlje, at the court of her grandson-in-law.^[14]

Queen dowager

In 1398, she was replaced with Stephen Ostoja. It is unclear why she was replaced. It is possible that her brothers were gaining too much wealth and influence during her reign, much to the dismay of other noblemen.^[2] 19th-century authors attempted to identify her as Kujava Radinović, the woman Stephen Ostoja married in 1399. The theory has been proven wrong, with Dominik Mandić claiming it improbable that a newly elected and childless king would marry a woman aged at least 55, and impossible that she would give birth to his son in 1401 – almost a decade after she had become a great-grandmother. Furthermore, such a marriage would have required a papal dispensation – one that was never sought – because Jelena was either his sister-in-law or his aunt.^[13]

It was previously believed that Jelena left Bosnia and went into exile in Dubrovnik. However, it has recently been shown that she continued to reside at the Bosnian court as queen dowager and treated with honour. Some of the leading Nikolić nobles, including her brothers and nephews, did have to flee to Dubrovnik, but returned to Bosnia by 1403. Sources refer to Jelena after her deposition as the most serene and mighty lady Gruba.

She is last mentioned in a document dating 18 March 1399.^[14]

See also

• Kotromanić dynasty
• History of Bosnia and Herzegovina

References

Sources

• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4.  Cite uses deprecated parameter |separator= (help)

Further reading

• Bosanska kraljica Gruba. Godišnjak Drustva istoričara BiH, IV (1952)