A Brief History
On April 18, 1518, Bona Sforza d’Aragona, Duchess of Bari and Rossano, became Queen consort of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania when she became the second wife of Sigismund the Old, the reigning King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Digging Deeper
In the way of convoluted European monarchies, history is replete with international marriages that put foreigners on the throne of any given country, and sometimes lack of a suitable heir to a throne caused a search for foreign candidates to rule.
Not only do we see the English throne occupied by Danes, Normans, Frenchmen, Scots, a Dutchman, and Welsh, but the current British Royal Family is of German origin. Catherine the Great, one of the greatest of the Russian rulers, was in fact Prussian and born in what is now Poland.
Even Americans have wound up on thrones, including Princess Grace of Monaco and Queen Noor of Jordan!
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Darowski, Adam. Bona Sforza. Kessinger Publishing, 2010.
Potter, Phillip. Monarchs of the Renaissance: The Lives and Reigns of 42 European Kings and Queens. McFarland, 2012.
The featured image in this article, an engraving portrait of Barbara Zápolya, Sigismund I of Poland, and Bona Sforza, is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer.
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