Barbara of Celje

Barbara of Celje (Croatian and Slovenian Barbara Celjska; Hungarian Cillei Borbála) or Barbara of Cilli (c. 1390/1395 – 11 July 1451) was Holy Roman Empress. She received the sobriquet "Messalina of Germany", and was instrumental in creating the Order of the Dragon.

Barbara was the daughter of Herman II, Count of Celje, and his wife Anna, Countess of Schaunberg.

Both Barbara and her cousin and adopted sister Anna married ruling Kings whose recently deceased wives were sisters and relatives of the Celje family. Anna married Władysław, King of Poland and Lithuania in 1402 after the death of Jadwiga of Poland, while Barbara married Sigismund, King of Hungary in 1408 after the death of Mary of Hungary. [Jadwiga and her sister Mary were the daughters of Louis I, King of Hungary and his wife Elisabeth Kotromanic, whose elder sister Katarina Kotromanic was the wife of Herman I, Count of Celje and mother of Herman II.] This marriage was to strengthen Sigismund's grip on the Hungarian throne, as through her father Barbara could trace her descent not only to the Slovenian rulers of Celje and the Kotromanic of Bosnia to the Nemanjic kings of Serbia and to King Stephen V of Hungary).

Sigismund, a younger son of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor later succeeded to the rule in Germany (1410), Bohemia (1419) and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor himself in 1433.

Barbara gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth, Sigismund's only surviving issue and heiress, who married Albrecht of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria. Barbara lived to see her three grandchildren, Anna, Elisabeth and Ladislas. She is one of the ancestresses of modern European royal families, her blood flowing in the veins of most of today's dynasties.

Barbara's father Hermann II, as the father-in-law of both feuding Sigismund and Jagiello, played a crucial role in the 1410 pre-Battle of Tannenberg politics by helping prevent Sigismund, who was in alliance with the Teutonic Knights, to attack Jagiello. Jagiello with his Slavic allies defeated the Knights who led the combatants provided by 22 western states, including the Pope.

Genetics

Barbara of Celje is a direct matrilineal ancestor of Nicholas II of Russia. Provided the genealogy is correct, this implies that she and all her matrilineal relatives were members of mitochondrial haplogroup Haplogroup T. This includes her many female-line descendants among European nobility. Her great-grandfather was Stephen II of Bosnia.

Barbara's most distantly recorded maternal ancestor is Adelheid von Alpeck (died 1280), daughter of Witegow Von Alpeck. [ [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow/s063/f301616.htm Rootsweb genealogy] . Accessed January 29, 2008.]

Her great-great-great-great-great granddaughter was Anne of Denmark, the wife of James I of England and mother of Charles I of England, and of Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia.

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before=Agnes of Opole
title=Electress of Brandenburg
years=1411–1417
after=Elisabeth of Bavaria-Landshut
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External links

* [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow/s007/f662702.htm A pedigree of her]

References