Editing Jadwiga of Poland (section)

== Accession negotiations (1382–84) ==
[[File:Louis's kingdoms and his vassal territories (crop).png|thumb|Lands ruled or claimed around 1370 by Jadwiga's father, [[Louis the Great]] (or the Hungarian): [[Union of Hungary and Poland|Hungary and Poland]] are colored [[red]], the [[vassal state]]s and the [[Kingdom of Naples]] are coloured [[light red]]]]

Jadwiga's sister, Mary, was crowned king of Hungary five days after their father's death.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=75}}{{sfn|Engel|2001|p=195}} With the ceremony, their ambitious mother secured the right to govern Hungary on her twelve-year-old daughter's behalf instead of Mary's fiancé, Sigismund.{{sfn|Monter|2012|p=195}}{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=97}} Sigismund could not be present at Mary's coronation, because Louis had sent him to Poland to crush a rebellion.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=10}} After he learnt of Louis's death, he adopted the title "Lord of the Kingdom of Poland", demanding oaths of loyalty from the towns in [[Lesser Poland]].{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=10}} On 25 November, the nobles of [[Greater Poland]] assembled at [[Radomsko]] and decided to obey nobody but the daughter of the late king as she would settle in Poland.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=99}} On their initiative, the noblemen of Lesser Poland passed a similar agreement in [[Wiślica]] on 12 December.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=99}} Queen Elizabeth sent her envoys to the assembled lords and forbade them to swear an oath of loyalty to anyone other than one of her daughters, thus invalidating the oath of loyalty that the Polish noblemen had sworn to Sigismund on the late King Louis's demand.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=99}}

Both Elizabeth's daughters had been engaged to foreign princes (Sigismund and William, respectively) unpopular in Poland.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=100}} Polish lords who were opposed to a foreign monarch regarded the members of the Piast dynasty as possible candidates to the Polish throne.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=100}}{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=10}} Queen Elizabeth's uncle [[Władysław the White]] had already attempted to seize Poland during Louis's reign.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|pp=66, 100}} However, he had taken [[monastic vows]] and settled in a Benedictine abbey in [[Dijon]] in Burgundy.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=10}} [[Antipope Clement VII]], whom King Louis had refused to recognize against [[Pope Urban VI]],{{sfn|Halecki|1991|pp=69–70}} released Władysław from his vows, but he did not leave his monastery.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=11}} Meanwhile, [[Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia]], appeared as a more ambitious candidate.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=100}} He was especially popular among the nobility and townspeople of Greater Poland.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=8}}{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=100}}

Queen Elizabeth's representatives released the Poles from their oath of fidelity that their representatives had sworn to Mary at an assembly in [[Sieradz]] in February 1383.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=101}} The envoys also announced that she was willing to send Jadwiga to be crowned instead, on condition that she return to Buda after her coronation to live there until her twelfth birthday.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=101}} The Polish lords accepted the proposal, but they soon realized that thereby the interregnum would be extended by a further three years.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=101}} At a new meeting in Sieradz, most noblemen were ready to elect Siemowit of Masovia king on 28 March.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=101}}{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=15}} They proposed that Siemowit should marry Jadwiga.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=101}} A member of the influential [[Tęczyński family]], [[Jan Tęczyński (died 1405)|Jan]], convinced them to postpone Siemowit's election.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=104}} The noblemen agreed to wait for Jadwiga until 10 May, stipulating that she was to live in Poland after her coronation.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=104}} They also demanded that [[Dobrzyń Land|Dobrzyń]] and [[Gniewków]] (two fiefdoms which her father had granted to [[Vladislaus II of Opole]]), and "[[Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia|Ruthenia]]" (that had passed to Hungary in accordance with a previous treaty){{sfn|Deletant|1986|p=202}} be restored to the [[Polish Crown]].{{sfn|Halecki|1991|pp=71, 104}}

Meanwhile, Jan Tęczyński and his allies, including {{ill|Sędziwój Pałuka|pl|Sędziwój Pałuka}}, seem to have started negotiations with [[Jogaila]], [[Grand Duke of Lithuania]].{{sfn|Halecki|1991|pp=103–104}} Siemowit's supporters however, tried to enter Kraków in the retinue of [[Bodzanta]], [[Archbishop of Gniezno]], in May, but the townspeople closed the gates of the city before their arrival.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=106}} Jadwiga had not arrived in Poland by the stipulated date (10 May).{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=106}} Her mother's envoys stated that the spring floods had hindered Jadwiga's progress over the [[Carpathian Mountains]].{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=106}}

Siemowit of Mazovia took up arms and advanced as far as [[Kalisz]].{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=106}} His supporters assembled in Sieradz in August in order to elect him king, but Archbishop Bodzanta refused to perform his coronation.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|pp=101, 106}} In a meeting in [[Košice|Kassa]], Queen Elizabeth promised the delegates of the Polish provinces to send Jadwiga to Poland before November.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=107}} The queen mother and the Poles also agreed that if either Jadwiga or Mary died childless, her kingdom would pass to her surviving sister.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=107}} Siemowit having laid siege to Kalisz, Queen Elizabeth sent Sigismund of Luxemburg at the head of an "improvised army"{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=107}} to Lesser Poland. Siemowit failed to take Kalisz, but news about the appalling behaviour of Sigismund's soldiers increased Sigismund's unpopularity in Poland.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=107}} Sędziwój Pałuka, who was the castellan of Kalisz and ''[[starosta]]'' of Kraków, led a delegation to [[Zadar]] in [[Dalmatia]] to negotiate with Queen Elizabeth, but she had him imprisoned instead.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|pp=107–108}} She sent Hungarian soldiers to Poland to garrison them in [[Wawel Castle]] in Kraków, but Pałuka escaped and successfully obstructed her soldiers from entering the castle.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=108}}

At a [[General sejm|general assembly]] in [[Radomsko]] in early March, the delegates of all the Polish provinces and towns decided to elect Siemowit king, if Jadwiga did not come to Poland within two months.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=108}} They set up a provisional government,{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=108}} stipulating that only the "community of lords and citizens" had the authority to administer Poland during the interregnum.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=16}} Queen Elizabeth, who was only informed of the decision by an informal message, realized that she could not any longer postpone Jadwiga's coronation and so sent her to Poland.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=108}} The exact date of Jadwiga's arrival is unknown because the main source for the history of Poland during this period{{spaced ndash}}[[Jan of Czarnków]]'s chronicle{{spaced ndash}} ended prior to this event.{{sfn|Halecki|1991|p=109}}