Majorossy Judit: Egy történelmi gyilkosság margójára. Merániai Gertrúd emlékezete, 1213 - 2013. Tanulmánykötet - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, A. sorozat: Monográfiák 2. (Szentendre, 2014)
IV. - Mielke, Christopher: Gertrúd királyné és kortársai anyagi kultúrája
Christopher Mielke: The Material Culture of Queen Gertrude and Her Contemporaries with a seal of Constance of Hauteville (1154—1198), the heiress of the Norman kingdom of Sicily and wife of Henry VI from 1186.10 Irene Angelina (b. cca. 1181-1208, marriage 1197), wife of Philip of Swabia (r. 1198-1208) and Maria of Brabant (1190-1260, marriage 1214), wife of Emperor Otto IV (r. 1209-1215, d. 1218) have similar round seals recorded from documents in 1198 and 1208 respectively.11 Yet no empresses appear to have sealed during the reign of Frederick II (r. 1212-1250), with the exception of his daughter-in-law, Margaret of Austria (d. 1266), and they only begin to do so regularly after his death. Constance of Aragon (d. 1222), the first wife of Frederick II and former sister-in-law of Queen Gertrude, has a seal attributed to her by Henrik Marczali, but it rather seems to be a misidentification and in reality it is most probably another seal of Constance of Sicily (d. 1198).12 While the German imperial seals were always rounded, there does seem to be some variations in the other parts of the empire. For instance, the seal of Theodora Komnena (d. 1246), duchess Leopold VI of Austria is a round seal of her on a throne, while that of Agnes of Andechs-Meran (d. 1263), wife of Frederick II of Austria and niece of Queen Gertrude depicts her seated on a throne, but in an ovoid seal.13 Leonore of England and her daughter Berenguela, both queens of Castile used an ovoid seal, though both had a signo rodado, a round seal found that was drawn on Iberian charters.14 Gertrude’s sister Hedwig, the duchess of Silesia (d. 1243) seems to have used an ovoid shaped seal with the figure of Hedwig standing and holding her arms out very much in the style of the Anglo-Norman and French queens.15 As a reflection of the fragmentation of the Byzantine world after 1204, the only royal consorts with surviving lead seals after the Fall of Constantinople are the two wives of John III of Nicaea (r. 1222—1254), Eirene Komnenos Laskaris (d. 1239) and Anne-Constance of Hohenstaufen (1230—1307).16 Coinage Under the reign of Gertrude’s husband Andrew II, one of the biggest changes to Hungarian coinage was the regular appearance of the bust of the king on the currency. Furthermore, there are three coins from his reign that feature the bust of a king and queen on them; one is a silver denar of the two rulers at three-quarters to the viewer, and there is also a denar and obolus of the king and queen facing each other in profile (Figure 2).17 In the nineteenth century, it was assumed that the queen on these coins of Andrew II was Gertrude and that specifically these coins had been issued as a commemoration of the couple’s marriage.18 However, it seems that the queen on these coins could not have been Gertrude, because for the coins featuring the couple in profile, there is the figure of a star and a crescent moon at the top. Andrew II used these images on his seal, but only after the one was lost in 1213 and a new one was made shortly after Gertrude’s murder.19 Elsewhere, the appearance of queens on coins alongside their husbands seems to have been rather popular in the twelfth century. In England and Scandinavia, Matilda/Maud of Boulogne (d. 1152) and Sophia of Minsk (d. 1198) appear on coinage from the 1150s. In Bohemia, the consorts appear on coins starting in this time period as well, but continue on until the first half of the thirteenth century. Hungary seems to be in the middle of this trend, as queens appear on coinage from the reign of Andrew II (r. 1205-1235) to Queen Mary (r. 1382-1395). In Bulgaria, the trend did not appear until after the 1250s, and in Serbia it was not until the early fourteenth century.20 Very few female contemporaries of Queen Gertrude issue their own coinage. The two exceptions to this appear to be Countess Eleanor of Vermandois (1148/1149-1213) who appeared on coinage from 1183-1214 and two Sicilian queens; the Sicilian heiress Constance of Hauteville (d. 1198) appeared on coinage from 1189-1198, and curiously enough the name of Gertrude’s former sisterin-law Constance of Aragon (d. 1222) appeared on coins of her second husband Frederick II from 1209-1213.21 Yet the presence of the queens on these coins in this period is still a rather significant phenomenon, and thus Julius Menadier’s opinion that these were only issued for the marriage of the monarchs in question needs to be re-evaluated. 10 Nolan 2009: 26; Posse 1909:17 (Table 24/1). 11 Posse 1909:118 (Table 24/5,Table 26/1). 12 Marczali 1896: 61,348; Posse 1909:17; Daniele 1784: 57. 13 Rauch-Chrötter 1780: 381,383; Mahnic 2005:114. 14 Shadis 2009: 44-46,88-91. 15 Gottschalk 1982: 54. 16 Zacos-Veglery 1972: 109—111. 17 CNH: 28,34; Huszár 1979: 58,61. 18 Menadier 1891:130. 19 Takács 2012: 66. 20 Menadier 1891: 123-131. 21 Stahl 1990: 330,333; Spahr 1976:192. 207
