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 When Elizabeth, the daughter of King Andrew II (r. 1205-1235) and Queen Gertrude (b. cca. 1185-1213, marriage ca. 1203) was sent to the Duke ofThuringia (1211), amongst her dowry was a silver crib, a silver bathtub, jewellery, silk garments, and at least eight thousand marks of silver. Apparently a thousand marks of silver came directly from the queen’s purse, with her promising to double the amount if the child survived. Kosztolnyik’s acerbic assessment of this display of wealth was that “it must have been the vanity of Queen Gertrud to represent her husband’s riches to her important German relatives; nor did Andrew II wish to remain behind his wife’s generosity”.1 Chroniclers said of Gertrude that she was “generous and friendly towards the Germans, wherever they came from, and tried to help them in every possible way.2 3 Relatives and favourites of her received quite a lot of favour; her brother, Berthold (cca. 1180—1251) received the office of the archbishop of Kalocsa (1206—1218) despite being young and unqualified for the job. He also became the ban of Croatia (1209-1212) and the voivode of Transylvania (1212-1213). Two of her brothers - Ekbert and Heinrich - accused of murdering the Holy Roman Emperor Philip of Swabia (1177-1208) received sanctuary at the Hungarian court in 12087 Perhaps this explains that while entertaining her brother, Berthold of Kalocsa and the visiting Duke Leopold/Luitpold VI of Austria (r. 1198—1230), a party consisting of two reeves named Simon and Peter, a noble named Simon, and the Palatine Bánk bán (Bancban) attacked the trio. While Berthold and Leopold were able to escape, the Queen was so savagely murdered (1213) that in the process both of her arms were cut off with a knife.4 These elaborate gifts of the queen on one hand raised the ire of the local nobility, yet the use, manipulation, and distribution of material culture was an integral measure of the queen’s power. It is clear from the previous paragraph that Gertrude was seen as overstepping the boundaries of queenship, but so far the relationship between the queens of this period and the objects they would have used has not been properly addressed. For now, this study will examine particular categories of material culture that the queen and her contemporaries would have interacted with. These include mostly seals, coinage, funerary monuments, regalia, liturgical objects, clothing, jewellery, and books. Certain categories related to this field such as heraldry and livery will not be discussed here as there is precious little evidence at this particular time period for them. However, these categories of objects nonetheless will show the range of agency that medieval queens in Gertrude’s time could use in order to display their own power. 1 Kosztolnyik 1996: 40; Montalembert 1848: 9-10. 2 Engel 2001: 90. Annales Marbacenses: MGH SS 17: 173. 3 Engel 2001: 90-91. 4 Kosztolnyik 1996: 46. 205
