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

having a crown. The first evidence for the queens of Sweden having crowns dates from this period as well with the effigy of Queen Katherine, the wife of Erik XI of Sweden (d. 1250) from her burial at the Gudhem monastery.32 Certain coronation rituals for the queen had also taken hold in the time around Queen Gertrude. For instance, when Eleanor of Provence was crowned queen of England in 1236, not only was she wearing a gold circlet, but since her husband had been crowned before her, he appeared at the ceremony wearing his full coronation robes. This had been the case for the coronation of her predecessor, Isabella of Angouleme (d. 1246), and seems to have been the accepted practice in France as well.33 In some cases, the crowns could even have a specific religious or political programme on them. When Isabella of England was wed to Frederick II in 1235, she was sent with a crown of gold and precious gems that was engraved with four English kings, martyrs and confessors, “especially chosen by the king for the care of his sister’s soul”.34

In Central Europe, there were several crowns Queen Gertrude would have interacted with. The chronicler Jan Dlugosz reports that Queen Gertrude had ordered that one of her crowns “which she wore on ceremonial occasions” be donated to the cathedral of Breslau (today Wroclaw) and it was her wish that it be melted down and made into

a chalice.35 In addition, either Gertrude or her successor Yolanda of Courtenay (d. 1233) would have been the last Hungarian queen acquainted with the crown of the first queen, Gisela of Bavaria (985-1065). In order to help fund his venture in the Fifth Crusade (1217), Andrew II had the crown and other treasures held in the cathedral of Veszprém melted down.36 Neither of these crowns seemed to survive, but the crowns of Agnes of Antioch (d. 1184) and Constance of Aragon (d. 1222) from this period did. The aforementioned crown of Agnes (Figure 4) was buried with her at her tomb in Székesfehérvár and was a silver gilt coronet adorned with four crosses, a smaller version of the one her husband would be buried with twelve years later.37 When Constance of Aragon died in 1222, there was a crown at her feet, and the helmet and nature of it has usually led to the assumption that it is Frederick’s crown that he placed there as a token of affection.38 There is also two early thirteenth-century Polish crowns originally made in Venice but that were made into a cross in Cracow at the end of the fifteenth century; traditionally they have been attributed the Boleslaw V ‘the Shy’ (b. 1126-1276) and his wife (Saint) Kinga/Kunigunda of Hungary (1224-1292), Gertrude’s granddaughter.39 While other aspects of regalia like orbs and sceptres would not become part of the queen’s regalia until later, this period nonetheless saw a strengthening of the relationship between the queen and her crown in a way that went beyond mere personal ownership.

Liturgical Objects

There were many reasons for a queen to involve herself in the creation or donation of liturgical objects. In one sense, it was a donation of something that could be very practical. Books, silk vestments and plates are mentioned in the charter issued by Melisende of Jerusalem (1105-1161, Queen of Jerusalem 1131-1153) in her gifts to the convent of Bethany.40 Even in the period of her captivity, Ingeborg of Denmark (d. 1236), the rejected wife of Philip II Augustus of France (r. 1180-1223) managed to donate a chalice, paten, and silk chasuble to the chapter of Amiens Cathedral.41

Figure 4

Crown of Anna of Antioch from Székesfehérvár, c. 1184 (Cserme'nyi 1999)

32 Twining 1967: 61.

33 Howell 1998:16-18.

34 Wild 2011:1.

35 Dlugosz 1997:160.

36 Kosztolnyik 1996: 68.

37 Czobor 1900: 217-218.

38 Twining 1967: 8.

39 Lorentz (ed.) 1966-1967: No. 13; Blumówna (ed.) 1970: 52.

40 Schowalter 2003:104.

41 Schowalter 2003:107.

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