Catherine, Queen of Hungary

## Catherine of Verona

Queen Consort of Hungary

Peter I of Bulgaria

Rudolf of Hungary

Constance of Hungary

Maria, Queen of Majorca

Emeric of Hungary

**Catherine of Verona** (C. 1189 - 1254) was the youngest child, alongside her twin sister Adelaide of Verona of Ferdinand I, Count of Verona and Maria of Slavonia, from birth she already knew what it was like to be a Queen, her mother Maria was the second wife of Andrew II of Hungary and when Andrew died, her mother remarried Catherine's father. When Catherine was 11, her mother's step-son Andrew III of Hungary kidnapped Catherine of Verona, and married her, when Catherine was told she was a Queen, she almost fainted, her sister was also kidnapped by Andrew III's brother Ottokar II of Bohemia and she became Queen of Bohemia, the once close sisters who were now Queen of Hungary and Queen of Bohemia, were now brutal rivals, there husband's hated each-other. They both gave birth to sons in the same year, Catherine was a popular Queen for her piety and beauty. When her husband died in 1148, she oversaw part of the reign of her son's Stephan (In Hungary) and Peter (In Bulgaria.) She died of unknown causes in 1254.

## Early Life

### Childhood

Catherine of Verona was born in 1189 as the youngest child alongside her twin sister Adelaide of Verona, of Ferdinand I, Count of Verona and Maria of Slavonia who was the former wife of Andrew II of Hungary. Catherine was very close to her twin sister in her early years and rarely squabbled. She had 1 older brother Also named Ferdinand and 2 older half-siblings, Lothar of Hungary and Maria of Hungary, whom Catherine and her older half-siblings quite got along. Catherine was very beautiful and had many takers, most of which were counts and Duke's, but Catherine was not keen on marrying at age 8, so her mother allowed her to wait a few more years before she should marry.

### Education

Catherine and her twin-sister Adelaide were thought together in the Verona Castle, Catherine's mother did not wan't her daughters to get the usual useless education most mideval lady got, Maria of Slavonia insisted Catherine be thought all the same things there older brother was getting thought which was quite unusual for a woman. Catherine was thought Math, Reading, writing, war, poetry, archery, hunting, dance, conversation, music, and house-hold-duties. But when her father died, Catherine's education had to be stopped after her brother Ferdinand refused to pay for it, he thought woman should not be as educated as men, and took Catherine and her sister away from Maria and thought them many more womanly skills, and the girls forgot everything Maria had thought them much to her disapointment and fury.

### Marriage

When Catherine was 11, there was a fight between 2 powerful brothers, Andrew III of Hungary and Ottokar II of Bohemia, whom were both former step-sons of Maria of Slavonia, Andrew wanted to be closer to Catherine's older half-siblings and even attempted to kill the king of Jerusalem who was Maria of Hungary's husband in order to marry her. But the French ambassador warned Andrew and Ottokar if they kill the King of Jerusalem, it would leave to excomunication by the Pope. So Ottokar and Andrew looked at Lothar's half-siblings Catherine and Adelaide of Verona both 11 and unmarried, so Andrew was the first to think of kidnapping one of the girls and marrying them, Ottokar happened to hear the plot and had a plan to do the same for one of the girls. He sent spys to spy on the girls and both Ottokar and Andrew liked Catherine, but Andrew sent a kidnapper first to take Catherine from the Castle, the kidnapper Ottokar sent had to write back saying Catherine was gone, as the kidnapper grabbed her arm, Catherine screamed and begged her twin-sister to save her, but her twin-sister was kidnapped by Ottokar's spys and sent to be wed to King Ottokar of Bohemia. Catherine was brought to Hungary and Andrew welcomed Catherine with open arms, she was told her friends would be coming to Hungary as she was going to become Queen Consort of Hungary. Catherine was betrothed and then married in Budapest Cathedral in 1200, she was then crowned Queen of Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia the day after, as she was almost 12, she moved to her husband's court which was noisy compared to the calming court in Italy. But one other thing changed, the sister she had been so close with in childhood turned against her, her sister was married to Ottokar and became Queen of Bohemia, Czechia and Serbia, but those countries were also enemies with Hungary. Catherine and Adelaide competed to have there child born before the other, Catherine gave birth to a son Stephan of Hungary, but her sister gave birth to a healthy son not long after.

## Queen

Catherine had a large house-hold with 72 confirmed ladies-in-waiting, 13 mistresses of the robes, 24 royal governesses for her children, many maids-staff, 19 ladies of the bed-chambers, and 71 lesser-ladies-in-waiting. Catherine soon gave birth to her second child Agnes of Hungary in Budapest Castle, Catherine was devastated when her daughter was taken away from her along with her son to be raised in Albania which was common at the time for royal children, Catherine so heart-broken, made her way from Budapest to Zoro (Which is in Albania) and took her children back to Budapest, at the end, Andrew let his wife keep Agnes of Hungary, but he wanted his heir and eldest child to not change from any other Hungarian prince's education, as he was scared he would be looked at strangly by other European monarchs. Catherine was very close to her children and usually assisted the royal-governesses, and wrote to her son everyday and sent him gifts, she soon gave birth to her third child, Peter of Hungary who was sent away much to Catherine's melancholy and devastation. And a year later she gave birth to Rudolf of Hungary which Andrew allowed Catherine to keep after he found out about his wife's melancholy. Catherine raised her children Roman Catholic and thought her children Italian which was her first langueage. She also thought her children, Croatian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Romanian, Greek, Slovak and Kievan which was important for future marriages. During the crusades, Catherine acted as regent while her husband fought in the middle-east, she was very popular and promoted generals who served in the war against the Kingdom of Bohemia during the Hungarian-Bohemian War. She popularized the Italian tradition of Patron Saint Feast Day's and popularized the "*Bianca Rosemaria*" which was an Italian Silk named after Bianca Sforza who in C. 635 brought the Silk rode to Italy. She soon gave birth to Constance of Hungary whom was taken away from Catherine and moved in Albania with the rest of Catherine's children.

## Trade

Catherine was very active in the trade line's in Hungary, at the time Europe did not know of the Bianca Rosemaria Silk and were amazed when they saw how soft it was, to aid her husband in the middle-east on crusade, she started making the silk in Hungarian farmlands and selling silk, she made at-least 20,000,000 Hungarian euros each 5 months, and gave 10,000,000 to the charity and the other 10,000,000 to her husband to buy more wepons, she also traded the silk for rare flowers, cloths, and gold which decorated the Palace. Catherine also gave a lot to local nunnery's and visited them often to donate. That year she gave birth to Maria of Hungary who was named after the Maria Vasaite, which was a silk that came from Portugal, which she traded her Bianca Rosemaria for.

## Hungarian-Bohemian Wars

Catherine did not much remeber what was thought by her mother about war as her brother brain-washed her from it. She releared a little bit from her husband and set off in an attempt to poison her sister, the attempt failed when her sister's lady-in-waiting, Countess Bonne Kovács thought the wine was for her, and died after drinking a cup of the poisoned wine. During the wars, she gave birth to her last child Emeric who was a child she was allowed to keep. When her daughter Maria turned 4, she was sent to Albania leaving Catherine with 2 son's and 1 daughter. When Catherine turned 35, she led an army to Bohemia and attempted to kill her sister and Ottokar, but the couple chased Catherine's forces out captured, Catherine, and imprisoned her, and finally sold her to the Italian Lord of Ferrara, the Lord forced Catherine into bed with him, and Catherine's hand's were tied behind her back and were handcuffed later on, Andrew furious, sent an army to not only get his Queen Back, but to also get revenge. He murdered the Lord of Ferrara and re-took his wife.

## Dowager Queen

Catherine's husband in mid 1248 fell seriously ill with yellow fever after visiting his friend the King of Castile. Catherine took on roles as regent with her son Stephan of Hungary. Her husband made a mild recovery a few days later, only to get sick again from a servent with diphtheria and had a hard time writing his will as he was to sick to dictate one, on his death-bed a month after Catherine's 48th birthday, he dictated that Stephan inherit Hungary, Albania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Macedonia, and Peter should inherit Bulgaria. Peter never expected to inherit anything and was quite shocked when he was told he was the new Emperor of Bulgaria upon Andrew's passing. Peter and his wife moved from Budapest to Sofia, and were crowned Emperor and Empress of Bulgaria, Catherine remained in Hungary during the reign of her son whom she advised in trade and political matters. Catherine often visited her daughter Agnes who lived in Romania and was married to a Grand-Prince, as she was the closest daughter Catherine had. After her son's coronations, she visited her daughter Constance of Hungary who was married to the Byzantine Emperor, Constance was offended by her mom's presence in the Byzantine Empire, as she was an absent mom, Constance was cold to her mother and even asked her to leave on several ocasions.

## Death

Catherine lived the rest of her life in Budapest Castle which was the main seat of the Hungarian monarch, she contracted malaria from a bug and fell very ill soon after, her sister whom she hated for a long time visited her in Hungary and the sisters got along quite well and appologized to each-other for being so hostile because of there husband's, Catherine died in Budapest Castle in the company of her family, she was buried in Székesfehérvár Basilica next to her husband.