Frankopan Women from Modruš

Elizabeth Frankopan

(Modruš, 1386 - Celje, 1422.) Daughter of Katarina Carrara and Stjepan I. Frankopan.

Already as a two-year-old child (1388) she was engaged to Count Frederick II. Celje (around 1364 - Žovnek, June 9, 1454). Friedrich was 24 at the time of his engagement.

Elizabeth's uncle Nicholas IV. Frankopan promised to pay 32,000 ducats in the name of the dowry. Instead of money, the Counts of Celje received Trsat, Bakar, Bribir in Vinodol and half of the island of Krk. It is not known when and where the marriage took place. In 1405, at the age of 19, Elizabeth gave birth to a son, Ulrik II, in Krško. (Krško, 1405 – Belgrade, 1456).

Choosing a member of the Celje family as a husband for his child was a well-thought-out act. The Counts of Celje were among the most influential nobles of the Hungarian crown. Their political power increased especially in the time of Frederick's father

Herman II. (died in Požuna in 1435). After the defeat at Nikopolje in 1396, he helped King Sigismund save himself with the help of a rented boat. In return, he was rewarded with large estates in Croatia. Among other things, the Counts of Celje owned Krapina, Varaždin, Čakovec, Koprivnica, Samobor, Kalnik, Đurđevec, Kostajnica and Steničnjak. They were the owners of the city of Zagreb and the lords of Medvedgrad from 1436 to 1456. Old chronicles state that the marriage of Frederick and Elizabeth was a real hell.

From 1414 to 1422 they lived apart. Aeneas Piccolomini (later Pope Pius II) described him as a cruel, ruthless man. He was an infidel, insidious, an extreme materialist, and gloomy and closed. An attempt at reconciliation took place in Krapina in 1422. However, Elizabeth was found dead the next morning with a wound to her chest. She was killed with a hunting knife. Frederick fled to Buda and placed himself under the auspices of his sister Barbara, the wife of Sigismund of Luxembourg.

Elizabeth was buried in Celje. After her murder, the Frankopans took away from Celje all the possessions they had pledged as a dowry.

Source: Marija Šercer, Žene Frankopanke, Modruški zbornik 2011. (4 i 5)

Louise of Aragon

(Naples,? - Modruš, 1489.)

Aloisia, Loisia, Aliuxia de Aragonia was the daughter of Leonora, (daughter of King Alfonso V / I of Naples and Mariano Marciano, duke of Rossano and duke of Sessa and Squilacea.

Louise was a niece Queen Beatrice, daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon, wife of the Hungarian-Croatian King Matthias Corvinus.

Her parents had six children (all daughters themselves). The third Margarita was married to Duke Vlatko Kosača, and after his death she married Marko Loredan. Fifth in a row, she married Bernardin Frankopan.

Bernardin Frankopan met her in 1476, when as a member of the retinue of King Matthias Corvinus he came to Naples to pick up the king's fiancée Beatrice of Aragon. The young twenty-three-year-old liked King Ferdinand. On September 16, 1476, he was decorated with the Order of B. D. Mary with a gold ring, on which hung a golden lion with white wings. In the solemn charter, the king "celebrated his nobility, courage and virtues," and was informed of

the rules and duties of that order. During his stay in Naples, Bernardin stared at the king's niece, Princess Louise. At that time she was still a minor girl and it was probably necessary to wait a few years before marriage. We do not know the year of their wedding. In the historical literature, the boundary dates of their life together were set between 1481 and 1489. From 1481 (July 25) comes a grant issued in Modruš, which gives Martin Oštreharić the village of Stubal with a castle in Modruš County. Louise of Aragon is a collider, and is listed as "our dearest wife."

Family life took place in the area of the Modruš fortress. The Modruš castrum consisted of a central part with a defensive tower, residential and daily living facilities of the owner, his courtiers and the town manager. In addition to this central part, the northern part of the city was most likely used for economic needs, to accommodate support staff, city warehouses, workshops and facilities for similar purposes. The other part of the fenced area, which stretched south on the slope below the main defense tower, could be used in addition to daily city needs and trade activities as a toll booth, to accommodate merchants, travelers and the like.

Louise of Aragon probably turned that living space into a cozy and comfortable home. By 1489 she had given birth to six children, three sons and three daughters.

Louise of Aragon last appeared in Frankopan documents in mid1489. Elizabeth, widow of the Transylvanian duke John Pongracz of Dengele, arranges the betrothal of her son Matthias to Mary Magdalene, daughter of Loisia of Aragon. Louise of Aragon died in 1489. Bernardin was then thirty-six years old and, contrary to the customs of his time, he no longer married. We assume that he erected a worthy tombstone for his wife, the Princess of Aragon.

Source: Marija Šercer, Žene Frankopanke, Modruški zbornik 2011. (4 i 5)

Beatrice Frankopan

(Modruš 1480 – c. 27 March 1510) was a Croatian noblewoman, a member of the House of Frankopan that lived in the Kingdom of Croatia in personal union with Hungary. By marriage she was heiress of Hunyad Castle and Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

Beatrice was a daughter of Bernardin Frankopan, Knez (Prince) of Krk and Modruš (1453–1529) from his marriage to Donna Luisa Marzano d'Aragona, daughter of Giovanni Francesco Marino Marzano, Prince of Squillace. Her brother Christoph Frankopan (1482–1527) was Ban (Viceroy) of Croatia under the reign of the Hungarian king John Zápolya.

Beatrice first married in 1496 to John Corvinus (1473–1504), an illegitimate son of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with whom she had two children.

She was described as extremely beautiful and after her husband's death she inherited Hunyad Castle and she administered her

children's estates. However, they both died young (probably poisoned), soon after their father.

After the mourning period, King Vladislaus II of Hungary had her married to his nephew, the Hohenzollern prince George of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1484–1543), on 21 January 1509 in Gyula.

King Vladislav transferred all of the Corvinus property to George.

Apart from Hunyad Castle, this included, among others, the fortress of Lipova with 252 villages. Through his wife, George became one of the most powerful landowners in Hungary, though he had to cope with border disputes with the rivalling Szapolyai dynasty. Parts of the Bibliotheca Corviniana ended up in Wolfenbüttel, due to Beatrice.

After Beatrice's death, only one year after the marriage, George sold the bulk of the Hungarian possessions and purchased several Silesian duchies instead.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Marie-Madeleine Frankopan (Modruš, 1481 (?) -?)

Daughter of Louise d'Aragon and Bernardin Frankopan.

At the request of Queen Beatrice, the wife of King Matthias Corvinus, the eldest daughter (according to Kukuljević) Mary Magdalene was engaged to Matthias Pongracz, the son of the late Duke of Transylvania Ivan Pongracz.

The marriage contract was concluded in June 1489 between Elizabeth Pongracz, John's widow, and Louise of Aragon. King Matthias confirmed this treaty on June 23, 1489 in Buda. In addition, King Marie-Madeleine promised a dowry of 8,000 gold coins. The contract stipulates that the engagement will take place in the marriage when Marie-Madeleine's daughter is nine years old. Then their marriage will be proclaimed in their free presence. The bride received the Aljmaš fortress in Erdelj as a dowry.

Source: Marija Šercer, Žene Frankopanke, Modruški zbornik 2011. (4 i 5)