Helen ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=/, Jelena, Јелена; 1345 – after 18 March 1399), also known by the name sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=none, separator=/, Gruba, Груба, ruled the
Kingdom of Bosnia from September 1395 until late April or early May 1398. She was
queen consort as the wife of
King Dabiša, and was chosen by the ''
stanak'' to rule after his death. Whether she was a
regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
who ruled during an
interregnum or a
queen regnant
A queen regnant (plural: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank and title to a king, who reigns '' suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a "kingdom"; as opposed to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigni ...
is disputed, but in any case the real power was held by magnates of the kingdom. Her rule ended with the election of
King Ostoja
Stephen OstojaHis name in Bosnian is rendered Stjepan Ostoja (), while in Croatian it's Stjepan Ostoja. In Serbian, he is called Stefan Ostoja (). ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Stjepan Ostoja, Стјепан Остоја; died September 1418 ...
. She remains the only female
head of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
in the
history of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes referred to simply as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe on the Balkan Peninsula. It has had permanent settlement since the Neolithic Age. By the early historical period it was inhabited by Illyrians and Ce ...
.
Family
![Povelja kralj Dabisa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Povelja_kralj_Dabisa.JPG)
Nothing is known for certain about Helen's origin. She was most likely a member of the
Nikolić noble family from
Zachlumia
Zachlumia or Zachumlia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Zahumlje, Захумље, ), also Hum, was a medieval principality located in the modern-day regions of Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia (today parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia ...
.
A charter dated 17 July 1392 is the earliest extant source naming Helen as queen and wife of
Dabiša, who had succeeded
Tvrtko I
Stephen Tvrtko I ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Stjepan/Stefan Tvrtko, Стјепан/Стефан Твртко; 1338 – 10 March 1391) was the first king of Bosnia. A member of the House of Kotromanić, he succeeded his uncle Stephen II ...
in March 1391, and places her at Dabiša's side in
Lušci. As
queen consort, Helen endorsed her husband's acts, and he emphasized in his charters that he had consulted with his wife. Queen Helen's family gained significant influence in state affairs during her husband's reign, as well as the right to collect the
tribute of Ston from the
Republic of Ragusa
hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world"
, population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century
, currency = ...
in 1393. The royal couple had a daughter named Stana, whose daughter Vladava married the nobleman
Juraj Radivojević
Juraj or Đurađ Radivojević ( sr-Cyrl, Јурај/Ђурађ Радивојевић; died after 1408) was a Bosnian nobleman. He was '' knez'' (lord) in Krajina Makareka, serving Queen Helen (r. 1395–1398). He was a son of Radivoje, a member ...
during Dabiša's lifetime.
Rise
In 1394, Helen agreed to Dabiša's decision to designate
King Sigismund of Hungary
Sigismund of Luxembourg (15 February 1368 – 9 December 1437) was a monarch as King of Hungary and Croatia ('' jure uxoris'') from 1387, King of Germany from 1410, King of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until his death in ...
as his heir. When Dabiša died on 8 September the following year, however, the leading noblemen – Grand Duke
Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, Prince
Pavao Radinović Pavao may refer to:
* Pavao (given name), a Croatian name
* Pavão (disambiguation) Pavão may refer to:
Places
* Pavão, Minas Gerais, a municipality in Brazil
* Vila Pavão, Espírito Santo, a municipality in Brazil
*Figueira Pavão
Figueira Pa ...
, Duke
Sandalj Hranić and Juraj Radivojević – refused to honor the agreement Dabiša had made with Sigismund. Sigismund raised an army and marched to nearby
Syrmia with the aim to claim the Bosnian throne, but the noblemen convoked a ''
stanak'' and elected Helen as Dabiša's successor. Not willing to engage the united nobility in war, Sigismund withdrew; the death of his wife
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
, heir of Hungary and cousin of Dabiša, made his position too precarious to attack Bosnia, as did the defeat by the
Ottomans at the
Battle of Nikopolis
The Battle of Nicopolis took place on 25 September 1396 and resulted in the rout of an allied crusader army of Hungarian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, French, Burgundian, German, and assorted troops (assisted by the Venetian navy) at ...
.
Historians have debated Queen Helen's role.
Krunoslav Draganović
Krunoslav Stjepan Draganović (30 October 1903 – 5 July 1983) was a Bosnian Croat Roman Catholic priest associated with the ratlines which aided the escape of Ustaše war criminals from Europe after World War II while he was living and working ...
emphasised in 1942 that she was a
queen regnant
A queen regnant (plural: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank and title to a king, who reigns '' suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a "kingdom"; as opposed to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigni ...
rather than a
regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
.
Sima Ćirković refuted this in 1964 and argued that the period of Helen's rule was actually an
interregnum, a compromise meant to appease both Sigismund, who wanted to assert his rights to the throne but was unable to at the time, and the noblemen of Bosnia, who wanted to avoid honoring their pledge to Sigismund. Sigismund consented to Helen's assumption of power, and was asked by Ragusan officials to intercede with the Queen on their behalf. Ragusa eventually accepted that Helen would not confirm the charters granted by Bosnian monarchs to the Republic, apparently because she was not entitled to do so.
Rule
![Stone chair of Queen Helen of Bosnia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Stone_chair_of_Queen_Helen_of_Bosnia.png)
After the Battle of Nicopolis annihilated much of the Hungarian army, a pretender to the Bosnian throne staked his claim against Queen Helen. One of the nobleman supporting King
Ladislaus of Naples
Ladislaus the Magnanimous ( it, Ladislao, hu, László; 15 February 1377 – 6 August 1414) was King of Naples from 1386 until his death and an unsuccessful claimant to the kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia. Ladislaus was a skilled political and m ...
's claim to Hungary, from the
Slavonia
Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baran ...
n town of
Požega, started calling himself King of Bosnia. By mid-December 1395, Helen had successfully consolidated her grasp on the throne, and the pretender was killed by Sigismund's supporters in 1396, never having seriously threatened the Queen. Helen's rule stands out as the period during which Bosnian support for Ladislaus briefly waned.
Whatever Queen Helen's official role was meant to be, she functioned as a mere
puppet of the nobility. All her surviving charters specifically note that they had been approved by the major noblemen. In a surviving charter, Queen Helen names "Duke
Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, Prince
Pavle Radenović Pavle ( Macedonian and sr-cyr, Павле; ka, პავლე) is a Serbian, Macedonian, Croatian and Georgian male given name corresponding to English Paul; the name is of biblical origin (cf. Saint Paul).
People known mononymously as Pavle in ...
, Duke
Sandalj Hranić, and ''
Tepčija
Tepčija ( sr-cyr, тепчија) was a court title of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia in the Middle Ages. The functions and position in the court is unclear. It was first mentioned in Croatia in the second half of the 11th century, and later in Serbi ...
''
Batalo" as the magnates whom she consulted. The emancipation of Bosnian nobility reached a peak during Helen's reign. Having become virtually autonomous, her vassals engaged in internal warfare which weakened the Kingdom and precluded its participation in regional politics.
The
Ottoman Turks under
Bayazid I were becoming a much greater threat during Helen's rule than during the reigns of Dabiša and Tvrtko I, helped by their decisive victory over the Serbian lord
Vuk Branković
Vuk Branković ( sr-cyr, Вук Бранковић, , 1345 – 6 October 1397) was a Serbian medieval nobleman who, during the Fall of the Serbian Empire, inherited a province that extended over present-day southern and southwestern Serbia, enti ...
, whose land had stood between Helen's and Bayazid's. The Ottoman army that arrived in Bosnia in January 1398, led by Bayazid's sons and the subjugated Serbian lord
Stefan Lazarević, was larger than those defeated by Helen's predecessors
in 1388 and 1392. The plundering expedition failed completely, however, due to a severe winter and deep snow in which many of Bayazid's soldiers perished.
Deposition and aftermath
The Ottoman defeat did not mean Helen's triumph; by March 1398, Bosnia was beset by an internal strife. It seems that Helen's family, the Nikolić, attempted to take further advantage of their royal relations and free themselves from subordinacy to the
House of Kosača to become immediate vassals of the monarch. This may have been the reason for an uprising against Helen. She maintained a great deal of support in April, when Ragusa paid its tribute to her. The last to remain on her side were the Radivojević noble family, including Helen's grandson-in-law Juraj. By 10 May, however, her husband's kinsman
Ostoja was enthroned as the new King of Bosnia. The deposition was opposed by her brothers and nephews. They were thus forced to take refuge in Ragusa, but Helen remained in Bosnia, where she was treated with honor due to a
queen dowager.
During King Ostoja's reign, Helen resumed the name Gruba (likely her "folk name", as opposed to one from the
calendar of saints
The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
) and retained the title of queen, but without the official royal style ("
by the Grace of God
By the Grace of God ( la, Dei Gratia, abbreviated D.G.) is a formulaic phrase used especially in Christian monarchies as an introductory part of the full styles of a monarch. For example in England and later the United Kingdom, the phrase was fo ...
Queen of
Rascia, Bosnia, etc"). Gruba is last mentioned in a letter sent by Ragusan authorities on 18 March 1399. She may have died of an epidemic that plagued Zachlumia at that time.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruba, Jelena
1340s births
Kotromanić dynasty
House of Nikolić
Bosnian queens
Bosnian monarchs
14th-century Bosnian people
14th-century women rulers
14th-century rulers in Europe
Year of death missing
Dethroned monarchs