The Death of Barbara Radziwiłł

No sooner had the coronation passed than the queen’s illness surged with terrifying speed, ravaging her body. The royal physicians’ efforts were in vain. Barbara found herself surrounded by a heartless court—only Sigismund Augustus never left the side of his dying wife. He desperately sought to ease her pain and clung to hope for her recovery until the very end.

In early April of 1551, as she lay bedridden, Barbara received—amid solemn ceremony—the envoy of Queen Bona and Sigismund Augustus’s sisters, who sent their greetings and formally welcomed her into the royal family. Yet the gesture came too late. Feeling death draw near, Barbara asked Sigismund Augustus to bury her in Lithuania.

Having received the last rites, Barbara Radziwiłł passed away on May 8th, 1551, at 2:00 p.m., at the age of 28. Today, it is known that the cause of her death was cervical cancer with metastases.

 ‘Cruel death has taken me’ / ‘O ungrateful earth, my bones shall not rest here.’

Fulfilling Barbara’s final wish, Sigismund Augustus resolved to have her buried in Vilnius. This decision met with strong opposition from the Radziwiłł brothers, who pleaded in vain with the king to have her laid to rest in the Wawel Cathedral.

 ‘Lay her body... among the bodies of other kings, so that people do not say she was cast out of the Crown, unworthy to rest among those anointed queens,’ pleaded the queen’s brother. But the king stood firm in honoring his wife’s final wish.

 ‘…for since there were those here in Kraków who could not show Her Majesty gratitude in life, let them never see her in death, and may they never claim her as their own.’

Sigismund Augustus ensured that Barbara’s funeral was conducted with royal splendor, organizing an exceptional and costly ceremony to honor his beloved, one that proclaimed her queenly majesty to all.

Barbara’s body, dressed in a black satin gown, was placed in a coffin lined with golden brocade. She was also buried in a rańtuch—a traditional veil symbolizing a married woman.

A gilded crown was placed on the head of the deceased queen. She was also laid to rest with a scepter and an orb topped with a cross—symbols of royal authority. Around her neck hung a long chain, and on her fingers were three rings: one set with two diamonds; another, humble—a woven wedding band; and the third, a golden ring inlaid with black enamel and adorned with a diamond, an emerald, and a ruby.

Inside the coffin lay a silver plaque inscribed with the words:

In the Year of Our Lord 1551, the Most Serene Princess Barbara, by the grace of God Queen of Poland, of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, etc., born of the noble House of Radziwiłł, second wife of the His Serene Reigning Majesty Sigismund Augustus, by the grace of God King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, etc., at not yet twenty-eight years of age, in Kraków, on the eighth day of the month of May, precisely at the hour of two in the afternoon, taken by a premature death and received into Heaven, here lies buried.

The coffin was covered with black velvet, adorned with a golden cross embroidered by Sebald Link, the same master embroiderer who had once decorated her royal garments.

The funeral procession departed from Kraków on May 25th. The journey to Vilnius spanned over 700 kilometers and took nearly a month to complete. Following the coffin of the late Queen Barbara Radziwiłł were nearly 300 courtiers and a large retinue of servants.

Before entering Vilnius, the funeral cortege was met by Lithuanian dignitaries, nobles, and a vast gathering of the townspeople.

The solemn funeral mass was held at the Vilnius Cathedral on June 24th. Afterwards, the queen’s body was laid to rest in the crypt beside the coffin of Sigismund Augustus’s first wife, Elisabeth of Austria.

Seventeen years later, the papal nuncio Julius Ruggieri remarked that the king had ‘loved Barbara sincerely and, after her death, mourned her deeply and honored her beyond measure.’

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The Death of Barbara Radziwiłł

after 1860

Józef Simmler (workshop copy)

Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw (MP 673 MNW)