This year at the 23rd Vilnius Book Fair, the historical novel “Karo nuotaka” (War Bride), published by Alma Littera was sold out on the first day. The book was an investigative adventure for the author, journalist Ilona Skujaitė, taking her on a five-year journey through 16th century chronicles, letters and documents and their fragments written in Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, English and Swedish. Reviewers found her story about Princess Kotryna Jogailaitė and her husband Jonas Vaza as compelling as Game of Thrones, yet it is based on true historical facts.
Skujaitė’s goal was to bring Kotryna Jogailaitė, a descendant of the Gediminaitis dynasty, back into historical memory. Why Kotryna? A portrait of the princess, created nearly 500 years ago by Lukas Kranachas the Younger, intrigued the author, who wondered how the timid-looking girl might become the queen of Sweden. As she discovered more about Kotryna, she found a woman of incredible spiritual strength. Beautiful in her youth, she was the most eligible bride in Europe at the time, with the Duke of Prussia, Czar Ivan the Terrible, the Prince of Sweden and the son of the Emperor of Rome seeking her hand, yet she did not marry for nearly 20 years. Finally, at the age of 36 she married Jonas Vaza, Prince of Sweden, who was then barely 25.
Kotryna’s mother, Queen Bona (Bona Sforza d’Aragona, Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Sigismund the Old) went to live in Italy, and the duty of finding a husband for Kotryna fell to her brother, Sigismund Augustus. The Livonian war with Moscow in the Baltic Region was the catalyst for her marriage, and the background of the development of Kotryna’s true personality. She not only survived the whirlwind of events, but managed to become queen, although the couple’s journey to Vaza’s homeland, Finland, was fraught with danger.
Kotryna’s story was never made public, chiefly because in the 16th century, women had no political rights and were fully dependent on men. They lived as second-class citizens, whose only purpose, whether high- or low-born, was to bear children. Also, the couple moved to Sweden, leaving no one overly interested in their fate.
Before becoming queen, Kotryna faced many challenges, which made her story all the more relevant even today as an inspiration to find inner strength and accept change, turning away from the superficial and espousing true values instead.
Skujaitė is currently involved in creating a documentary about Kotryna as well as a website to provide more facts about Kotryna’s family which did not fit into the book, and as a forum for discussion about the Golden Age of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and to answer readers’ questions about the Renaissance.
