The origins of the 1320 Angevin-Piast Dynastic Marriage

This study addresses the issue of the 1320 Angevin-Piast marriage contract between Charles I of Hungary and Elisabeth, a daughter of King Władysław Łokietek of Poland. In time this marriage emerged to be the fundament of the Angevin-Piast alliance, which over decades transformed into a succession project. Louis the Great of Hungary’s ascension to the Polish throne in 1370 and the materialization of the Hungarian-Polish monarchy was a watershed in medieval Central European constellations, and it retrospectively made the 1320 marriage acquire special significance. Seeking the origins of the marriage, the primary source accounts are collected and interpreted. Subsequently, the contexts of Charles I and Łokietek’s political actions in the early fourteenth century are briefly summarized. This is followed by a reconsidered exposition of the dynastic and political motivations and objectives that may have inspired the marriage. Contrary to conventional explanations available in the Polish scholarship (emphasizing the role of the Europe-wide rivalry between the Habsburgs and Wittelsbachs in stimulating political behaviors on the regional level to balance the power of the competing political blocks), the study argues that the marriage is sufficiently explained within the framework of dynastic logic, which expected of lords (kings, dukes and other members of the elites) to produce legitimate offspring and provide it with adequate lordships