madeleine92posts:BonaSforza’s miscarriage while hunting TheQueen was pregnant six times overall. In
madeleine92posts:BonaSforza’s miscarriage while hunting TheQueen was pregnant six times overall. In 1519 she gave birth to herfirst child, princess Isabella who became her favorite daughter, in1520 she and Sigismund The Old welcomed into the world their firstson and male heir, Sigismund Augustus. Another pregnancy followed,resulting in birth of princess Sophia in 1522, princess Anne andCatherine were born in 1523 and 1526 respectively. In the summer of1527 Bona was pregnant again. Given she had been getting pregnantbasically every year, she had less and less patience to endure thisstate. Her swollen belly did not let her be as active as she used tobe. She could participate in political strifes however when it cameto daily life she was basically a prisoner in her own castle. She wasvery attentive, not wanting to hurt her baby or to endanger her ownhealth. However at one point she lost patience. On 20thSeptember of 1527 she and her husband went to Niepołomice in orderto take a part in a bear hunt. The said bear had been brought fromLithuania for that occasion. The hunt began according to thetradition. Servants lifted the lid of a huge and heavy chest. Theanimal was confused given his long travel and blinded by the sun. He gotout of the chest on his forepaws and immediately faced the group offurious dogs. According to the chronicle, at the beginning the bearwas not valiant but as soon as he tasted blood, nothing could stop itanymore. The wailing dogs ran away before the bear’s heavy paws couldreach them. Peasants armed in spears did not wait either and ran awayas well, a few of them who did not understand they should have triedto save their lives paid a price. The bear however did not feel likestopping, all the more, it did not think about escape. Instead ofgoing into the forest, it threw itself at the royal suite. Ladiesstarted running away in their tight dresses and uncomfortable boots,courtiers got frozen, not having idea what to do. The brave ones weresearching for the weapons but there was no time for any plannedaction.Theking’s chamberlain was overturned by the bear together with hishorse. The other servant was trying to swipe at the bear with hisspear, but the animal knocked the weapon out of his hand with oneblow. Eventually the bear threw himself in the direction of the queen.Bona was already on her horse and immediately rushed him to gallop.The bear should not have had any chances with a steed of the bestblood but the horse was terrified and after it galloped a few meters,it stumbled over a stone and kicking in panic, collapsed on the side,squashing Polish queen with his body. They managed to tame the bearbefore it could reach Bona, who was screaming in pain. But it wasclear the harm was done. At the same place, on the clearing in theforest, amongst the crowds of gawkers, semi-conscious, bleeding Bonagave birth to a son. She was five months pregnant and the baby whowas struggling in order to catch a breath did not have any chances tosurivive, not being fully formed and developed. The boy died on thesame day. Before her son passed away, Bona had named him Olbracht.The baby was buried in a small leaden coffin at the chapel inNiepołomice. Unlike in the series from 1980, titled „Queen Bona” theking instead of supporting the sufferring Queen and grieving his deadchild, shortly after the accindent, was blissfully joking at his Foolwho also had been harmed by the bear. Sigismund was getting older andat the same time more and more childish: the fact he had one son wasenough, he did not need anything more to be happy.Afterthis tragic occurrence the Queen had been recovering for many weeks.She was lucky that infection was not set in and the complicatons didnot kill her. The lightweight wounds were healed, however Bona neverfully recovered from her trauma. The accident also took its toll onher physical health because she never got pregnant again, becominginfertile. Source: “Damy Złotego Wieku” (eng. Ladies of The Golden Age) by Kamil Janicki -- source link
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