Catherine of Bosnia

Catherine of Bosnia (; 1424/1425 – 25 October 1478) was Queen of Bosnia as the wife of King Thomas, the penultimate Bosnian sovereign. She was born into the powerful House of Kosača, staunch supporters of the Bosnian Church. Her marriage in 1446 was arranged to bring peace between the King and her father, Stjepan Vukčić. The queenship of Catherine, who at that point converted to Roman Catholicism, was marked with an energetic construction of churches throughout the country. Following her husband's death in 1461, Catherine's role receded to that of queen dowager at the court of her stepson, King Stephen Tomašević. Two years later, forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Mehmed the Conqueror invaded Bosnia and put an end to the independent kingdom. Catherine's stepson was executed, while Sigismund and Catherine, her son and daughter by Thomas, were captured and taken to Constantinople, where they converted to Islam. Queen Catherine escaped, taking refuge in Dubrovnik and eventually settling in Rome, where she received a pension from the papacy. From Rome she strove to be reunited with her children. Her efforts to negotiate and offer a ransom proved futile. She died a Franciscan tertiary in Rome, having named the papacy guardians of Bosnia and her children heirs to the throne, should they ever return to Christianity. Queen Catherine remains one of the most important figures in the folk tradition and history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has long been venerated by the Catholics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is increasingly seen as an important transethnic state symbol. Youth Catherine was the daughter of Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, Grand Duke of Bosnia and Duke of Hum and Primorje, Knyaz of Drina, usually considered by historiography to be the most powerful figurehead of his contemporaries amongst the Bosnian nobility. His domain later came to be known as Herzegovina, after the German title of herzog, which he later adopted in relation to the Humska Zemlja. Catherine's mother was Jelena, daughter of Zeta's lord Balša III and the first of Stjepan's three wives. Catherine was the couple's first child but the precise date of her birth is not known; both 1424 and late August 1425 have been suggested by her biographers. It can be surmised that the place of her birth was either the Sokol Fortress, one of the residential fortresses of the House of Kosača, or the feudal town of Blagaj, Stjepan's favourite residence.