All the bells in Krakow rang when the young Hungarian princess, Jadwiga, soon to become Queen of Poland, rode to her coronation. Her snow-white horse stepped proudly on the pathway of petals, as though he knew that the princess sitting on his saddle was the most beautiful lady in the whole of Christendom.

The pagan chief, Jagiello, ruler over the neighboring country of Lithuania, a nation of fire-worshippers, knew it too. His brothers had just returned from their mission to Poland (where they had gone to arrange for his marriage to Jadwiga) and they had brought glowing reports of the young queen's beauty. And as a wedding present to his bride, after Jagiello himself had been baptized in the candlelighted cathedral of Krakow, he converted all his people to Christianity.

Here is biography and romance that carry the reader with lightness and grace through a long sweep of history, illuminating a period about which not much is known. Here are unforgettable glimpses of the age of chivalry—the costumes, the castles and the countryside, the feasts and processions and ceremonies.

And here, above all, is the portrait of the young Polish queen, Jadwiga, who sacrificed her personal happiness to bring about the union of Poland and Lithuania, the union that insured peace for all her people, and was long referred to as "The wedding ring of Jadwiga."

From the dust jacket

Hungarian Princess Jadwiga (Yahd VEE gah) has been prepared from birth to put the peace and prosperity of nations above her own desires. Betrothed in 1378 at the age of five to Prince William of Austria, their education has included spending time in each other’s court for careful training as future rulers. When the balance of power in Central Europe unexpectedly shifts, the Council from faraway Poland demands that Jadwiga become their monarch. The eleven-year-old girl is soon traveling north to Krakow where she is crowned queen in Wawel Cathedral, swearing “to keep and maintain the rights and liberties granted by the righteous Christian kings of Poland.” And she means to do it. However, when Poland’s Council insists upon her marrying the fierce pagan Prince Jagiello of Lithuania instead of William, Jadwiga passionately resists. The intense struggle in which this young queen lays down her personal hopes and gives her entire life to the fulfillment of a peaceful union between Poland and Lithuania—long referred to as “The wedding ring of Jadwiga”—will have far-reaching consequences in her own time and in the years to come. Jadwiga, “White Dove of Poland,” was canonized a saint in 1997 by Pope John Paul II.

From Bethlehem Books edition