Isabella Jagiellon

Isabella Jagiellon
Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1553
Queen consort of Hungary
Tenure	1539–1540
Coronation	23 February 1539 Székesfehérvár, Hungary
Born	18 January 1519 Kraków, Poland
Died	15 September 1559 (aged 40) Gyulafehérvár, Transylvania
Burial	St. Michael's Cathedral, Alba Iulia
Spouse	John Zápolya
Issue	John Sigismund Zápolya
Dynasty	Jagiellon
Father	Sigismund I the Old
Mother	Bona Sforza

Isabella Jagiellon (Hungarian: Izabella királyné; Polish: Izabela Jagiellonka; 18 January 1519 – 15 September 1559) was the queen consort of Hungary. She was the oldest child of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland, and his Italian wife Bona Sforza.

In 1539, she married John Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania and King of Hungary. At the time Hungary was contested between Ferdinand of Austria who wanted to add it to the Habsburg domains (see Royal Hungary), local nobles who wanted to keep Hungary independent (see Eastern Hungarian Kingdom), and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent who saw it as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire (see also Little War in Hungary). While Isabella's marriage lasted only a year and a half, it did produce a male heir – John Sigismund Zápolya born just two weeks before his father's death in July 1540.

She spent the rest of her life embroiled in succession disputes on behalf of her son. Her husband's death sparked renewed hostilities but Sultan Suleiman established her as a regent of the eastern regions of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary on behalf of her infant son. The region developed as a semi-independent buffer state noted for its freedom of religion.^[1]

Ferdinand, however, never renounced his claims to reunite Hungary and conspired with Bishop George Martinuzzi who forced Isabella to abdicate in 1551. She returned to her native Poland to live with her family. Sultan Suleiman retaliated and threatened to invade Hungary in 1555–56 forcing nobles to invite Isabella back to Transylvania.^[2] She returned in October 1556 and ruled as her son's regent until her death in September 1559.