Murder
Gertrude was killed in 1213, by Hungarian noblemen (magnates), who were jealous over the advancement of her German relatives at court. The terms Nobilissimus (most noble) and nobilissima familia (most noble family) have been used since the 11th century for the King of Hungary and his family, but it were then only a few, among them also Gertrude, which were mentioned in official documents as such.
While the king was in battle, Gertrude gave out Hungarian land as "gifts" to her favorites. According to medieval chroniclers, one third of the country was given away but the magnates got it back after the queen's death. Thus, Hungary did not prosper. During the frequent absence of her husband, the queen was regent and, as Dietrich von Apolda states, conducted the affairs of the kingdom "like a man". In 1206 her younger brother Berthold was installed as Archbishop of Kalocsa, in 1212 he was also appointed Voivode of Transylvania.
While King Andrew was campaigning Galicia, the Hungarian nobles decided to get rid of the queen and in 1213 on a hunt with Berthold and their guest Duke Leopold VI of Austria in the Pilis Mountains, she was killed. Gertrude's body was torn to pieces, her brother and Duke Leopold narrowly escaped with their lives. Due to the current political situation most of her murderers remained unpunished during the rule of Andrew II. Only Gertrude's son King Béla IV took revenge after his accession to the throne.
Gertrude's tomb was of a Gothic style. Her tomb was excavated between 1967 and 1980.
On Gertrude's death, Andrew married Yolanda de Courtenay.
Read more about this topic: Gertrude Of Merania
Famous quotes containing the word murder:
“It was a hot afternoon and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along the street. How can I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o’ the building.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.”
—Anonymous. Late 19th century ballad.
The quatrain refers to the famous case of Lizzie Borden, tried for the murder of her father and stepmother on Aug. 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Though she was found innocent, there were many who contested the verdict, occasioning a prodigious output of articles and books, including, most recently, Frank Spiering’s Lizzie (1985)