Ulrich II, Count of Celje

Ulrich II, or Ulrich of Celje (Slovene: Ulrik Celjski also Urh Celjski, Hungarian: Cillei Ulrik, German: Ulrich II von Cilli; 16 February 1406 – 9 November 1456), was the last Princely Count of Celje. At the time of his death, he was captain general and de facto regent of Hungary, ban (governor) of Slavonia, and feudal lord of vast areas in present-day Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Austria, and Slovakia. He was also a claimant to the Bosnian throne.[1] This accumulation of power prompted his assassination by the hands of the Hunyadi clan which plunged Hungary into civil unrest that was resolved a year later by the sudden death of king Ladislas the Posthumous and the election of Matthias Corvinus as king. All of Ulrich's possessions in the Holy Roman Empire were inherited by the Habsburg ruler Frederick III, while his possessions in Hungary were reverted to the crown.

Ulrich of Celje
Portrait (from ca. 1700)
Coat of arms
Holding(s)	County of Celje
Detail Titles and styles Count
Born	16 February 1406 Krško
Died	9 November 1456 (aged 49–50) Belgrade
Noble family	Counts of Celje
Spouse(s)	Kantakuzina Katarina Branković
Issue (see below)
Father	Frederick II
Mother	Elizabeth of Frankopan
Religion	Roman Catholic

Life

Ulrich II[2] was the son of Count Frederick II of Celje and his wife Elizabeth, a scion of the Croatian House of Frankopan and a grand daughter of Francesco I da Carrara, lord of Padua. Little is known of his youth. In about 1432 he married Kantakuzina Katarina Branković, daughter of Đurađ Branković, despot of Serbia.,[3] and the sister of Mara Branković.

His influence in the affairs of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire soon overshadowed that of his father, with whom he was raised to a Prince of the Empire by Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg in 1436. This led to feuds with the Austrian House of Habsburg, wounded in their rights as Styrian overlords of Celje, ending, however, in an alliance with the Habsburg King Albert II of Germany, who made Ulrich his lieutenant in Bohemia for a short while. Upon King Albert's death in 1439, Ulrich took up the cause of his widow Elizabeth of Luxembourg, and presided at the coronation of her infant son Ladislaus the Posthumous with the Holy Crown of Hungary in 1440.[3]

A feud with the Hungarian Hunyadi family followed, embittered by John Hunyadi's failed attack on the forces of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Varna in 1444—while Ulrich remained idle—and Hunyadi's refusal to recognize Ulrich's claim to Bosnia on the death of King Tvrtko II (1443). In 1446 Hunyadi, now regent of Hungary, harried the Celje territories in Croatia-Slavonia; however his power was broken at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448, and Count Ulrich was able to lead a successful crusade, nominally in the Habsburg interest, into Hungary (1450).

Young King Ladislaus and Ulrich of Celje, 1870

In 1452, he forced Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg to hand over the boy king Ladislaus to his keeping, practically making him ruler of Hungary. In 1454 his power was increased by his succession to his father's vast wealth; and after the death of John Hunyadi at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456, he was named Captain General of Hungary by Ladislaus,[3] an office previously held by his rival.

Ulrich's triumph did not last: On 8 November, he entered the fortress of Belgrade with King Ladislaus; the next day he was killed by agents of John Hunyadi's son László in unknown circumstances. With him died the male line of the Counts of Celje.[4] He was buried in the Minorite Church of St. Mary in Celje. The eulogy was delivered by the famous humanist rhetorician and prelate Johann Roth.[5]

Ulrich's estates were claimed by his widow Catherine, his son-in-law Matthias Corvinus of Hungary - the younger brother of László Hunyadi - as well as Count John of Gorizia, and Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg, who outlived his rivals.

Ulrich's high ambitions were sharply criticized by Aeneas Sylvius (the later Pope Pius II), although his writings were politically minded, as he had served as the personal secretary of Emperor Frederick III at the height of his conflict with Ulrich.

On his mother's side, Ulrich was the closest surviving male descendant of Francesco I da Carrara, lord of Padua. However, he is not known to have ever pressed claim on the Carraresi inheritance.

Marriage and children

On 20 April 1434, Ulrich married Kantakuzina Katarina Branković. She was a daughter of Đurađ Branković and Eirene Kantakouzene. Through this marriage, Ulrich became the brother-in-law of the Ottoman sultan Murad II. Ulrich and Katarina had three children:[6]

• Herman IV of Celje (1439 – 1452).
• Georg of Celje (c. 1444 – 1445).
• Elizabeth of Celje (1441 – 1455), first wife of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Ulrich II, Count of Celje

16. Frederick I of Celje 8. Hermann I of Celje 17. Diemut of Wallsee 4. Hermann II of Celje 18. Stephen II of Bosnia 9. Catherine of Bosnia 19. Elizabeth of Kuyavia 2. Frederick II of Celje 20. Henry V, Count of Schaunberg 10. Henry VII, Count of Schaunberg 21. Anna of Truhendingen 5. Anna of Schaunberg 22. Meinhard VI of Gorizia 11. Ursula of Gorizia 23. Catherine of Pfannberg 1. Ulrich II, Count of Celje 24. Frederick III of Frankopan 12. Bartol VIII of Frankopan 25. Elizabeth of Frankopan 6. Stephen I of Krk 3. Elizabeth of Frankopan 28. Jacopo II da Carrara 14. Francesco I da Carrara 29. Lieta da Carrara 7. Catherine of Carrara 30. Pataro Buzzaccarini 15. Fina Buzzaccarini 31. Francesca Gonzaga

See also

• Skrad castle

References

1. Ćirković, Sima. Историја средњовековне босанске државе. Srpska književna zadruga: 1964, pp. 276.
2. Enciklopedija Slovenije II, 1988, f. 14 COBISS 17411
3.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cilli, Ulrich". Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 366.
4. The Chronicles of Celje Archived 13 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
5. Jože Pogačnik, Starejše slovensko slovstvo (Maribor, 1980), pp. 472-76
6. Cawley, Charles, Profile of Ulrich II, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy,