There is only one Queen in the history of the Principality of Transylvania – the one with which it all started: Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559).

Following the death of her husband, John Zápolya, King of Hungary, in 1540, the Queen dowager was nothing but a single mother with a new-born baby, in no way capable to oppose the two powerful empires, the Ottoman and the Habsburg, both with a vested interest in the Kingdom of Hungary.

One of the confrontations between the two empires resulted in Sultan Suleyman serving Emperor Ferdinand a dire lesson: at Buda (1541) he managed to take over the Kingdom of Hungary and made it into an Ottoman province, a pashalik. The Sultan sent Queen Isabella and her infant son, John Sigismund II, stripped of his throne, to Transylvania which he had recognized as a Principality. In fact, the Sublime Porte was offering them Transylvania in exchange for Hungary, which was lost to them. He made the Queen’s son Prince, Cardinal Martinuzzi governor, and gave the queen and the priest joint regency until the infant prince would come of age and be able to reign. The royal crown was handed over to Ferdinand I, henceforth considered heir to the Kingdom of Hungary although he only ruled over the northern lands of the country.

In Transylvania Isabella was not seen with good eyes: “For there are many who would like Queen Isabella to give up Transylvania and do not enter it, for they do not want a woman to rule, or a priest [Martinuzzi], particularly when they see how poor she is, so poor that she sometimes does not have enough money for her kitchen”.