Stephen II, Ban of Bosnia - Life - Ban - Later Reign

Later Reign

The rest of Ban Stephen II of Kotroman's reign passed mostly in peace. The only conflict that he had was a dispute with the Republic of Venice and Dubrovnik since the Ban's men had raided their trade caravan. The Ban managed to elevate his supporter, Monk Petergreen as the new Bosnian Bishop. After 1352 Stephen II of Kotroman referred to himself as Bosnia's Herzeg (or herceg) in resemblance of the German title. The same year he gave his sister or niece, Marija, in marriage to Count Ulrich of Helfenstein, which was sanctioned by the Hungarian King. He sent his daughter Catherine (some sources describe Catherine as the daughter of Stephen's brother Vladislav) to marry Count Herman I of Celje, but the actual marriage happened long after Stephen II's death.

Elisabeth of Poland, the mother of the Hungarian King had heard that Stephen II had a little daughter Elizabeth, and she insisted immediately on bringing her to the Hungarian Court for fosterage. Stephen was reluctant at first, but eventually dispatched Elizabeth. After three years of life at the Hungarian Court, the King's mother invited Stephen II of Kotroman to Hungary and arranged a marriage so that she would become the King's second wife. The first queen, a Bohemian princess had died earlier without children. The Bosnian Ban became heavily ill and could not be present at the actual wedding. On 20 June 1353, it was discovered that Elizabeth and the Hungarian King were related in the fourth degree through a common ancestor, a Duke of Kujavia in Poland (some have also insinuated a link through a branch of the House of Nemanja), so the Roman Catholic Church regarded the marriage to be in the prohibited degree of consanguinity and some eccleasiastics were tempted to curse the couple. Later the same year Pope Innocent IV wrote to the Bishop in Zagreb granting a dispensation for the marriage and forgiving the sin.

After Stephen II's death, his daughter Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary and Poland, gave birth to Stephen's three granddaughters (one died young), of whom Mary I of Hungary was to succeed her father as reigning Queen of Hungary, and Hedwig was to succeed Louis as reigning Queen of Poland. Elizabeth of Bosnia acted as the Regent of Hungary from 1382 onwards on behalf of her daughter Queen Mary, but was murdered in 1387. However, these girls proved unable to have surviving children, so Elizabeth's progeny went extinct with the death of Hedwig, the last surviving of them, in 1399.