Since childhood, she was veiled as a nun, but she was married twice, and both times she was kidnapped by her husbands, Bohemian magnate Záviš of Falkenstein and King Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia.
[1][2][3][4] Thus, her birth date could be placed around 1254-1256, making her the eldest child of her family, assumption confirmed by historian Ferenc Kanyó, who based this fact on the Legend of Saint Margaret and Elizabeth's own confession of her aunt's veneration (1276), where is mentioned that she was the firstborn daughter of King Stephen V;[5] however, according to historian Gyula Kristó, whose opinion is based on Mór Wertner's work, Elizabeth was born about 1260, being the third (or fourth)[a] daughter of her family.
A 1265 document[2][7] and the life history of her aunt Saint Margaret, briefly mention her as living in the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin.
[12] Numerous estates and a large number of subsequent donations from the royal family made the monastery one of the richest ecclesiastical institutions in Hungary at the end of the 13th century.
[13] According to the late texts of Legend of Saint Margaret she suggested to use her aunts relic, when King Ladislaus IV fell in a serious ill. [14] Elizabeth had two marriages in her life, but the historical sources are controversial.
[15] In September 1285, three months after the official wedding, Kunigunda died, but Zavis retained influence over her son, King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia.
On this occasion, the Hungarian King allegedly said: "If I had 15 or more sisters in as many cloistered communities as you like, I would snatch them from there to marry them off licitly or illicitly; in order to procure through them a kin-group who will support me by all their power in the fulfillment of my will".
[18][19] Archbishop Lodomer indignantly informed Pope Nicholas IV about the abduction of Elizabeth and her marriage with Zavis in the letter dated 8 May 1288.
During the absence of Zavis from Bohemia, his enemies turned King Wenceslaus II against his stepfather, who appropriated the inheritance of late Dowager Queen Kunigunda.
When Zavis arrived at court in January 1289, he was arrested and demanded from him, in an ultimatum, to return the castles and lands of Dowager Queen Kunigunda to the royal treasury.
The Directorium ad passagium faciendum (1332) and the Anonymi Descriptio Europae Orientalis (1308) mention Elizabeth's refusal to the planned marriage of Milutin and Simonis Palaiologina.
The confused personal life of Milutin has led to the fact that the sequence and dating of his marriages and the names of the mothers of his children are still the subject of debate.
[30] Some modern historians (Ljubomir Maksimović, Svetislav Mandić and Željko Fajfrić) not only agree with this traditional version,[32] but include the Serbian wife Jelena in the list of Milutin's wives.
[33] These versions are based, among other things, on the Anonymi Descriptio Europae Orientalis of 1308, which directly indicates that the marriage with Milutin was concluded after the execution of Záviš of Falkenstein:[4] The fourth daughter of Stephen of Hungary was tonsured into a monastery, where she remained until the age of 32, after which she left her nun robes and married a Bohemian nobleman, and after the death of the latter, to King Raska, to whom she gave birth to a daughter.Thus, according to this version, she could become Milutin's wife, even if not recognized by the church, not earlier than 1290.
Legend of Saint Margaret written by Lea Ráskai and the later texts based on this source had called her burial place on Rabbits' Island, next to the grave of her father.
According to the same account, Elizabeth strove to imitate her aunt, Saint Margaret; she left Hungary at the behest of the Pope and settled in a monastery built by her sister in Naples.
Filium nullum habet, sed tamen quendam bastardum a quadam communi muliercula et unam filiam quam habuit a filia regis Hungarie, sorore regine Sicilie, que fuit monialis professa et uelata XXXIIII annis et in monasterio inclusa.