Unable to preserve the personal union of Hungary and Poland, Elizabeth secured the Polish throne for her youngest daughter, Hedwig.

After her daughter-in-law Margaret succumbed to the Black Death in 1349,[4] Queen Elizabeth expressed interest in her young kinswoman, having in mind a future match for her widowed and childless son King Louis I of Hungary.

[18][19] On 17 September 1374, Louis granted various concessions to the Polish nobility by the Privilege of Koszyce, in exchange for their promise that a daughter of his would succeed him and that he, Elizabeth or his mother could indicate which one.

[24] The king, weakened by illness, became progressively less active in the last years of his reign, devoting an increasing amount of time to prayer, as did his aging mother, who had returned from Poland in 1374.

Warlike and illiterate barons were gradually replaced by a small group of noblemen who excelled in their professional skills but were not distinguished by birth or military ability.

Palatine Nicholas I Garai led the movement and enjoyed the full support of the queen, and their power eventually became virtually unrestricted.

Halecki believes that the reason behind Elizabeth's haste and Mary's masculine title was the dowager's desire to exclude Sigismund, her prospective son-in-law, from the government.

The royal court was pleased with the arrangement, but Hungarian noblemen were unwilling to defer to a woman and objected to Mary's accession, maintaining that the lawful heir to the throne was King Charles III of Naples, the only remaining male Angevin.

[30] They would have accepted Mary if she had moved to Kraków and reigned over both kingdoms from there rather than from Hungary, ruling according to their advice rather than that of the Hungarian nobles and marrying a prince of their choosing.

Elizabeth was also aware of the difficulties her mother-in-law had faced during her regency in Poland, which had ended with the old queen fleeing her native kingdom in disgrace.

[32] The queen dowager thereby proposed her youngest daughter Hedwig as Louis' successor in Poland,[31][33] and absolved the Polish nobles from their 1382 oaths to Mary and Sigismund.

The Poles, entangled in a bloody civil war, initially conceded to the requirement, but soon found it unacceptable for their monarch to reside abroad for so long.

At the second meeting in Sieradz, held on 28 March, they contemplated offering the crown to Hedwig's distant relative, Duke Siemowit IV of Masovia.

In the Act of Kreva, Jogaila promised to pay compensation to William of Austria on Elizabeth's behalf and requested that Elizabeth, as widow of King Louis and heiress of Poland herself as great-grandniece of King Władysław I (whose name Jogaila had purposely assumed on his baptism), legally adopt him as her son in order to give him a claim to the Polish crown in the event of Hedwig's death.

Elizabeth was determined to allow neither and, in 1384, started negotiating Mary's marriage to Louis of France, notwithstanding her daughter's engagement to Sigismund.

Had this proposal been made after Catherine's death in 1378, the Western Schism would have represented a problem, with France recognising Clement VII as pope and Hungary accepting Urban VI.

Clement VII issued a dispensation which annulled Mary's betrothal to Sigismund, and her proxy marriage to Louis was celebrated in April 1385, but it was not recognized by the Hungarian noblemen, who adhered to Urban VI.

The kingdom was on the verge of a civil war when Charles decided to invade, encouraged by John Horvat and his brother Bishop Paul of Zagreb.

[43] Four months after her proxy marriage to Louis, Sigismund entered Hungary and married Mary, but the reconciliation between the factions turned out to be too late to forestall Charles' invasion.

[45] Deprived of authority, Elizabeth feigned friendly feelings for Charles while his retinue was at the court, but after his supporters had returned to their homes, he was left defenseless.

[44][46] Having had the crown restored to her daughter, Elizabeth immediately proceeded to reward those who had helped her, giving a castle in Gimes to Blaise Forgách, the master of the cupbearers, who had mortally wounded Charles.

In April, Sigismund was brought to Hungary by his brother Wenceslaus and the queens were pressured into accepting him as Mary's future co-ruler by the Treaty of Győr.

Garai was killed by the rebels and his head was sent to Charles's widow Margaret, while the queens were imprisoned in the bishop of Zagreb's castle of Gomnec.

[51] Having been secretly buried in St Chrysogonus's Church in Zadar on 9 February 1387, Elizabeth's body was exhumed on 16 January 1390, transferred by sea to Obrovac and then carried overland to Székesfehérvár Basilica.

[53] Elizabeth was regarded by her contemporaries as an efficient and powerful but ruthless politician who used political intrigues to protect and defend her daughters' rights.

Her procrastination threatened Hedwig's future status in Poland, while the problems with Croatian nobles and strained relations with her native Bosnia made Mary's reign insecure and tumultuous.

The chest, located in Zadar, is of great importance for the history of the city, as it depicts various historical events – such as the death of her father – and Elizabeth herself.