Anna the Jagiellonian, the youngest daughter of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza, did not have an easy life at the Polish court. Dominated by the strong personality of her mother, who practically ruled the entire country while her husband was still alive, the obedient and calm princess lived in her mother's shadow and for the most part of her life did not do anything of historic significance. She embroidered church vestments, was involved in works of charity, and was a good and obedient daughter. Her sisters married; Isabella married the King of Hungary, Sophia the Prince of Brunswick, and Katharine, to whom Anna gave up her suitor, the King of Sweden. Thus, through their marriages, the princesses served the interests of the Jagiellons, while Anna remained a quiet old maid until the age of fifty-two. Thirty-three years at the side of her overbearing mother had taught her not only patience and calmness, but also the conviction that a woman couldn be as good a monarch as a man.

A luckier spell came for the last of the Jagiellons after her brother Sigismundus Augustus died in 1572 without leaving an heir, and the Polish throne was left empty through lack of a successor. Anna, hitherto unnoticed, became a precious commodity to neighbouring princes; marriage to her would promote a candidate's rights to the Polish throne. It was not, however, an absolute pre-condition, since as of 1572 Poland became an elective monarchy and the designation of a new king depended on successful election by the nobility and gentry. In the first royal election in 1573 Anna's personal preference was for Henri de Valois, brother of the King of France and twenty-eight years her junior, of whose affection and promise of marriage she was confident. By insisting on her choice, Bona Sforza's daughter proved a chip off the old block. Even earlier, when she stopped the investigation into the matter of her brother's stolen jewellery, she gained the support of the nobles, who perceived her as a magnanimous, extremely good and religious person. That is why, even though another suitor for Anna's hand emerged in the person of the Archduke Ernest Habsburg, the Polish nobles supported her choice and elected the Frenchman. However, when Henry was proclaimed King of Poland on 16 May 1573, though he had just arrived in the country in January 1574, he immediately withdrew the promises he'd made to the Polish princess. The public support also shifted; the nobility cherished her, but Anna fell out of favour with the senators who now failed to support her when the engagement was broken off.

All this time, the new king was already squandering money from the royal coffers, granting gifts and estates to gain support for himself. This state of affairs did not last long, however. The death of Henri's brother, Charles IX, opened up new opportunities for him. In June 1574, after only four months as King of Poland, Henri fled to France to claim the throne there.

These dramatic events again put Anna in the limelight. To stop Emperor Maximillian II, whose candidature was being promoted by the more powerful lords and magnates, from winning the subsequent royal election and ascending the throne, on 15 December 1575 the rank-and-file gentry acclaimed their candidate, the Hungarian Stephen Bathory, Duke of Transylvania, as the new King of Poland. The condition they set was that Bathory should marry the Jagiellonian Princess Royal. Bathory accepted the condition and thus Anna became Queen of Poland.

The marriage was not very successful. The king was ten years younger than his wife and there was no hope for an heir since Anna was already over fifty. Bathory was away for most of the time on wars in the East, and had several lovers, which additionally humiliated Anna, who began to consider divorce. In December 1586 the sudden and unexpected death of the king, who, notwithstanding his minor shortcomings, was one of the most outstanding of Poland's elective kings, surprised everyone except his wife, who had a plan even for such a co9ntingency. As the western powers began yet another electoral tussle for the Polish crown, Anna again foiled the plans of the great European houses. She put forward and sponsored the idea that the crown should go to her nephew, Sigismund Vasa, the son of King John of Sweden and Katharine, the second youngest of the Jagiellonian princesses. Yet again the Polish electorate followed Anna's preference and Sigismund Vasa was the winning candidate in the third royal election (1587). He is chiefly remembered for moving his principal residence (and thereby Poland's capital) from Cracow to Warsaw.

Anna, last of the Jagiellons, died on 9 September 1596. Already her contemporaries were dubbing her the Catherine Medici of Eastern Europe.

Facts Anna the Jagiellonian was not buried with her husband, but in the Sigismundian Chapel in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, next to her father and brother, where she had already prepared a tomb for herself. Her husband was laid to rest in the same Cathedral in the Bathory Chapel. He was buried at the expense of the state, which in 16th-century Poland was regarded as an honour available only to kings recognised by the nobles as having rendered distinguished service for the country.