Bona Sforza: Making her own rules

Jan Matejko, Stańczyk, 1862, National Museum in Warsaw

While courtiers dance without a care at Queen Bona Sforza's ball, the court jester sits alone in shadow. He has just learned that Smolensk has fallen to Moscow — making Jan Matejko's 1862 painting Stańczyk one of the most powerful images of political awareness and national tragedy in art. The painting's irony goes deeper than the contrast between the wise fool and the unaware court. For centuries, Polish historians would paint Bona Sforza — the Italian-born queen seen through the doorway — as a scheming foreigner whose influence weakened Poland. They blamed her for military defeats and political corruption. Yet this gendered, xenophobic narrative conveniently ignored the systemic failures of Poland's nobility and the impossible situation of a queen trying to navigate a difficult court. Matejko's jester sits worried and fearful, already sensing the disasters ahead for Poland, but history would wrongly make Bona the villain of that future.

Like Matejko's jester, Bona Sforza deserves a closer look. Born into one of Renaissance Italy's most powerful families, she arrived in Poland in 1518 as a young bride with sharp political instincts, financial skills, and a vision for change. The choices she made as queen — in matters of economy, diplomacy, and royal power — reveal a complex figure navigating impossible circumstances, yet these same choices would later be twisted into evidence of dangerous foreign influence. To understand Bona Sforza is to understand how history often judges powerful women: not by what they actually accomplished, but by the threat they represented to those who wrote the history.

Breaking expectations

Bona Sforza married Sigismund I the Old by proxy in Naples on December 15, 1518, then in person in Kraków on February 15, 1524. The marriage followed the standard royal pattern: Bona was Catholic, brought a large dowry to help the royal treasury, and her Sforza family connections offered diplomatic advantages across the Italian peninsula and Europe. Once the wedding festivities ended, Bona began learning about her new realm by visiting them and learning the Polish language to prepare for her political role.

This approach surprised the court. Sigismund's first wife, Barbara Zápolya, had been seen as the perfect queen — a devoted mother and wife who understood that political matters were not her business. Bona was the complete opposite. Where Sigismund showed loyalty but struggled with making decisions, Bona — educated by her mother in Renaissance Italian politics — went after her goals directly. Her energy and decisiveness made the king less visible in politics, which brought increasingly harsh criticism. The court had expected a decorative wife; they got a Renaissance politician instead. Yet Sigismund allowed her to continue, only sometimes changing her decisions when he thought she was going too far. Bona wasn't taking over royal power — she was introducing a completely new idea of how to govern.

Rethinking the union

What drove Bona was a vision of a truly united state, which was very different from how two countries actually worked. The duchies operated completely independently, making the king's position mostly symbolic since any royal decision needed approval from the noble parliament — a system that could generously be called "careful" and more honestly described as unable to act. Bona's vision of a unified state required creating a strong centre by making the crown's political position stronger. She also saw that a divided state surrounded by hostile powers would not survive long.

Bona argued for abandoning the nobles habit of getting involved in idealistic international politics and focusing instead on immediate, real threats. This meant avoiding entanglement in the conflicts between France, Spain, and the German states while carefully watching the powers closest to borders. Prussia and Austria posed the most direct danger — they could physically surround and threaten both countries territories. For Bona, keeping these neighbouring powers weak was not aggressive expansion but defensive necessity. She had two main goals: strengthening royal territories and protecting her family's interests in Milan and Bari. These goals were hard to balance since Bari was under Spanish control and Milan under French rule, creating a complicated diplomatic situation with no easy solution.

Early tests of power

Bona arrived during a war with Muscovy, though the worst phase had passed after the Grand Duchy of Lithuania lost the Smolensk region in 1514. Still, she insisted on joining ceasefire negotiations to better understand the political situation — a decision that likely annoyed those who expected her to observe quietly from the sidelines.

The ceasefire with Muscovy allowed attention to shift to a closer danger: Prussia. The situation got worse when Prussia, with support from German states, entered the royal territory with a 15,000-man army. The military victory didn't produce the political results Bona had hoped for. Even worse, in 1525, Albert, King of Prussia, announced his conversion to Lutheranism and forced the new faith on his entire state — a development that hurt Bona's arguments for religious and political unity. This disappointment happened at the same time as plague outbreaks spreading through Poland, forcing Bona to temporarily move from Kraków to Niepołomice.

A year earlier, when Turkish and Tartar forces threatened to invade Podolia, Polish and Lithuanian forces won a costly victory at the Battle of Seret. At Bona's request, the poet Mikołaj Hussowicz wrote a poem celebrating the victory — one of the few moments where her political vision seemed to be working as she intended.

Allies, enemies and Opportunists

Bona frequently clashed with nobles over her anti-Habsburg politics. One opponent was Maciej Drzewicki, a powerful bishop and royal advisor, who supported the Habsburgs mainly because his enemy Jan Łaski, the Archbishop of Gniezno (near Poznań in western Poland) and Primate of Poland, opposed them — a perfect example of political logic at work. Despite this, the queen still supported Drzewicki's candidacy to succeed Łaski as archbishop of Gniezno. Another opponent was Jan Chojenski, the king's favourite courtier who worked in the royal chancellery. Many nobles chose sides based on what would help their careers rather than any deeper principles, supporting or opposing Habsburg politics as it suited them. For Bona, these figures were annoying obstacles but not true enemies.

The queen had genuinely bad relationships with three powerful nobles who held key positions in the kingdom: Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, the Grand Chancellor; Piotr Tomicki, Bishop of Kraków; and Samuel Maciejowski, an influential courtier. She tried to remove Maciejowski from the king's circle at all costs, blocking his candidacy for chancellor. The reason was simple: he favoured Duke Albert of Prussia, who was considered an enemy of the entire Polish-Lithuanian state after he removed the church's control over Prussia and converted to Lutheranism in 1525.

Bona did have supporters. Besides Jan Łaski, there were Piotr Gamrat, Bishop of Kraków and later Archbishop of Gniezno, and Piotr Kmita, a powerful nobleman and military commander. The fundamental divide was clear: those who wanted a stronger, more centralised monarchy with reforms (Bona's camp) versus those who preferred Poland's traditional system of noble power and limited royal authority.

The price of political ambition

Bona supported peace with the Turks, which led her to back János Zápolya's candidacy as king of Hungary. He shared many of her views: he opposed the marriages between Sigismund II Augustus and both Elizabeth and later Barbara, and he resisted Bona's politics regarding the nobility. Yet in 1547, Zápolya joined a major group of Polish nobles in declaring opposition to government by women — with clear reference to Bona. Shared views on policy, clearly, did not extend to views on power.

Her goal was to strengthen the monarchy and reshape the nobility's power in political choices that affected international politics. She was inspired by Machiavelli's ideas and saw them as a method to transform both states, while the nobility followed movements that were sometimes idealistic, sometimes selfish, but in almost all cases risky for the country.

Her Renaissance political approach brought her into internal conflicts between the nobility and the church, which historians have called autocratic. The queen couldn't change the statutes that defined the relationship between nobility and church, but she made many political moves to push obstacles out of the royal court and introduce those who supported her. Her aim was to limit the nobility's power and strengthen royal government.

Bona's political ambitions became entangled with dynastic politics when Janusz III, Duke of Masovia and the last male member of the Piast family ruling that region, died suddenly in March 1526. Janusz and his brother Stanisław, who had died two years earlier, were known for their dissolute lifestyles. Their unexpected deaths at young ages sparked rumours of poisoning, with the queen becoming a convenient target for accusations. King Sigismund I himself ordered an investigation, which officially concluded in 1528 that the princes weren't victims of a human hand, but they had died of natural causes. Historian Jan Długosz suggested the actual cause was tuberculosis, an inherited disease among the Masovian Piasts. The rumours, however, remained gossip that continued to circulate in Poland, and Bona became more careful about whom she trusted as similar accusations spread.

Royal unions

Bona's daughters' marriages created a powerful anti-Habsburg network across Central and Eastern Europe. Isabella married János Zápolya, who became king of Hungary. The same year they married, he died, and his competitor took Isabella and her young son to Lipova, where they ruled Transylvania as vassals. Sophia married Heinrich II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Anna married István Báthory, who later became King of Poland, making Anna queen. Catherine married Johan III, eventually becoming Queen of Sweden. Through these marriages, Bona positioned her daughters as consorts in Sweden, Brunswick, Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania. Three of the four matches directly opposed Habsburg interests.

This strategic approach to marriage reflected Bona's deeply held belief that royal marriages were first and foremost political tools for securing power and wealth. For Bona, it was incomprehensible that a member of a royal family would give up the great advantages of power and wealth that came from a royal marriage. This was one of the main reasons why the queen's relationship with her son Sigismund II Augustus became bitter — and why, after many conflicts, she eventually returned to Bari before her final years.

A base for change

Sixteenth-century Europe — including the Polish-Lithuanian states—was an extremely sexist society. What it expected from Bona was simple: produce an heir, perhaps bear more children for the king during her lifetime, enjoy income from her lands quietly, and, most importantly, stay out of politics. That was the role the public wanted to see. Unfortunately for this society, Bona had inherited her mother's approach to governance — politics ran in her blood. While as the queen of Poland her role was largely ceremonial, however she held real power as a noblewoman and landowner in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There Bona governed several cities and could implement real reforms. It was in Lithuania and her Italian territories — where she had the biggest possibility to create change.

To exercise this power effectively, Bona focused first on building a strong economic foundation. The queen understood that real power needed funds. Financial independence was essential for strengthening royal authority, which meant building wealth that would free the monarchy from depending on nobles' approval for every expense. Her reforms began in the Duchy of Lithuania, where landowners had to show documents proving they owned their lands. Those who could not provide proper proof would not lose their properties immediately, but their children would not inherit them. This process revealed an uncomfortable truth — many nobles had quietly taken state lands for themselves over the years without legal right. Using this verification process, the queen reclaimed what belonged to the crown.

Agriculture reforms

When Bona visited the lands granted to her through her marriage settlement, she made a detailed assessment of their agricultural potential. The estates contained significant water resources and extensive forested areas. Local landowners had traditionally viewed these properties as valuable primarily for timber, but considered the land itself problematic for farming due to the high water content in the soil. The queen, however, brought a different administrative perspective shaped by her experience managing properties in southern Italy. She recognised that the same features the local lords saw as limitations — abundant water and forests — could actually support productive agriculture if managed systematically.

Between the 1530s and 1540s, royal lands in the Duchy of Lithuania expanded through estates in Pinsk, Grodno, Kleck, Volhynia, Podlachia, and Samogitia, acquired through marriage gifts from the king or purchased directly. These estates became testing grounds for what became known as the Volok reform — a reorganisation of farming land based on the three-field crop rotation system that was working successfully in the Duchy of Bari and the Kingdom of Naples. Each peasant received a standard-sized piece of land (approximately 15 hectares) divided into three fields: one for grain, one for winter wheat, and one left empty to rest. During the three-year rotation cycle, local administrators were required to register both the quantity and quality of products from each plot to ensure proper accounting to the landowner. This method later became a model for Sigismund II Augustus when he introduced broader land reforms across the Duchy of Lithuania. The results were notable — by the end of the century, income from royal land had increased four times.

Economic reforms

Beyond agricultural changes, the economic reforms also reduced how much peasants had to pay through labor services, allowing money to move more freely through the economy. The previous requirement was to perform unpaid labor three days a week for the landowner. The new law maintained the three-day work obligation but explicitly granted workers the remaining four days to dedicate to their own affairs. While Sigismund I showed particular concern for eliminating the distinction between free labourers and enslaved persons, the queen supported this initiative — not necessarily out of humanitarian sentiment, but because freed workers meant more taxpayers. From the time this law was implemented until her departure, no new cases of enslavement were registered. This shift helped create a more dynamic economic system where trade and commerce could develop.

Another major part of the reforms addressed the unfair tax system. Before the changes, taxes were paid only by poor nobles who earned their living from land cultivation, while wealthy knights performing military service were exempt. The queen made everyone pay taxes regardless of their status or service. She imposed taxes and tariffs across her estates and managed them directly through appointed treasurers who were personally responsible for collecting revenue. These officials maintained detailed registers recording who paid, what items were taxed, and the exact sums received — a level of bureaucratic precision that was innovative for the whole region at the time.

She also introduced modern property valuation and measurement systems, known as the cadastre, which were based on practices from her southern Italian territories. These systems brought more transparency and accuracy to tax collection, making it harder for powerful landowners to hide their wealth or avoid their obligations. The reform system was applied uniformly to all landowners regardless of their profession or religion — no exceptions were made before the law, a principle that undoubtedly contributed to the general irritation among those accustomed to more flexible arrangements. The reforms brought substantial results and strengthened royal authority, which naturally created tension with the nobility who had previously enjoyed privileges.

Literacy, law and other changes

However, economic reforms alone could not secure long-term prosperity without an educated population to support them. One of the reforms she made in her territories focused on education. She recognized that high illiteracy rates limited both economic development and effective governance. She initiated construction of churches — both Catholic and Orthodox — because parish priests could guarantee at least a basic local school where children learned the alphabet, basic prayers, catechism, and how to read and write. It was a modest beginning, but it provided the foundation for basic literacy that Bona's administration needed. The fact that she built both Catholic and Orthodox churches showed her practical approach — education mattered more than religious uniformity.

Such reforms were inseparable from broader shifts in policy. The plan to improve the economy for farmers and the middle class naturally came at the cost of noble privileges. Beyond economic reforms, Bona also wanted to change how justice and law worked — areas the nobility had always controlled. Nobles, in her view, should be examples of good behaviour, not a privileged class above the law. She believed the era of aristocratic immunity should end, and even serious penalties — including the death penalty — should apply to all equally. These views made her unpopular with the ruling elite and created strong opposition, which led to the 1537 Chicken War rebellion.

While these changes transformed governance and economy, Bona's influence extended to daily life as well, though her culinary impact has often been confused with myths over time. Vegetables were already known in Poland before her arrival — they were likely introduced earlier by monks settling in the country — so Bona's main contribution to Polish cuisine was actually popularising citrus fruit. Purchases of citrus fruit were recorded for the first time in royal accounts of Sigismund I after her arrival, with oranges bought regularly. Bona also introduced new farming products to her Lithuanian estates, including expanded vineyards using methods from her Italian lands, and decorative trees like poplars for the gardens.

Bona and religion

Bona's marriage to Sigismund took place in February 1518, just one month and six days after Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg. She arrived in Poland at a moment of significant religious change: protestantism was beginning to spread across Europe, while Orthodox Christians in both countries were seeking greater independence from Latin clergy. After settling in Poland, she handled religious tensions in a pragmatic and tolerant way. She recognised the Orthodox community's political importance and did not oppose their growing independence. Protestant reforms were also gaining ground, particularly in the eastern territories, challenging Catholic authority. With limited support from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the kingdom and the duchy needed flexibility in religious matters to maintain political stability across its diverse territories.

Bona applied the same flexibility in her personal decisions, as religious beliefs were not a criterion by which she chose her allies. For instance, Abraomas Kulvietis, one of the pioneers of Lithuanian writing, had studied ancient languages and traveled to Wittenberg to learn from Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, leading figures of the Protestant Reformation. His parents were imprisoned because their son had studied at what authorities considered a heretical university, so Kulvietis returned to Vilnius. He went to meet Bona Sforza, who was familiar with humanist reforms and eager for educated scholars at her court. Impressed by the first Lithuanian to earn a doctorate in law from Europe's leading universities, she decided to protect him. With her help, he later opened a school where Lithuanian nobles sent their sons to study classical languages and humanistic studies. Officially, Bona opposed any reform movement that threatened the traditional political order, but she remained curious about Protestant ideas — especially those concerning humanitarian values, justice, mercy, and moral questions.

For Bona, religion was not about Christian dogmas or theological debates — it was a way to maintain social order and manage political life. The queen performed her duties toward the Catholic Church and surrounded herself with spiritual advisors, maintaining good relationships with the highest-ranking clerics in Poland, as well as with the popes of her time, Leo X and Clement VII. Bona supported religious practices when they fit her goals and judged changes in religious matters based on whether they helped advance her interests. This practical view of religion led some at court to view the queen with suspicion, particularly given her ongoing ties with the Spanish crown.

The Relationship with Nobility

When Bona arrived in Poland, she saw both the opportunity and the challenge before her. The country had vast territories, a diverse population, and enormous potential — but it also faced serious threats, both from outside its borders and from within. The greatest danger was not foreign invasion but the nobility, who had accumulated considerable power within the government, which allowed them to shape nearly every major political decision the king attempted to make. In theory, such distributed power could have evolved into something resembling modern political equality. In practice, however, the nobles used it exclusively to advance their private interests, transforming what could have been a strength into a massive political obstacle.

The nobles were remarkably short-sighted in their view of threats, focusing only on the Tsar of Moscow and the Tartars while underestimating another serious danger — the Archduke of Austria. Their narrow focus continued even after 1514, when Emperor Maximilian I of Austria took advantage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's defeat following the loss of Smolensk. He sent his ambassador to Moscow and proposed an anti-Jagiellonian alliance. Meanwhile, the Habsburgs pursued their goal of replacing the Jagiellonian dynasty with their own in Bohemia and Hungary — a goal they would achieve after the Battle of Mohács in 1526.

To counter this threat, Bona tried to involve France against Austria to force Austria to detach from Hungary, but she could not succeed. In 1525, French forces were defeated by Habsburg Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Pavia, ending any hope of a successful Franco-Polish alliance against the Habsburgs. The following year, the situation worsened dramatically. After King Louis II of Hungary died at the Battle of Mohács, Ferdinand of Habsburg — brother of Emperor Charles V — claimed the Hungarian crown through his wife Anna, Louis II's sister. The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania now faced a serious strategic situation: with Habsburg influence extending through Hungary to the south, Muscovy threatening from the east, and the ever-present danger from Tatar raids, the state found itself under pressure from multiple directions.

The nobles, however, remained unmoved. Prioritising their own class interests over both countries strategic needs, they refused to provide the necessary resources or support measures that would strengthen central authority against external threats. Bona, who tried to open the nobles' eyes and take action to strengthen the kingdom, faced growing opposition from those who refused to see the danger.

The Muscovite Problem

While both states faced pressure from the Habsburgs in the west and south, the eastern border faced constant aggression from Muscovy. The Grand Duchy of Muscovy had emerged in the 15th century as a state claiming descent from the medieval Kievan Rus', which had fragmented and been destroyed by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. The Muscovite rulers claimed to be the rightful heirs to all former Kievan Rus' territories and declared themselves protectors of Orthodox Christianity. This ideological claim put them in direct conflict with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which had absorbed much of the western Kievan Rus' lands — including Kiev itself — during the 14th and 15th centuries. Muscovy sought to reclaim these lands under its rule, despite the fact that these territories had never actually been part of the Muscovite state before.

Sigismund I faced a difficult situation, as the kingdom was constantly attacked by Tartars and Turks, who were also enemies of Muscovy. He decided to try a diplomatic approach, and in 1520 he sent an ambassador to Moscow to suggest peace and to ask for help against these common enemies. The outcome was entirely predictable: given the poor relationship between the countries and Muscovy's strong determination to claim what it viewed as its inheritance, a peace deal was hardly acceptable from Muscovy's side, and the battles between the two continued as if the diplomatic mission had never taken place.

The lack of money for the military was a real issue for the king, as it restricted tactical moves in battles with Muscovy, Turks, or Tartars, eventually resulting in weak security for cities, castles, and territories. Just as the nobles had refused to support measures against external threats, they had also resisted providing adequate funding for military needs—a chronic problem that left the kingdom vulnerable. This was one of the main reasons why Sigismund and Bona worked together to implement tax and economic reforms for the realm.

Securing the succession

The birth of her son Sigismund in 1520 was a fundamental event in Bona's life. Beyond the personal experience of motherhood, this fact aligned perfectly with her political vision. If she had only daughters, her political strength and influence would likely have diminished considerably. Instead, having a male heir placed Bona in a privileged position that strengthened her authority at court.

What followed, however, set the Polish nobility firmly against her. In 1522, the young Sigismund was recognised as heir in Lithuania, a status that became official in 1529 when he received the title of Grand Prince. Then, Bona insisted that her ten-year-old son be crowned while his father still lived — an unusual request and a practice almost unheard of in both countries. The nobility viewed this act with suspicion, seeing it as a potential step toward absolutism, but the ceremony proceeded as planned on February 20, 1530.

As the young king grew, he developed — despite his youth and the nobility's fears — a belief in free spirit and autonomy that pleased neither the nobility nor his mother. Bona, for instance, could not prevent his marriage to Elisabeth of Habsburg, a union she opposed on political grounds. The marriage was arranged several years after Sigismund Augustus's coronation but took place only when Elisabeth turned sixteen, with the ceremony held at Wawel Cathedral in Kraków in May 1543. Up until the last moment, Bona proposed alternative brides, believing alliances with other royal houses would serve the kingdom better than a Habsburg one.

After two years of marriage, Elisabeth died at the age of eighteen. Bona had never accepted this daughter-in-law — she saw Elisabeth as both a representative of Austria, which supported Prussia against Polish interests, and an obstacle to her own ambitions regarding Milan, which had belonged to her parents before they were forced to flee. Given this open hostility, some nobles who understood Bona's political sentiments naturally suspected that she might have orchestrated the young queen's death.

These accusations gained little traction. Bona remained at the height of her power, her husband Sigismund I continued to support her fully, and her son showed no inclination to investigate the rumours. The situation changed dramatically in 1548, when Sigismund I died. Bona attended her husband throughout his final illness and accompanied him to his burial with her daughters. With Sigismund I gone, Bona lost her most important political ally and protector, leaving her vulnerable to the nobles' opposition and her son's growing independence.

Bona’s relationship with her son

After the funeral, Sigismund Augustus began ruling autonomously and made public his relationship with the Lithuanian noblewoman Barbara Radziwiłł, daughter of Jerzy Radziwiłł, lord of Vilnius and member of one of Lithuania's most powerful families. If Bona had disliked Elisabeth because she came from the enemy Habsburg family, the Queen opposed Barbara for different reasons. Barbara was not royalty but a Lithuanian noblewoman and widow, bringing no dynastic advantage to both states. Worse, she came from the powerful Radziwiłł family, whose growing influence in Lithuania Bona had long opposed. The secret marriage in 1547, contracted without Senate approval after Sigismund I's death, directly challenged her authority.

This situation created a furious controversy once again directed at Bona. The nobility tried to convince Sigismund Augustus to abandon the marriage, but the request revealed the new king's attitude to both Bona and the nobles. He refused to follow their demands, insisting that his commitment to Barbara could not be undone. He pointed out the nobles' inconsistency — they expected his loyalty while asking him to break his marriage vows. Despite continued challenges to the marriage documents and Barbara's noble status, the opposition gradually faded. For nearly three years, Bona refused to recognise the marriage and attempted to annul it at any cost. Bona remained silent when her new daughter-in-law was crowned in Kraków in December 1550. Only in March 1551, when Barbara was already dying, Bona finally acknowledged her as a beloved daughter-in-law.

When Barbara died just five months later, blame immediately fell on Bona. Rumours spread throughout the court that the mother-in-law had poisoned her unwanted daughter-in-law. Sigismund Augustus gave no credence to these accusations, yet he made no effort to defend his mother or stop the gossip from spreading. His irritation with her constant criticism and political interference was still too fresh. By refusing to clear her name, he allowed the accusations to isolate Bona from court influence. The transformation was complete — Sigismund Augustus had freed himself from his mother's control entirely.

Bona quickly understood that the situation had changed completely and that her son would no longer allow her to take part in governing the state. Following Sigismund I's death in 1548, she withdrew from court life, fully giving up political power to her son. It was then that she began wanting to return to Italy. Even while living in Poland, Bona never lost interest in her territories in the Puglia region. She followed affairs there with great attention, making sure she had reliable administrators working on her behalf.

A year later, Bona asked for permission from her son and the nobility to return to Bari. For many years, this permission was refused. As time passed, however, her relationship with her son improved. By 1553, they had reached a good understanding, and although Sigismund Augustus wanted his mother to stay in Poland, he let her know he would not oppose her leaving. She finally received permission to leave in 1555 — seven years after her first request — on the condition that she leave all her Polish-Lithuanian territories to her son, a condition that she accepted.

Legacy

When Bona finally left the Kingdom of Poland territories in 1556, she left behind a country she had worked in for nearly forty years. Her tax reform, the volok system, and her efforts to strengthen royal authority had changed how the Polish-Lithuanian state worked. Economic reforms had created clearer rules about land and labor. However, these changes had also created strong opposition from nobles who saw them as attacks on their traditional rights. The conflicts with Bona were partly about real political disagreements over how much power the monarchy should have. Nobles fought against her efforts to reclaim royal lands and control taxation, fearing the concentration of royal power at the expense of noble privileges.

However, these policy disputes were made worse by deeper prejudices. Her biggest disadvantages, and the greatest concerns for nobles, were that she was a woman actively involved in politics and, even worse in their view, a foreigner. The nobility saw her political activities as unnatural for a woman and her influence over royal policy as illegitimate for someone who was not from the royal territories. Many nobles believed that queens should limit themselves to domestic duties rather than participating in state affairs or economic reforms. This deep suspicion of her foreign influence even led to accusations that she poisoned people. Such accusations were a way to create mistrust among others and to weaken her political influence.

The strength of this opposition became clear after Bona left. Her son Sigismund Augustus had inherited a government with better organisation and stronger finances, but he did not continue her firm approach to dealing with the nobles. Without her presence to defend them, her reforms gradually weakened and disappeared. Her efforts to centralise power were replaced by increasing noble influence, creating an imbalance that would have lasting consequences. The following problems of both countries in the eighteenth century, which ended in its partitions, were partly rooted in this unresolved struggle between royal and noble authority.

Bona Sforza was a woman of exceptional intelligence and political skill. She came from Renaissance Italy with an education that included not only languages and arts, but also statecraft and financial management. Unlike most queens of her time, she actively shaped policy rather than simply supporting her husband's decisions. She understood economics, managed vast land holdings successfully, and negotiated with both allies and enemies. Her determination to strengthen royal authority showed political vision that went beyond her own lifetime, even though the nobles who opposed her did not share this vision.

Her position in history remains unique and complicated. She was a Renaissance woman who brought modern ideas about government and economy to a region that was not ready for them. She was a foreigner who tried to reform a country where she would always be seen as an outsider. She was a queen who refused to limit herself to traditional female roles in a society that believed women should not be involved in politics. These factors made her both powerful and vulnerable. In the nineteenth century, a "black legend" was created around her, full of false stories about poisoning and evil intentions. However, this myth reveals more about the society that created it than about Bona herself. It shows the deep fears that people had about powerful women and foreigners in positions of authority. This legend overshadowed her real achievements for generations and continues to affect how some people view her today.

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