Prominent Personalities - Veronica of Desenice

Following the death of his first wife, Elizabeth of Frankopan, Count Frederick II of Celje, eldest son
of Count Herman II, secretly married Veronica of Desenice against the will of his father. Although the anonymous writer of the Chronicle of the Counts of Celje describes Veronica as belonging to a modest knightly family, Frederick wrote in a letter to the Doge of Venice that he had married the young daughter of a powerful Hungarian baron.

The furious Herman imprisoned his son in Celje’s Old Castle. Veronica went into hiding but was eventually tracked down and brought before the court. Herman accused her of having used witchcraft to entrap his son
in marriage, of having attempted to poison him (Herman) and of having made other attempts on his life. Veronica’s advocate was apparently sufficiently convincing for the court to acquit her that same day. Herman, however, had the unfortunate young woman incarcerated in Ojstrica Castle, where she was to be left to die of hunger and thirst. When this did not happen, Herman sent two knights to the castle to finish the job. They drowned Veronica in a tub below the castle walls. The date of her death is reported as being 17 October 1425. She was buried in Braslovče but a few years later Frederick had her remains moved to the charterhouse of Jurklošter.

Damir Žerič, Celje Regional Museum