A lady-in-waiting stole the Holy Crown of Hungary in 1440 so a baby born hours later could be crowned king

King Albert II of Hungary died on 27 October 1439. His widow, Queen Elisabeth, was about five months pregnant. Hungarian nobles wanted her to marry the 16-year-old King Władysław III of Poland. She refused and waited for a son. She sent her servant Helene Kottanner to take the Holy Crown from the castle of Visegrád. On the night of 20 February 1440, Kottanner kept watch while a Hungarian helper filed through the locks. They sewed the crown into a red velvet pillow and carried it out on her sled. Crossing the frozen Danube, the ice broke under the ladies' carriage, but the crown survived. Elisabeth's son Ladislaus was born at Komárom a few hours after the crown arrived. On 15 May 1440, at twelve weeks old, he was crowned at Székesfehérvár by the Archbishop of Esztergom. Władysław was crowned on 17 July 1440 by the same archbishop without the Holy Crown. Elisabeth died in 1442. Ladislaus died in 1457 at 17. Kottanner's account, written around 1451, is possibly the earliest autobiography in German by a woman. In 1945 Hungarians handed the crown to the Americans to keep it from the Soviets. The US 86th Infantry Division recovered it at Mattsee on 4 May 1945, and the United States kept it at Fort Knox. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance returned it to Budapest on 6 January 1978. It is kept in the Hungarian Parliament building.