Barbara of Celje was born around 1392, presumably in Celje. Barbara was the youngest of six children of Count Herman II of Celje and Countess Anna of Schaunberg (d. 1396). She grew up at the court in Celje together with her (younger) cousin Anna, who married King Władysław II Jagiellon of Poland in 1402. Jagiel. Barbara was given an important role in her father’s dynastic plans at an early age when, after the Battle of Nikopol (1396), opportunities opened up for the Celje family within the Hungarian kingdom. Herman betrothed her to the twenty-four years older King Sigismund of Hungary in 1401, they married in Krapina in November 1405, and she was crowned Queen of Hungary in Székesfehérvár on 6 December.