The Jagiellonians

The founder of the Jagiellonians dynasty was Jagiello (1351 - 1434), grand Lithuania duke, who married Jadwiga, the younger daughter of Kazimierz's heir Louis of Anjou. This marriage created a personal union between Poland and Lithuania, what in fact was very important for both sides. Stronger army could face the Teutonic Knights and defeat them at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. When the sun rose on that fateful day, 15 July, one could have imagined all Europe holding its breath to see who would win the titanic battle that had so long been expected. It was the decisive battle of the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War (1409-1411) and the greatest battle of medieval Europe. The Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights was defeated in the battle and never recovered its former influence and after the Thirteen Years War Teutonic Knights surrendered to the Polish crown and accepted Polish suzerainty over the remainder. Towards the end of the fifteenth century Poland and Lithuania began to face new dangers from the east. First to threaten were the Crimean Tatars, whose menace prompted the creation of the first Polish standing army. A far more serious threat came from the Muscovite tsars. In 1572 the Polish king Zygmunt August died without any heirs. At the time, Poland didn’t have any method of choosing a king if such a thing happened. It took a long time for the Poles to decide how to elect their king. Finally, after much debate, they decided to let the entire nobility of Poland decide who the king was to be. The nobility were to gather near Warsaw and vote in a “free election”. However, they did not have elections every two or four years like most countries do today. Instead, they voted after the death of the old king.