Summary

Ladislaus II Jagellon (Vilnius, 1352 or 1362 - Horodok, June 1, 1434) was a Lithuanian ruler, grand duke of Lithuania (1377-1434) and later king of Poland from 1386. A member of the Gediminid dynasty, born in Lithuania to Grand Duke Algirdas and Uliana of Tver' under the name Jogaila, he was reared according to traditional Lithuanian beliefs and succeeded his father as grand duke. On his marriage to Hedwig of Poland, he converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Ladislaus Jagellon. This event marked the final step for Lithuania, the last country on the European continent still loyal to atavistic religions, in the long process of Christianization, so much so that after him no Lithuanian ruler embraced paganism again.

Through his union with Hedwig, Ladislaus obtained the crown of Poland. His reign, which lasted nearly fifty years, reunited Poland and Lithuania in a personal union for the first time and laid the foundation for the centuries-old Polish-Lithuanian union. Ladislas was in fact the progenitor of the Jagellon dynasty, a lineage that ruled both states until 1572, becoming one of the most influential in late medieval and early modern Europe. During his reign, the Polish-Lithuanian state came to be one of the largest states in the Christian world.

At the head of the Polish-Lithuanian collaboration, Ladislaus had to face the growing common enemy consisting of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights. The allies' victory at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, followed by the Treaty of Toruń in 1411, secured the Polish-Lithuanian borders and marked the emergence of the alliance between the two powers as a significant power in Eastern Europe. His reign also extended Polish borders and is often regarded as the beginning of the Polish Golden Age. In terms of domestic politics, however, Ladislaus failed to completely quell Lithuania's separatist drives and reduce the weight of the nobility, which in fact gained more and more privileges and political influence.

Historical judgment of Ladislaus has conveyed the image of a controversial figure: although he is unanimously celebrated in Polish and Western historiography, Lithuanian historiography tends to regard him more negatively. Because of his great historical, political, and cultural impact, he is nevertheless considered one of the greatest Eastern European rulers of the 14th and 15th centuries.

Historical context: the early years in Lithuania

Jogaila belonged to the Gediminid dynasty of dukes and grand dukes of Lithuania: his father was Algirdas, ruler of Lithuania who reigned from 1345 to 1377, himself a son of Gediminas, while his mother was Uliana of Tver'. Little is known about his childhood and even his birth year is uncertain. Previously historians thought he was born in 1352, but some recent research suggests a later date, about 1362.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania appeared in the eyes of outside observers as a political entity composed of two very different ethnic groups and two political systems: Lithuania proper in the northwest on the one hand, and on the other the vast Ruthenian territories of the former Kievan Rus', encompassing the lands of today's Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of western Russia, which had been annexed by the grand duchy during the previous century. Although in a feudal-like society, the Lithuanian grand dukes exercised almost absolute power, which was subject only to the control of their immediate relatives. For practical needs and to quell rivalries, however, political power was in fact often shared with other figures of the local nobility, so that in previous generations the kingdom had taken on the features of a diarchy, though still reporting to the grand duke. This was also the case during the reign of Jogaila, who succeeded his father as grand duke and administered the southern and eastern territories of Lithuania, while his uncle Kęstutis continued to rule the northwestern region under the title of duke of Trakai. The rise of Jogaila, however, soon put a strain on such a system that had done so well in the decades just before.

At the beginning of his reign, Jogaila was preoccupied with internal unrest: between 1377 and 1378, Andrei of Polock, the eldest son of Algirdas, challenged Jogaila's authority and tried to become grand duke. In 1380, Andrei and another brother, Demetrius, sided with Prince Demetrius of Russia against the alliance formed by Jogaila and the leader and Khan Mamaj. Jogaila failed to support the Tatar, lingering in the vicinity of the fighting site, an event that made operations easy for Demetrius in a clash that has gone down in history as the Battle of Kulikovo. The Grand Duchy of Moscow was considerably weakened by the huge losses suffered during the battle, and so, in the same year, Jogaila was able to wage a struggle for supremacy with Kęstutis without having to worry about external threats.

In the northwest, Lithuania faced continuous armed incursions by the Teutonic knights as part of the very long crusade in which they subdued indigenous peoples such as the Pruzzians, Nadruvians, and Jatvingians several times earlier. In 1380, Jogaila preferred to side with the enemy and thus concluded the secret Treaty of Dovydiškės, in an anti-Kęstutis capacity: when the latter discovered the plan, a civil war broke out that lasted from 1381 to 1384. Having conquered Vilnius, the elderly uncle overthrew Jogaila and replaced him in the role of grand duke. In 1382, Jogaila raised an army from his father's vassals and confronted his rival near Trakai: when Kęstutis and his son Vitoldo entered the camp of Algirdas' son to negotiate and avoid bloodshed, the two were tricked and imprisoned in Krėva Castle. At more than eighty years of age, Kęstutis died there, possibly murdered, a week later. Vitoldo escaped instead to the Teutonic fortress of Marienburg and was baptized there as Wigand.

Jogaila concluded the Treaty of Dubysa, by which he rewarded the Order for their help in the campaign against Kęstutis and Vitoldo by promising Christianization and granting them Samogizia, a strategically valuable geographical region west of the Dubysa River. However, when Jogaila systematically refused to ratify the treaty because of unfavorable conditions, the Germans invaded Lithuania in the summer of 1383. In 1384, Jogaila reconciled with Vitoldo by promising to return his property to Trakai, and under such renewed confidence, the latter turned against the knights, attacking and plundering numerous Prussian castles.

Baptism and marriage

Jogaila's mother, the Russian Uliana of Tver', urged him to marry Sophia, daughter of Prince Demetrius, who asked him first to convert to Orthodoxy. Since by acquiescing to this option Lithuania would have ended up as a fief in the hands of Muscovy, Jogaila preferred to refuse: moreover, the Teutonic knights, who regarded Orthodox Christians as schismatics and little more than pagans, would not stop raiding. For these reasons, the Lithuanian looked to Poland, the state from which came the proposal to accept baptism according to the Catholic rite and marry the then 11-year-old Queen Hedwig (Jadwiga) in exchange for the crown. The nobles of Lesser Poland presented such an offer to Jogaila for several reasons: first, they wanted to neutralize the dangers composed by Lithuania itself and protect the fertile territories of Galicia-Volinia. In secundis, the Polish nobles imagined that they would pose as spokesmen to increase their own, admittedly already numerous, privileges and not be unprepared in the event of an attack by the Germans and avoid Austrian influence due to the fact that Hedwig's hand had first been promised to William I of Habsburg.

On August 14, 1385 in Krėva Castle, Jogaila sealed her premarital vows with the Union of Krewo. On that occasion, she reconfirmed her adoption to Christianity, her willingness to return the lands "taken" from Poland by her neighbors, and terras suas Lithuaniae et Russiae Coronae Regni Poloniae perpetuo applicare, a nebulous clause not well understood by historians, by which she perhaps indicated, in an unclear way, her intention to have the Kingdom assume a sovereign position with respect to the Grand Duchy. Krėva's understanding has been described both as forward-looking and as a desperate gamble.

Jogaila was baptized in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków on February 15, 1386, and has since been recorded in the records as Ladislaus Jagellon (in Polish Władysław Jagiełło and in Latin Wladislaus or Ladislaus). The name Ladislaus, of Slavic origin and roughly translatable as "glorious lord," evoked both Ladislaus I of Poland, called the Short, or the great-grandfather of Queen Hedwig who unified the kingdom in 1320, and Ladislaus I of Hungary, a king later sanctified and remembered as an enlightened ruler who sided with the pope against Emperor Henry IV of Franconia and Christianized Transylvania. The wedding took place three days later, and on March 4, 1386, the man was crowned King Ladislaus II Jagellon by Archbishop Bodzanta (1320-1388). He was also legally adopted by Hedwig's mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia, so as to retain the throne in case of Hedwig's death. Royal baptism triggered the change of faith of most of the court and nobles, as well as mass baptisms in Lithuanian rivers. Although the Lithuanian nobility had converted to Catholicism, both paganism and the Orthodox rite remained strong among the peasantry, especially in Samogitia, where it had to wait until 1410 for the establishment of the first local diocese.The king's conversion and its political implications had, however, lasting repercussions on the history of Lithuania and Poland.

Sovereign of Lithuania and Poland

Ladislaus II and Queen Hedwig reigned as co-monarchs, and the latter, although she probably had little actual power, participated actively in the political and cultural life of Poland. In 1387, she led two successful military expeditions into Red Ruthenia, recovered the lands her father Louis I of Hungary had transferred from Poland to Hungary, and won the homage of Petru I, Voivode of Moldavia. In 1390, he also personally initiated negotiations with Marienburg, capital of the monastic state. Most of the political responsibilities, however, fell to Ladislaus II, with Hedwig involved in cultural and charitable activities for which she is still venerated as a saint today.

Shortly after his accession to the Polish throne, Ladislaus II granted Vilnius a city statute modeled on that of Krakow, which traced the law of Magdeburg: Vitold granted a privilege to the Jewish community of Trakai almost on the same terms as the privileges granted to Polish Jews during the reigns of Boleslas the Pious and Casimir the Great. The policy of unifying the two legal systems was at first partial and uneven, but it achieved lasting influence. In fact, at the time of the Union of Lublin in 1569, there would not be vast difference between the administrative and judicial systems in force in Lithuania and Poland.

Among the consequences of the new king's conversion was the increase of Catholic adherents in Lithuania at the expense of Orthodox elements; in 1387 and 1413, for example, Lithuanian Catholic boyars were granted special judicial and political privileges denied to their Orthodox counterparts. When this process passed the point of no return, the dualism and separation between Russia and Lithuania that would characterize the entire 15th century became even sharper in the religious sphere as well.

Ladislaus's baptism did not stop the raids ordered by Marienburg, as the Teutonic knights claimed that his conversion was insincere and continued their campaigns against the Lithuanian population, still pagan in their view. Ladislaus, for his part, spurred the creation of the Vilnius diocese under Bishop Andrzej Wasilko, formerly the confessor of Elizabeth of Hungary. From then on, however, the order encountered greater adversity in supporting the need to continue the crusade and had to live with the growing threat posed by the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The bishopric, which included Samogitia, then largely controlled by the Teutonic order, was subordinated to the see of Gniezno and not to that of the German Königsberg. The decision may not have improved Ladislaus's relations with the order, but it enabled closer ties between Lithuania and Poland, as it allowed the Polish church to assist its Lithuanian counterpart in its activities without restriction when needed.

With the coronation and union of Krewo, Ladislaus probably intended to firmly unite the kingdom of Poland and the grand duchy of Lithuania under his sovereignty, but discontent soon began to emerge within the grand ducal family and the Lithuanian nobility over an arrangement that seemed to benefit only Poland and to politically and culturally injure Lithuania's identity. Ladislaus appointed his brother Skirgaila as duke of Trakai to serve as regent in Lithuania on his behalf; however, Vitoldo, son of the previous lord of Trakai, Kęstutis, challenged Skirgaila, sparking a second civil conflict in order to claim the title of grand duke and greater independence from the crown. On September 4, 1390, the combined forces of Vitoldo and Teutonic Hochmeister Konrad von Wallenrode besieged Vilnius, which was guarded by Skirgaila with Polish, Lithuanian and Ruthenian troops. Although the knights lifted the siege of the castle after a month, much of the outer city was destroyed. The bloody conflict was finally halted temporarily in 1392 with the Treaty of Astrava, by which Ladislaus assigned the government of Lithuania to his cousin in exchange for peace: Vitold would rule Lithuania as grand duke (magnus dux) until his death, answering for his activities to the supreme duke (dux supremus), i.e., the Polish monarch. Skirgaila was instead indemnified with the title of prince of Kiev. Vitold at first accepted this arrangement, but soon began to pursue political avenues that would avoid Lithuania's subordination to Poland.

The long interlude of skirmishes between Lithuanians and Teutonic knights ended on October 12, 1398, with the Treaty of Salynas, named after the small island in the Neman River where it was sealed. Lithuania agreed to cede Samogitia and assist the Teutonic order in a campaign aimed at conquering Pskov, while Marienburg for its part agreed to assist Lithuania in a campaign to subdue Novgorod. Shortly thereafter, Vitoldo was crowned king by the local nobles; however, the following year his forces and those of his ally, Khan Toktamish of the White Horde, suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Timurids at the Battle of the Vorskla River, ending his imperial ambitions in the east and forcing him to submit once again to Ladislaus's rule.

King of Poland

On June 22, 1399, Hedwig gave birth to a baby girl, christened Elizabeth Bonifacia, who, however, passed away within a month, as did her mother. Many believed that the king had therefore forfeited his right to the crown with Hedwig's death, but there were no other known heirs to the ancient Polish monarchs-all potential competitors, previously in great numbers, were but distant relatives in Lesser Poland, and although Ladislaus had to face opposition from time to time, his political status was more or less always accepted de jure and de facto even by the newly emerging aristocracy, that of Greater Poland. In 1402, he sought to strengthen his position and rights by remarrying the Slovenian Anna of Cilli, niece of Casimir III of Poland.

The Union of Vilnius and Radom of 1401 reaffirmed Vitoldo's tenure as grand duke under Ladislaus's rule, but ensured the title of ruler of Lithuania for Ladislaus's heirs rather than Vitoldo's: if Ladislaus died without heirs, the Lithuanian boyars would have to elect a new monarch. Since neither cousin had any children yet, the implications of the pact were unpredictable: nevertheless, synergies were created between the Lithuanian and Polish nobility (szlachta) and a permanent defensive alliance between the two states, thus strengthening Lithuania's position in a further war that broke out against the Teutonic order, in which Poland officially did not participate. While the document left the freedoms of the szlachta intact, it granted greater specific weight to the boyars of Lithuania, whose grand dukes had hitherto been free of checks and balances as was the case in the west. The Union of Vilnius and Radom thus enabled Jogaila (still known that way in those parts) to gain new sympathizers in Lithuania.

Toward the end of 1401, the new war against the order squandered the resources of the Lithuanians, who found themselves fighting on two fronts after insurrections in the eastern provinces and Samogitia. Another of Ladislaus's brothers, the disgruntled Švitrigaila (he in fact aspired to the throne by virtue of an alleged promise made by his father Algirdas), exploited that moment to foment infighting and declare himself grand duke On January 31, 1402, he appeared in Marienburg in great secrecy, where he obtained the support of the knights with concessions similar to those made by Ladislaus and Vitoldo.

The war ended with the peace of Raciąż on May 22, 1404. Ladislaus agreed to the formal cession of Samogizia (vital for reaching into the borders with the Marian Land administered by the Knights of Livonia) and vowed to support the order's plans on Pskov; in return, Konrad von Jungingen pledged to cede to Poland the disputed Land of Dobrzyń and the city of Złotoryja, formerly pledged to the order by Ladislaus I of Opole, and to support Vitoldo in a further campaign in the direction of Novgorod. Both factions had practical reasons for signing the treaty in such a manner and in that window of time: the order needed time to fortify its newly acquired lands, the Poles and Lithuanians to deal with territorial challenges against Muscovy and in Silesia.

Also in 1404, Ladislaus held talks in Wroclaw with Wenceslas IV of Bohemia, who proved willing to return Silesia to Poland if the king would support him in his struggle for power within the Holy Roman Empire. Ladislaus rejected the agreement with the agreement of the Polish and Silesian nobles, not wanting to burden himself with new military commitments in the West.

In December 1408, Ladislaus and Vitoldo met for discussions in Navahrudak Castle, where they decided to foment a revolt in Samogitia against Teutonic rule to draw German forces away from Pomerelia. Ladislaus promised to reward his cousin for his support by returning Samogitia to Lithuania in the first useful peace treaty signed in the future. The revolt, which began in May 1409, at first provoked little reaction from Marienburg, which had not yet consolidated for good in Samogitia; however, in June its own diplomats undertook to lobby Ladislaus's court in Oborniki, warning his nobles of Polish involvement in a war between Lithuania and the order. Ladislaus, however, overruled his nobles and informed the new Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen that if the knights acted by using force Samogitia, Poland would intervene. This prompted the order to issue a declaration of war against Poland on August 6, received by Ladislaus on August 14 in Nowy Korczyn.

The castles guarding the northern border were in such bad shape that the knights managed without much effort to take Złotoryja, Dobrzyń, and Bobrowniki, the main center of the Land of Dobrzyń, while the German colonists invited the warriors to come to Bydgoszcz (German for Bromberg). Ladislaus arrived there at the end of September, recaptured Bydgoszcz within a week, and came to terms with the order on October 8. During the winter, the two armies prepared for a major confrontation: the king installed a strategic supply depot at Płock in Masovia and built a movable bridge to transport supplies along the Vistula River.

Meanwhile, both sides staged a complex diplomatic game. The knights sent letters to the monarchs of Europe, preaching their usual crusade against the pagans; Ladislaus, in his missives, accused the order of delusions of grandeur and that if this could, he would plan to conquer the whole world. Such appeals succeeded in recruiting many foreign knights to both sides. Wenceslas IV of Bohemia signed a defensive treaty with the Poles against Marienburg; his brother, Sigismund of Luxemburg, allied himself with the Teutonic and declared war on Poland on July 12, although his Hungarian vassals deserted his call to arms.

When the war resumed in June 1410, Ladislaus advanced into the heart of the monastic state at the head of an army of about 20,000 mounted nobles, 15,000 armed commoners and 2,000 professional knights hired mainly in Bohemia. After crossing the Vistula on the pontoon bridge at Czerwińsk, his troops met Vitoldo's troops, namely the 11,000 Lithuanian, Ruthenian and Tatar light cavalry. The Teutonic army numbered nearly 18,000 cavalry, mostly German, and 5,000 infantrymen. On July 15, at the Battle of Grunwald, one of the most decisive and decisive battles of the Late Middle Ages, the Allies won such an overwhelming victory that the forces of the Teutonic order were all but annihilated, with most of the key hostile commanders killed in combat, including Hochmeister Ulrich von Jungingen and Landmarschall Friedrich von Wallenrode. According to contemporary accounts, the men killed in the carnage far exceeded thousands in both contingents.

The road to the capital Marienburg was at that point paved; for reasons that the sources do not make clear, Ladislaus hesitated to proceed immediately. On July 17, his army began a strenuous advance, arriving at the gates of Marienburg only on the 25th of the same month, by which time the new Grand Master, Heinrich von Plauen, had already reorganized the fortress' defense. The apparent indifference of the ensuing siege, which Ladislaus cancelled on September 19, has been variously attributed to the impregnability of the fortifications, the high casualty figures among the Lithuanians, the king's unwillingness to risk further losses, or his desire to keep the order weakened but undefeated so that the balance of power between Poland (to which most likely would have been entitled to most of the order's possessions had it been totally defeated) and Lithuania would not be upset. In any case, the dearth of sources undermines any comprehensive explanation.

Hostilities ceased in 1411 with the first Treaty of Toruń, in which neither Poland nor Lithuania was able to exploit the considerable advantageous position they had assumed at the expense of the vanquished, much to the chagrin of Polish nobles. Poland regained the Land of Dobrzyń, Lithuania took back Samogizia, while Masovia got a small slice of land beyond the Wkra River. Most of the Teutonic Order territory, however, including the towns that had surrendered, remained outside the provisions of the treaty. Ladislaus subsequently proceeded to release many high-ranking Teutonic knights and officials for ransoms paid at all-too-modest sums. The total expenditure on ransoms, however, proved to be a serious jolt to the already fragile budget of the monastic state. Opposition from the szlachta was not long in coming after 1411, further fueled by the granting of Podolia, which had always been disputed between Poland and Lithuania, to Vitoldo, and by the absence of the king, who was stationed in Lithuania for two years.

In an attempt to circumvent the criticism, Ladislaus promoted the spokesman of his opponents, Bishop Mikołaj Trąba, to the archbishopric of Gniezno in the fall of 1411 and replaced him in Kraków with Wojciech Jastrzębiec, a Vitoldo supporter. In addition, he sought to attract more allies to himself in Lithuania: on this spirit, the Union of Horodło was signed on October 2, 1413, which decreed that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was "permanently and irreversibly linked to our Kingdom of Poland" and granted the Catholic nobles of Lithuania privileges equal to those of the Polish nobility. The act included a clause prohibiting the szlachta from electing a monarch without the consent of the Lithuanian nobles, and the latter from appointing a grand duke without consulting and receiving placet from the Polish monarch.

In 1414, a new intermittent conflict broke out, which went down in history as the "Hunger War": this was a clash in which the tactic of scorched earth of fields and mills found wide application; at any rate, both the Teutonic and Lithuanian appeared too exhausted from the previous war to risk a major battle, and fighting ceased in the autumn. Hostilities remained dormant until 1419, during the Council of Constance, when the papal legate insisted.

The council proved to be a turning point in the Teutonic Crusades, as in other European conflicts. Vitold sent a delegation in 1415, including the Metropolitan of Kiev and Samogite witnesses; they arrived in Constance at the end of that year, stating that they preferred "a baptism with water rather than with blood." Polish envoys, including Mikołaj Trąba, Zawisza Czarny and Paweł Włodkowic, lobbied to end the forced conversion of pagans and the order's incursions into Eastern Europe. Following the intervention of the Polish-Lithuanian delegation, the council, although shaken by Włodkowic's sermon in which he questioned the audience about the very legitimacy of the existence of the monastic state, rejected the order's request for a further crusade and instead entrusted the conversion of the Samogites to the clergy of the Grand Duchy.

The sociopolitical context in which the meeting in Constance took place also revolted the Bohemian Hussites, who considered Poland an ally in their wars against Sigismund, the emperor-elect and new king of Bohemia. In 1421, the Bohemian Diet declared Sigismund deposed and formally offered the crown to Ladislas on condition that he accept the religious principles of the Four Articles of Prague, which he was unwilling to do. After his refusal, Vitold was postulated (i.e., elected in absentia) as Bohemian king, but he assured John XXIII of his non-adherence to heretical beliefs. Between 1422 and 1428, Ladislaus' nephew Zygmund Korybut attempted to establish himself in Bohemia, torn by intestine devastation, without reporting success.

In 1422, Ladislaus engaged in another conflict, the so-called Gollub War, against the Teutonic order, defeating it in less than two months before imperial reinforcements could arrive from Marienburg. The resulting Treaty of Melno put an end once and for all to the Teutonic claims to Samogitia and defined a permanent demarcation between Prussia and Lithuania, as well as sealing the irreversible crisis to which the monastic state was gradually heading. Lithuania was assigned the province of Samogizia, including the port of Palanga, but the city of Klaipėda remained with the Germans. This border remained largely unchanged for about 500 years, until 1920. The terms of this agreement, however, were perceived more as a defeat than a victory, especially as a result of Ladislaus renouncing Polish claims to Pomerania, Pomerelia and the Land of Chełmno, instead receiving only the town of Nieszawa in return. The Treaty of Melno closed the chapter of the Knights' struggles with Lithuania, but it did not take decisive steps toward a long-term settlement of the disputes with Poland. Further sporadic unrest broke out between Poland and the knights between 1431 and 1435.

Relations between Lithuania and Poland reached a new crisis in 1429, when at the Congress of Luc'k Sigismund proposed elevating Vitoldo from grand duke to king of Lithuania. This was no small placet, viewed favorably in Lithuania since the country could look forward to greater autonomy within the kingdom; on the other hand, the szlachta, which feared losing its newly acquired influence over Vilnius, was of a different opinion. Vitold accepted the crown's offer, but Polish forces intercepted the transport at the Polish-Lithuanian border, and the situation plunged into a political and diplomatic stalemate. Ladislaus' position on the issue has never been fully clarified: however, it seems that personally the ruler was not averse to Vitoldo's coronation and indeed had even given his approval, but apparently he did not dare to act in open opposition to the Polish nobility while trying to mediate between the parties. In any case after months of intense negotiations the coronation did not materialize, and Vitoldo died shortly thereafter in 1930.

With the death of his cousin, Ladislaus was free to exercise his claim to the Lithuanian succession, supporting his brother Švitrigaila as the new grand duke. Within two years, however, Švitrigaila rebelled and, bolstered by the support of the Teutonic order and dissatisfied nobles from the old Kievan Rus, sought to free himself from Polish rule and rule as an independent grand duke in Lithuania. The Poles, under the leadership of Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki, occupied Podolia, assigned by Ladislaus to Lithuania in 1411, and Volinia. Pushed by the pro-Polish fringe of the Lithuanian nobility, Ladislaus was forced to appoint Sigismund, Vitoldo's brother, as grand duke, an event that led to an armed struggle for the Lithuanian succession that persisted years after Ladislaus's death.

Succession and death

At the request of the dying Hedwig, who gave Ladislaus no heir, the king married a Styrian noblewoman, Anna of Celje. This passed away in 1416, leaving a daughter, Hedwig. In 1417, Ladislaus married Elizabeth Granowska, who died in 1420 without bearing him a child, and two years later, Sophia of Halshany (granddaughter of Uliana Olshanska, Vitoldo's second wife), by whom two children were born. The death in 1431 of the young Hedwig, the last heir of Piast blood, gave Ladislaus the right to make the children he had from Sophia of Halshany his heirs, although this action was allowed him only after he had given the Polish nobles new privileges to secure their support, specifically the right to a fair judicial trial in the event of an accusation of any crime forwarded to a member of the szlachta, since formally the monarchy remained elective in nature.

During a hunting trip in the Land of Przemyśl in the 48th year of his reign, Ladislaus fell ill (the sources mention a particular cold) and was unable to recover. Eventually, he passed away in Grodek in 1434, and was buried in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow. His death brought an immediate end to the personal union between Poland and Lithuania, with the former passing to his eldest son, Ladislaus III, and the latter to his younger son, Casimir, both still minors at the time.

As the reigning monarch over two states and several ethnic groups, Ladislaus is known under a variety of names, designations, and titles. In Lithuania he was called by his birth name Jogaila (in Lithuanian Jogaila Algirdaitis). Jogaila inherited the rank of grand duke of Lithuania, a role that placed him above all other local nobles and dukes as the country's supreme ruler. In this capacity he obtained a mixed set of titles, as recorded in several Catholic documents of the time: furst, herczog, rex and dux, preceded by the adjectives gross, obirster, supremus and magnus. In his homeland the most commonly used title was didysis kunigaikštis (from kunigaikštis, a term that finds some affinity with the Germanic variant könig, while didysis imparted an even nobler tone), translatable as grand duke or grand prince. In the territories of Ruthenia, inhabited by Slavic and non-Lithuanian ethnic groups, and in surrounding countries such as Moldavia, subjects and rulers used to call him hospodar instead. In Belarusian he was called Ягайла (Jahajła).

After his baptism and marriage to Hedwig in 1386, he took the name Ladislaus II Jagellon (in Polish Władysław II Jagiełło, in Latin Wladislaus or Ladislaus). The union earned him jure uxoris the title of king of Poland, which he retained following Hedwig's death. With his election to the Polish throne Ladislaus intended to combine in his figure the roles of king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, but this triggered revolts by the Lithuanian dukes. In 1392, with the Treaty of Astrava, Ladislaus then granted his cousin Vitoldo the title of grand duke (magnus dux), who was to act in his name and under his supremacy, coining for himself the superior title of supreme duke (dux supremus).

His royal title in Latin was Wladislaus Dei gracia rex Polonie necnon terrarum Cracovie, Sandomirie, Syradie, Lancicie, Cuiavie, Lithuanie princeps supremus, Pomoranie Russieque dominus et heres etc. (Italian for "Ladislaus by the grace of God king of Poland and the lands of Cracow, Sandomierz, Sieradz, Łęczyca, Cuiavia, supreme prince of Lithuania, lord and heir of Pomerania and Ruthenia, etc.").

Jogaila belonged to the Lithuanian Gediminid family. After ascending the Polish throne as Ladislaus II Jagellon gave rise to the Jagellon dynasty. The following is the ruler's family tree with his closest ancestors and descendants. For each member, birth and death dates are given where known. The date of marriage is indicated with.

Brothers

Half-brothers:

Brothers:

Sisters:

Spouses and children

Ladislaus married Hedwig of Poland (Jadwiga, 1374-1399) in 1386, by whom he had an only daughter, Elzbieta-Bonifacja (born and died an infant in 1399).

In 1402 he remarried Anna of Cilli (1386-1416), a Slovenian noblewoman, niece of Casimir III of Poland, and whose mother, Anna Countess of Cilli, had died in 1425 without male heirs. Out of the marriage was born a daughter, Hedwig (Jadwiga, 1408-1431), who was betrothed to Frederick II of Brandenburg but died before she married him, possibly poisoned by her stepmother Sophie.

His third wife was Elizabeth of Pilica (Elżbieta Granowska z Pileckich, 1372-1420) by whom he had no children.

His fourth wife was Sophia of Halshany (1405-1462), a noblewoman from Lithuania. Although Ladislaus was in his seventies by then, Sophia bore him three sons: Ladislaus III Jagellon (and Casimir IV of Poland (1427-1492), Grand Duke of Lithuania (1440-1492), King of Poland (1447-1492). According to some gossips, who questioned Ladislaus' ability to conceive children at such an advanced age, she had extramarital affairs with such lovers as Hińcza of Rogów, Piotr Kurowski, Wawrzyniec Zaręba, Jan Kraska, Jan Koniecpolski, and brothers Piotr and Dobiesław of Szczekociny. The case was presented before a court and Sofia was sworn and found innocent.

Significant events happened during Ladislaus' lifetime: the baptism of Lithuania, the Teutonic setback, and the establishment of a new and lasting dynasty.

Ladislaus united Lithuania and Poland during his reign under one crown, laying the foundation for the centuries-old Polish-Lithuanian union. Indeed, he was the progenitor of the Jagellon dynasty, a lineage that ruled both states until 1572, becoming one of the most influential in late medieval and early modern Europe. The continuation of the cooperative relationship between the two states initiated by Ladislaus culminated in the Union of Lublin in 1569 in which, though not de jure and though preserving various separate institutions, Lithuania merged with Poland, forming a leading power in Eastern Europe.

Upon his union with Hedwig, Ladislaus embraced the Catholic faith, which was followed by a conversion of the court, nobles, and the entire Lithuanian population. This event marked the final step for Lithuania, the last country in Europe still faithful to the atavistic religions, in the long process of Christianization, and had great historical repercussions, bringing the country culturally closer to the Western states and distancing it from the sphere of influence of the Russian principalities of the Orthodox faith.

Ladislaus II Jagiellon was concerned with making Lithuania and Poland flourish commercially and culturally. The influence and position of German merchants was felt most strongly in the late 1300s and early 1400s, especially those from the great center of Riga. The main routes taken by the merchants led from Polack to Masovia, from Galicia to Prussia, and from Livonia to present-day Belarus. Several towns had sprung up on these very routes, which often followed the course of rivers. Even the Teutonic knights ended up wishing that some of these settlements would not be affected by conflicts (the so-called vredewegs, the roads of peace). Proceeds from the sale of food, horses and wax turned out to be crucial in financing the war campaigns in Lithuania. Through the Italian Black Sea colonies, Poland also entered into closer trade relations with Italian states and merchants, who in fairly large numbers began to flow into Poland.

The ruler also championed intense artistic and scientific promotion. For Polish civilization, the renovation of the University of Krakow, initiated by Hedwig and continued after his death by Ladislaus himself, had an enormous impact, so much so that the institution is still dedicated to him today under the name Jagiellonian University. Ladislaus's openness to exchanges and influences with the Western European powers proved fundamental in the cultural, scientific and artistic spheres and culminated after his reign in the so-called Polish Golden Age: in fact, thanks to the marriage of Sigismund I Jagellon, Ladislaus's grandson, to Bona Sforza in 1518, a duchess linked to the important Milanese household, various intellectuals arrived from the peninsula and spread the canons of Humanism and the Renaissance in the kingdom.

Innumerable conflicts kept him busy for almost the entire course of his life, first in Lithuania at a young age against his cousin and then when he came to Krakow against enemies located beyond national borders. In terms of foreign policy, Ladislaus failed to deal the final blow to the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, although he theoretically had the chance to do so, but he hastened its decline while at the same time bringing out the power of the Polish state. The reversal of forces is evidenced by the fact that about a century later Albert I of Prussia (1490-1568) agreed to perform a celebrated homage to the ruler of the time, Sigismund I, in order to preserve the Duchy of Prussia for himself and his heirs in a vassalage relationship with Krakow. The battle of Grunwald in 1410 had a great impact in later times and especially in the twentieth century, so much so that a famous film entitled The Teutonic Knights was made in 1960, which re-enacted the events that took place and was a milestone in cinematic history in Poland. In the film, which was indeed influenced by Soviet propaganda that tended to portray the clash as a struggle between the Slavs and the everlasting German enemy, Ladislaus is presented as a confident and strong ruler, especially in the episode of the two swords that today, by the way, constitute the symbol of the Grunwald municipality.

Historiography has conveyed the image of Ladislaus as a controversial figure. Contemporary observers in Poland, such as Jan Długosz or Zbigniew Oleśnicki, provided a critical judgment of him in that for them he was a foreign ruler, considered tyrannical, crude and barbaric, and once pagan; nevertheless, the ruler proved respectful of Polish traditions and endeared himself to the nobility with concessions and privileges, so much so that at the end of his reign even his most critical opponents could only admire his honesty in the service of the kingdom, his Christian virtues, his control, and his piety. More recent Polish and Western historiography tends almost unanimously to incense him.

Such an attitude is not traced in the Lithuanian one, where Jogaila is usually branded as a traitor and an alien and ambiguous character. This picture was formed mainly in the course of the Lithuanian nationalist consciousness-raising of the 19th century, which was highly critical of the union with Poland promoted by the ruler that would have harmed Lithuania nationally, politically and culturally. His figure is often put in opposition to that of his cousin Vitoldo, who ruled Lithuania as Grand Duke and tried to safeguard its independence, and who is hailed by historical nationalism as "Vitoldo the Great." Russian historians of the 19th century, as a rule, also tended to regard Ladislas as a man of low intelligence and weak character. Perhaps such a description is due to the consideration that Ladislaus had to constantly live with the oppressive presence of the szlachta, which would, among other things, acquire more and more rights until the birth of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation in which the power of the aristocrats became such that the monarchy was transformed from dynastic to elective and the sphere of influence of the rulers was greatly limited.

Contemporary historiography tends to provide a more varied and articulate assessment of Ladislaus, one that eschews biased and stereotypical readings. Although he is one of the best-known rulers of his era, historians say that in order to give a complete picture of his reign and life much still remains to be studied and explored. The ruler's relationship with Lithuania is one of the most debated aspects and for which he is criticized. Today it is ascertained that Jogaila accepted the title of king of Poland with the approval of all his relatives and advisers, including Skirgaila and Vitoldo, who like him initially thought they would gain from it. Even after ascending the throne, Jogaila remained very attached to his homeland and roots, so much so that he never learned Polish fluently and expressed himself in Lithuanian to Vitoldo and the subjects of the Grand Duchy. His continued presence and interest in Lithuanian affairs, moreover, brought him harsh criticism in Poland, with Długosz accusing him of loving his homeland and putting his own good before that of the kingdom.

Regardless of the judgment reserved for the ruler, Ladislaus is considered an important historical figure, instrumental in the history of Lithuania and Poland, and, together with Vitoldo, the most illustrious ruler of Eastern Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Sources

1. Władysław II Jagiełło
2. Ladislao II Jagellone
3. ^ a b c d Il numero esatto di figli avuti da Ladislao con Sofia è una vexata quaestio in storiografia. Mentre taluni escludono l'esistenza di un secondo figlio morto giovane,[6][80] la maggior parte degli studiosi ritiene che Ladislao e Sofia ebbero un figlio nel 1426, di nome Casimiro, morto già nel 1427 per cause incerte: questo spiegherebbe perché si registra nello stesso anno la nascita di un altro bambino con il medesimo nome.[81][82][83]
4. ^ Ladislao non fu il primo sovrano cristiano della Lituania. Si rintracciano infatti due casi nel XIII secolo, Vaišvilkas (figlio del primo sovrano in assoluto del Paese baltico, Mindaugas), e il suo successore Švarnas. Quando il regno di quest'ultimo cessò nel 1269, per circa centoventi anni la Lituania rimase uno stato pagano. Tuttavia, a Ladislao spetta comunque il primato di primo granduca cattolico, mentre i due sopraccitati erano di fede ortodossa.[2][3]
5. ^ Lo storico John Meyendorff suggerisce che Jogaila fosse già un cristiano ortodosso: "Nel 1377 Olgierd [Algirdas per i lituani] morì, lasciando il Gran Principato a suo figlio Jagiello, un cristiano ortodosso..."[18] Demetrio, tuttavia, stabilì come condizione del matrimonio che Jogaila "abbracciasse il credo ortodosso e che diffondesse il cristianesimo a tutti i suoi sudditi".[19]
6. ^ He is known under a number of names: Lithuanian: Jogaila Algirdaitis; Polish: Władysław II Jagiełło; Belarusian: Jahajła (Ягайла). See also: Names and titles of Władysław II Jagiełło.
7. ^ Anna Jagiellon, the last member of royal Jagiellon family, died in 1596.
8. ^ Some historians have called this system a diarchy (Sruogienė-Sruoga 1987; Deveike 1950). However, Rowell suggests that the nature of this dual rule "...reflects political expediency; it certainly does not meet the formal definition of diarchy as 'rule by two independent authorities'...those two leaders were not equal: the grand duke in Vilnius was supreme" (Rowell 1994, p. 68).
9. ^ The historian John Meyendorff suggests Jogaila may have already been an Orthodox Christian: "In 1377, Olgerd of Lithuania died, leaving the Grand Principality to his son Jagiello, an Orthodox Christian..." (Meyendorff 1989, p. 205). Dmitri, however, made it a condition of the marriage that Jogaila "should be baptized in the Orthodox faith and that he should proclaim his Christianity to all men" (Dvornik 1992, p. 221).
10. ^ Jadwiga had actually been crowned king of Poland (rex poloni), because the Polish political system made no provision for a queen regnant (Stone 2001, p. 8).
11. Κάποιοι ιστορικοί έχουν αποκαλέσει αυτό το σύστημα διαρχία (Sruogienė-Sruoga 1987; Deveike 1950). Όμως, ο Ρόουελ αναφέρει ότι σε αντίθεση με τον επίσημο ορισμό της διαρχίας, οι δύο ηγέτες δεν ήταν ίσοι, με τον μέγα δούκα στο Βίλνιους να είναι ανώτερος (Rowell 1994, σελ. 68).
12. Ο ιστορικός Τζον Μέγειντορφ αναφέρει ότι ο Γιογκάιλα ίσως ήταν ήδη ορθόδοξος «Το 1377, ο Όλγκερντ της Λιθουανίας πέθανε, αφήνοντας το μεγάλο πριγκιπάτο στο γιο του Γιαγκέλο, έναν ορθόδοξο χριστιανό...» (Meyendorff 1989, σελ. 205). Ο Ντμίτρι, όμως, είχε ως όρο για το γάμο ο Γιογκάιλα να βαπτιστεί ορθόδοξος (Dvornik 1992, σελ. 221).
13. Ana Jagellón, la última del linaje homónimo, falleció en 1596.