Casimir IV Jagiellon

gigatos | June 2, 2022

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Summary

Casimir IV Andrew Jagiellon (born November 30, 1427 in Cracow, died June 7, 1492 in Grodno), Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 to 1492, King of Poland from 1447 to 1492. One of the most active Polish rulers, during whose reign the Crown, having defeated the Teutonic Order in the Thirteen Years” War, regained Gdansk Pomerania after 158 years, and the Jagiellonian dynasty became one of the leading ruling houses in Europe. A firm opponent of the magnates, he strengthened the importance of the Sejm and the Sejmiks, which weakened the position of the bourgeoisie.

Kazimierz Andrew Jagiellon was born on November 30, 1427. He was the youngest, third son of Ladislaus Jagiellon and his fourth wife, Sophia Holshanska, daughter of Prince Andrew Holshansky. At the time of his son”s birth, Władysław Jagiełło was 76 years old. His wife, younger than the king by 48 years, was suspected of treason. Only a solemn oath that she was innocent cleared her of the charges.

Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk was baptized on December 21, 1427. The name he inherited from his older brother Casimir, who was born and died in 1426. For the birthday of the future king, Bishop Stanislaw Ciolek composed a panegyric counter-acture Hystorigraphi aciem mentis to a piece by Mikolaj from Radom, praising, in addition to the newborn Casimir, also the royal couple. The prince was brought up under the watchful eye of his mother and guardians, mainly the sub-chancellor Wincenty Kot, and the knight Piotr from Rytro. He knew Polish and Ruthenian, and he exercised physical fitness. He loved hunting, so in later years he often went on hunting trips to the Lithuanian forests. As a king he often hunted aurochs in Grodzka Forest and Bielska Forest, which remains are now included in Bialowieza Forest.

After the death of Ladislaus Jagiello in 1434, Casimir”s older brother Ladislaus, 10 years old, ascended the Polish throne. The deceased king”s under-age sons were looked after by the bishop of Cracow, Zbigniew Oleśnicki, who was averse to the younger Casimir and exercised actual power in the kingdom during the years of the king”s youth. The lords of Great Poland, the queen dowager Zofia Holszańska, Jan Szafraniec and Spytko III of Melsztyn, constituted a counterbalance to Olesnicki”s position.

Following the death in 1437 of Sigismund Luxemburg, emperor and king of Bohemia and Hungary, Bishop Olesnicki, who ruled the Kingdom of Poland as regent, began negotiations with Albrecht II Habsburg to secure the succession to Hungary for the 13-year-old king Wladyslaw Warneńczyk. At that time, the pro-Hussite Bohemian opposition, which did not want Albrecht to take over Bohemia, proposed to Olesnicki that Wladyslaw Warneńczyk should succeed to the Bohemian throne. Bishop Olesnicki, hostile to the Hussite movement, refused, which led to a confrontation with the opposition concentrated around Queen Sophia Holshanska, who was fighting Olesnicki. In view of this, in April 1438 a part of the Czech state (mainly the Utraquists) led by Archbishop Jan of Rokycany held an election in Kutná Hora and elected the 11-year-old Casimir Jagiellon as king. These moves were in line with the plans of the court circles led by Queen Sophia, Jan Szafraniec and Spytek of Melsztyn, but they were opposed by Bishop Oleśnicki, who fought the Czech and Polish Hussites. Kazimierz”s rival to the Czech throne, Albrecht Habsburg, supported by Saxon and Hungarian troops, entered Prague in June and was the first to crown himself king. A 5,000-strong corps of the Polish army under the command of Sędziwoj Ostroróg and Jan Tęczyński, as well as Casimir”s Czech allies, operating in Bohemia, did not have enough strength to drive the more numerous Habsburg army out of Bohemia and had to retreat to the town of Tabor. In autumn the Habsburg managed to gain an advantage thanks to the victory over the Hussites in the Battle of Zelenice and this situation was not changed by the occupation and temporary subjugation of the principalities of Opole, Racibórz and Opawa by Ladislaus of Varna and Casimir Jagiellon. Additionally, the bishop Oleśnicki”s party neutralized the influence of the queen”s court when, in May 1439, the Polish pro-Hussite party allied with it lost in the battle of Grotniki, during which Spytko of Melsztyn was killed, after forming the Korczyna confederation. As a result, the court party had to give up its plans to gain the crown of Bohemia for Casimir Jagiellon.

Also read, biographies – Willem Barentsz

Assumption of the Grand-Ducal Throne

On March 20, 1440, Grand Duke Zygmunt Kiejstutowicz of Lithuania was killed by conspirators, which caused unrest in the Lithuanian state. The throne was claimed by the son of Zygmunt Kiejstutowicz, Michał Bolesław Zygmuntowicz, known as Michajłuszka, and Świdrygiełło Olgierdowicz, the youngest brother of Władysław Jagiełło, supported by a part of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian nobility. The assumption of the grand ducal throne by one of these pretenders threatened to break the union of Lithuania and Poland. The third camp, which favoured the preservation of the Polish-Lithuanian union and included influential magnates, such as Bishop of Vilnius Matijai of Trakai, Duke George of Holshany and Jan Gasztold, who led the party, supported the brother of Ladislaus III, Casimir. This candidacy was also supported by Polish lords headed by Olesnica, who strove to preserve the political and territorial division of Lithuania and later to incorporate some of its parts, such as Volhynia, Podolia and Podlasie, into the Crown. In the first stage of the realization of Olesnica”s plans the Mazovian dukes, Michaluszko”s supporters, Casimir and Boleslaw, were to help. Their goal was to take Podlasie from Lithuania and incorporate it into Masovia. The issue of Podlasie was settled only in 1444.

The twelve-year-old Casimir, appointed governor, arrived in Vilnius in May 1440, accompanied by the castellan of Cracow, Jan of Czyżów, and the protector Pavel Chelmski. Taking advantage of Ladislaus III”s absence in Poland (he had gone to Hungary to take the throne), the Lithuanian boyars, wishing to break away from Poland, proclaimed Casimir the Grand Duke of Lithuania at Vilnius Cathedral on June 29, 1440. The Polish-Lithuanian union was thus broken. Since Casimir”s election as Grand Duke without the consent of the Polish king and the Sejm was tantamount to breaking the agreements with Poland made by Zygmunt Kiejstutowicz, some historians refer to Casimir”s rise to power as a coup d”état.

The rule of Lithuania in 1440-1444

Casimir IV Jagiellon ruled Lithuania as Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 to 1492. Taking advantage of Casimir”s minority (he arrived in Lithuania at the age of 12), the Lithuanian nobility seized power in Lithuania by appointing members of several families to the most important offices: Kėgai, Gasztold, and Radziwill. Gradually, however, the young prince freed himself from the influence of his advisor Jan Gasztold, who had gained a high position in the state and was looking for allies among the families hostile to the prince in order to seize power in Lithuania.

In 1440-1441 Jagiellon tamed a revolt of the common people (the so-called “black people”) in Smolensk and appointed Andrew Sakovich governor of Smolensk. At the beginning of his reign, the prince recognized the administrative and judicial autonomy of Samogitia, which had shown separatist tendencies under the leadership of Dowmont, a supporter of Mikhailushka. By virtue of the Jagiellonian”s decision Samogitia was to be treated equally with Vilnius and Trakai provinces.

After 1440 Poland and Lithuania laid claim to Podlasie. In 1444 Jagiellonian settled a dispute between Lithuania and Mazovia over the land of Drohiczyn in Podlasie. He bought the rights to this land from Prince Boleslaw IV of Mazovia for 6 thousand kopecks, thus preventing a war with Poland, which could have broken out under the pretext of defending the rights of subordinate Mazovia. Thanks to his success in this dispute, Casimir”s authority among the Lithuanian nobility grew.

Under Jagiellon the Grand Duchy of Lithuania reached from the Baltic Sea to the Dnieper Limanets on the Black Sea and from Podlasie to the upper Volga. In 1444-1445 the duke gave armed support to Novgorod the Great in the war with the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order. No longer afraid of the Teutonic Knights, the Lithuanians interfered in the civil wars in the Muscovite state. In 1444 Casimir started a war with Moscow over the lands on the Vyazma River. The conflict with Moscow was not settled until 1448, when Casimir was already king of Poland.

Also read, history – Sack of Rome (1527)

The Lithuanian question during the interregnum in Poland of 1444-1447

For four years the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland had no contact with each other. The situation changed after the death of the Polish king, Casimir”s brother Wladyslaw III, on November 10, 1444, in the Battle of Varna. The nobles of the Crown called a convention in Sieradz, where in April 1445 it was decided that Casimir IV Jagiellon should be the new king. It was hoped that the prince would be willing to accept the throne, confirm and extend the privileges of the nobility, and make Lithuania subject to Poland. A delegation was sent to Vilnius, including Mikołaj Czarnocki, Piotr Oporowski, Piotr Szamotulski and Piotr Chrząstowski.

Casimir”s goal was to be crowned king of Poland while retaining grand ducal power in Lithuania and to strengthen his position as ruler vis-à-vis the Polish magnates and to maintain the independent status of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, thus rejecting the Grodno Union of 1432. Therefore Casimir delayed his arrival in the Crown under the pretext of waiting for the return of King Wladyslaw, who, according to false rumors coming from Hungary, had survived the pogrom at the Battle of Varna.

Bishop Oleśnicki”s party tried several times to put pressure on Jagiellonian. The bishop of Cracow strove to install a prince dependent on the Crown in Lithuania, which would result in deepening territorial and political disintegration of the neighbor and imposing the supremacy of the Crown on him. The candidate for the Grand Duke of Lithuania, supported by Oleśnicki, was Michajłuszka, who was hiding in Mazovia at that time. To prevent Michajłuszko from coming to Lithuania, Casimir made an agreement with Grand Master Konrad von Erlichshausen. When the Jagiellonian was still delaying his arrival to the Crown, the Olesnicki party put forward other candidates for the Polish throne – Frederick Hohenzollern, Margrave of Brandenburg, and Boleslaus IV of Mazovia, who was even conditionally elected king of Poland on 30 March 1445.

For the next two years a compromise could not be worked out, and the turmoil of interregnum in the Crown prolonged. The breakthrough came thanks to Queen Sophia, who supported a general convention of the Lesser Poland nobility organized by Jan of Pilcza and Piotr Kurowski at the castle in Belzyce. On April 24, 1446, the convention”s participants proclaimed Casimir Jagiellon, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and Władysław Jagiełło”s son, king of Poland, and sent Piotr Kurowski, their deputy to Lithuania: On September 17, 1446, he issued a document that no longer mentioned Lithuania”s subordinate status to the Crown. The Crown and Lithuania were to be two equal state organisms, and the Polish and Lithuanian nobility were to be equal. On May 2, 1447, he issued a privilege in Vilnius that guaranteed the inviolability of Lithuania”s territory. He ensured that all offices in the Grand Duchy would be filled by Lithuanians, and reserved the right to return to Lithuania if necessary:

Also read, biographies – Fernand Léger

Personal Union of Lithuania and Poland (1447-1492)

With the accession of Casimir Jagiellon to the Polish throne in 1447 the Polish-Lithuanian union was resumed, but it was only a personal (political) union and not, as before 1440, an institutional one. The privilege adopted in 1447 was applied after the death of the Volhynian prince Świdrygiełło in 1452. Under the document, Polish lords could not lay claim to Volhynia and Eastern Podolia. The Ruthenian Bohemia opted to join Lithuania. In 1448, 1451 and 1453 the Polish-Lithuanian conventions were held, during which the Polish nobility tried to convince the Lithuanian boyars of the need for union. The conventions referred to the legacy of Jogaila, according to which Poland had supreme rights over Lithuania. Further talks were hindered by the Thirteen Years” War.

In 1448 Casimir IV Jagiellonian normalized Lithuania”s relations with Moscow, with which since 1444 Lithuania had been at war over the Vyazma river. To end the conflict, he tried to install his own candidate, Prince of Madziai, on the throne of Moscow and sought the military support of the Polish nobility. These actions, however, did not meet with approval of the Polish lords, so Jagiellon was forced to make peace with prince Wasyl II the Blind. In practice, the Moscow Orthodox Church became autocephalous, which was equivalent to Moscow”s rejection of the Florentine Union.

In 1449 Michajłuszka rebelled, aiming to seize the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was supported by the bishop of Cracow, Oleśnicki, and the Tatars. After a victorious expedition against Michal Zygmuntowicz, Casimir punished the rebel by banishment (also the assassin of Zygmunt Kiejstutowicz, Ivan Czartoryski, was exiled along with him). Michajłuszka went to the Tartars and from there to Moscow, where he was poisoned. Casimir deprived all of Mikhailushka”s former supporters of their Lithuanian posts, and stripped the Olelkovichs of the title of Kiev dukes, appointing Olelko Vladimirovich as their governor in Kiev. In 1471 he established the office of Kiev voivode.

In the middle of the 15th century, the Chernihiv and Severovsk lands and the Verkhovsk principality were loosely connected with the Lithuanian state. Petty dukes ruled in Kobrin, Pinsk, Turow, Horodok; the Olelkovich family ruled in Slutsk. Podolia, Volhynia, and the lands of Polotsk, Vitebsk, and Kiev had separate laws from other Lithuanian lands. The Ruthenian and Lithuanian clergy were interested in obtaining privileges from Casimir IV Jagiellon and preserving state unity. The aspirations of the magnates to centralize the Grand Duchy of Lithuania resulted in the formation of a central clerical apparatus. After he ascended the Polish throne, Casimir established a Grand Ducal Council in Lithuania to govern Lithuania in his absence. The council consisted of the bishops of Vilnius and Samogitia, government officials, and selected land and court officials. From the middle of the 15th century, the office of chancellor emerged. The task of the dignitary was to take care of the chancellery of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and take charge of external policy. Moreover, the offices of land treasurer emerged, whose duty was to take care of the prince”s treasury, and court treasurer. Land and court marshals were in charge of the judiciary and the envoys. From the old regional assemblies a General Sejm was formed. In principle, it was supposed to represent the will of the Lithuanian and Ruthenian peasants in matters of taxes and foreign policy, but in practice it became a political tool in the hands of the magnates.

The centralization of Lithuania required legal codification (until then individual lands had their own laws, granted by privileges). Casimir”s privilege of 1447 confirmed the principle neminem captivabimus nisi iure victum (we shall not imprison anyone without a court sentence), introduced in 1434 by Ladislaus Jagiello. The privileges were extended to the boyars of Lithuania: taxation of boyar estates for the benefit of the state was abolished (except in the case of the sitting-in-state or hospitality and the construction and repair of castles). By virtue of the privilege the boyars were given jurisdiction over the population in their lands. However, they were forbidden to accept fugitive subjects on their estates. The granting of the privilege in 1447 initiated the development of the nobility in Lithuania. In 1468 Casimir IV Jagiellonian issued the Sudiebnik, consisting of 25 articles, but it concerned only theft cases.

During the reign of Casimir, the noble stratum enjoyed a common privilege; nevertheless, in the second half of the 15th century it became differentiated. The lowest in the hierarchy were “zdymnicy” vel “podymnicy”, who did not have landed estates. The second, the most numerous, was the local gentry (living in koly, the neighborhood) vel parochial, homestead gentry. They usually had up to a dozen peasants, but had to work the land themselves in order to make a living. The next layer was the middle-wealthy nobility, which had up to several dozen serfs. At the top of the hierarchical ladder was the least numerous group of lords and dukes. In Lithuania there were several dozen of them in the 15th century.

In the second half of the 15th century, Casimir Jagiellonian devoted his attention mainly to western politics, which resulted in Lithuania losing control over many lands in the east, seized by the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Ottoman Empire.

Economy of Lithuania

During the reign of Casimir IV Jagiellon, Lithuania experienced economic development. The expansion of settlements in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania continued: Samogitians settled in the north-east of the territory which had been abandoned after the wars between Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights; Russians came from the south; and Masurians arrived from the west. It is estimated that in the middle of the 15th century Lithuania had half a million inhabitants. Cities, which were mostly agricultural in character, developed. Trade relations were established with neighboring countries, where grain, furs, leather, tar, wood, ash and wax were exported. Crafts and tools (scythes, sickles, axes, knives, cloth) and wine were imported to Lithuania. Internal trade focused on the exchange of agricultural products. In Kaunas, on behalf of Gdansk merchants, there was a Hanseatic cantor which purchased wax. In Vilnius, a separate street was set aside for German merchants. As a result of the demand for grain in Western Europe, one of the goods exported by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th century, a manor economy developed.

Lithuania had not minted its own coins since the times of Vytautas. The Czech penny was used when necessary. The development of trade necessitated the transition to a commodity-money economy. In 1490 a grand ducal mint was established in Vilnius, which minted Lithuanian half-pennies and “pieniazi” (denarii).

On June 25, 1447 Kazimierz was crowned king of Poland in Wawel Cathedral by the archbishop of Gniezno and Polish Primate Wincenty Kot. From that time (with a break in the years 1492-1501, when the union was practically broken) until the Union of Lublin concluded in 1569 there was a personal union between the two states.

The first years of his reign were very difficult for Jagiellon. Several times between 1448 and 1449, the king refused to grant privileges to the magnates, and from the beginning of his reign he found himself in sharp conflict with this camp. The most powerful opponent of the new ruler was the previously omnipotent bishop of Cracow, Zbigniew Oleśnicki. He established contacts with the Lithuanian opposition led by Prince Michał Bolesław Zygmuntowicz. At the time when Casimir was busy suppressing the rebellion of Michailuszko in Lithuania, Olesnicki became a cardinal and, as the papal legate in Poland, did not intend to go to Rome. In 1443 he bought the Duchy of Siewierz for the bishopric of Cracow. Oleśnicki urged the gentry to disobey the king, proclaiming that the king had taken great treasures and supplies of weapons from Poland to Lithuania in order to seize the Łuck land, which was one of the sources of Polish-Lithuanian discord and which, after Świdrygiełło”s death, was occupied by the Lithuanians.

To limit Olesnicki”s political influence in the state, Casimir IV made efforts to assert his control over the Church in Poland. The situation along the line of relations with the Holy See was favorable, as there were disputes in Rome between the two contenders for the Petrine throne between 1447 and 1449: Nicholas V and Felix V. In return for giving his support to Nicholas V, Casimir demanded the right to fill benefices and church posts with his own supporters. Nicholas V granted the Jagiellonian the privilege of staffing 20 church dignities and permission to collect 10 thousand ducats from the feast for the fight against the Tatars. In this dispute Oleśnicki supported antipope Felix V (for which he received a cardinal”s hat). In 1449 Nicholas defeated Felix, gained widespread recognition in the Church, and no longer needed Casimir; he reconciled with Olesnicki. However, the king did not intend to give up his earlier papal privileges, and continued to fill Polish bishoprics himself, for which he was cursed. He did not submit to papal policy, and the curse expired with the death of the pope. During the rest of his reign, Casimir was able to fill bishoprics with his own people without any problems, and successive popes, Pius II and Paul II, were content to approve royal candidates.

On Whitsun 1452 Kazimierz convened in Sandomierz his supporters and, at the same time, Oleśnicki”s opponents, such as bishop of Włocławek Jan Gruszczyński, Poznań governor Łukasz Górka, governor of Brzeg Dolny Mikołaj Szarlejski, and some lords of Kraków. The council was held for a week, and Oleśnicki”s supporters were not allowed in. The country was on the verge of civil war, but both sides tried to avoid it. At the request of the cardinal a meeting took place between him and the king. However, Oleśnicki only presented the king with a long list of accusations, most of them false. The conflict flared up again, and Oleśnicki and the governors of Cracow and Sandomierz stopped coming to the meetings of the royal council. The magnates” disputes with the king ceased only in 1455, when cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki died.

On June 24, 1453, at a convention of the Crown nobility in Piotrkow, where deputies of the Prussian Union came, Casimir resigned and confirmed the privileges of the nobility, but he probably did so only because he wanted to start a war with the Teutonic Knights in the near future and needed the support of the nobility:

With this statement, he broke with his previous policy, abandoned his plan to strengthen his power, and bound himself to the nobility, which was the price of extensive action on the international field to regain the lost lands, and above all Pomerania.

In April 1454, at a convention of Lithuanian lords in Brest, the king and representatives of the Crown announced that they were withdrawing from their claims to Volhynia, and thus the phase of sharp Polish-Lithuanian disputes was over.

In 1452, after a short-lived war, Casimir IV captured Oświęcim, forcing the local Duke John IV to pay him homage on 19 March 1454. In 1456, Poland homaged the Duchy of Zator. On 21 February 1457, the Polish monarch finally purchased the Duchy of Oświęcim and incorporated it into the Crown, but this was the last success in Silesia.

One of the main tasks of the king and the state was the unification of all Polish lands, especially taking Gdansk Pomerania from the Order. The Teutonic Knights imposed high duties on Polish goods and inhibited contacts with Pomeranian towns. Foreign trade and the cities situated by the Vistula and the Baltic Sea suffered from it.

Also read, history – War of the Polish Succession

Thirteen Years” War

After the defeat at Grunwald in 1410 and unfavorable peace treaties with Poland (1411, 1435) and Lithuania (1422) the monastic state was in crisis. In 1440 the Prussian Union was formed, an anti-Teutonic organization of noblemen and bourgeoisie of Prussia, who turned to the Polish ruler to take over the power. In December 1453, after the intervention of the Order with Emperor Frederick III, a decree was issued ordering the immediate liquidation of the Prussian Union. On February 6, 1454 the Union started a great uprising which overthrew the Order”s power on almost the whole territory of the country. After three weeks of fighting, only Malbork and Sztum remained unconquered. A delegation of the outlawed Prussian Union went to Kraków and offered to incorporate the whole territory of the Order”s state into the Kingdom of Poland. After two weeks of negotiations, on March 6, 1454, the delegates of the Union issued a document proclaiming the submission of the whole of Prussia to the Polish King as the heir of the Pomeranian lands detached from Poland. The king issues an act of incorporation of Prussia.

This act guaranteed the retention of all state and local privileges and additionally granted the same rights as the Polish nobility enjoyed with the most important right: the right to participate in the election of the king. Duties and fees introduced by the Teutonic Knights were abolished, such as the pound duty in Prussian ports or the law allowing state authorities to seize property from wrecked ships. Prussian merchants gained freedom to trade in Poland. Offices on Prussian lands were to be guaranteed only to their inhabitants. In response the Order, with the help of mercenary troops from the Reich, regained Chojnice in March. Additionally, it pledges New March to Frederick II for a fair price, which increases the possibility of recruiting mercenaries in Germany and Bohemia. Formally it took place on 20 February 1454. Two days later the war between Poland and the Prussian states on the one hand and the Order on the other began. On 6 March 1454 Casimir issued an act of incorporation of Prussia into the Kingdom of Poland.

In the first period of the war the Pomeranian insurgents drove the Teutonic Knights out of all Prussian cities except Malbork and a few minor fortresses. However the nobility was skeptical about the war. The common people did not do well in battle and the nobility itself was not very involved in the war. In addition, the Order received armed reinforcements from the knights of the Reich. Eventually the nobility threatened the king that if he did not confirm the old privileges and grant new ones, they would not fight. The monarch was forced to issue the so-called Statutes of Cerekwitz and Nezavis, which stipulated that the king would not convene a mass movement, enact new taxes, or make other important decisions without the consent of the regional assemblies. Moreover, the king undertook to appoint candidates presented to him by the nobility to the offices of land magistrate, chamberlain, and scribe. Higher dignitaries were to be deprived of the office of starost. These privileges weakened the monarch”s power in favour of the nobility as a whole, but they also increased the role of the regional assemblies and made the nobility more active politically. The political powers of the magnates were also reduced. Three days after the privilege was issued the armies of Wielkopolska and Prussia, as well as the enlisted troops of the Prussian states, joined together to form an 18-thousand strong army. The majority of the armed forces were mounted cavalry from Wielkopolska. The army was headed by the king, the voivode of Poznań – Łukasz Górka, the voivode of Kalisz – Stanisław Ostroróg, the voivode of Brześć – Mikołaj Szarlejski, and the castellan of Rozpiersk – Dziersław of Rytwiany.

On 18 September 1454 the Polish army suffered defeat in the Battle of Chojnice and the Teutonic Knights regained a large part of the lost strongholds. The great problem of Poland was the lack of money, which the Order still had in abundance. Popular mobilization was completely useless in conquering modern fortresses. It was necessary to hire mercenary troops. In addition the Order still enjoyed the support of the emperor and the pope, what was contrary to the treaty of Brest of 1435. The pope cursed Casimir Jagiellon and the Prussian Union.

In 1457 Poles took Malbork, but only because the Order was in arrears with the payment of wages for the castle crew and when Poles paid 190 000 florins, the enlisted men surrendered the castle. Eventually, thanks to a huge financial effort of the Kingdom and rich Prussian cities (Gdansk, Elblag, Torun) a mercenary army was hired, with Piotr Dunin as the commander. In the meantime, the Order also began to struggle with financial problems. The fate of the war was decided by the battle of Swiecin in 1462, won by the Polish army under Dunin. In 1463 the caper fleet of Gdańsk and Elbląg defeated the Teutonic Knights in a battle in the Vistula Lagoon. In 1466 Chojnice, the last Teutonic resistance point, fell and the Order asked for peace.

The negotiations were held in October 1466 in Torun. On October 19, 1466 Casimir, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights Ludwig von Erlichshausen, the papal legate, representatives of the Prussian Union, senators and magnates signed a peace treaty. Poland gained Gdansk Pomerania, Malbork, Elblag, Chelmno and Michalow lands and Warmia bishopric as so called Royal Prussia. The rest of Prussia (Order Prussia) remained with the Teutonic Knights as a fief of Poland. Each new master was obliged to pay a fief homage to the Polish king maximum six months after his election. After 158 years Poland regained access to the sea and dominion over the entire course of the Vistula River.

Also read, biographies – Albrecht von Wallenstein

The dispute with the papacy and the territorial integration of the state

In the years 1460-1463, Casimir IV waged a dispute with the papacy over the position of the Bishopric of Cracow. Despite the support given by the papal legate Hieronim of Crete to Jakub of Sienna, the monarch”s candidate, Jan Gruszczyński, won. Hieronim”s mission failed and when, in addition, during the May congress with the Teutonic Knights in Brześć Kujawski, he showed open friendship to the Order, he finally discredited himself in Poland.

Aiming to gradually incorporate Mazovia into the Crown in 1462, the ruler incorporated the principalities of Rawskie and Bełsk, transforming them into provinces.

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The fight for the Bohemian succession with Maciej Korwin

In the second half of the 15th century, the balance of power in Central and Eastern Europe changed. Austria, Turkey and the Moscow State were emerging as the new powers in the region. Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland had to deal with stronger neighbors. Bohemia was undecided about its choice of ally. Hungary was seen as a defender of Christianity against the rising Turkish power. Poland, on the other hand, tried to take advantage of the situation to gain the Czech and Hungarian crowns for the princes, sons of Casimir IV.

In the early 1560s, Polish diplomacy began efforts to secure the crown of Bohemia for Ladislaus Jagiellon. The pro-Hussite King George of Poděbrady of Bohemia offended the papacy and deepened the division of society in the country. The Roman Curia urged Catholics to an armed uprising and to deprive the Hussite king of the throne. Poland tried to reconcile the Catholics and the Hussites and win their support in its dynastic aspirations. The Czech Catholics turned to Matthias Corvinus, the ruler of Hungary, for protection, which he granted, declaring himself their protector on April 6, 1468. However, fearing war with Poland, he proposed to Casimir an alliance that would seal two marriages: Matthias Corvinus with Jadwiga Jagiellonka and the son of Emperor Frederick III Habsburg with Sophia Jagiellonka. Kazimierz Jagiellonian delayed with the final decision. In the meantime, Korwin occupied Moravia, then Silesia and Lusatia and was proclaimed king by the Czech Catholics on May 3, 1469. Polish diplomacy at the Bohemian court tried to put pressure on George of Poděbrady.

In 1469 George presented a proposal to the Bohemian Diet to elect Ladislaus Jagiellonian as successor to the throne. The Bohemian nobility agreed on several conditions, including that he should marry George”s daughter, Ludmilla. Casimir IV Jagiellon continued to delay the final decision, waiting for George”s death. In October 1469, at a convention in Piotrków, where Henry VI Reuss von Plauen, the newly elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order paid homage to the king, Casimir accepted the crown offered by the Diet of Prague to Prince Ladislaus. After the death of the Bohemian king on March 22, 1471, several candidates claimed the crown, including the Jagiellons, Matthias Corvinus, and Albrecht of Saxony. The election of Ladislaus the Jagiellonian took place on May 27, 1471, at the Diet of Kutná Hora, after which on August 21, 1471, Ladislaus was crowned king of Bohemia by Polish bishops in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

In the early 1570s, Casimir IV made an unsuccessful attempt to install his son Casimir on the Hungarian throne, resulting in a long-running conflict with Matthias Corvinus. Polish diplomacy, with the support of Hungarian Primate Jan Vitez, incited the nobility to overthrow Korvin and support the young Casimir in his quest for the crown of Saint Stephen. The Hungarian pro-Polish partisanship proclaimed the view of the legitimate succession to the throne by the son of Casimir IV, which caused a deepening of the division in society and discouraged the supporters of the free election from the Jagiellonians. On the other hand, the opposition held Corvin”s arbitrariness and disregard for the Turkish threat against him. In the first half of September 1471, 16 Hungarian lords offered the crown to Prince Casimir. In this situation, the Polish-Hungarian War broke out on October 2, 1471. Thirteen-year-old Casimir set out for Hungary at the head of a mercenary army consisting, due to the unpopularity of this initiative among the Polish nobility, mainly of Germans (according to Dlugosz Alemanicus exertisus). The expedition ended in failure, because it only reached Nitra, via Kosice and Eger, and, as it turned out, Casimir was not as popular in Hungary as the Hungarian magnates claimed. Therefore, already in January 1472 Casimir was back in Poland. The subsequent treaties of 1472-1474 did not lead to the younger Casimir taking the Hungarian throne. The Jagiellonian could no longer count on the help of Moldavia, as it had been homaged by Corvinus. Therefore, on February 21, 1474, peace was made between Poland and Hungary in Stara Wieś Spiska.

The failure of Hungarian policy prompted Casimir Jagiellon to militarily support his son, the Czech king Wladyslaw Jagiellon, in the war to regain Silesia, Lusatia and Moravia, which were under Corvinus” rule. In June 1474, at the Diet of Piotrków, a general mobilization was decreed and the army set out for Silesia. The Polish army under the command of Jan Rytwiański crossed the border on 26 September 1474, and going by Kluczbork, Opole, Krapkowice, and Brzeg they joined 20 thousand Czechs and Silesians loyal to Ladislaus Jagiellończyk and defeated the army supporting Korwin in the battle of Swanowice. However, the Jagiellonian army was unable to capture the main point of resistance, which was Wroclaw, in October. As Korwin was supported by Silesian dukes and Wrocław, and the Jagiellons by knights from the Świdnica-Jawor, Opawa and Nysa principalities (including the lords of the castles of Książ, Bolków, Wleń, Grodno, Niesytno), a truce was decided. On November 15, 1474 a convention of the three kings took place in Muchobor Wielki, and on December 8 the truce was signed until May 25, 1477.

The Popish war for the bishopric of Warmia

During the period of peace with Hungary, Casimir IV devoted himself to sorting out relations with Prussia. The Roman Curia in 1468, against the will of the Polish king, filled the Warmian bishopric with Nicholas Tungen, a supporter of the Teutonic Order. In this way, the papacy sought to motivate Casimir to war against the Hussites. When Rome”s intention failed, because one of the Jagiellons took the throne of Bohemia, the pope dismissed Tungen from the bishopric, transferring him to the bishopric of Kamień Pomorski; his place was to be taken by Andrzej Oporowski, who was accepted by the king. Tungen did not reconcile himself to the loss of the Warmian bishopric and established contacts with Hungary, which declared to help him retain his position. Korwin secured support for his actions from the Pope, who was unfavorable to Jagiellon (the papacy felt threatened by Turkey and did not want to lose an ally in Korwin, while it treated Poland as a factor weakening Hungary in the wars with the Ottomans). In 1474 Matthias Corvinus was recognized by the Order as superior, and Nicholas Tungen remained in the bishopric of Warmia.

In 1476 the papal nuncio Baltazar de Piscia came to the court of Casimir IV. He was to excommunicate the Polish king if he broke the truce with Hungary, concluded in Muchobor Wielki in 1474. At the same time he demanded that Casimir renounce his claims to Moldavia and the Hungarian throne. Casimir IV did not break the peace. On May 25, 1477, the three-year truce expired. The Nuncio in Wrocław provoked Casimir IV and Ladislaus of Bohemia, aiming to provoke an open conflict between Poland and Bohemia and Rome, and Korwin supported the Order militarily in the so-called Popish War, which was to settle the issue of Bishop Nicholas Tungen and the disputes about the right to occupy the bishopric of Warmia. The provocation of the papal nuncio was unsuccessful, as Casimir IV began negotiations with Corvinus. Meanwhile Hungary”s situation worsened, as it was threatened with the loss of Venetian subsidies due to Venice”s negotiations with Turkey. Beginning in 1478, negotiations took place between Hungary on the one hand, and Poland and Bohemia on the other. They ended with the signing of several treaties between 1478 and 1479. Under the treaty of November 21, 1478, the Warmian bishopric and the Order returned to Casimir”s rule. In January 1479 the peace between Venice and Turkey was concluded, which caused Korwin to leave his allies in Warmia and Prussia. On April 2, 1479, Korwin made peace with Casimir in Buda. On October 9, 1479, Grand Master Martin Truchsess von Wetzhausen in Nowy Korczyn paid the Polish king a fief homage.

Casimir made the issue of the conflict with the Teutonic Order more important than the alliance with the Mongols, and the result was a standoff over the Ugra that ended Mongol sovereignty over Rus, which suddenly resulted in a threat to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the east.

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Relations with Turkey and Crimea

In 1475 Turkey captured Kaffa, a Genoese colony in the Crimea. In 1484 the Turks cut off Poland from the Black Sea trade by capturing the ports of Kilia and Bialogrod in Moldavia. The expansion of the Turks negatively affected the economy of Poland”s southern neighbor, the Moldavian Empire, whose ruler, Stephen III the Great, turned to Casimir Jagiellon for military assistance. In exchange for his support, on September 15, 1485, in Kolomyia, he paid feudal homage to Casimir, which became a charge in the Polish-Turkish conflict. Casimir delayed his support for Moldavia, devoting his attention to relations with the Crimean Khanate, and a year later Stephen the Great recognized the Ottoman sovereignty.

Poland”s relations with the Crimean Khanate were the most difficult. Despite assurances of friendship and peaceful intentions on the part of Khan Mengli Girej, every year a Tartar horde invaded Ruthenia and Podolia, pillaging, burning and taking thousands of prisoners. In 1482 the Tartar troops captured and ravaged Kiev. In 1486 Casimir IV Jagiellon sent a military expedition to Crimea under the command of his son, Jan Olbracht. However, despite the victorious battle of Kopystrzyn in 1487, it ended in failure. Due to the growing power of Moscow, which was seeking expansion in the southwest, and the clashes between the Polish and Tatar armies, the Crimean Khanate became politically close to Moldavia, a vassal state of Turkey. These political and military factors led to another phase of the Polish-Turkish war, which ended in 1503, after the death of Casimir IV Jagiellon. The Ottoman Empire subjugated the restless Crimean Tatars, which affected the fate of the entire region in the following centuries.

In 1481 a conspiracy of Ruthenian princes, aiming to exterminate the whole Jagiellonian family, was suppressed.

The struggle for Hungary between the Jagiellonians and the Habsburgs

In 1490 Matthias Corvinus died. His succession was disputed between the Habsburgs and the Jagiellons. Casimir IV”s diplomacy in Hungary managed to influence the result of the election on July 7, 1490 in favor of John Olbracht. Meanwhile, Ladislaus Jagiellon, king of Bohemia, won the support of two influential Hungarian lords, Jan Zapolya and Stefan Batory, which threatened a dispute between the brothers. On 28 February 1491 John Olbracht and Ladislaus Jagiellon signed a treaty in Košice, whereby Olbracht renounced his claim to the crown of St Stephen to his brother in return for his recognition as the supreme prince of Silesia. John Olbracht did not take power in Silesia because he broke the Košice Agreement. After his coronation as King of Hungary, Ladislaus made an agreement with the Habsburgs, who were to take over the succession after his death.

The rise of the nobility at the expense of the cities

The last years of Casimir”s reign were a period of rapid development of Polish parliamentarism. In October 1468, for the first time the deputies elected at regional assemblies came to the Sejm in Piotrków in order to pay off the army after the war. As a result, two chambers, the senate and the parliamentary chamber, began to separate within the general assembly. The development of the nobility”s parliamentarism resulted in the strengthening of the nobility. The bourgeoisie did not fight for their rights. The exception was the bourgeoisie of several cities headed by Gdansk. Towards the end of his reign, the king withdrew the bourgeoisie from any interference in state affairs, at a time when he should have been particularly keen on the financial support of the cities, as wealthy towns which could speak in public matters would be a guarantee of the state”s prosperity and would give the king a strong base to fight the magnates.

King Casimir Jagiellon died in Grodno on June 7, 1492 at the age of 64. He was buried in Cracow, on Wawel Castle, in a marble tomb of Wit Stwosz. After his death his son Jan Olbracht succeeded to the Polish throne and Alexander Jagiellon became the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Historians do not agree what was the reason for breaking the personal union of Poland and Lithuania after 1492. They argue whether it was the result of the “political testament” of the king, who during his reign never wanted to separate the royal crown from the ducal mitre, or of the agreement between Lithuanian and Polish magnates after his death.

The reign of Casimir the Jagiellonian was prosperous for the development of culture and art in the Kingdom. The royal and magnate courts and the largest cities were important centers of culture. Education, conducted by monastery schools, became more widespread. The sons of rich nobility, after gaining basic education in the country, went abroad to study.

The main representatives of Polish literature were: the historian and tutor of royal sons Jan Długosz, the political writer Jan Ostroróg, the writer and diplomat Filip Kallimach, the humanist Grzegorz z Sanok, the philosopher and astronomer Wojciech of Brudzew, the theologian and philosopher Jakub of Paradyż, and the archbishop of Gniezno Maciej Drzewicki. The Cracow school of mathematics and astronomy flourished thanks to such personalities as Marcin Król of Żurawica, Jan of Głogów or Marcin Bylica, and above all thanks to Nicolaus Copernicus” master, Wojciech of Brudzew.

The sculptor Wit Stwosz completed the main altar in St. Mary”s Church in Cracow in 1489. The gothic style of building developed, especially church building (Wawel and Gniezno cathedrals), many royal and magnate castles were built, as well as town halls in Gdansk and Torun. The University of Cracow flourished, with three new faculties created: grammar and rhetoric, poetics, and mathematics and astronomy.

On February 10, 1454 the king married Elisabeth Rakuszanka of the Habsburg dynasty, who in the future was to gain the honorable title of the Mother of Kings, giving him thirteen children, including six sons, four of whom became kings. The marriage was blessed by St. John Capistrano, the founder of the Observant monasteries in Poland, called Bernardines. Since 1467, the chronicler Jan Długosz and the Italian humanist Filip Kallimach, Casimir IV”s most skilled diplomat, who had been at the Jagiellonian court since 1470 and who had successfully represented the monarch in negotiations with the papacy and Porta, had been in charge of the upbringing of the princes. Casimir probably knew only Polish and Ruthenian (she spoke only Polish with her husband and children.

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Genealogy

In 1973 the tomb was opened (unopened for almost five hundred years) and the remains of the ruler and his wife Elizabeth Rakuszanka were exhumed. During the decade following this event, 15 people who had contact with the tomb died. Healthy, middle-aged people died – those who were closest to the tomb. There were widespread rumors about a curse of Casimir the Jagiellonian, similar to the curse of 1922 of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. After long research, microbiologists blamed the death of the tomb”s discoverers on an extremely dangerous mould – yellow dropworm, which thrived in the crypt. The toxin produced by the dropworm can cause aspergillosis.

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