Władysław III of Poland
gigatos | March 14, 2022
Summary
Ladislaus III Varna (born October 31, 1424 in Cracow, died November 10, 1444 near Varna) was king of Poland, king of Hungary as Ladislaus I (I. Ulászló) from 1440, the elder son of Ladislaus Jagiełło and Sophia Holszańska. Ladislaus did not sit on the throne of Lithuania, although formally he titled himself supreme prince of Lithuania.
Wladislaus, Dei gracia rex Polonie, Hungarie, Dalmacie, Croacie, Rascie, Bulgarie, Sclavonie, nec non terrarum Cracovie, Sandomirie, Lancicie, Syradie, Cuyavie, Lythuanie princeps suppremus, Pomeranie, Russieque dominus et heres etc.
Translation: Ladislaus of God”s Grace, king of Poland, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rashka, Bulgaria, Slavonia, the lands of Cracow, Sandomierz, Leczyca, Sieradz, Kujawy, the highest prince of Lithuania, lord and heir of Pomerania and Rus, etc.
Until the 19th century Ladislaus III was commonly called Ladislaus Jagiellonczyk.
After the death of Ladislaus II Jagiello (1386-1434), his eldest son Ladislaus III became king. Despite serious opposition from the nobles, who made their objections known during the convention in Opatów, the bishop of Cracow Zbigniew Oleśnicki pushed through his candidacy, and on July 25, 1434, Ladislaus was crowned king of Poland by the Primate of Poland Wojciech Jastrzębiec at Wawel Cathedral. As Ladislaus was only 10 years old when he ascended the throne, he was ruled for several years by the Council of Guardians and a regent, Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki. The bishop quickly assumed a dominant position in the Tutelary Council, and it was him who in fact decided on domestic and foreign policy during the king”s minor years, which aroused the opposition of some of the wealthy connected with the circle of the queen”s widow Sophia Holszańska.
At the time of his accession to the throne, the Polish-Teutonic war was in progress, which ended in 1435 with the peace of Brześć Kujawski.
After the death of Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg in 1437, Bishop Olesnicki began negotiations with his heir, King Albrecht II of Bohemia Habsburg, to ensure Ladislaus” succession to Hungary. At that time, the pro-Hussite Bohemian opposition, which did not recognize Albrecht as its king, proposed to Olesnicki that Ladislaus take 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. Consequently, in 1438 the Czechs led by Archbishop Jan of Rokycany held an election in Kutná Hora and elected Casimir the Jagiellonian, brother of King Ladislaus III, as king. Albrecht, however, occupied Prague and crowned himself king in June. The main 5,000-strong Polish corps under the command of Sędziwoj Ostroróg and Jan Tęczyński, together with 7,000 Czech allies, captured several cities and approached Prague. Soon, however, it had to retreat under the pressure of Albrecht Habsburg”s forces numbering 21 thousand soldiers to the Hussite stronghold of Tabor, at which Habsburg appeared on August 11. The siege did not change the situation and after two skirmishes it was lifted on 15 September. The situation changed on 23 September when a Hussite army of 4,000 men defeated an army of 7,000-8,000 under the command of Jakubek of Wrzesowice in the Battle of Zelenice.
Wladislaus III, wanting to reinforce the army operating in Bohemia, on 20 September 1438 together with a Malopolska army occupied the Opole region and subjugated several Upper Silesian princes, and then going through Strzelce Opolskie and Racibórz, on 25 October he stopped at Nowa Cerekwia near Opawa. In the meantime, the Greater Poland”s army destroyed Milicz and garrisoned Brzeg. On February 10, 1439 an armistice was signed in Namysłów.
In 1439 in the New Town of Korczyna a confederation was formed under the leadership of Spytek of Melsztyn, a magnate from Małopolska. It sought to marginalize the influence of Zbigniew Olesnicki, whom the confederates accused of limiting his access to offices. The civil war was ended thanks to the strong stance of Bishop Olesnicki and the agreement with Queen Sophia, who agreed to a compromise and withdrew her support for Spytek. Deserted by the queen”s supporters, the confederate army was defeated in the Battle of Grotniki, and Spytko, mortally wounded, was killed.
In the same year (October 27) Albrecht Habsburg died which released the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia.
Although Albrecht”s widow was pregnant, in 1440 Ladislaus III was elected king of Hungary by the Hungarian Diet, counting on Poland”s help in defending them against the directly threatening advance of Islamic Turkey. That same year, Ladislaus left Poland for Hungary, where he was crowned on July 17 at the cathedral in Royal Bialogrod. In Poland, the absent king was replaced by two governors who soon came into conflict, causing the country to face a serious crisis.
As Elisabeth, the widow of the late Bohemian and Hungarian ruler Albrecht II, gave birth to a son, Ladislaus the Great, whom she wanted to put on the throne, a two-year civil war broke out between her party and the party of Ladislaus of Varna. Elisabeth fled to Austria and Jan Jiskre was appointed to defend her son”s rights. At the head of an army of 5,000 he conquered the northern and western parts of what is now Slovakia, including Spiš and Banská Bystrica. In December 1440 Vladislav”s army won a victory at Bátaszék and in February 1441 captured Ostrzyhom. In the same month Jiskra smashed the royal forces at Košice. On August 19, Ladislaus made a settlement with the Slovenian rulers Frederick Cilly and Ulric Cilly, hitherto supporters of Elizabeth. In the autumn of 1441 the royal army failed to capture Košice, and in addition Elizabeth”s army captured Kežmarok on October 15. On the other hand the royal troops managed to defend Tirnava. The war ends on December 15, 1442 with a peace treaty in Győr. In exchange for the recognition of Ladislaus III as king of Hungary, he would marry Elisabeth and proclaim Ladislaus the Great his heir as king of Hungary. The feuding parties were reconciled by Pope Eugene IV, who presented Ladislaus III with a plan to stop the Turkish power.
In preparation for war, King Wladyslaw started to pawn royal property on a large scale and to get into debt to the nobles. Having amassed sufficient funds, in October 1443, he began an armed campaign against Turkey. The first major battle took place on November 3, 1443, at Aleksinac, where Ladislaus was victorious. On December 1, 1443, Ladislaus III occupied and burned Sofia, and on December 12 he crushed Turkish forces at Zlatnica. After being unsuccessful in breaking the Turkish defensive positions at Zlatnica on 15 December, the next day the Christian troops began a retreat towards Melstnica, where they won another victory over the enemy on 24 December. On January 2, Ladislaus III defeated the Turkish army at the Kunovica Gorge. This campaign led to the signing of a 10-year truce at Segedin on June 12, 1444, in which Sultan Murad II pledged to leave Serbia and to surrender 24 Danube castles to the Hungarians and Serbs.
However, at the insistence of the papal legate Julian Cesarini (who promised help from the Burgundian and Venetian fleets, which turned out to be an empty promise), the twenty-year-old king broke the truce on August 4, and in September led an ill-prepared Christian crusade, consisting of some 25,000 Hungarian-Polish-Volhynian troops, towards Edirne in Turkey. In the same month, Ladislaus III captured Vidin, in October Shumen, and on November 6 Provodnija. However, the Venetian fleet was bribed by the Turks and did not prevent their crossing of the Bosphorus, nor did it sail north to support the king”s actions. Upon learning of this and of the enemy”s numerical superiority, Ladislaus III decided to turn back, but his army was blocked by the Turks and the Battle of Varna on the Black Sea ensued, which ended in the defeat of the allied army and the death of Ladislaus III on November 10.
According to some accounts, the head of the Polish king was later kept by the Turkish sultan in a honey pot as a war trophy for many years. The monarch”s body was never found, so stories about his miraculous rescue spread.
Ladislaus III was unmarried and had no children.
After a three-year interregnum following the death of Ladislaus Varna, the crown was assumed by his younger brother, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir Jagiellon (1447-1492). Casimir”s long period of waiting with the coronation was due to the conflict between the grand duke and the Polish magnates over the balance of political power in the state, and the pretext for postponing the settlement and coronation was the persistent rumors that Wladyslaw had survived the battle, a theory that was popular among the people of various countries for a long time after the king”s death, and was due to the fact that Wladyslaw”s body was never found. This gave rise to numerous versions of the story, saying that the king fled to atone for his breaking of the 10-year armistice that had been negotiated with the Turks at Segedin. There are various legends that Varnańczyk stayed in various places in Europe, including Santiago de Compostela and Madeira. There were also impostors claiming to be the dead king, such as John of Vilnius. Nowadays, most historians reject the possibility that the king survived the battle, citing the account by Khodja Effendi about sending the severed royal head to the sultan. Here is the king”s death according to this account:
A knight named Khazer, by a valiant attack, wounded his horse, struck down the wicked head of the foster-family of hell, and brought it to the padyszach, where he received praise, favours, and a generous reward. The head of the unfortunate king was sent to Brussa, formerly the capital of the state, to be exhibited there to the common people. To preserve it from spoilage, it was immersed in honey.
After the defeat at Varna, Europe refused to believe in the death of Ladislaus. Among other things, an envoy was sent from Venice, who was presented with a preserved male head in Istanbul. However, it had light curls and the king was dark-haired. Despite the search, the king”s body was not found.
Portuguese legend has it that the king survived the Battle of Varna and then, under the name of Henrique Alemao (Henrique the German, also called O Principe Polako – Prince Pole) – a knight of St. Catherine of Mount Sinai – settled in the estate of Madalena do Mar in the Portuguese Madeira, which was supposedly given to him by Prince Henry the Navigator. There he was to marry, have a son, and die at sea at the age of over 40. An extension of this legend is the claim that his son, whom he had with Eanes João dos Reis Gomes, a noblewoman married in Madeira, was Christopher Columbus.
On the occasion of Prince Wladyslaw”s birthday in 1424, a Latin song of praise was written, Nitor inclite claredinis, which was preserved with a musical notation in the manuscript Kras 52. After the king”s death, many works were written about the battle of Varna. Some of them reinforced rumors about the king”s alleged miraculous rescue and future return, while others praised his heroic death.
In 1935 a monument-mausoleum (actually a cenotaph) of Vladislav Varna was erected on one of the barrows above the Varna battlefield.
One of the Bulgarian football clubs, Vladislav Varna, the first Bulgarian champion, was named after him (no longer exists).
One of the main streets in Varna, the Boulevard of Vladislav Varna, was also named after him. In 1910, the district of northwestern Varna, located on the Varna battlefield, was named in honor of the king as Vladislav Varna (Bulgarian: Владислав Варненчик), commonly known as Vladislavovo.
In 1992 a Polish circulation coin with his image was issued with the face value of PLN 10,000. This coin was made of cupro-nickel in an edition of 2,500,000 copies, it had a diameter of 29.5 mm, weight of 10.8 g and a serrated edge. Also in the same year, two Polish collector coins with his image were issued with the face value of PLN 200,000, both made of sterling silver, 32 mm in diameter and weighing 16.5 g, with a smooth rim. Apart from the king”s image, they differed in mintage: one coin had an edition of 15,000 copies.
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