At Grunwald in July 1410, after one of the most ferocious battles of the Middle Ages, his combined Lithuanian-Polish force won a victory so overwhelming that the Teutonic Order was virtually annihilated, with most of its leaders killed or captured. They came to the aid of the Lithuanians, who were locked in a vicious war with the Teutonic Knights. Wladyslaw II brought the Poles into the conflict in 1401. The two co-kings ruled until her death in 1399, when it became far less confusing to deliver messages to the (sole) King of Poland.
Her marriage to Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, also made him a Polish king-after he converted to Catholicism and took the good Polish name Wladyslaw II. His death in 1382 resulted in the recalcitrant Polish nobles crowning his youngest daughter Jadwiga king of Poland. However, having no male heirs, Casimir the Great was the last Piast king, dying in 1370.Ĭasimir's designated successor was his nephew Louis I of Hungary (where Louis spent most of his time). Under Casimir’s liberal rule, Poland became a haven for the dispossessed and persecuted Germans settled in the cities, Armenian and Slavic refugees in the rural lowlands, and thousands of Jews moved in and flourished. Casimir more than doubled the size of the kingdom, reorganized the nation's economy and legal system, and provided the impetus for the establishment of Poland’s first university. He would not only secure his father’s gains through astute diplomacy and brief, victorious warfare, but make Poland a center of culture, learning, and trade. Wladyslaw was succeeded by his even more able son, who began his reign as Casimir III and ended it as Casimir the Great. In defending Poland, Wladyslaw waged crusades against the pagan Lithuanians and Mongols, as well as a war to expel the self-righteous and greedy Teutonic Knights. Wladyslaw, a minor duke of Piast lineage, spent his life reunifying the realm and was crowned King Wladyslaw I for his troubles. The resulting fragmentation led to continuous internal conflict and external pressures throughout the next few centuries. With no tradition of primogeniture, Poland was divided among Boleslaw's several sons. However, the death of Boleslaw III in 1138 brought complications to the century-old kingdom. Poland soon stretched from the Baltic to the Carpathians, loosely establishing its historical borders by 1100. This led to Boleslaw’s coronation in 1025, making him the first "King of Poland." Mieszko's son Boleslaw established a purely Polish-Catholic ecclesiastical organization, and his secular authority was recognized by the Germanic Holy Roman Emperor.
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Despite some debate, even most skeptical scholars now accept this date as the beginning of Poland.Ī series of strong (or strong-arm) successors to Mieszko slowly converted the pagan Poles, established a firm dynastic grip, and dragged reluctant Poland into the broader European culture.
Mieszko converted to Christianity after Roman Catholic missionaries from Bohemia preached the spiritual and practical benefits, and was baptized in 966. When marauding Magyars threatened the Wislanie tribe of Krakow, with whom Mieszko had close ties, he united both tribes-and in doing so, founded the Piast Dynasty. Despite this, Poland managed to hold its own, and was once itself the biggest bully on the block.Īccording to semi-legendary accounts, Mieszko ruled the Polanie tribe from the fortified settlement of Gniezno. Poland also had the inconvenience to lie between Germany and Russia, who (for more than a millennium) cast covetous eyes on its rich lands and resources. Unfortunately for Poland, that plain served as the gateway for invasion-from Europe at the western borders and from Asia to the east. The most salient feature of Poland's topography is the extensive plain that stretches from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Carpathian Mountains to the south.
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