Ladislaus Jagiello

Ladislaus Jagiello (1348-1434) became grand duke of Lithuania in 1377 and was crowned king of Poland in 1396. He was the founder of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and as king opened a new epoch in the history of Poland, a central European country with close ties with western, Latin civilisation. Through Ladislaus Jagiello, Poland entered into a union with Lithuania, a country covering a vast territory between the Baltic and the Black Sea, inhabited by a mixture of pagan Lithuanians and Orthodox Christians in the Rus territory captured by Lithuania. This union served an important political aim: of checking the expansion of the Order of the Teutonic Knights who were defeated by the combined Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian forces at Grunwald on 15 July 1410. But it also resulted in some serious problems in the East, with which the kingdom not always could cope. In 1413, Ladislaus Jagiello concluded a new union at Horodlo, which strengthened Poland's links with Lithuania, and issued new privileges for the gentry in order to secure the throne for his sons. [art]