When the first frosts came in the winter of 1386-1387, Jagiello, accompanied by princes and grandees, and by numerous priests and Franciscan monks as spiritual leaders of the undertaking, marched to his home in order, according to his promise, to baptise his subjects. At the beginning of January, 1387, when the ice built firm bridges everywhere in that country of rivers, lakes, and marshes, the Polish mission appeared at Wilna. It was just after the long autumn festivities, a time when the supplies of the Lithuanians began to fail. The missionaries, however, brought a quantity of corn, new white linen robes, and other presents for those about to be baptised, and appeared in state just as Otto, the apostle of Pomerania, had formerly done. The will of the prince had still more weight in Lithuania. Besides this, Vladislav Jagiello, in order to win over the nobles, conferred on all Catholic Boyars, as from February 20, 1387, all the liberties which the Polish nobility possessed (the "Polish right "). This was the first charter of Lithuania. Concurrently the Catholic Church was organised by the creation and splendid endowment of a bishopric at Wilna, with seven parish churches at Miednicki, Meszagole, Wilkomierz, Krevo, Niemerczyn, Hajnovo, and Oboleza. The first bishop was the Franciscan Vasylo, a Pole, formerly confessor of Queen Elizabeth and then bishop of Sereth. The wooden image of the god Perkunas stood on the highest summit of the town of Wilna. The flames of the unapproachable Znicz (p. 439) still darted forth on the oak-planted square as the missionary procession came up the hill, singing holy songs. The sacred oaks were felled, the "eternal" fire was quenched. A thundering Te Deum announced to the people the dawn of a new era. Not a hand was raised to protect the old gods. Men and women were then led to the river, and whole companies received one name each, such as Stanul, Matulis, Piotralis, Janulis, Szezepulis (feminine Jadzuila, etc.). Distinguished Boyars were baptised singly. The same ceremony was performed in the surrounding country. The number of those who were then baptised is put at thirty thousand. By the end of July, 1387, Jagiello was again in Cracow, and informed the Pope that Lithuania was converted. "Among all kings of the world thou, dear son, holdest the first place in our heart," answered Urban VI, whose sternness in 1378 caused the great schism. But when he further said, "Rejoice, my son, that thou hast been found again like a hidden treasure and hast escaped destruction," these words, transferred to the political world, aptly represented the true state of affairs. Even in Germany there was a prophecy current that all states would disappear except Poland and Lithuania.

Various petty states of Eastern Europe now sought support from the newly created empire of Poland-Lithuania; Hungary, for example, was just then crippled by internal disturbances. Soon after the coronation the petty princes of North Russia, mostly vassals of Lithuania, began to do homage to the now powerful Grand Duke. While Vladislav Jagiello still remained in Lithuania, Hedwig personally received the homage of Red Russia, which, since the times of Casimir the Great, belonged half to the Hungarian, half to the Polish crown, but had received from Lewis the Great a Magyar Starost-General. In Lemberg the brothers Peter and Roman, who, as Voivods of Moldavia, were, properly speaking, Hungarian vassals, did homage to the Lithuanian; the Metropolitan Cyprian of Kiev read out the formula of the oath according to the Orthodox rites. In the year 1390 a second Hungarian vassal, Prince Mircea the Elder of Wallachia (p. 356), did homage. In the course of the next years the Voivods

of Bessarabia and Transylvania did the same, and their successors renewed this oath. In the north the fear of the German-Livonian Order and of Moscow, in the south the fear of the Turks, drove those small princes to seek refuge under the great ruler. The sphere of the influence of Poland-Lithuania expanded now from sea to sea.

Meanwhile the Teutonic Order had acquired more and more territory by purchase and treaty. It roused up opposition against Vladislav Jagiello at Rome and at every European court. The situation became especially grave, since in every negotiation it constantly invoked the intervention of the empire, and required actual obedience from Lithuanian princes. Vladislav of Oppeln submitted to the Grand Master of Wallenrod himself (1391-1393) a scheme for the partition of Poland. Poland-Lithuania was, however, not free from blame. In dire straits treaties were made with the Knights and some territory was actually ceded; but there was bitter feeling against every arbitrator, who assigned the land in question to the Germans. There was no rupture to be feared in the lifetime of Hedwig, whose father, Lewis, had been a patron of the Order. But after her death (1399) the decision could not long be postponed. Witold, Jagiello's cousin, was especially eager for war. In the year 1410 Germany had three kings or emperors, Wenzel, Jost, and Sigismund (p. 256), and would therefore bring no help to the Order. Lithuania enlisted Bohemian mercenaries and secured the aid of the Tartars; Witold incited the Samaiten country to revolt, although he had previously given one hundred and fifty hostages to the Order. There was nothing left for these poor wretches except to hang themselves on the doors of their prisons. The Russian vassals of Lithuania marched also to their assistance. Nevertheless, the operations were by no means easy. The Teutonic Order, then the only power in Europe which could mobilise its forces in a fortnight, had splendid artillery, excellent cavalry, and a large body of mercenaries at its disposal. In culture it stood then on a distinctly higher level than Poland. The Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen anticipated Poland with a declaration of war. The first engagement took place in the territory of the Order at Grünwald and Tannenberg on July 15, 1410; the army of the Order was annihilated. The Polish army for the first time sang the Te Deum (bogarodzica) in the Polish language. The chief credit of the victory belongs to Witold. Dlugosz, father of the celebrated historian, and Zbigněw Olesnicki, later bishop of Cracow and first statesman of Poland, took part in the battle. Contemporaries probably realised the far-reaching effects of this event more than the writers of the present day; John Dlugosz, soon after 1457, urged that the spoils (Banderia Prutenorum) should be kept for ever in the Church, and that the anniversary should be commemorated in perpetuity. The Order, it is true, tried its fortune repeatedly afterwards, but always without success. If Vladislav II Jagiello had been a true soldier he could have easily made himself master of Marienburg, for treachery was rife. Many of the Knights collected their money and goods and fled to Germany. The writer who completed the "Chronicle of the Land of Prussia" (commenced by Johann von Posilge, an official of Riesenburg (Pomerania), deceased in 1405) laments the fact. In spite of the comparatively favourable treaty of Thorn on February 1, 1411, the fall of the Teutonic Order was inevitable. The Electoral College recommended the protection of the Order to the emperor Sigismund, and Charles VI of France issued a warning to Poland; but such steps were of little avail.

With the collapse of the power of the Order, the influence of Germany, both national and political, on Eastern Europe was broken. The empire lost its magic charm there, while Poland became a great European power; the Hussite movement, for example, only became possible after 1410. The Slavonic spirit grew so strong that even German culture could not hold its own. The effect of the year 1386, enhanced by the year 1410, thus signifies an important crisis for the Western and Northern Slavs, whose subjugation would certainly otherwise have been accomplished, as well as a revival of the Slavonic movement. Vladislav II Jagiello and Hedwig had done great services in raising the level of Polish civilization. Hedwig first endowed a college at the University of Prague for such Lithuanians as studied theology there, and then obtained permission from Pope Boniface IX to found a theological faculty in Cracow. Finally she left her fortune to the University of Cracow, so that in the year 1400 it was able to leave the hamlet of Bavol, near Cracow, and settle in its own buildings in the city. The king himself and the highest officials registered their names as the first among two hundred students. Peter Wysz began with lectures in the presence of the king. After 1410 it was possible to equip the university still better, and it soon flourished. Nicholas Copernicus studied theology, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy there in 1491. Schools were provided, churches built, art studied.

The Pomeranian duke Bogulslav, formerly an ally of the Order, now did homage to the Polish king. Duke Ernest the Iron of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, a brother of that William († 1406) who met with such humiliating treatment in 1385 (p. 498), went to Cracow in 1412, concluded a defensive and offensive alliance with Poland, and married a niece of the king, the daughter of Ziemko of Masovia, Cimburgis (Cecilia or Cymbarka; † 1429), who created a sensation by her physical strength, beauty, and her "large lips." She became in 1415 the mother of Emperor Frederic III, and thus (after the hereditary Countess Johanna von Pfirdt, who died in 1351) the second great ancestress of the house of Hapsburg; at the same time she attained a similarly high dignity in the house of Wettin, since her daughter Margaretha († 1486) was married to the elector Frederic II the Clement. The emperor Sigismund himself, who even before Tannenberg had invaded the Cracovian territory, concluded a truce with Poland, and from November 8, 1412, pledged the thirteen towns of the Zips district (p. 404) to Vladislav Jagiello. In fact, just when the Hussite movement was at its height, embassies appeared several times in Cracow to offer the crown of Bohemia also to the Polish king.

But this scheme, like the further progress of Poland, was wrecked on the personality of the king. Vladislav II Jagiello, uneducated and sensual, without energy and deficient in military ability, was not the man who might have served a great empire, burdened with a difficult constitution in critical times, although from his position as Grand Duke of Lithuania he was invaluable as a visible sign of the union and was clever enough to adapt himself to the new situation. He was, besides, too indifferent in most matters. His nobles, especially the bishops, managed everything. Nevertheless, a certain progress is observable in him if we picture him to ourselves how he once had governed despotically as a pagan; he now had to rule a Catholic people within almost constitutional limits. Transplanted to another soil, his disposition underwent a change; from a rude barbarian he became a soft-hearted and absolutely effeminate character. He towered

above the princes of Moscow, for example, in culture. Illuminated by the glory of a great victory, and as the suzerain of many princes, he loved to appear in magnificent state, like his brother-in-law Sigismund, for whom he always showed a certain weakness. He rode with a suite of one hundred knights and an escort of six thousand or eight thousand horse. He was so generous that the story ran in the territory of the Order that he had won the Polish crown by bribery, and his successors completely squandered the crown lands. Vladislav Jagiello was four times married. After the death of Hedwig (1399) he married the daughter of the Count of Cilli, a granddaughter of Casimir the Great and sister of that Barbara who, having married, as her second husband, Sigismund in 1408, died as empress widow in 1451; next, Elizabeth Granovska; and, finally (1422), he espoused, through the mediation of Witold, the Russian princess Sofie Olfzanska of Kiev († 1461). He died on May 31, 1434, at Grodek, having almost attained the age of eighty-six years.

(b) The First Jagellons. His successors, called after him Jag(i)ellons, ruled in Poland until 1572 as elective, not hereditary, kings. In the fifteenth century Poland reached the highest point in her political history, while in the sixteenth her civilization was at its zenith.

ers.

Some years after the death of Vladislav II Jagiello, who had left two sons, Vladislav (III) and Casimir (IV Andreas), an Hungarian embassy appeared in Poland in 1440 which offered the crown of St. Stephen to Vladislav III, a boy of barely fifteen years. Fear of the Turks had caused this recourse to powerful Poland. This time not merely the notables of the national party, but also the bishops, even Olesnicki of Cracow, the all-powerful leader of Polish policy, counselled acceptance of the offer. It was worth the struggle against the unbelievPoland also had interests in the south. This led, therefore, to the first war (p. 134) against the Osmans. The young king fell at Varna on November 10, 1444. The Hungarians had, it is true, chosen Matthias Corvinus king in 1458, and the Bohemians, George of Podiebrad. But after the death of the two, the Bohemians first, and then the Hungarians, by the choice of Vladimir (II), a son of Casimir (cf. the genealogical tree on p. 387), fell back upon the house of the Jagellons. This family retained the crowns of Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia until 1526, when Lewis I-II, son of Vladislav II, fell as the last of the BohemianHungarian branch at Mohácz (cf. pp. 150, 270, and 387).

More important for the Polish Empire than the acquisition of the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary was the victorious advance to the Baltic. The Teutonic Knights had often tried after 1410 to retrieve their losses. Poland was compelled to wage a tedious war against them during the years 1420-1430; the campaign flagged greatly. But the dissolution of the Order could not be staved off. The estates of the country, dissatisfied with the rule of the Knights, took up a hostile attitude; the "Lizard League" founded in 1397, and the Prussian league of 1440, were openly and secretly aimed against the Order. Men took courage and tried to effect a rupture. After the emperor Frederic III in 1453 had issued the command that the league was to be dissolved, the latter resolved to submit to the Polish king, Casimir IV (Andreas). In February, 1454, twelve members of the league appeared in Cracow and offered the Polish king the possession of Prussia. Cardinal Olesnicki tried to dissuade him. But Casimir accepted it

without hesitation and immediately nominated the spokesman of the Knights of the Lizard, Hans von Baisen, to be governor, awarded to the Prussian estates the rights of salvage, etc., and freed the towns from the harbour dues known as poundage. The Order, again defeated and actually driven out of Marienburg, was forced to accept on October 19, 1466, the unpalatable second treaty of Thorn. The whole of Western Prussia, with Marienburg, Thorn, Danzig, Elbing, and Kulm, fell to Poland, and Ludwig von Ehrlichshausen (1449-1469) was compelled to take the oath of fealty to the king of Poland for East Prussia. Every Grand Master, six months after his election, was to swear the oath of loyalty to the king for himself and his followers, and in return the place of honour in the Polish Diet at the left hand of the king was guaranteed to him. The Master was to recognise no superior (Poland excepted) but the Pope, and to conclude no alliances or treaties without the sanction of the king. Prussia and Poland were to remain united forever. Immediately afterwards "suitable persons" from the subjects of the Polish kingdom were added to the Prussian houses of the Teutonic Order, on condition they should not compose more than half the members of the Order, but should be also eligible to half the offices of the Order. The Grand Master further could not be deprived of his office without the king's knowledge. A long chapter in Polish history was thus closed. "With reluctance I saw," said Dlugosz, "how Polish territory hitherto was divided among different nations, and I count myself and my contemporaries happy in having been allowed to live to see this territory won back again." Poland thus obtained a large town population, of which she had long and deeply felt the want. The possession of the mouth of the Vistula and a firm foothold on the Baltic Sea was of inestimable value to Poland, although she did not use this circumstance as much as might have been advantageous for the development of her trade, nor succeed in making the townsfolk Polish.

B. THE INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT OF POLAND AND ITS RELATION TO LITHUANIA

MORE important for Poland than its foreign relations was the internal development, that is the development of the constitution in the young dual monarchy and the other relations between Poland and Lithuania. The chief task was to secure for all future time the union which had early been accompanied by such great sucThe solution of this and many other problems devolved upon Poland as the moiety of the whole which was most developed in civilization and politics.

cesses.

There could be no doubt as to the foundation on which the constitution was to be based. The Catholic religion was certainly the standard, by which all reforms must be tested. This fundamental idea had already been expressed in the document of February 20, 1387, in which the Polish rights were only granted to Catholic Lithuanians; a special article went so far as to assert that any man who left the Catholic faith should ipso facto lose all privileges. In order that the Church might grow in the future, marriage between the Roman Catholic Lithuanians and members of the Greek Orthodox faith was forbidden; if, however, the parties had secretly married, the Greek party was to be compelled to accept conversion. The non-Catholic population was excluded, therefore, from all privileges.