Founder of the House of Jagiełło

Jogaila (Lithuanian), later Wladyslaw II Jagiełło, was Grand Duke of Lithuania beginning in 1377 and starting in 1386, becoming King of Poland as well. As Grand Duke, he ruled Lithuania from 1377 to 1381 and from 1382 to 1401, at which time he became the Supreme Duke of Lithuania in exchange for naming his cousin Vytautas as the new Grand Duke. Wladyslaw II initially served as King of Poland alongside his wife Jadwiga until her death in 1399, and then the sole ruler until his own death in 1434.

Raised a Lithuanian polytheist, he converted to Catholicism in 1386 and baptized as Ladislaus (Polish: Wladyslaw) in Kraków, married the young Queen Jadwiga, and was crowned King of Poland as Wladyslaw II Jagiełło. In 1387, he converted Lithuania to Catholicism. His reign in Poland started in 1399, upon the death of Queen Jadwiga, lasted a further thirty-five years, and laid the foundation for the centuries-long Polish-Lithuanian union. He was a member of the Jagiełłonian dynasty in Poland that bears his name and was previously also known as the Gediminid dynasty in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The dynasty ruled both states until 1572, and became one of the most influential dynasties in late medieval and early modern Europe.

Jogaila was the last pagan ruler of medieval Lithuania. After he became King of Poland, as a result of the Union of Krewo, the newly formed Polish-Lithuanian union confronted the growing power of the Teutonic Order. The allied victory at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, followed by the Peace of Thorn, secured the Polish and Lithuanian borders and marked the emergence of the Polish-Lithuanian alliance as a significant force in Europe. The reign of Wladyslaw II Jagiełło extended Polish frontiers and is often considered the beginning of Poland's Golden Age.

Lithuania

Little is known of Jogaila's early life, and even his year of birth is uncertain. Previously historians assumed he was born in 1352, but some recent research suggests a later date-about 1362. He was a descendant of the Gediminid dynasty and was the son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his second wife, Uliana of Tver, who was the daughter of the Yaroslavichi prince Aleksandr of Tver. His name had a meaning of more courageous and superior than others, he spent most of his early time in Vilnius, at his father's manor.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania to which Jogaila succeeded as Grand Duke in 1377 was a political entity composed of two leading, but very different nationalities and two political systems: ethnic Lithuania in the north-west and the vast Ruthenian territories of former Kievan Rus', comprising the lands of modern Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of western Russia. At first, Jogaila-like his father-based his rule in the southern and eastern territories of Lithuania, while his uncle, Kestutis, the Duke of Trakai, continued to rule the north-western region. Jogaila's succession, however, soon placed this system of dual rule under strain.

At the start of his reign, Jogaila was preoccupied with unrest in the Lithuanian Rus' lands. In 1377-78, Andrei of Polotsk, the eldest son of Algirdas, challenged Jogaila's authority and sought to become Grand Duke. In 1380, Andrei and another brother, Dmitry, sided with Prince Dmitri of Moscow against Jogaila's alliance with emir Mamai, de facto khan of the Golden Horde. Jogaila failed to support Mamai, lingering in the vicinity of the battlefield, which led to Mamai's army's significant defeat at the hands of Prince Dmitri in the Battle of Kulikovo. The Muscovites' Pyrrhic victory over the Golden Horde, in the long term, signified, however, the beginning of a slow climb to power by the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which became within a century the most serious rival and threat to the integrity, well-being and survival of Lithuania. However, in 1380 Muscovy was greatly weakened by tremendous losses suffered during the battle and thus, in the same year, Jogaila was free to begin a struggle for supremacy with Kestutis.

In the north-west, Lithuania faced constant armed incursions from the Teutonic Knights-founded after 1226 to fight and convert the pagan Baltic tribes of Prussians, Yotvingians and Lithuanians. In 1380, Jogaila concluded the secret Treaty of Dovydiškes, directed against Kestutis. When Kestutis discovered the plan, the Lithuanian Civil War began. He seized Vilnius, overthrew Jogaila, and pronounced himself grand duke in his place. In 1382, Jogaila raised an army from his father's vassals and confronted Kestutis near Trakai. Kestutis and his son Vytautas entered Jogaila's encampment for negotiations but were tricked and imprisoned in the Kreva Castle, where Kestutis was found dead, probably murdered, a week later. Vytautas escaped to the Teutonic fortress of Marienburg and was baptised there under the name Wigand.

Jogaila formulated the Treaty of Dubysa, which rewarded the Knights for their aid in defeating Kestutis and Vytautas by promising Christianisation and granting them Samogitia west of the Dubysa river. However, when Jogaila failed to ratify the treaty, the Knights invaded Lithuania in the summer of 1383. In 1384, Jogaila reconciled with Vytautas promising to return his patrimony in Trakai. Vytautas then turned against the Knights, attacking and looting several Prussian castles.

It is known that Jogaila, being ethnic Lithuanian in the male line, himself knew and spoke in the Lithuanian language with Vytautas, his cousin from the Gediminids dynasty. Also, during the Christianization of Samogitia, none of the clergy, who came to Samogitia with Jogaila, were able to communicate with the natives, therefore Jogaila himself taught the Samogitians about the Catholicism, thus he was able to communicate in the Samogitian dialect of the Lithuanian language. According to the Teutonic Order's testimonial, he could not read nor write, and had to listen to others reading for him.

Baptism and marriage

Jogaila's Russian mother Uliana of Tver urged him to marry Sofia, daughter of Prince Dmitri of Moscow, who required him first to convert to Orthodoxy. That option, however, was unlikely to halt the crusades against Lithuania by the Teutonic Knights, who regarded Orthodox Christians as schismatics and little better than heathens. Jogaila chose therefore to accept a Polish proposal to become a Catholic and marry the eleven-year-old Queen Jadwiga of Poland. The nobles of Lesser Poland made this offer to Jogaila for many reasons. They wanted to neutralize the dangers posed by Lithuania itself and to secure the fertile territories of Galicia-Volhynia. The Polish nobles saw the offer as an opportunity for increasing their privileges and avoiding Austrian influence, brought by Jadwiga's previous fiancé William, Duke of Austria.

On 14 August 1385 in Kreva Castle, Jogaila confirmed his prenuptial promises in the Union of Krewo (Union of Kreva). The promises included the adoption of Christianity, repatriation of lands "stolen" from Poland by its neighbours, and terras suas Lithuaniae et Russiae Coronae Regni Poloniae perpetuo applicare, a clause interpreted by historians to mean anything from a personal union between Lithuania and Poland to a complete incorporation of Lithuania into Poland. The agreement at Kreva has been described both as far-sighted and as a desperate gamble.

Jogaila was duly baptized at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków on 15 February 1386 and from then on formally used the name Wladyslaw or Latin versions of it. The marriage took place three days later, and on 4 March 1386 Jogaila was crowned King Wladysław by archbishop Bodzanta. He was also to be legally adopted by Jadwiga's mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia, so retaining the throne in the event of Jadwiga's death. He was the first Lithuanian to be crowned as the King of Poland. The royal baptism triggered the conversion of most of Jogaila's court and noblemen, as well as mass baptisms in Lithuanian rivers, a beginning of the final Christianization of Lithuania. Though the ethnic Lithuanian nobility were the main converts to Catholicism-both paganism and the Orthodox rite remained strong among the peasants-the king's conversion and its political implications created lasting repercussions for the history of both Lithuania and Poland. On 22 February 1387, he banned Catholics from marriages with Orthodox and demanded those Orthodox who previously married with the Catholics to convert to Catholicism.

Ruler of Lithuania and Poland

Wladysław II Jagiełło and Jadwiga reigned as co-monarchs; and though Jadwiga probably had little real power, she took an active part in Poland's political and cultural life. In 1387, she led two successful military expeditions to Red Ruthenia, recovered lands her father, Louis I of Hungary, had transferred from Poland to Hungary, and secured the homage of Voivode Petru I of Moldavia. In 1390, she also personally opened negotiations with the Teutonic Order. Most political responsibilities, however, fell to Jagiełło, with Jadwiga attending to the cultural and charitable activities for which she is still revered.

Soon after Jagiełło acceded to the Polish throne, Jagiełło granted Vilnius a city charter like that of Kraków, modelled on the Magdeburg Law; and Vytautas issued a privilege to a Jewish commune of Trakai on almost the same terms as privileges issued to the Jews of Poland in the reigns of Boleslaus the Pious and Casimir the Great. Wladysław's policy of unifying the two legal systems was partial and uneven at first but achieved a lasting influence. By the time of the Union of Lublin in 1569, there was not much difference between the administrative and judicial systems in force in Lithuania and Poland.

Succession and death

At the dying request of the childless Jadwiga, he married a Styrian lady, Anna of Celje. She died in 1416, leaving a daughter:

1. Hedwig (1408-1431).

In 1417, Wladysław married Elisabeth of Pilica, who died in 1420 without bearing him a child. Two years later, he married Sophia of Halshany (niece of Uliana Olshanska), who bore him two surviving sons :

1. Wladysław (1424-1444)
2. Casimir (1427-1492)

The death in 1431 of his daughter Hedwig (Jadwiga), the last heir of Piast blood, released Wladysław to make his sons by Sophia of Halshany his heirs, though he had to placate the Polish nobility with concessions to ensure their agreement since the monarchy was elective. In 1427 the Polish nobles had initiated an anti-Jagiellonian movement, seeking to have Wladysław and Casimir excluded from the Polish throne as they had no blood link to the previous ruling Polish dynasty, the Piasts.

During an excursion into Przemysl Land in the 48th year of his reign, Wladyslaw caught a cold from which he was unable to recover. He finally died in Grodek in 1434, leaving Poland to his elder son, Wladysław III, and Lithuania to his younger, Casimir, both still minors at the time. The Lithuanian inheritance, however, could not be taken for granted. Wladysław's death ended the personal union between the two realms, and it was not clear what would take its place.

Legacy

Wladysław is depicted on the obverse of the modernized 100 Polish zloty banknote.

The Jagiełło Oak, an ancient tree in Bialowieza Forest, is named in honour of the fact that he initiated the tradition of royal hunting in the area.

In 2021, asteroid 2004 TP17 was officially named as Jogaila (the Lithuanian language variant of his name).