Kingdom of Poland (1385-1569)

Origins

In 1385 the Union of Krewo arranged the marriage of Queen Jadwiga to Jogaila, grand duke of Lithuania, who was baptised and crowned in 1386 as Wladyslaw II Jagiello. His dynasty linked the Polish Crown to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and for a time also ruled Bohemia and Hungary.

Rule and society

Together, Poland and Lithuania crushed the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410, and the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 brought Royal Prussia and the port of Gdansk under the Crown. The nobility won growing privileges, and the 1505 statute Nihil novi required the consent of the Sejm for new laws. Krakow became a Renaissance centre, home to Copernicus and to Italian builders at Wawel castle.

Decline and legacy

Sigismund II Augustus, last of the male Jagiellons, had no heir. To preserve the union, the Union of Lublin in 1569 merged the kingdom with Lithuania into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with a common elected king and Sejm.