Wladyslaw II Jagiello
Władysław II Jagiełło converted Lithuania to Christianity, founded a dynasty that ruled for two centuries, and broke the Teutonic Order at Grunwald. Born around 1362, he became Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1377 — ruler of the last pagan state in Europe, a vast realm stretching towards the Black Sea and under permanent attack by the Teutonic Knights, whose entire purpose and legal justification was crusading against pagans. Poland offered the solution. Its eleven-year-old queen Jadwiga had been crowned as king in 1384, and the Polish nobility proposed a marriage. The Union of Krewo in 1385 committed Jogaila to marry her, to accept baptism, and to bring Lithuania into the Church. He was baptised as Władysław in February 1386, married, and was crowned King of Poland the following month. The conversion removed the Order's reason to exist and it kept attacking anyway, arguing that the baptism was insincere. The reckoning came on 15 July 1410 at Grunwald, where a Polish-Lithuanian army with Ruthenian, Tatar and Bohemian contingents met the Order's field force. It was among the largest battles of medieval Europe. The Lithuanian wing withdrew — whether broken or feigning is still argued — drawing part of the Order's line out of position, and the counterattack destroyed it. The Grand Master and most of the senior officers were killed. Władysław did not take Marienburg afterwards, which is the standing criticism of him. He founded the Jagiellonian dynasty and refounded the university at Kraków. He died in 1434. The Order never recovered and was secularised a century later. Grunwald remains a national symbol in both Poland and Lithuania, and was appropriated by German nationalism in reverse as the defeat to be avenged.
- Lived: 1362 CE – 1434 CE
- Nationality: Polish
- Roles: ruler
