Jogaila

Grand duke of Lithuania (1377-1392), king of Poland (1386-1434), and suzerain of Lithuania (1392-1434), who made Lithuania into a Christian state and united Lithuania and Poland in personal union, thus accumulating power sufficient to crush the Teutonic Order.

Jogaila (Pol. Wladyslaw Jagiello, Russ. Yagailo) was born around 1351, the son of Algirdas, grand duke of Lithuania, and Juliana, princess of Tver.

Jogaila succeeded to the Lithuanian throne after his father’s death, supported by Kestutis, duke of Trakai, the most powerful of Algirdas’s brothers. However, in 1380 war with Moscow, which supported Jogaila’s rebellious brothers, forced Jogaila to conclude a secret armistice with the Teutonic Order, from which Kestutis was excluded. The order passed this information to Kestutis, thus provoking an internal war in Lithuania. Kestutis overthrew Jogaila in 1381, but in 1382 Jogaila captured Kestutis and his son Vytautas; Kestutis was murdered in prison. In return for the support of the Teutonic Order in this dispute, Jogaila had to conclude agreements at Dubysa on 31 October 1382, undertaking to accept Christianity and to cede Samogitia to the order. Later Jogaila refused to confirm these treaties, and the order declared war on 30 July 1383 on behalf of Vytautas, who escaped from his captivity.

In July 1384 Jogaila reached a reconciliation with Vytautas. By the Treaty of Krewo on 14 August 1385 he arranged to marry Jadwiga, heiress to the kingdom of Poland, and accept the Polish crown. Jogaila’s baptism (with the name W-adys-aw II), marriage, and coronation took place in February and March 1386. In 1387 Jogaila accepted Christianity for Lithuania and appointed his brother Skirgaila as his vicegerent. But Vytautas was dissatisfied with the position he received in Lithuania and fled to Prussia again to continue his fight against Jogaila. On 5 August 1392 Jogaila was forced to recognize Vytautas as his vicegerent and actual ruler of Lithuania. From this moment Jogaila and Vytautas jointly fought against the Teutonic Order, which continued its attacks on Lithuania despite the grand duchy’s acceptance of Christianity.

In 1401 Jogaila officially recognized Vytautas as grand duke of Lithuania by the Treaty of Vilnius-Radom. Jogaila supported Vytautas in his war against the Teutonic Order (1409-1411), and together they led the Polish and Lithuanian armies to Prussia, where the order suffered its fatal defeat at the battle of Tannenberg (Grunwald) on 15 July 1410. According to the peace treaty of 1411, Poland and Lithuania regained their recently lost lands: Dobrin and Samogitia. Having reestablished the University of Krakow (1400), Jogaila used its intellectual potential in his diplomatic fight against the Teutonic Order concerning the status of the disputed lands. Jogaila’s delegation to the church’s Council of Constance successfully dismissed the claims of the order and promoted the establishment of a diocese for Samogitia (1417). However, diplomatic efforts achieved few practical results, and in 1422 Jogaila and Vytautas attacked Prussia again, forcing the order to recognize the Lithuanian claims to Samogitia.

Jogaila died on 1 June 1434 in Horodok (in mod. Ukraine). He was married four times: to Jadwiga of Anjou (d. 1399), Anna of Cilli (d. 1416), Elisabeth of Pilica (d. 1420), and Sophia of Halshany (d. 1461), the latter a representative of the Lithuanian nobility and mother of Jogaila’s successors W-adys-aw III and Kazimierz IV.

-Tomas Baranauskas

Bibliography

Drabina, Jan, “Die Religionspolitik von Konig Wladyslaw Jagiello im polnisch-litauischen Reich in den Jahren 1385-1434,” Zeitschrift fur Ostforschung43 (1994), 161-173.

Halecki, Oscar, Jadwiga of Anjou and the Rise of East Central Europe (Highland Lakes, NJ: Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, 1991).

Nowakowski, Andrzej, “The Torun Meetings of King Wladyslaw II Jagiello with the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Konrad von Jungingen,” Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae 8 (1995), 41-45.

Sruogiene-Sruoga, Vanda, “Jogaila (1350-1434),” Lituanus 33 (1987), 23-34.