History of Poland during the Piast dynasty

Piast dynasty

Further information: [[:History of Poland (966–1385)]]

Mieszko I; adoption of Christianity

From the early part of the 10th century the tribe of the Polans (Polanie, lit. "people of the fields") of what is now Greater Poland became the main focus of the historic processes that gave rise to the Polish state. The Polans settled in the flatlands around Giecz, Poznań, Gniezno and Ostrów Lednicki, that eventually became the foundation and early center of Poland, lending their name to the country. They went through a period of accelerated building of fortified settlements and territorial expansion beginning in the first half of the 10th century, and the Polish state developed from their tribal entity in the second half of that century. At that time, according to the chronicler Gallus Anonymus, the Polans were ruled by the Piast dynasty. In existing sources a Piast ruler, Mieszko I, was first mentioned by Widukind of Corvey in his Res gestae saxonicae. According to the chronicler, in 963 Mieszko's forces were twice defeated by the Veleti acting in cooperation with the Saxon exile Wichmann the Younger. Under Mieszko's rule (around 960 to 992), his tribal state accepted Christianity and became the Polish state.

Ostrów Tumski is the area of the early beginnings of the Polish state and church. Poznań Cathedral on the right. Underneath the church shown in the foreground, remnants of the original palatium–chapel complex of Poland's first Christian ruling couple have been unearthed.

The viability of the emerging state was assured by the early Piast leaders' persistent territorial expansion, which beginning with a very small area around Gniezno (before the town itself existed), lasted throughout most of the 10th century, resulting in a territory approximating that of the present day Poland. The Polanie tribe conquered and merged with other Slavic tribes, formed a tribal federation and then a centralized state, which after the addition of Lesser Poland and Silesia (taken from the Czech state during the later part of the 10th century) reached its mature form, including the main regions regarded as ethnically Polish.

Mieszko I, initially a pagan, was the first ruler of the Polans tribal union known from contemporary written sources. Mieszko was one of the four Slavic "kings", as reported by Ibrâhîm ibn Ya`qûb, a Jewish traveler. In 965 Mieszko, at that time allied with Boleslaus I of Bohemia, married his daughter Doubravka, a Christian princess. Mieszko's 966 conversion to Christianity in its Western Latin Rite followed and is considered by many to be the founding event of the Polish state. In the aftermath of Mieszko's 967 victory over a force of the Wolinians led by Wichmann the first missionary bishop was appointed, which counteracted the intended eastern expansion of the Magdeburg Archdiocese, established at about the same time. Mieszko's state had a complex political relationship with the German Holy Roman Empire, as Mieszko was a "friend", ally and vassal of Otto I, paying him tribute from the western part of his lands. It fought wars with the Polabian Slavs, the margraves of the Saxon Eastern March (Gero in 963–964 and Hodo in 972, see Battle of Cedynia), and the Czechs. After the death of Otto I, and then again after the death of Otto II, Mieszko supported Henry the Quarrelsome, a pretender to the imperial crown. After the death of Dobrawa, Mieszko married around 980 a German, Oda von Haldensleben, daughter of Dietrich, Margrave of the Northern March. When fighting the Czechs in 990, Mieszko was helped by the Holy Roman Empire. By around 990, when Mieszko I officially submitted his country to the authority of the Holy See (Dagome iudex), he had transformed Poland into one of the strongest powers in central-eastern Europe.

Bolesław I; Church province, conquests, Kingdom of Poland

Bolesław buys Adalbert's body back from the Prussians (Gniezno Doors)

Mieszko I died in 992. Contrary to what the first ruler of Poland had intended, as Oda with her (and Mieszko's) minor sons lost the power struggle, Mieszko's oldest son Bolesław became the sole ruler of Poland. A man of high ambition and strong personality, he embarked on further territorial expansion to the west (Lusatia region), south, and east. While often successful, the campaigns and the gains turned out to be of only passing significance and badly strained the resources of the young nation. Bolesław lost the economically crucial Farther Pomerania, together with its new bishopric in Kołobrzeg; the region had previously been conquered with great effort by Mieszko.

Bolesław Chrobry (ruled 992–1025) started by continuing his father's policy of alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. He skillfully took advantage of the death of Vojtěch Slavník or Wojciech, a well-connected Czech bishop in exile and missionary, whom Bolesław received and helped, and who was killed while on a mission in Prussia. The martyrdom of Wojciech in 997 gave Poland a patron saint, St. Adalbert, and soon resulted in the creation of an independent Polish province of the Church with an archbishop in Gniezno. The Congress of Gniezno took place in the year 1000, when the young Emperor Otto III came as a pilgrim to visit St. Adalbert's grave and lent his support to Bolesław. The Gniezno Archdiocese and several subordinate dioceses were established on this occasion. The Polish ecclesiastical province effectively served as an essential anchor and an institution to fall back on for the Piast state, helping it survive in the troubled centuries ahead.

Poland 992–1025; the area at the end of the rule of Mieszko I (992) in dark pink, at the end of the rule of Bolesław I (1025) within the dark red border

Otto died in 1002 and Bolesław's relationship with his successor Henry II turned out to be much more difficult, resulting in a series of wars in the coming years (1002–1005, 1007–1013, 1015–1018). In 1003–1004 Bolesław intervened militarily in Czech dynastic conflicts. After his forces were removed from Bohemia, Bolesław retained Moravia. In 1013 the marriage between Bolesław's son Mieszko and Richeza of Lotharingia, the niece of Emperor Otto III and future mother of Casimir I the Restorer, took place. The conflicts with Germany ended in 1018 with the Peace of Bautzen accord, on favorable for Bolesław terms. In the context of the 1018 Kiev expedition Bolesław took over the western part of Red Ruthenia. In 1025, shortly before his death, Bolesław I the Brave finally succeeded in obtaining the papal permission to crown himself, and became the first king of Poland.

Mieszko II; collapse of the reign

After Bolesław's death his son, King Mieszko II Lambert (990–1034), tried to continue his father's politics, having his kingdom act as an interventionist great power. This reinforced much of the old resentment and hostility on the part of Poland's neighbors, which Mieszko's two dispossessed brothers took advantage of, arranging for Rus' and German invasions in 1031. Mieszko was defeated and had to leave the country. Although later Mieszko's brothers Bezprym and Otto were killed and Mieszko partially recovered, with Mieszko's death in 1034 the first Piast monarchy collapsed. Deprived of a government, Poland was ravaged by an anti-feudal and pagan rebellion, and in 1039 by the forces of Bretislaus I of Bohemia. The country suffered territorial losses, and the functioning of the Gniezno archdiocese had been disrupted.

Restoration under Casimir I

Mieszko II shown symbolically with Duchess Mathilda von Schwaben

The nation made a recovery under Mieszko's son, Duke Casimir I (1016–1058), properly known as the Restorer. After returning from exile in 1039 Casimir rebuilt the Polish monarchy and through several military campaigns (in 1047 Masovia was taken back from Miecław, and in 1050 Silesia form the Czechs) the country's territorial integrity. He was aided in this endeavor by the recent adversaries of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire and Kievan Rus', who didn't find the chaos in Poland to be to their liking either. Casimir introduced a more mature form of feudalism, by settling his warriors on feudal estates and turning them into landed gentry, thus relieving the burden of financing large army units from the duke's treasury. Faced with the widespread destruction of Greater Poland after the Czech expedition, Casimir moved his court to Kraków, which replaced the old Piast capitals (Poznań and Gniezno) and functioned afterwards as the nation's capital for several centuries.

Bolesław II; conflict with Bishop Stanisław

Casimir's son Bolesław II the Bold, also known as the Generous (ruled 1058–1079), developed Polish military strength further, waging several foreign campaigns between 1058 and 1077. As an active supporter of the papal side in its feud with the German emperor, with the blessing of Pope Gregory VII Bolesław crowned himself king in 1076. In 1079 there was an anti-Bolesław conspiracy or conflict that involved the Bishop of Kraków. Bolesław had Bishop Stanisław executed; subsequently Bolesław was forced to abdicate the Polish throne because of the pressure from the Catholic Church and the pro-imperial faction of the nobility. St. Stanislaus was to become the second martyr and patron saint of Poland, canonized in 1253.

Władysław I Herman

St. Leonard's Crypt is what's left of the second Romanesque Wawel Cathedral of Władysław Herman

After Bolesław's exile the country found itself under the unstable rule of his younger brother Władysław I Herman (ruled 1079–1102), who was strongly dependent on Palatine Sieciech. When Władysław's two sons Zbigniew and Bolesław finally forced Władysław to remove his hated protégé, Poland from 1098 was divided among the three of them, and after the father's death from 1102 to 1106 between the two brothers.

Bolesław III

After a power struggle, Bolesław III the Wrymouth (ruled 1102–1138) became the Duke of Poland by defeating his half-brother in 1106–1107. Zbigniew had to leave the country, but received support from Emperor Henry V, who attacked Bolesław's Poland in 1109. Bolesław was able to defend his country because of his military abilities, determination and alliances, and also because of a national mobilization across the social spectrum (see Battle of Głogów); Zbigniew who later returned was eliminated. Bolesław's other major achievement was the conquest of all of Mieszko I's Pomerania (of which the remaining eastern part had been lost by Poland from after the death of Mieszko II), a task begun by his father and completed by Bolesław around 1123. Szczecin was subdued in a bloody take-over and Western Pomerania up to Rügen, except for the directly incorporated southern part, became Bolesław's fief, to be ruled locally by Wartislaw I, the first duke of the Griffin dynasty. At that time also the Christianization of the region was initiated in earnest, an effort crowned by the establishment of the Pomeranian Wolin Diocese after Bolesław's death in 1140.

Fragmentation of the realm

St. Andrew's Church in Kraków (built in the 11th century)

Before he died, Bolesław Krzywousty divided the country among four of his sons; a complex arrangement intended to preserve the state's unity, in practice ushered in a long period of fragmentation. For two centuries the Piasts were to spar with each other, the clergy, and the nobility for the control over the divided kingdom. The stability of the system was supposedly assured by the institution of the senior or high duke of Poland, based in Kraków and assigned to the special Seniorate Province that was not to be subdivided. This principle broke down already within the generation of Bolesław III's sons, when Władysław II the Exile, Bolesław IV the Curly, Mieszko III the Old and Casimir II the Just fought for power and territory in Poland, and in particular over the Kraków throne. The borders left by Bolesław III to his sons closely resembled the borders left by Mieszko I; this original early Piast monarchy configuration was not to survive the fragmentation period.

Culture in the 10th–12th century

Early Medieval Poland was developing culturally as a part of the European Christendom, but it would be a few generations from Mieszko's conversion until significant numbers of native clergymen emerged. Large scale deeper Christianization of the populace had been accomplished in the 12th and 13th centuries, after the establishment of numerous monasteries.

Intellectual and artistic activity was concentrated around the institutions of the Church (written annals beginning in the late 10th century), the courts of the kings and dukes (already Mieszko II and Casimir the Restorer were literate and educated), and increasingly around the households of the emergent hereditary elite. Along with the Dagome iudex act, the most important written document and source of the period is the chronicle by a foreign cleric from the court of Bolesław the Wrymouth known as Gallus Anonymus. A number of Pre-Romanesque stone churches were built beginning in the 10th century, often accompanied by "palatium" ruler residencies; Romanesque buildings proper followed. The earliest coins were minted by Bolesław I around 995. The Gniezno Doors (1170s) of Gniezno Cathedral (bronze low relief) are the finest example of Romanesque sculpture. Bruno of Querfurt was one of the pioneering Western clergymen spreading Church literacy; some of his prominent writings had been produced in eremitic monasteries in Poland. Among the preeminent early monastic religious orders were the Benedictines (the abbey in Tyniec founded in 1044) and the Cistercians.

State and society in the 13th century

Collegiate church in Tum

The 13th century brought fundamental changes in the structure of the Polish society and political system. Because of the fragmentation and constant internal conflicts, the Piast dukes were unable to stabilize Poland's external borders of the early Piast rulers. In mid 13th century Bolesław II the Bald granted Lubusz Land to the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which made possible the creation of the Neumark and had far reaching negative consequences for the integrity of the western border. Western Farther Pomerania broke its political ties with Poland in the second half of the 12th century and from 1231 became a fief of the Margraviate, which in 1307 extended its Pomeranian possessions even further east. Pomerelia or Gdańsk Pomerania had been independent of the Polish dukes from 1227. In the south-east Leszek the White was unable to preserve Poland's supremacy over the Halych area of Rus', a territory that had changed hands on a number of occasions.

The social status was becoming increasingly based on the size of feudal land possessions. Those included the lands controlled by the Piast princes, their rivals the great lay land owners and church entities, all the way down to the knightly class; the work force ranged from hired "free" people, through serfs attached to the land, to slaves (purchased or war and other prisoners). The upper layer of the feudal lords, first the Church and then others, were able to acquire economic and legal immunity, which made them exempt to a significant degree from court jurisdiction or economical obligations (including taxation), that had previously been imposed by the ruling dukes.

Thorn (Toruń), established by the Teutonic Knights, like Danzig (Gdańsk) became a member of the Hanseatic League

The civil strife and foreign invasions, such as the Mongol invasions in 1241, 1259 and 1287, weakened and depopulated the many small Polish principalities, as the country became progressively more split. This, but also increasing in the developing economy demand for labor, caused a massive immigration of West European, mostly German settlers into Poland (early waves from Germany and Flanders in the 1220s). The German, Polish and other new rural settlements were a form of feudal tenancy with immunity and German town laws were often utilized as its legal bases. The German immigrants were also important in the rise of the cities and the establishment of the Polish burgher (city dwelling merchants) class; they brought with them West European laws (Magdeburg rights) and customs which the Poles adopted. From that time on the Germans, who created early strong establishments (led by the patriciate) especially in the urban centers of Silesia and other regions of western Poland, have been one of the minorities in Poland.

In 1228, the Acts of Cienia were passed and signed into law by Władysław III Laskonogi. The titular Duke of Poland promised to provide a "just and noble law according to the council of bishops and barons." Such legal guarantees and privileges included also the lower level land owners – knights, who were evolving into the lower and middle nobility class known later as "szlachta". The fragmentation period weakened the rulers and established a permanent trend in Polish history, whereby the rights and role of the nobility were being expanded at the monarch's expense.

Teutonic Knights

File:Legnica.JPG

Mongol invasion of Poland (late 1240–1241) culminated in the Battle of Legnica

In 1226 Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the Prussian people, who lived in a territory adjacent to his lands; substantial border warfare was taking place and Konrad's province had suffered from Prussian invasions. On the other hand, the Old Prussians themselves were at that time being subjected to increasingly forced (including papacy-sponsored crusades), but largely ineffective Christianization efforts. The Teutonic Order quickly overstepped the authority and moved beyond the area granted them by Konrad (Chełmno Land or Kulmerland). In the following decades they conquered large areas along the Baltic Sea coast and established their monastic state. When virtually all of the Western Baltic pagans became converted or exterminated (the Prussian conquests had been completed by 1283), the Knights turned their attention to Poland and Lithuania, then the last major pagan state in Europe. Teutonic expansionist policy and wars with Poland and Lithuania continued for most of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Teutonic state in Prussia, populated by German settlers beginning in the 13th century, had been claimed as a fief and protected by the popes and Holy Roman Emperors.

Reunification attempts; Przemysł II, Václav II

Archbishop Jakub Świnka

As the disadvantages of national division were becoming increasingly apparent in various segments of the society, some of the Piast dukes had begun making serious efforts aimed at the reunification of the Polish state. Important among the earlier attempts were the activities of the Silesian dukes Henry I the Bearded, his son Henry II the Pious, who was killed in 1241 while fighting the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica, and Henry IV Probus. In 1295 Przemysł II of Greater Poland became the first, since Bolesław II, Piast duke crowned as King of Poland, but he ruled over only a part of the territory of Poland (including from 1294 Gdańsk Pomerania) and was assassinated soon after his coronation. A more extensive unification of Polish lands was accomplished by a foreign ruler, Václav II of Bohemia of the Přemyslid dynasty, who married Przemysł's daughter and became King of Poland in 1300. Václav's heavy-handed policies soon caused him to lose whatever support he had earlier in his reign; he died in 1305. An important factor in the unification process was the Polish Church, which remained a single ecclesiastical province throughout the fragmentation period. Archbishop Jakub Świnka of Gniezno was an ardent proponent of Poland's reunification; he performed the crowning ceremonies for both Przemysł II and Wenceslaus II. Świnka supported Władysław Łokietek at various stages of the duke's career.

Culture in the 13th century

Władysław I the Elbow-high, a fragment of his sandstone sarcophagus

Culturally the 13th century brought a socially much broader impact of the Church, as a network of parishes was established and cathedral-type schools became more common. The leading monastic orders were now the Dominicans and the Franciscans, who interacted closely with the general population. Characteristic of the period was a proliferation of narrative annals, as well as other written records, laws and documents. More of the clergy were of local origin, others were expected to know the Polish language. Their most recognized representative in the intellectual sphere, where there was considerable achievement, is Wincenty Kadłubek, the author of an influential chronicle. A treatise on optics by Witelo, a Silesian monk, was one of the finest achievements of Medieval science. Gothic architecture became the predominant style of churches and castles constructed beginning in the 13th century, and in art forms native elements were increasingly important. Significant advances took place in agriculture, manufacturing and crafts.

Reunited kingdom of the last Piast rulers

The 14th century unified Kingdom of Poland of the last two rulers of the Piast dynasty, Władysław the Elbow-high and his son Casimir the Great, wasn't quite a return of the Polish state from before the fragmentation. The regional Piast princes remained strong and for economic and cultural reasons some of them gravitated toward Poland's neighbors. The Kingdom lost Pomerania and Silesia, the most highly developed and economically important of the ethnically Polish lands (a disputable designation in case of Western Pomerania), which left half of the Polish population outside the Kingdom's borders. The western losses had to do with the failure of the unification efforts undertaken by the Silesian Piast dukes and the German expansion processes. These included the Piast principalities developing (or falling into) dependencies in respect to the German political structures, settler colonization and gradual Germanization of the Polish ruling circles. The lower Vistula was controlled by the Teutonic Order. Masovia was not to be fully incorporated into the Polish state anytime soon. Casimir stabilized the western and northern borders, tried to regain some of the lost territories, and partially compensated the losses by his new eastern expansion, which placed within his kingdom regions that were ethnically non-Polish.

Sarcophagus of Kazimierz the Great at Wawel Cathedral

Despite the territorial truncation, 14th century Poland experienced a period of accelerated economic development and increasing prosperity. This included further expansion and modernization of agricultural settlements, the development of towns and their increasing role in briskly growing trade, mining and metallurgy. Large scale German and Jewish ethnic presence had become a permanent feature of Poland's urban landscape. A great monetary reform was implemented during the reign of Casimir III.

Władysław I the Elbow-high

Władysław Łokietek (ruled 1305–1333), who started out as a rather obscure Piast duke from Kuyavia, fought a lifelong uphill battle with powerful adversaries with persistence and determination. When Łokietek died as the king of a partially reunited Poland, he left the Kingdom in a precarious situation, with limited area under its control and many unresolved issues, but he may have saved Poland's existence as a state.

Supported by his Hungarian allies Władysław returned from exile and challenged Václav II, and after his death Václav III in 1304–1306. Václav III soon being murdered, Władysław Łokietek took over Lesser Poland and the lands north of there, through Kuyavia all the way to Gdańsk Pomerania. In 1308 Pomerania was conquered by the Brandenburg state. In a recovery effort Łokietek agreed to ask for help the Teutonic Knights; the Knights brutally took over Gdańsk Pomerania and kept it for themselves. In 1311–1312 a rebellion in Kraków instigated by the city's patrician leadership, seeking a rule by the House of Luxembourg, was put down. This event may have had limiting impact on the emerging political power of towns. In 1313–1314 Władysław conquered Greater Poland. In 1320 Władysław I Łokietek became the first King of Poland crowned not in Gniezno, but in Kraków's Wawel Cathedral. The coronation was hesitantly agreed to by Pope John XXII, despite the opposition from John of Bohemia, who had also claimed the Polish crown. John undertook in 1327 an expedition aimed at Kraków, which he was compelled to abort, and a crusade against Lithuania in 1328, during which he formalized an alliance with the Teutonic Order. The Order was in a state of war with Poland from 1327 to 1332 (see Battle of Płowce); the Knights captured Dobrzyń Land and Kujawy. Władysław was helped by his alliances with Hungary (his daughter Elizabeth was married to King Charles Robert in 1320) and Lithuania (1325 pact against the Teutonic State and the marriage of Łokietek's son Casimir to Aldona, daughter of Lithuanian ruler Gediminas), and from 1329 by a peace agreement with Brandenburg. A lasting achievement of John of Luxembourg (and Poland's greatest loss) was forcing most of the Piast Silesian principalities, often ambivalent about their loyalties, into allegiance.

Casimir III the Great

Poland at the end of the rule of Casimir III (1370) within the dark red border; Silesia (yellow) is lost and the Kingdom is expanding to the east

After Łokietek's death the old monarch's son, King Casimir III, later to be known as Kazimierz the Great (ruled 1333–1370), was a 23 year old, who had no inclination for military life hardships, and by his contemporaries was not given much of a chance for overcoming the country's mounting difficulties or succeeding as a leader. But from the beginning Casimir acted prudently, purchasing in 1335 John's claims to the Polish throne, and after a couple of high-level arbitrations settling in 1343 the disputes with the Teutonic Order by a territorial compromise. Dobrzyń Land and Kuyavia were recovered by Casimir. At that time Poland started to expand to the east and through a series of military campaigns between 1340 and 1366 Casimir had annexed the Halych–Volodymyr area of Rus'. The town of Lviv there attracted newcomers of several nationalities, was granted municipal rights in 1356, and had thus begun its career as Lwów, the main Polish center in the midst of a Rus' Orthodox population. Supported by Hungary, the Polish king in 1338 promised the Hungarian ruling house the Polish throne in the event he dies without male heirs.

Casimir unsuccessfully tried to recover Silesia by conducting military activities against the Luxembourgs between 1343 and 1348, but then blocked the attempted separation of Silesia from the Gniezno Archdiocese by Charles IV. Later until his death he pursued the Polish claim to Silesia legally by petitioning the pope; his successors had not continued his efforts.

Lands, countries, kingdoms under Louis I's control (1370s)

Allied with Denmark and Western Pomerania (Gdańsk Pomerania was granted to the Order as an "eternal charity") Casimir was able to impose some corrections on the western border. In 1365 Drezdenko and Santok became Poland's fiefs, while Wałcz district was in 1368 taken outright, severing the land connection between Brandenburg and the Teutonic state and connecting Poland with Farther Pomerania.

Kazimierz the Great considerably strengthened the country's position in both foreign and domestic affairs. Domestically, he integrated and centralized the reunited Polish state and helped develop what was considered the "Crown of the Polish Kingdom", the state within its actual, as well as past or potential (legal from the Polish point of view) boundaries. Casimir established or strengthened kingdom-wide institutions (such as the powerful state treasury) independent of the regional, class, or royal court related interests. Internationally, the Polish king was very active diplomatically, cultivated close contacts with other European rulers and was a staunch defender of the Polish national interest. In 1364 he sponsored the Congress of Kraków, in which a number of monarchs participated, and which was concerned with the promotion of peaceful cooperation and political balance in Central Europe.

Louis I of Hungary and Jadwiga (Angevin dynasty)

Jadwiga

Immediately after Casimir's death in 1370, the heirless king's nephew, Louis of Hungary of the Angevin dynasty assumed the Polish throne. As Casimir's actual commitment to the Angevin succession seemed problematic from the beginning (in 1368 the Polish king adopted his grandson, Casimir of Słupsk), Louis engaged in succession negotiations with Polish knights and nobility starting already in 1351. They supported him, exacting in return further guarantees and privileges for themselves; the formal act was negotiated in Buda in 1355. Right after the coronation Louis left his mother and Casimir's sister Elizabeth in Poland as a regent, himself returning to Hungary.

With the death of Casimir the Great the period of hereditary (Piast) monarchy in Poland ended. The land owners and nobles did not want a strong monarchy; a constitutional monarchy was established between 1370 and 1493 (beginnings of the bicameral General Sejm).

St. Mary's Church in Kraków

During the reign of Louis I Poland formed a union with Hungary. In the pact of 1374 known as the Privilege of Koszyce the Polish nobility, granted very extensive concessions, agreed to extend the Angevin succession to Louis' daughters, as Louis also had no sons. Louis' neglect of Polish affairs resulted in the loss of Casimir's territorial gains, including Halych Rus' (recovered by Jadwiga in 1387). This Hungarian-Polish union lasted for twelve years and ended in war. After Louis' death in 1382 and a power struggle that ensued, the Polish nobility decided that Louis' youngest daughter Jadwiga should become the next "King of Poland". Upon their demands Jadwiga arrived in 1384 and was crowned at the age of eleven. The failure of the union of Poland and Hungary paved the way for the union of Lithuania and Poland.

Culture in the 14th century

Many large scale brick building projects were undertaken in the 14th century, in particular during Casimir's reign. These included Gothic churches, castles, urban fortifications and homes of wealthy city residents. Most notable are the many magnificent churches representing the Polish Gothic style. Medieval sculpture, painting and ornamental smithery are well represented, especially as the furnishings of churches and liturgical items. The Polish law was codified 1346–1347 and after 1357 and for conflict resolution legal proceedings were being commonly used domestically, while bilateral or multilateral negotiations and treaties were increasingly important in international relations. The network of cathedral and parish schools had become well developed. In 1364 Casimir the Great, based on a papal concession, established the University of Kraków, the second oldest in central Europe. While many still traveled for university studies to southern and western Europe, the Polish language, along with the predominant Latin, is increasingly present in written documents. The Holy Cross Sermons (probably early 14th century) constitute possibly the oldest extant Polish prose manuscript.