Władysław II Jagiełło

Władysław II Jagiełło, born Jogaila, was grand duke of Lithuania and became king of Poland through his marriage to Jadwiga. His conversion and dynastic union linked Poland and Lithuania, and he commanded the allied victory over the Teutonic Order at Grunwald in 1410.

Władysław II Jagiełło belonged to the Jagiellonian dynasty; Gediminids; Family of Algirdas and operated within Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Kingdom of Poland. Władysław II Jagiełło was born in Vilnius and died in Jagiellonian Gord.

Henryk Sienkiewicz’s sequence carries Władysław II Jagiełło from the political background of the Polish-Lithuanian conflict with the Teutonic Order into open war. The Knights of the Cross, Volume I and The Knights of the Cross, Volume II establish the court, frontier violence and tensions that place Jagiełło’s monarchy against the Order; The Knights of the Cross, Volume III moves the rival powers towards general mobilisation; and The Knights of the Cross, Volume IV brings Jagiełło and Vytautas into the campaign that culminates in the great allied victory at Grunwald. Across the sequence he is less a private character than the ruler whose alliance turns scattered grievances into a war capable of breaking Teutonic power.