General Notes

Wladyslaw II, original name Jagiello (1350-1434), grand duke of Lithuania
(1377-1401) and king of Poland (1386-1434), who founded the Jagiellon dynasty
and made Poland a great power in eastern Europe. The son of Olgierd, grand
duke of Lithuania, Jagiello succeeded his father in 1377. Lithuania was then a
pagan country, but in 1386, when Jagiello married Jadwiga, queen of Poland,
and ascended the Polish throne, he accepted the Roman Catholic faith of the
Poles, taking the name Wladyslaw II. The following year Christianity was
officially introduced in Lithuania, and Wladyslaw himself destroyed the idols
he had worshiped.
In 1392 Wladyslaw made his cousin and rival Witold vice-regent of Lithuania,
and in 1401 he recognized him as duke, forming a firm alliance with him. With
Witold's help, he fought the Teutonic Knights for many years, inflicting on
them a major defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg in northeastern Poland in
1410. The wars lasted intermittently until 1432, irreversibly weakening the
order's military and financial power.