WLADISLAUS I. king of Poland, called Lokietek, or "Span-long," from his diminutive stature, was the re-creator of the Polish realm, which at the end of the 13th century had split up into 14 independent principalities, and become an easy prey to her neighbours, Bohemia, Lithuania and the Teutonic Order. In 1296 the gentry of Great Poland elected Wladislaus, then prince of Cujavia, to reign over them ; but later changing their minds, placed themselves under the protection of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, who was crowned at Gnesen in 130o. Wladislaus obtained the support of Pope Boniface VIII., and on the death of Wenceslaus in 1305 Wladislaus succeeded in uniting beneath his sway the principalities of Little and Great Poland. He had a long struggle with the towns and the prelates headed by Muskata, bishop of Cracow. He managed to suppress the magistrates of Cracow, but had to invoke the aid of the Teutonic Order to save Danzig from the margraves of Brandenburg; whereupon the Order not only proceeded to treat Danzig as a conquered city, but claimed possession of the whole of Pomerania. Wladislaus ap
pealed to Pope John XXII. (1317) and ultimately (Feb. 9, 1321) obtained locally a judgment with costs against the Order, which however, appealed to Rome and got the judgment reversed. The result was a six years' war (1327-33) between Poland and the Order, in which all the princes of Central Europe took part, Hun gary and Lithuania siding with Wladislaus, and Bohemia, Masovia and Silesia with the Order. It was early on Sept. 27, 1332, that Wladislaus, with his Hungarian allies, inflicted upon the knights their first serious reverse, at Plowce. In March 1333 he died. He had laid the foundations of a strong Polish monarchy, and with the consent of the pope revived the royal dignity, being crowned king of Poland at Cracow on Jan. 20, 1320.
See Max Perlbach, Preussisch-polnische Studien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters (Halle, i886) ; Julius A. G. von Pflugk-Harttung, Der deutsche Orden im Kampfe Ludwigs des Bayern mit der Kurie (ppoo).