WLADISLAUS III. king of Poland and Hungary, the eldest son of Wladislaus II., Jagiello, by his fourth wife, Sophia of Vyazma, was born at Cracow, Oct. 31, 1424, succeeding to the throne in his tenth year. He had a turbulent minority; but Poland was wisely controlled by Zbigniew Olesnicki, while Wladislaus himself defeated the arch-traitor Spytek of Melztyn at Grotnik on May 4, 1439. On the sudden death of the emperor Albert, who was also king of Bohemia and Hungary, the Hunga rians elected Wladislaus king, and he was crowned at Buda in July 1440. For three years, however, he had to fight against the parti sans of the widowed Empress Elizabeth, till Pope Eugenius IV. mediated between them to enable Wladislaus to lead a crusade against the Turks. At the head of 40,000 men, mostly Magyars,
and with Hunyadi commanding under him, Wladislaus made a glorious campaign in the Balkans in 1443, and by the Peace of Szeged (July 1, 1444), the Sultan Murad II., engaged to sur render Serbia, Albania and whatever territory the Ottomans had ever conquered from Hungary, including 24 fortresses, besides paying an indemnity of ioo.000 florins in gold. After swearing to observe the treaty, however, Wladislaus broke it two days later in the name of religion, and invaded the Balkans a second time, losing his life and more than a fourth of his army at Varna on Nov. io, 1444. (See also POLAND and HUNGARY.)