CASIMIR III., called "THE GREAT," king of Poland (1310 1370), son of Wladislaus Lokietek, king of Poland, and Jadwiga, princess of Kalisch, was born at Kowal in Kujavia. He was educated at the court of his brother-in-law, Charles Robert of Hungary, where he had a reputation for frivolity and lack of personal courage. When he became king of Poland in 1333 his kingdom, consisting of the lately reunited provinces of Great and Little Poland, was at war with the Teutonic Order and with John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia, who claimed the Polish crown. But Casimir was a man of genius, who trusted in a wise diplomacy and not in bloodshed which had brought so much trouble to Poland. He began by tying the hands of the Teutonic Order by the truce of Thorn, and he induced the king of Bohemia to relinquish his claims to the Polish throne by leaving him a free hand in Silesia (conference of Trencsen, early in 1335). At the congress of Visegrad, where both princes were entertained by the king of Hungary, the differences between them were finally adjusted, and peace was made between the king of Poland and the Teutonic Order on the basis of the cession of Pomerania, Kulm and Michalow to the knights, who retroceded Kujavia and Dobrzyn; the kings of Hungary and Poland agreed to help each other in acquiring Halicz or Red Russia (nearly corresponding to the modern Galicia), Casimir also paid over much money and re nounced Polish claims to sovereignty over Masovia, a central province. The pope, jealous of the house of Luxembourg, tried unsuccessfully to set aside the decrees of Visegrad by urging Casimir to fight the knights again. Casimir, who had no male issue, recognized Louis, Charles Robert's son, as the successor to the Polish crown, Louis contracting to confirm the privileges of the Polish gentry and clergy, and to rule Poland through natives only.
In 1340 the death of George II. of Halicz, and the ravaging of that fruitful border principality by the Tatars, induced Casimir and Charles Robert to establish their joint influence there, and in the Red Russian boyar, Demetrius Detko, was appointed starosta, or governor, in the names of the two kings. In Lubart of Lithuania disputed the sway of Poland in that prin cipality. Hungary coming to the assistance of Poland, Lubart was defeated and taken prisoner ; but Casimir, to avoid a bloody war with Lithuania's Tatar allies, came to a compromise with Lubart whereby Poland retained Halicz with Lemberg (Lwow), while Vladimir, Belz and Brzesc fell to Lithuania. With the Teutonic knights, Poland's worst foe, Casimir always preserved peace. He used the Luxembourgers against them at Rome; but the dis putes between Poland and the order were settled by the peace of Kalisz (July 23, when the knights engaged for the first time to pay tribute to the Polish crown. Casimir had trouble with John of Bohemia over Silesia, now split up into 17 principal ities, and when he invaded that country, took Wschowa, and cap tured Prince Charles of Bohemia, war broke out and he was be sieged in Cracow by the Czechs. But Hungary hastened to his assistance, and the Holy See restored peace in 1346. The death of the adventurous John at Crecy, and the election of his son the peaceful Charles IV. as emperor, improved the situation.
Casimir, aided by Jaroslaw Skotowicki, archbishop of Gnesen, formerly a professor at Bologna, codified the laws of Great and Little Poland in 1347 and in 1356 a supreme court of appeal was established. Casimir, the "Peasants' king," relentlessly put down, often by death, aristocratic oppression and promulgated the severe statute of Great Poland to this end. He also did much for education. Stimulated by the example of Charles IV., who had founded the university of Prague in 1348, Casimir on May 12, 1364, established and richly endowed the first university of Cra cow, which has five professors of Roman law, three of Canon law, two of physics, and one master of arts. Casimir reorganized the State finances. He introduced the conscription of landowners for national defence. He founded towns, and protected home industries with tariffs, which led to a tariff war with Bohemia. Ardent Polish patriots complained of his Germanizing policy, but the "German right" which he introduced was the foundation of Polish prosperity; he also encouraged the Jews. He developed architecture, and gave Poland "brick for wood." He unified Poland, making "one law, one king, one currency." In the course of his reign he subdued Volhynia, Podolia, the palatinates of Brescia and Beltz, beat the Russians as well as the Lithuanians and Tatars, and finally acquired control over Masovia. He set up a cordon of fortresses on his north-east borders. Casi mir's last political act was the conclusion of a fresh alliance with Louis of Hungary against Charles IV. at Buda in 1369. He died on Nov. 5, 1370, from a hunting accident. He was the only Polish king called "Great." BIBLIOGRAPHY. See Jan Leniek, The Congress of Visegrad (LemBibliography. See Jan Leniek, The Congress of Visegrad (Lem- berg, 1884) ; J. K. Kochanowski, Casimir the Great (1900) ; Kazimierz J. Gorzycki, The Annexation of Red Russia by Casimir the Great (Lemberg, 1889) ; Stanislaw Kryzanowski, The Embassy of Casimir the Great to Avignon (Cracow, 1900) . The above are all in Polish. See also R. Dyboski, Outlines of Polish History (1925).