The family of Piaste filled the throne of Poland for up wards of five hundred years. The most illustrious princes of this house were Mieeislaus, who, towards the end of the 10th century, introduced christianity into his dominions, —Boleslaus, his son, a warlike and intrepid prince, who was the first that obtained the title of king, au honour con ferred on him by the Pope,—Casimir I. a virtuous and pa cific sovereign, who was called to the throne after he had assumed the monastic habit in the abbey of Cluny,—Casi mir 11. surnamed the Great, who was a liberal patron of letters, and founded the academy at Cracow,—who en couraged industry, commerce, and the arts, and furnished the nation with a code of written laws. He died in 1370, and was doomed to be the last of his illustrious family.
Ile was succeeded by his nephew Louis, king of Hun gary, at whose death the Poles elected his youngest daugh ter. Hedwigua, in his room. To obtain the hand of this prin cess, Jagellon, grand duke of Lithuania, embraced the Chris tian faith, and was baptized by the name of Uladislaus. With Jagellon commenced a new line of princes,who swayed the sceptre of Poland for two hundred years. He united his he reditary dominions to those of Poland, conquered Samogitia, and defeated the knights of the Teutonic Order in the great battle of Tannenberg, in 1410. Casimir took Western Prussia under his protection, and forced the Teutonic knights to pay him homage for the remainder. Under Si gismond I. Prussia was changed into a secular dukedom. Sigismond Augustus effected the same thing in regard to Courland : The empire of the Teutonic order was at the same time placed under the government of a duke, and made entirely dependent on the crown of Poland. In the reign of this monarch, Poland had reached its highest pitch of dominion and glory. He saw Lithuania, Livonia, Vol }villa, Podolia, and Kiow, submit to his sovereignty. But with him terminated, in 1572. the male line of the house of Jagellon,—" a family," says a learned writer, " as wise and virtuous as celebrated and brave,—a family under whom Poland saw herself enjoy internal tranquillity and the respect of neighhou ring nations, under whom she was ruled by wise, established laws, and was rendered eminent by the multitude of her scholars in every department of human knowledge." (Tableau dela Pologne, par Malt e-B run, p. 448. Paris, 1807.) After an inter•regnum of about a year, two powerful candidates appeared for the throne, Henry de Valois, bro ther to Charles IX. king of France, and Maximilian of Austria, of whom the former being elected, he soon, by his youth and accomplishments, gained the affections of his people. But he had not enjoyed the sceptre of the
Jagellons above four months, till he inherited, in conse quence of the death of his brother, that of Valois ; and he abandoned the cheering hopes which the esteem and con fidence of his adopted subjects held out to him, for the troubles with which his natural subjects were convulsed, and of which he soon became the victim.
On the abdication of Henry, the contentions of rival factions again revived : and it was not without considera ble difficulty that Stephen Batthori, prince of Transylvania, was elected his successor ; an honour which lie gained, not more on account of his own many qualifications, than of his having married Anne, daughter of king Sigismond Augus tus. Batthori, a prince equally eminent for bravery and virtue, restored peace to Dantzick, the inhabitants of which had rebelled against him ; retook Livonia ; chastis ed the Czar of Russia for having invaded his dominions, carrying cruelty and devastation along with him ; and rais ed a new militia, composed of Cossacks, a tribe brave and barbarous. whom he united to his kingdom by granting them a territory on the Dneiper, and by conferring on them several important privileges ; favours which they abundantly repaid by defending Poland t•om the incursions of the Tartars, and by making the Turks and Russians re spect her. He died in 1586, leaving behind him a cha racter for wisdom, intrepidity, and patriotism, which few Polish sovcrigns have been enabled to outshine.
The death of Batthori was a signal for the renewal of civil commotions. Four candidates appeared for the crown,* each supported by a separate party, brave and re solute; and much blood was spilt ere the successful can didate, Sigismond of Sweden, nephew to the widow of Batthori, could be put in possession of the throne. Hav ing soon afterwards obtained the crown of his native domi nions, Sigismond neglected not to avail himself of the as sistance of Poland against the Swedes, with whom he was extremely unpopular, and who were endeavouring to throw off his yoke. But the Poles, jealous of their liberty, were not much devoted to the cause, and felt no great dis appointment in their king's being deprived of his heredi tary states. This loss, however, which the subsequent monarchs of Poland wished to repair, gave birth to al most continual wars with Sweden, equally fatal to both nations ; for though, on the one hand, they brought Poland to the very verge of submission to the Swedish yoke, they conducted, on the other, the Swedes to Pultowa, that tomb of their glory and their power.