Alexander Jagiellon

Alexander I Jagiellon
Engraving of Alexander, 1521
Grand Duke of Lithuania
Reign	30 July 1492 – 19 August 1506
Coronation	30 July 1492 in Vilnius Cathedral
Predecessor	Casimir IV Jagiellon
Successor	Sigismund I the Old
King of Poland
Reign	12 December 1501 – 19 August 1506
Coronation	12 December 1501 in Wawel Cathedral
Predecessor	John I Albert
Successor	Sigismund I the Old
Born	(1461-08-05)5 August 1461 Kraków, Poland
Died	Vilnius, Lithuania
Burial	Vilnius Cathedral, Vilnius, Lithuania (1506)
Spouse	Helena of Moscow
Dynasty	Jagiellon
Father	Casimir IV Jagiellon
Mother	Elisabeth Habsburg of Hungary
Signature

Alexander I Jagiellon (Polish: Aleksander Jagiellończyk; Lithuanian: Aleksandras Jogailaitis) (5 August 1461 – 19 August 1506) of the House of Jagiellon was the Grand Duke of Lithuania and later also King of Poland. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV Jagiellon. He was elected Grand Duke of Lithuania on the death of his father (1492), and King of Poland on the death of his brother John I Albert (1501).

Biography

Alexander was born as son of the King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland and Elisabeth Habsburg of Hungary, daughter of the King Albert of Hungary. Alexander's shortage of funds immediately made him subservient to the Polish Senate and nobility (szlachta), who deprived him of control of the mint (then one of the most lucrative sources of revenue for the Polish kings), curtailed his prerogatives, and generally endeavored to reduce him to a subordinate position. For want of funds, Alexander was unable to resist the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights or prevent Grand Duke of Muscovy Ivan III from ravaging Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Tatars. The most the Grand Duke of Lithuania could do was to garrison Smolensk and other strongholds and employ his wife Helena, the Tsar's daughter, to mediate a truce between his father-in-law and himself after the disastrous Battle of Vedrosha (1500). In the terms of the truce, Lithuania had to surrender about a third of its territory to the nascent expansionist Russian state.

During his reign, Poland suffered much humiliation at the hands of her subject principality, Moldavia. Only the death of Stephen, the great hospodar of Moldavia, enabled Poland still to hold her own on the Danube River; while the liberality of Pope Julius II, who issued no fewer than 29 bulls in favor of Poland and granted Alexander Peter's Pence and other financial help, enabled him to restrain somewhat the arrogance of the Teutonic Order.

Alexander Jagellon never felt at home in Poland, and bestowed his favor principally upon his fellow Lithuanians, the most notable of whom was the wealthy Lithuanian magnate Michael Glinski, who justified his master's confidence by his great victory over the Tatars at Kleck (5 August 1506), news of which was brought to Alexander on his deathbed in Vilnius. There is some evidence that he had at least one son, leading to a surviving Jagiellonian branch, although this is not conclusive.

It is important to note that Alexander was the last known ruler of the Gediminids dynasty to have maintained the family's ancestral Lithuanian language. From his death, Polish became the sole language of the family, thus fully Polonising the Jagiello family.

In 1931, during the refurbishment of Vilnius Cathedral, the forgotten sarcophagus of Alexander was discovered, and has since been put on display.

Gallery

• 

  King Alexander in Polish Senate, 1506.

• 

  Alexander and his kanclerz Jan Łaski.

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  Gothic St. Anne's Church in Vilnius was constructed on his initiative in 1495–1500.

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  In 1504 he ordered to rebuild the Wawel in a Renaissance style.

Ancestors

Family of Alexander Jagiellon

16. Gediminas of Lithuania               8. Algirdas, King of Lithuania                       17. Jewna of Polotsk               4. Vladislaus II, King of Poland                             18. Alexander I, Grand Prince of Tver               9. Uliana Alexandrovna of Tver                       19. Anastasia Yuryevna of Halych               2. Casimir IV, King of Poland                                   20. Ivan Olgimuntovich, Prince of Halshany               10. Andrew, Prince of Halshany                       21. Agrippina               5. Sophia of Halshany                             22. Dimitri of Drutsk (possibly Demetrius I Starshy)               11. Alexandra Dimitrijevna Drutskoy                       1. Alexander, King of Poland                                         24. Albert III, Duke of Austria               12. Albert IV, Duke of Austria                       25. Beatrice of Hohenzollern-Nuremberg               6. Albert II of Germany                             26. Albert I, Duke of Bavaria               13. Johanna Sophia of Bavaria                       27. Margaret of Brieg               3. Elizabeth of Austria                                   28. Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor               14. Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor                       29. Elizabeth of Pomerania               7. Elisabeth of Bohemia                             30. Hermann II of Celje               15. Barbara of Celje                       31. Anna, Countess of Schaunberg

See also

• History of Poland (1385–1569)
• Sejm walny
• St. Anne's Church, Vilnius

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History
• Alexander at Find-A-Grave

Preceded by Casimir IV Jagiellon	Grand Duke of Lithuania 1492–1506	Succeeded by Sigismund I the Old
Preceded by John I Albert	King of Poland 1501–1506