Casimir IV Jagiellon

Timeline

1. 1451–1454Kraków · PolandBetween 1451 and 1454 Casimir IV worked to consolidate the political union of Poland and Lithuania and coordinate the interests of both nobilities. He deepened Poland's parliamentary politics, trading expanded noble privileges for tax and military support, laying the institutional foundations of the Polish kingdom's domestic rule. During this period he also actively responded to the requests of the Prussian Confederation (mainly Gdańsk and Toruń), preparing in advance for the coming Thirteen Years' War.
2. 1454–1460Toruń · PrussiaIn February 1454 the Prussian Confederation formally announced its incorporation into Poland, and Casimir IV immediately declared war on the Teutonic Order, beginning the Thirteen Years' War. Initially Polish forces suffered a setback at Chojnice (1454); Casimir then reformed the military system, relying on mercenaries to make up the shortfall. In 1457 he purchased Marienburg Castle (the Order's headquarters) from the Order, a major advance in the war. Around 1460 the tide gradually turned in Poland's favor, creating the conditions for the eventual signing of the Second Treaty of Toruń (1466), after which western Prussian territories finally returned to Poland.
3. 1460–1492Kraków · PolandAfter the Second Treaty of Toruń was signed in 1466, Casimir IV devoted himself to the Jagiellonian dynasty's diplomacy, placing his son Vladislaus on the Bohemian throne (1471) and, after the death of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1490), securing his succession to the Hungarian throne. He himself died in 1492, the year Columbus opened the New World, leaving a Jagiellonian empire spanning Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia and Hungary, one of the largest political entities in Europe at the time.