Union of Krewo

As the Union of Krewo 1385 agreed personal union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is called, since the corresponding document was discovered in 1837. The Krewo castle was located on historic Lithuanian Territiorium, which is now in Belarus and is called Krewa ( Крэва ). The Union of Krewo was followed by other formulations of the Polish -Lithuanian unions.

This personal union was created by the marriage of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila with the minor Polish Queen Jadwiga, as a result Jogaila as Władysław II Jagiello ascended the throne.

The document was signed on August 14, 1385 contained the following points:

• The marriage contract
• The conversion of the pagan Jogaila and Lithuanian nobility to Catholic Christianity
• A compensation of 200,000 florins to Duke Wilhelm of Austria, who was already engaged to Hedwig
• The return of Lithuanian occupied territories to Poland and the release of Christian prisoners of war
• The cession of the southern regions of Lithuania to the Polish crown.

The result was Jogailas baptism and coronation in 1386. Władysław the Christian name he took in honor of the grandfather of his bride, king Władysław I the Elbow-, the penultimate in Piast royal line at. Jagiello, the Polonised version of his name, emerges only later.

The Polish nobility had long been dissatisfied with the dynastic connection to Hungary, but had common interests with Lithuania against the Teutonic Order and the ascending Grand Duchy of Moscow. At the Battle of Tannenberg then the German Order of the united Polish-Lithuanian army was defeated.

While Jogaila and Jadwiga reigned together as equal monarchs over Poland, Lithuania, however, was ruled from 1401 by Jogailas cousin Vytautas, who pursued an independent policy under the nominal supremacy of the Polish king. The ratio was formulated in a further agreement, the Union of Horodło 1413. On the Jogaila dynasty of the Jagiellonian goes back.

Installed in Krewo personal union 1569, the foreseeable extinction of the Jagiellonian, in the Lublin Union expanded into a real union, which culminated in the creation of the state of Poland - Lithuania.