ALEXANDER, KING OF POLAND -
1461-1506
Encyclopedia Briitannica 11th Edition, 1910, Vol I, pg. 552
ALEXANDER (14611506), king of Poland and grand-duke of
Lithuania, fourth son of Casimir IV., king of Poland, was elected grand-duke of
Lithuania on the death of his father in 1492, and king of Poland on the death
of his brother John Albert in 149x. His extreme impecuniosity made him from the
first subservient to the Polish senate and nobles (szlachta), who
deprived him of the control of the mintthen one of the most lucrative
sources of revenue of the Polish kingscurtailed his prerogative, and
generally endeavoured to reduce him to a subordinate position. This ill-timed
parsimony reacted injuriously upon Polish politics. Thus, for want of funds,
Alexander was unable to assist the Grand Master of the Order of the Sword
against Muscovite aggression, or prevent Tsar Ivan III from ravaging Lithuania
with the Tatars. The utmost the king could do was to garrison Smolensk and
other fortresses and employ his wife Helena, the tsar's daughter, to mediate a
truce between his father-in-law and himself. During his reign Poland suffered
much humiliation from the attempts of her subject principalities, Prussia and
Moldavia, to throw off her yoke. Only the death of Stephen, the great hospodar
of Moldavia, enabled Poland still to hold her own on the Danube; while the
liberality of Pope Julius II, who issued no fewer than 29 bulls in favour of
Poland and granted Alexander Peter's Pence and other financial help, enabled
the Polish king to restrain somewhat the arrogance of the Teutonic Order. In
Alexander the characteristic virtues of the Jagiellos, patience and generosity,
degenerated into slothfulness and extravagance. Frequently he was too poor to
pay the expenses of his own table. But he never felt at home in Poland, and
bestowed his favour principally upon his fellow-countrymen, the most notable of
whom was the wealthy Lithuanian magnate Michael Glinsky, who justified his
master's confidence by his great victory over the Tatars at Kleck (August ~,
1506), the news of which was brought to Alexander on his deathbed.
See V. Czerny, The Reigns of John Albert and Alexander Jagiello
(Pol.) (Cracow, 1882).