ALEXANDER (1461-1506), 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 1501. His extreme impecuniosity made him
from the first subservient to the Polish senate and nobles
(szlachta), who deprived him of the control of the mint--then
one of the most lucrative sources of revenue of the Polish
kings--curtailed 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 5, 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).
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
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