John I Albert

John I Albert
Presumed likeness of John I Albert
King of Poland
Reign	1492–1501
Predecessor	Casimir IV Jagiellon
Successor	Alexander I
Born	(1459-12-27)27 December 1459 Kraków, Poland
Died	17 June 1501(1501-06-17) (aged 41) Toruń, Poland
Burial	Wawel Cathedral, Kraków
Dynasty	Jagiellon
Father	Casimir IV of Poland
Mother	Elisabeth of Austria
Religion	Roman Catholic

John I Albert (Polish: Jan I Olbracht) (27 December 1459 – 17 June 1501) was King of Poland (1492–1501) and Duke of Głogów (1491–1498).

Early life and succession

John was the third son of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, and Elisabeth Habsburg of Hungary, daughter of the King Albert of Hungary. As crown prince, he distinguished himself by his brilliant victory over the Tatars at Kopersztyn (1487). In 1490, the Hungarian nobility proclaimed John King of Hungary at the Rákos diet. He was, however, defeated by his brother, King Vladislaus II of Hungary. In 1492, John succeeded his father as King of Poland thanks to the key intervention of his brother Friedrich Jagiellon, archbishop of Kraków and archbishop of Gniezno. Friedrich achieved the coronation of John. However, losses of revenue due to the secession of Lithuania placed John at the mercy of the Polish sejmiks, or local diets, where the szlachta, or local nobles, made their subsidies dependent on the king's subservience.

Plans against the Turks

John desired to pose as the champion of Christendom against the Ottoman Turks. Circumstances seemed, moreover, to favor him. In his brother Ladislaus, who as King of Hungary and Bohemia possessed a dominant influence in central Europe, he found a counterpoise to the machinations of Emperor Maximilian I, who in 1492 had concluded an alliance against him with Ivan III of Muscovy. As suzerain of Moldavia, John was favorably situated for attacking the Turks. At the conference of Leutschau (1494), the details of the expedition were arranged between the kings of Poland and Hungary and Elector John Cicero of Brandenburg, with the co-operation of Stephen III of Moldavia, hospodar of Moldavia, who had appealed to John for assistance.

In the course of 1496 John collected an army of 80,000 men in Poland with great difficulty, but the crusade was deflected from its course by the sudden invasion of Galicia by the hospodar, who apparently — for the whole subject is still very obscure — had been misled by reports from Hungary that John was bent upon placing his younger brother Sigismund on the throne of Moldavia. Whatever the reason, the Poles entered Moldavia not as friends but as foes, and after the abortive siege of Suceava were compelled to retreat following defeat at the Battle of the Cosmin Forest. The insubordination of the szlachta seems to have been one cause of this disgraceful collapse, for John after his return confiscated hundreds of their estates; in spite of which, to the end of his life he retained his extraordinary popularity.

Issues with Teutonic Knights and death

When the new Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Friedrich Wettin von Sachsen, refused to render homage to the Polish crown, John compelled him to do so. His intention to still further humiliate the Teutonic Order was stymied by his sudden death in 1501.

Ancestry

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John I Albert of Poland.

• History of Poland (1385–1569)
• Piotrków Statutes

References

• V. Czerny. The Reigns of Jan Olbracht and Aleksander Jagiellon. Kraków, 1882. (Polish)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.