The Lithuanian dynasty that, through the union of Jogaila with Poland, ruled the vast Polish-Lithuanian realm and much of central Europe.
Gediminas, grand duke from about 1315, made Lithuania a great power stretching deep into the Rus’ lands while remaining pagan, the last major non-Christian state in Europe. His descendants ruled a vast, religiously mixed realm of Baltic pagans and Orthodox Slavs.
The decisive turn came with his grandson Jogaila, who in 1386 accepted Catholic baptism, married the young Polish queen Jadwiga, and was crowned king of Poland as Władysław II — a personal union that bound Poland and Lithuania together.
Jogaila ruled Poland while his cousin Vytautas the Great governed Lithuania, at times as rivals, at times as partners. Together in 1410 they led the Polish-Lithuanian armies to a crushing victory over the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, one of the largest battles of medieval Europe, breaking the power of the crusading Order.
Under Vytautas Lithuania reached its greatest extent, from the Baltic almost to the Black Sea.
Jogaila founded a royal dynasty that would rule Poland-Lithuania for nearly two centuries. His son Władysław III became king of Poland and Hungary but was killed leading a crusade against the Ottomans at the Battle of Varna in 1444, still a teenager.
Later Jagiellonians would also hold the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary, making the dynasty one of the most powerful in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe.
The union of Gediminid Lithuania with Poland created one of the largest states in Europe and set the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on its historical course. The dynasty’s conversion of Lithuania completed the Christianisation of Europe.
Grunwald became a lasting symbol of Polish and Lithuanian nationhood, and the Jagiellonians a byword for a golden age of central European power.