Topic: Władysław Jagiełło, a king of great possibilities

Target group

5th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

VII. Poland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Pupil:

1 ) describes the territorial development of the Polish state in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries;

3 ) describes Poland's relations with Hungarians in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries;

4 ) explains the causes and evaluates the consequences of the Polish union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania;

5) characterizes achievements in the field of internal and foreign policy of the Jagiellonians in the fifteenth century;

6 ) organizes and puts in time the most important events related to Polish‑Teutonic relations in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

General aim of education

Students learn about the fate of the Polish‑Lithuanian Union and the rule of Jagiełło on the Polish throne

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• recognize how and why the union with Lithuania came to be and how the relations between Poland and Lithuania in the 14th and 15th centuries looked like;

• explain why Władysław Jagiełło gave privileges to the nobility;

• describe the fate of Polish‑Teutonic wars;

• explain why we are talking about the elected kings by nobles during the Jagiellonian dynasty.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students should know why there was a change in the dynasty that prevailed after the death of Casimir the Great and what Poland of Angevins looked like.

Introduction

1. The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

2. Then, referring to the homework, he asks the students how it happened that in the course of several decades, the rulers of the three different dynasties sat on the Polish throne..

Realization

1. The teacher explains the relations between Poland and Lithuania before the union in Krewo, and explains what reasons led to choice of Jagiełło as the husband of Jadwiga. Students read a fragment of the provisions of the bond of blood union and do Exercise 1. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback.

2. Then he characterized and compares the union in Krewa from 1385 and the union in Horodło from 1413. The teacher explains the students why there was a renewal of the union. He also explains what chances and threats the union of both countries brought with it - both for Lithuania and for Poland (the teacher may ask students about it). On the basis of excerpts from the document concerning the union in Horodło, students do Exercise 2 and Exercise 3 - they indicate records aiming at unification of the situation of elites in both countries. Then they will get acquainted with the interactive illustration of Prince Witold (Task 1). The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly completed and gives feedback.

3. Then the teacher asks students how they think, what the biggest problem Poland and Lithuania could have, that it has even become one of the reasons for the union (brainstorming)? Students should mention the Teutonic Order. The teacher asks that students in pairs try to find information on how this conflict was going in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He explains earlier that although everyone knows the battle at Grunwald, it was not the only clash with the Teutonic Order army.

4. Students present the course of the Polish‑Lithuanian‑Teutonic conflict. The teacher complements the information provided by the students. Students do Exercise 4, indicating the lands subject to religious knights in the fifteenth century, and Exercise 5, concerning Polish claims. The teacher makes sure that the tasks have been correctly completed and gives feedback.

5. The teacher explains the students that although they know that from the time of Władysław Jagiełło, the Polish dynasty of the Jagiellons was sitting on the Polish throne, this power was not hereditary, and it was a subject to agreement of the overlords, who were ones to elect. Then the teacher explains why the king issued the so‑called Jedlneńsk‑Krakow privileges. Students do Exercise 6, arranging Jagiełło's family tree. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and gives feedback.

Summary

1. The teacher asks students to think about how Władysław Jagiełło's rule and his policies in Poland, but also in Lithuania can be assessed. In order not to focus only on the positives, students make SWOT analysis: Strengths, that is all that was positive and advantage. Weaknesses, that is everything that was weakness and disadvantage. Chances, that is all that gave a chance for success and a favorable change. Threats, all that was a failure and created a danger. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly performed and gives feedback.

2. Students do Exercise 7 - assign specific titles to specific rulers.

3. The teacher gives students evaluation surveys in which they evaluate their own work during the lesson, the work of the teacher and colleagues.

Homework

1. The teacher sets homework (it is not an obligatory part of the script): During the reign of Władysław Jagiełło, the crown of one of the neighboring states was offered to him. Find out who saw the Polish ruler as his leader and under what circumstances did the event occur?.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Władysław Jagiełło, a king of great possibilities

The choice of the Lithuanian Jogaila as the royal husband for the Polish monarch Jadwiga was not easy neither for the Poles nor the Lithuanians. The elites of Christian Europe also considered it a controversial choice. The ruler of the people who until very recently were laying waste to the Polish lands and fighting against Christian knights was now to be crowned king of Poland. The Lithuanians were also afraid that the Union of Krewo of 1385 would turn out to be unfavourable for them, putting the Lithuanian state and society in a secondary position.

From the very beginning, attempts at closer cooperation and tightening the alliance were met with considerable resistance from the Lithuanians, in the form of resistance against christianisation and the ambitions of Vytautas, Jagiełło’s brother’s son. For years, he strove to rule the duchy of Lithuania independently, even if it meant entering into alliance with the enemy, the Teutonic Knights. The situation became even more complicated after Jadwiga’s death, as Jagiełło’s claim to the Polish throne no longer had any basis. Eventually, the Polish nobles accepted Władysław Jagiełło as an independent king of Poland and entrusted him with full powers. His connections with Lithuania were also reinforced by the reaffirmation of the union in 1401. The separateness of the two states was accepted within the political union of the two communities. This union allowed them to support one another in conflicts against mutual enemies, especially the Teutonic Knights.

The victory in the great war of 1409–1411 and the conclusion of the Peace of Thorn made the benefits of the union very clear. This led to another union, established in 1413 in Horodło, according to which both countries were to cooperate closely in the scope of foreign policy and neither was permitted to form alliances with states hostile towards the other. In addition, Lithuanian noble families (boyars) gained the same privileges as Polish nobility. Despite problems in mutual relations, both countries have avoided the deadly threat of the Teutonic Knights. The continuing war with the order, which dates back to 1409, ended in 1422. The peace between Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights at Lake Melno limited the previous power of the order and its expansive intentions. Lithuania gained a lot - the Teutonic Knights renounced their demands towards Samogitia. The established Prussian‑Lithuanian border survived until 1919. This allowed Władysław Jagiełło to focus on the most important problem of his final years: securing the succession for his son. Władysław Jagiełło was not an heir to the Polish throne, so in order to ensure the rule will be passed on to his son, he had to win the support of the nobility. By granting them two [privileges], in Jedlnia (1430) and Cracow (1433), he guaranteed the Polish nobles personal and property inviolability, while depriving himself of some of his power. However, he succeeded in confirming his son’s heredity of the crown. Thus began the reign of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Poland, which would last for the next 140 years.