SIGISMUND I JAGIELLON, Known as the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. - Son of Casimir and of Elizabeth of Habsburg, b. at Kraków on 1 Jan. 1467, d. there on 1 Apr. 1548, he was elected to the throne of Lithuania on 20 Oct. and to that of Poland on 9 Dec. 1506, thanks to the reputation as a skilled administrator that he had gained in the Silesian Duchy.
Wise and provident, just and loyal, of notable intelligence, he nevertheless lacked sufficient energy and initiative and a broad vision of the country's needs. He ascended the throne in a particularly grave and delicate period: the threat of a coalition among Russia, Austria, the Teutonic Order, Tatars and Turks was gathering against Poland - quite determined, as almost three centuries later, to find satisfaction for their mutual conflicts at the expense of the Polish Respublica nobiliaris - while internally the nobility had become ever more unruly and intended to dominate the State, enslaving the royal power to itself.
Under these conditions S. sought to confront all his enemies with prudence and separately: first of all he attacked Muscovy, and, between 1507 and 1537, three successive wars, though without leading to a decision, opened the way to future solutions and to a 5-year truce; meanwhile in 1515 he had managed to settle every divergence with Austria and thus, having isolated the Teutonic Order, in 1520 he defeated its grand master Albert of Hohenzollern, approved its secularization, and in 1525 Duke Albert received East Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Vigilant finally against Tatar raids, he defeated Moldavia, a vassal of the Turks. On the other hand, in domestic policy, S. did not succeed in imposing himself on the nobility, which, in 1537, in the midst of a campaign against Moldavia, forced him to guarantee the free election of kings and not to permit any modification of the electoral law. Beyond these problems and difficulties, his reign is above all characterized by the rapid establishment of Renaissance civilization in Poland, thanks to the splendid patronage of the King and to the activity of his second wife Bona Sforza, who had great influence over S. and much interference in political life. The Protestant revolution penetrated into Poland toward the middle of S.'s reign through the mercantile bourgeoisie, especially German, of Danzig and of East Prussia, and S., profoundly Catholic, opposed its diffusion with every means, though it touched his own court. Nevertheless, on the whole, when he closed his eyes at Kraków S. had not stably resolved any of the problems of foreign or domestic policy of the Polish-Lithuanian State, and they would reappear, aggravated, after his death.
BIBL.: sources