Casimir Iv

(born Nov. 30, 1427—died June 7, 1492) Grand duke of Lithuania (1440–92) and king of Poland (1447–92).

He became ruler of Lithuania by will of the boyars and king of Poland on his brother's death. He sought to preserve the political union between Poland and Lithuania and to recover the lost lands of old Poland. Through his own marriage to Elizabeth of Habsburg and the marriages of his children, he formed alliances with various European royal houses and built the Jagiellon dynasty. The great triumph of his reign was the effective destruction of the Teutonic Order (1466), which brought Prussia under Polish rule.