Stephen Bathory

The first Stephen Báthory (1477-1534) was a Hungarian noble and loyal adherent of King John Zápolya of Hungary. Thus in 1529 he was made governor of Transylvania.

Stephen was elected to become king of Poland, after Henry III of Valois returned suddenly to France. He married Anna, daughter of Sigismund II Jagiello.

Not all of Poland recognised Bathory as new king. Gdansk (Danzig) refused to pay homage to him and backed instead another candidate to the Polish crown, Maximilian. Stephen Bathory, upon becoming king of Poland, attacked Gdansk and tried to take it by military force. Gdansk successfully defended against him and a compromise was reached: Bathory had to accept Gdansk's continued status as a autonomous city, and Gdansk recognised him as ruler and paid enormous sum in gold as "apology". He verified this in 1577. Gdansk was later loyal to king and funded military units when demanded.

Bathory led the Polish army in a brilliant decisive campaign against the Baltic invaders of Ivan "the terrible" Vasleivich. The Russians had invaded Livonia and took Dorpat from the Teutonic knights vassal, the Teutonic Brothers of the sword. The Poles under Bathory routed a Russian force at Vilnius and kept pushing the Russians back to their steppes and their forests. The Polish army took back Smolensk and Pleskov. The Russians abandonned Livonia soon after.

Stephen Bathory planned a Christian alliance against the Ottomans. He also tried to make Russia a vassal state of Poland. He considered this a necessary step for his anti-Ottoman crusade.

When Stephen Bathory died, there was a one year interregnum, and he was then succeeded by Sigismund III Vasa of Sweden.

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