The
Polish-
Lithuanian Commonwealth was created in 1386 by the marriage of the Queen of Poland,
Jadwiga of the d'Angou dynasty, to the Grand Duke of Lithuania,
Wladislaw Jagiello. At the time
Jadwiga was only 11 years old. This union came at the cost of happiness for
Jadwiga for she had been betrothed since birth to a
Habsburg prince with whom she was said to be in love.
Wladislaw Jagiello was much older and up until their marriage, pagan (at this time a matter of large import). Jadwiga agreed to the marriage for the most part to quell the rising power of the
Teutonic Knights on the western border of
Poland.
Lithuania was at the time a large state, encompassing what is today
Belarus and the
Ukraine.
The Commonwealth remained more or less intact until the partitioning of Poland in 1772 by Prussia, Russia and Austria.