Union of Krewo
Polish envoys give Jogaila a pre-election pledge and safe-conduct at Vawkavysk
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The four envoys did more than offer Jogaila a crown. They formally pledged Queen Jadwiga to him as his lawful wife and guaranteed his Lithuanian party safe passage into Poland.
Thursday within the octave of Epiphany, 1386
At Vawkavysk on 11 January 1386, four Polish envoys issued a document in the name of Poland's nobles, magnates and community of the realm, choosing and accepting Jogaila as their prospective lord and king and giving Queen Jadwiga to him in lawful matrimony.
They were Włodko of Charbinowice, captain of Lublin; Piotr Szafraniec, sub-steward of Kraków; Mikołaj Bogoria, castellan of Zawichost; and Krystyn of Ostrów, warden of Kazimierz.
The same document guaranteed safe passage and conduct in Poland for Jogaila, his brothers, Lithuanian nobles and their representatives.
Why he needed a piece of paper to cross the border
Jogaila had ratified his own side of the marriage-and-crown negotiations at Krewo the previous August. Before entering Poland without an army, he needed the Polish political community's reciprocal pledge and its protection.
He was already travelling between Vilnius and Poland when the envoys reached him, so the parchment was at once a political commitment and a practical safeguard.
It was the Polish counterpart to promises Jogaila had already made — not a fresh occasion on which the conversion and marriage terms were first put to him.
Seven weeks to a coronation
The completed, public pre-election followed at Lublin on 2 February. Jogaila entered Kraków on 12 February, was baptised on 15 February, married Jadwiga on 18 February and was crowned on 4 March.
Historians describe the Vawkavysk act variously as an election, a pre-election, a reciprocal ratification or a safe-conduct; it did not itself complete the legal and ceremonial steps required for kingship.
The original is a modest parchment 29 centimetres wide and 18 high, and of its four seals only the attachment strips survive.
Sources
- S. C. Rowell, "1386: The Marriage of Jogaila and Jadwiga Embodies the Union of Lithuania and Poland"
- Akta Unji Polski z Litwą, no. 2: Vawkavysk act of 11 January 1386
- Robert Frost, The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania, Volume I
- Formation and Transformations of Dynastic Ties between Lithuania and Poland
Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The original formula dates the act to the Thursday within the octave of Epiphany in 1386, conventionally 11 January in the Julian calendar. No proleptic-Gregorian conversion has been applied.
- Historians variously describe the Vawkavysk act as an election, pre-election, reciprocal ratification or safe-conduct. It did not itself complete every legal and ceremonial step required for kingship.
Checked against
- S. C. Rowell, “1386: The Marriage of Jogaila and Jadwiga Embodies the Union of Lithuania and Poland”
- Akta Unji Polski z Litwą, no. 2: Vawkavysk act of 11 January 1386
- Robert Frost, The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania, Volume I
- Formation and Transformations of Dynastic Ties between Lithuania and Poland
- Christianity — Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija
- The Conversion of Lithuania, 1387