On this day in 1310 one of the greatest Polish kings was born: Casimir III the Great. He reigned for almost 40 years and turned Poland into a flourishing kingdom. According to a famous saying, modeled after a quote from Augustus, he found a Poland made out of wood and left it made out of stone. So how did he do that? And what other things made him so great? I will go over three things that made him a great ruler in my opinion. 

1) Developing the country

Casimir is sometimes called the 'peasant king', because he cared for the lower classes of society. He introduced new civic and criminal laws improving the judicial system. This created more equality between the nobility and commoners and allowed him to be more powerful as king.

Casimir is also responsible for founding many new towns in Poland and its first university which is now known as the Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world. He also reformed the economy by introducing a new standardized coin.

2) Expanding the country and strengthening its borders

Casimir the Great doubled the size of Poland during its reign and made sure these gains wouldn't be lost. He built around 40 castles and reformed the army.  He was also an active diplomat and forged an alliance with Hungary in the South and signed a treaty with the Teutonic knights in the North. 

3) Religious tolerance 

During the Middle Ages Jewish people were often treated as second hand citizens, suffered from violent pogroms regularly and were sometimes expelled from countries. Casimir the Great made sure these things wouldn't happen in his kingdom. He passed laws to protect the Jewish population, allowed Jewish migrants to settle in Poland and propagated a policy of religious tolerance. He also created new towns/neighborhoods for them such as Kazimierz in Krakow, which is named after him. The skilled and prosperous Jewish communities helped him develop Poland even more. 

Summing up all of these achievements, Casimir III definitely deserves to be called 'the Great'. A surprisingly  unselfish king who cared a lot for his country and all of its citizens. 

Originally posted on Instagram on April 30, 2021