Casimir III the Great

Casimir III the Great (1310–1370), last Piast king of Poland, took the throne in 1333 over a small, ravaged realm. The Teutonic Order held Kuyavia. He chose treaties over war: at Visegrád in 1335 the arbitrators ordered Kuyavia and Dobrzyń returned, while he gave up Pomerania and the Chełmno Land to the Order; he also accepted the loss of Silesia.

Turning east, he annexed Red Ruthenia in 1340. His Statutes of Wiślica and Piotrków codified Polish law, earning him the name the Polish Justinian. Nearly thirty towns were walled and fifty castles built, and in 1364 he founded the University of Kraków.

He confirmed Jewish privileges in 1334 and encouraged settlement. In 1355 he named his nephew Louis I of Hungary heir should he have no son. He died on 5 November 1370 without a legitimate son; Louis took the crown, and Piast rule ended.