ings of Poland, a dignity bestowed upon them by
Otto II., Emperor of Germany, married, for dynastic reasons, Czech,
Kief, and German princesses, who, it is true, did not further Polish
national life, but broadened Polish culture by contact with other
nations. Wladislaw Lokietek (the Short), who about 1312 made Cracow the
centre of Poland, being the first monarch crowned there, married
Jadwiga, daughter of Boleslaw, Prince of Kalisz. She was an eminent
woman, and was buried in the magnificent cathedral at Cracow, where her
granite monument still stands.

The early kings favored the common people, who, unfortunately, in later
centuries were reduced to servitude, against the _szlachta_
(_Geschlechi_, nobility), so that in early days the women of the people
(_narod_) attained a high social standard. Especially Casimir the Great,
"the king of the peasants," and of the oppressed generally, greatly
increased the happiness and prosperity of the nation. He even admitted
to his realm the persecuted Jews by virtue of the statute of 1357
(privilegia judaeorum), a favor which, according to an unauthenticated
tradition, was due to his love for a beautiful Jewess _Esterka_
(Esther). This great king was legally married three times. He was
unhappy in his marriage with Anna Aldona, a Lithuanian princess, a union
which remained, however, without political consequences. Anna never felt
at home in Poland; she clung to Lithuanian customs, music, and dance.
She loved the manly sports of horseback riding and hunting, and during
her indulgence in them she was accompanied by Lithuanian flute players.
Her Christianity appeared at all times rather doubtful in the eyes of
the Polish clergy, and the Church pomp and ceremony were to her very
distasteful.

Her husband, to whom she was married almost in his boyhood, led a very
licentious life. Theodor Schiemann, the historian of the Slavs, relates
how Casimir at the court of Budapest fell in love with Clara von Zach,
daughter of a court official. Casimir's sister, Queen Elizabeth of
Hungary, aided him in seducing the innocent maiden. The father of the
latter, maddened by the disgrace, broke into the royal hall to avenge
himself upon the betrayers of his child, and wounded the royal couple,
but he was finally slain. A terrible judgment was passed upon all the
members of the family of Zach: Clara herself was mutilated and chased,
as a beast might be, to death, but her royal seducer did not interpose a