Kings of Poland Family Tree

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As a native Pole I am deeply grateful for taking time to make this very informative video! It's always so nice and fun to see people talk about our history and culture, despite a few minor pronunciation errors ;) I think that if we were to restore the monarchy, there would be a strong push from the society for the monarch to be of polish noble roots, someone from the house of Czartoryski or house of Radziwiłł would be a suitable candidate.

I would like to highlight the fact that Sigismund the old's Queen and wife was Bona Sforza, daughter of the Duke of Milan, so there's a connection with Italy there!

Actually! Sigismund I was called "the old" because his son ruled as a monarch alongside him for some time. Since both of them were named "Sigismund" everyone just stared to called one of them "the old" :) P.S. You did a great job on pronauncing our names!

Meanwhile in the alternative reality Polish-Swedish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the most baddas thing ever. Such a shame it didn't happen.

History of Piast dynasty is real Game of Thrones :)

Fun fact: Władysław, Vladislav, Ladislav, Ladislaus (also László in Hungarian), which we see commonly among the names of the Polish, Bohemian and Hungarian rulers, are all variations of the same name. Fun fact 2: Frederick Augustus I is a bit forgotten in the Polish collective historical memory as the sort of Polish monarch. I suspect that most people when asked "who was the ruler of the Duchy of Warsaw?" would probably answer "Prince Józef Poniatowski, right?". He was a nephew of the last Polish king, a member of the Government of the Duchy of Warsaw as the Minister of War and commander of its army. He was also the only commander among Napoleon's non-French allies and auxiliaries made a Marshal of the Empire, shortly before his death in battle of Leipzig. Also, "duke" and "prince" is one word in Polish.

I'm pretty sure that 'w's in Polish are pronounced like English 'v's...

Fun fact: the Polish monarchy became elective monarchy after the death of King Jadwiga, as her death marked the end of the original royal dynasty, that being the Piast dynasty. Władysław Jagiełło actually had to convince the nobility by giving them special privileges to let him stay on the throne. All the Jagiellonian kings afterwards were elected kings, it's just that the Jagellonian dynasty was so strong that the nobles never considered electing the king from any other dynasty, up to the point when Jagellonian dynasty also ended. The elective monarchy actually have ended with the Constitution of 3rd May, where it was stated that after death of king Stanisław Poniatowski, the monarchy would become inherited once again, with the title given to the House of Wettin. So, the crown would rightfully belong to the current head of House of Wettin, just as you said, but it would be actually inherited.

Henry de Valois never abdicated, poland nobility dethrone him, but he was using title "King of Poland" as long as he lived.

Fun fact: there’s a Mexican writer named Elena Poniatowska, she is relative of king Stanislaw the second, that’s because she is a direct descendant of one of the king brother’s, so she probably would be queen of Poland. One ironic thing about her is that even though she has a royal background, part of her work is written about the communism.

If everything went good in history Poland, Lithuania, Russia and Sweden etc. could end up be ruled by one person.

18:25 I think that most of Polish monarchists would opt for "king from Piast family", so they would choose person from house Czartoryski, Wiśniowiecki or Sobieski instead of Wettin or other foreign dynasty

Fun fact: During the first World War the Central Powers, in an attempt to gain polish support, declared they would create a "self-governing" Kingdom of Poland. A regency council and most institutions needed for a country were even established but as we know the war ended in a way that Poland declared full independence and itself a Republic. Germany and Austro-Hungary argued a lot about whom the king should be with the Habsburgs initially wanting it to become another addition to their monarchy (turning it into the Austro-Hungarian-Polish monarchy) before promoting the Prince of Zywiec, Karl Stephan Habsburg-Lorraine. However, as Karl and his children considered themselves to be Polish he was not popular with Germany who instead promoted Albrecht Wurttemberg. Karl was the prefered candidates of Polish monarchists.

The king Michael I from house of Wiśniowiecki was actually a descended from Piast dynasty through his mother. He was a great-great-great-grandson of Anna of Masovia. She was the sister of the last Masovia dukes.

According to long lasted tradition the modern king of Poland would be a persone who would offer Poles the most of new privilages (and of course accepted the privilages that were given to them before)

Long live Poland! Greetings from Hungary brothers!

There is a legend that Bolesław Chrobry could become a king after the Holy Roman Emperor, Otto III visited Poland and famously put his crown on Bolesław's head as a symbol of recognizing him as a true ruler and blessing him to become the king of Poland.

It is worth noting that the Polish Constitution of the Third May (1791), the first European constitution and the greatest political success of Stanisław II Poniatowski (in spite of it being revoked by Russians and their supporters only two years later following a war) has turned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth into a hereditary kingdom of Poland with the Wettins becoming the official ruling dynasty following Poniatowski's death, so that's another thing worth remembering when discussing the strength of the Saxon claim.

Przemysł II's line was not the "main" line of the Piasts. The most senior branches ruled in Silesia. Per Bolesław III's will, the senior duke of Poland was supposed to be his eldest male-line descendant, regardless of the seniority of the line, but that system collapsed over time, so in the end the claim to the Polish throne was based more on the territories held. By the way, Alexander, like his father, was also grand duke of Lithuania before becoming king of Poland. Also, I find it weird that Michael I's father, Jarema Wiśniowiecki is missing from the chart, while some other fathers of the elective kings are present. He was quite a prominent historical figure.