40-Tude wrote:
Lucky guess that Lithuania had almost 50 years of greatness and was a largest state. I had no idea!Up until 1444 they had ports on both the Baltic and Black sea and were just outside of Moscow.
In 43-44 they participated in the crusade of Varna (trying to kick the Ottomans out of the Baltics). The king of Poland Wladyslaw 3, was killed on November 10, 1444 in the Battle of Varna - the Ottomans won the crusade, eventually took Constantinople, destroyed the Byzantine Empire, and sieged Vienna. BUT more importantly to the Lithuania question, the Poles, without a king, decided to invite the Duke of Lithuania (it was a Grand Duchy not a Kingdom, so supreme leader was the duke) to also be the king of Poland.
Eventually in 1569 the Union of Lubin was enacted: Poland and Lithuania ceased to exist and became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Bt 1618 the PLC was biggest and most populous country in Europe (except for Russia[Russia didn't exist when Lithuania was the biggest country in Europe]).
