| Vladislaus II | |
|---|---|
 Fresco from walls of the St. Wenceslas Chapel in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague (1508) | |
| King of Bohemia | |
| Reign | 1471–1516 |
| Coronation | 22 August 1471 |
| Predecessor | George of Poděbrady |
| Successor | Louis |
| King of Hungary and Croatia | |
| Reign | 15 July 1490 – 13 March 1516 |
| Coronation | 18 September 1490 |
| Predecessor | Matthias I |
| Successor | Louis II |
| Born | 1 March 1456 Kraków, Kingdom of Poland |
| Died | 13 March 1516 (aged 60) Buda, Kingdom of Hungary |
| Burial | |
| Spouses | Barbara of Brandenburg (m. 1476; div 1490; legally dissolved 1500) |
| Issue | Anne, Queen of Hungary Louis II, King of Hungary |
| Dynasty | Jagiellon |
| Father | Casimir IV of Poland |
| Mother | Elizabeth of Austria |
| Religion | Catholic Church |
Vladislaus II, also known as Vladislav,[1][2] Władysław[3] or Wladislas[4] (Hungarian: II. Ulászló; 1 March 1456 – 13 March 1516), was King of Bohemia from 1471 to 1516 and King of Hungary and King of Croatia from 1490 to 1516. As the eldest son of Casimir IV Jagiellon, he was expected to inherit the Crown Kingdom of Poland and adjacent Grand Duchy of Lithuania. George of Poděbrady, the Hussite (followers of late 14th-early 15th centuries and pre-Protestant Bohemian Reformer in the Roman Catholic Church of persecuted theologian John Hus, 1370-1415) ruler of Bohemia, offered to make Vladislaus his heir in 1468. George needed Casimir's support against the rebellious Roman Catholic noblemen and their ally King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus. The Diet of Bohemia elected Vladislaus king after George's death, but he could rule only Bohemia proper because Matthias, whom the Roman Catholic nobles had elected king, occupied adjacent Moravia, and further east of Silesia in southeastern Germany and both Lusatias. Vladislaus tried to reconquer the four provinces with his father's assistance but was repelled by Matthias.
Vladislaus and Matthias divided the lands of the Crown of Bohemia at the Peace of Olomouc in 1479. The estates of the realm had strengthened their position during the decade-long Bohemian-Hungarian War (1468-1478) known as the war between both kings. Vladislaus's attempts to promote the Roman Catholics caused a rebellion in the capital of Prague and other towns in 1483 that forced him to acknowledge the dominance of the Hussites in the municipal assemblies. The Diet confirmed the right of the Bohemian noblemen and commoners to adhere freely to the religious fath of Hussitism or Roman Catholicism in 1485. After Matthias seized the Silesian duchies to grant them to his illegitimate son, John Corvinus, Vladislaus made new alliances against him in the late 1480s.
Vladislaus, whose mother, Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), was the sister of Matthias's predecessor, laid claim to Hungary after Matthias's death. The Diet of Hungary elected Vladislaus king after his supporters had defeated John Corvinus. The other two claimants, Maximilian of Austria (Holy Roman Emperor) and Vladislaus's brother, John I Albert, invaded Hungary, but they could not assert their claim and so made peace with Vladislaus in 1491. He settled in Buda, which enabled the Estates of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and both Lusatias to take full charge of state administration. As he had in Bohemia, Vladislaus always approved the decisions of the Royal Council in Hungary, hence his Hungarian nickname "Dobzse László" (Czech: král Dobře, Latin: rex Bene – "King Very Well", from Polish: dobrze). The concessions that he had made before his election prevented the royal treasury from financing a standing army, and Matthias's Black Army of Hungary was dissolved after a rebellion. However, the Turkish Ottomans of the Ottoman Empire to the southeast made regular raids against the southern border in the Balkan peninsula and after 1493 even annexed territories in adjacent Croatia.
- ^ Boubín 2011, p. 174.
- ^ Macek 1998, p. 98.
- ^ Frost 2015, p. 278.
- ^ Engel 2001, p. 303.