When Sigismund I ascended the throne on 1 January 1507, the country was in debt and the treasury empty. Yet he managed to fill the treasury and gain the resources necessary to maintain the army by granting privileges to the nobility and gentry, who, in exchange for more rights and privileges, agreed to new taxes and tributes, which in reality devolved to the peasants and townsfolk, that is the lower estates of society.
The threat from the Wallachians, Tartars and Turks, together with the Protestant revolt in Gdańsk in 1525, had enormous bearing on both the domestic and foreign policies of Sigismund, who did not want to be involved in several conflicts at a time. One of the greatest achievements of his foreign policy was the end of the conflict between Poland and the Teutonic Order, which had been going on for centuries - since 1226. The Teutonic Knights, who had been beaten by Vladislaus Jagiełło in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, had settled in Prussia and continually harried Poland. Jagiełło had not taken full advantage of his victory to remove the threat once and for all. His grandason Sigismund I found a solution to the problem; after yet another Polish-Teutonic war, which again ended in a Polish victory, the Teutonic state was transformed into a secular body. In 1525 Albrecht Hohenzollern, the Grand Master of the Order, paid homage to his liege lord, the King of Poland, in the Market Square of Cracow. This brought the conflict which had lasted for three hundred years to a conclusion.
King Sigismund was not only a skilled politician. The people of Poland remember him most of all as a great patron of the arts. Thanks to him and his wife, Queen Bona of the Italian family of Sforza, the Renaissance flourished in Poland. The King sponsored a grand conversion project for Wawel Castle in Cracow, including the erection of the Sigismundian Chapel, the finest specimen of Renaissance architecture north of the Alps. They brought to Poland works of art from all over Europe. Sigismund I started a collection of arrases, decorative tapestries brought to Wawel Castle from Northern France, still today one of the largest arras collections in the world. Within twenty years, including the reign of the king's son, Sigismundus Augustus, who continued his father's collection, 356 such precious works arrived in Poland. Today - after all the losses incurred in subsequent times - 136 of them still hang in the royal apartments of Wawel Castle. Sigismund I also founded a bell, known as the Sigismundian Bell, which still hangs in the highest tower of Wawel Cathedral. It can be heard tolling during the most important state and church ceremonies, and remains a symbol of the Polish nation's freedom and independence.
Sigismund I, who died on 1st April 1548, has come down in history as a good and just king. He enjoyed a tremendous level of authority and popularity with his subjects. After his death, the throne passed to his son, Sigismundus Augustus who, however, failed to produce an heir. Thus ended the Jagiellonian dynasty, which had ruled Poland since 1384, when the throne had been assumed by Vladislaus Jagiełło.
