Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/238

48 children of the latter, as well as the descendants of Kestud, Casimir, and the other kings, the enumeration of the race would extend beyond all bounds; yet rapidly as it increased, the male line, at the present day, survives only in the son of the late King of Poland, viz., Sigismund, the second King of Poland.

But since we have made reference to the posterity of Gedemin, and the kings of that race, it seems appropriate to lay before the reader the events which occurred during the reigns of Vladimir, king of Hungary and Bohemia, and his brother Sigismund, king of Poland, the sons of Casimir.

After Vladislav’ had come into possession of Hungary by the concession of the Emperor Maximilian, who, however, reserved to himself the right of succession, Vladislav’ being now an old man with only one daughter, Maximilian, with the view of strengthening the right of succession by a somewhat stronger bond, began to propose to Vladislav’ a marriage between one of his grandchildren by his son Philip, king of Spain, and Anna, Vladislav’s daughter. Now John Zapolski, son of Stephen, Count of Zips, whose influence with King Mathias, and consequently with Vladislav’ himself, was very great, was extremely anxious to bring about a marriage between himself and Anne; and in his pursuit of this object was strenuously assisted by his widowed mother, who bribed all the leading men in the counties and provinces of Hungary with presents and annual stipends, called in their language Jargalass, and thus held them bound to perform any service which she might require at their hands, nothing doubting, that by their contrivances and influence, she might bring about this marriage for her son, and thus procure him the kingdom: to these woman-like machinations the marriage between her daughter, John’s sister, and Sigismund, king of Poland, added great weight. Maximilian observing this state of affairs, and considering that it now became still more necessary for him to urge his proposition of