Casimir III the Great (
Polish Kazimierz Wielki; April 30 1310 – November 5, 1370), last
King of Poland from the
Piast dynasty (1333–1370), was the son of King
Wladyslaw I the Elbow-high and Jadwiga of
Gniezno and
Greater Poland.
Born in Kowal, Casimir (Kazimierz) the Great first married Anna, or Aldona Ona, the daughter of the prince of Lithuania, Gediminas. The daughters from this marriage were Cunigunde (d 1357), who was married to Louis VI the Roman, the son of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and Elisabeth, who was married to Duke Bogislaus V of Pomerania. Aldona died in 1339 and Kazimierz then married Adelheid of Hesse. He divorced Adelheid in 1356, married Christina, divorced her, and while Adelheid and possibly also Christina were still alive ca. 1365 married Hedwig (Jadwiga) of Glogów and Sagan.
His three daughters by his fourth wife were very young and regarded as of dubious legitimacy because of their father's bigamy. Because all of the five children he fathered with his first and fourth wife were daughters, he would have no lawful male heir to his throne.
When Kazimierz, the last Piast king of Poland, died in 1370, his nephew King Louis I of Hungary succeeded him to become king of Poland in personal union with Hungary.
