When news of this terrible crime spread through Troki, there was a great outbreak. Michael and his attendants took refuge in a small castle on an island of the lake near Troki. Lelyush seized the main castle in the name of Svidrigello, and hung out his white banner above it. Dovgerd did the same in Vilna, but in Vilna the upper castle was taken by adherents of Michael. Meanwhile couriers raced off for Svidrigello. He hurried back from Moldavia, and appearing at Lutsk, was received with gladness by the people. Men imprisoned in strongholds of Lithuania and Russia were freed, but Svidrigello, instead of hastening to Vilna and Troki and securing the throne, which had come to him a second time, loitered in Lutsk till affairs changed again, and not to his profit.
In Olshani a number of noted Lithuanians met and resolved to depose both Svidrigello and Michael, and make Yagello’s [[443]]youngest son, Kazimir, Grand Prince. It seemed to these magnates that they might rear this young boy in the ways of the country and manage it themselves during his minority. The Polish magnates insisted that the Lithuanian throne belonged to their actual king, Vladislav, who at ten years of age had been named as Yagello’s successor, but Vladislav, having been made king in Hungary, and being attracted by the war just beginning with Turkey, was willing to yield Lithuania to his brother. Still the Poles insisted that Kazimir, not being a sovereign, but only a viceroy, should be called prince, and not Grand Prince. This angered Lithuanians, who considered him sovereign, and they acted as follows:
Young Kazimir came to Vilna with a large, brilliant suite, and attended by senators from Poland. The Lithuanian magnates prepared a great banquet to show him honor, and plied Polish senators with wine so generously that they were all fast asleep on the following morning. Very early in the day of July 3, 1440, the Lithuanians crowned Kazimir in the Vilna Cathedral, putting on his head the Grand Prince’s cap worn by Gedimin. They then gave him the sword, and placed on his shoulders the Grand Prince’s mantle. The Poles were roused from their slumbers by the thundering shouts of the people, who were greeting their new sovereign. Rich gifts were given to the senators, and they could do nothing but hide their mortification and displeasure, and reply with good wishes.
Not slight was the task which confronted young Kazimir. The preceding wars with their manifold miseries, the frosts, untimely and terrible, the failure of harvests, famine, the pestilence, and other visitations are mentioned continually in the chronicle. Besides, many regions refused to accept him as Grand Prince. The king would not acknowledge him, and the Poles were ever ready to uphold his opponents, so as to break up the Grand Principality, and take in its fragments one after another more easily. Hence Svidrigello received Volynia and part of Podolia from the Polish king. Michael, son of that Sigismund murdered at Troki, joined with Mazovian princes, and gave them Berestei. Jmud, which rose against Kazimir, sided with Michael. Smolensk was rebellious in like manner, but Ivan Gashtold, the Grand Prince’s guardian and chief of his council of magnates, pacified all. Even [[444]]Michael came finally to Vilna, and made peace with Kazimir, receiving from him those same places which Sigismund, his father, had held till he was murdered.
This peace, however, proved hollow, for Michael was raging against Kazimir in secret, and plotting to take the throne from him at any cost.
Once, when the Grand Prince was learning to hunt, some hundreds of men well armed and mounted appeared in the forest. The moment notice was given of their coming, Andrei Gashtold, the son of Ivan, seized young Kazimir and galloped away with him to Troki. Gashtold, the father, sent warriors to hunt down the horsemen. Some were killed, others made captive; among the latter were five Russian princes, the brothers Volojinski, who were put to death straightway in Troki. Gasthold then hurried off toward Bryansk to meet Michael. But Michael had fled to Moscow, and his lands were confiscated straightway.
With Svidrigello the action was simpler. He abandoned the king, and gave oath to Kazimir, who was his nephew. Kazimir left Svidrigello, his old, childless uncle, in Volynia, giving Kief with all its connections to Alexander, his cousin, a grandson of Olgerd and son of Vladimir. Smolensk was not managed so easily, but still it was managed, and kept for the Grand Principality.
Barely had Kazimir, acting through Gashtold, brought peace to the princedom and saved its integrity, when new troubles and new dangers came from Poland. The Polish-Hungarian king, Vladislav, brother of Kazimir, attracted by his kingdom of Hungary and his struggle with Turkey, left Lithuania and Russia unmolested; but in 1444 that young king fell at Varna, and his death destroyed the new union between Hungary and Poland. The Poles had their election in 1445, and chose Kazimir. The union with Hungary being lost, they were all the more eager for the Russo-Lithuanian connection. If a king, not descended from Yagello, took the throne, every bond between Poland and the Grand Principality would be severed, but as the election of Kazimir gave the chance not only of preserving this bond, but of merging the Grand Principality in Poland, his election was favored by Poles without exception. This desire of the Poles to subject the principality and find in it lands, wealth and offices was irrepressible, and roused great indignation in Russia, for the nobles valued their [[445]]independence, and the Orthodox clergy feared Latin encroachment.
Young Kazimir, grown accustomed to Russia, liked its ways and its language. Besides, the sovereign had power in Russia, while in Poland he had none. So when first his election was suggested, he answered evasively, saying that his brother’s death was still doubtful. At last the Poles used diplomacy to force him. They feigned to elect a Mazovian, Prince Boleslav, and to prepare for the coronation. This election meant war for the land claimed by Boleslav, and also a new war with Michael by Boleslav himself. The prospect of two wars, and the words of his mother brought conviction to Kazimir. In June, 1447, he was crowned with solemnity in Cracow.
The time following Kazimir’s election was remarkable for boisterous Diets. The Poles sought to turn Lithuania and Russia into provinces of their kingdom. They claimed all Podolia and Volynia, with the Upper Bug region. Feodor Butchatski succeeded in seizing some castles, and placing Polish troops in them. The Russo-Lithuanian magnates were indignant. With burning words they defended the integrity of their country at the Diets, and demanded the return of Volynia and Podolia to their proper connection. They showed that historically those regions were theirs beyond question. The Poles referred to their own former conquests, as they called them. They referred to the Horodlo union, and treaties with various Lithuanian princes. The Lithuanians rejected those statements, and declared that from the Horodlo pact should be excluded certain words touching the union of Lithuania and Poland, words inserted without their knowledge, and in secret.