A GREAT DISSENSION TAKES PLACE THIS YEAR BETWEEN THE KING OF POLAND, ON THE ONE HAND, AND THE GRAND MASTER OF PRUSSIA AND HIS KNIGHTS ON THE OTHER.
THIS year, a great quarrel arose between the king of Poland and the grand master of the Teutonic order in Prussia; and the king assembled a large force from different nations, which he marched into Prussia, with the intent to destroy it.
The grand master and his brethren soon made themselves ready to meet him with a great army, and showed every inclination to give him battle; but when the two armies were in sight of each other, through the will of God, the king of Poland retreated with his forces, among which were twenty thousand Tartars at least, without counting his Polanders and others his Christian allies, who were very numerous, and returned to his own country.
Afterward, the king of Lithuania, by the exhortations of the king of Poland, invaded Prussia with an immense army, and destroyed the greater part which lay on the sea-shores. The Prussians made a thousand of them prisoners, and slew many.
The king of Poland was formerly an infidel, and son to the king of Lithuania, but, having a great ambition to reign, murdered his father, and was for this crime banished the country. He took refuge with the then king of Poland, who received him kindly, and admitted him into his friendship and confidence. He also gained the affections of the princes and nobles, insomuch that, on the death of their king, they unanimously elected this parricide to succeed him, had him baptised, and married him to the widow of the late king; and, since that time, he has happily enough governed that kingdom53.
At this period, Sigismond king of Hungary, brother to the king of Bohemia, took to wife the sister of the above queen of Poland: they were daughters to a german count, called the count de Cilly, of the royal branch of Hungary54. The king of Poland laid claim to Hungary in right of his wife, and thence took occasion to harrass that country as well as Prussia. He sent secret messengers to the king of Lithuania, his cousin german and ally, to press him to invade Prussia on the quarter nearest the sea, when he would march his Polanders to form a junction and destroy the whole of it. His intentions were discovered by the messenger being arrested by orders of the king of Hungary, and information sent of them to Prussia, whenceforward the king of Hungary and grand master took such wise precautions that his future attempts were fruitless.