Casimir III

Casimir III the Great (1310 –1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He was the third son of King Władysław I and the last Polish king from the Piast dynasty.
He inherited a kingdom weakened by war and made it prosperous and wealthy. It was under him that political authority was firmly re-established in Poland. Krakow took on some of its present appearance during his reign, being embellished with a series of magnificent buildings to substantiate its claim to be a great European capital. It was also made the seat of a university, the first in the country and before long one of the most prestigious on the continent. Kazimierz reformed the Polish army and doubled the size of the kingdom. He reformed the judicial system and introduced a legal code, gaining the title ‘the Polish Justinian’. He also confirmed privileges and protections previously granted to Jews and encouraged them to settle in Poland in great numbers. A law of 1346 protected them against persecution in Poland and was a major factor in Poland’s centuries-long position as the home of the largest community of world Jewry.
Kazimierz left no lawful male heir to his throne, producing only daughters. When Kazimierz died in 1370 from an injury received while hunting, his nephew, King Louis I of Hungary, succeeded him as king of Poland in personal union with Hungary.