Stephen Báthory

noble and ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

27 September 1533 Szilágysomlyó, Eastern Hungarian Kingdom

12 December 1586(1586-12-12) (53) Grodno, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

NamesCasimir Andrew Jagiellon

Transylvanian noble and ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1576-86 For other people with the same name, see Stephen Báthory (disambiguation). "Stefan Batory" redirects here. For the Polish ocean liner, see TSS Stefan Batory. King of Poland The native form of this personal name is Báthory István. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals. Stephen Báthory (Hungarian: Báthory István; Polish: Stefan Batory; Lithuanian: Steponas Batoras ; 27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576), Prince of Transylvania (1576–1586), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1576–1586). The son of Stephen VIII Báthory and a member of the Hungarian Báthory noble family, Báthory was a ruler of Transylvania in the 1570s, defeating another challenger for that title, Gáspár Bekes. In 1576 Báthory became the husband of Queen Anna Jagiellon and the third elected king of Poland. He worked closely with chancellor Jan Zamoyski. The first years of his reign were focused on establishing power, defeating a fellow claimant to the throne, Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and quelling rebellions, most notably, the Danzig rebellion. He reigned only a decade, but is considered one of the most successful kings in Polish history, particularly in the realm of military history. His signal achievement was his victorious campaign in Livonia against Russia in the middle part of his reign, in which he repulsed a Russian invasion of Commonwealth borderlands and secured a highly favorable treaty of peace (the Peace of Jam Zapolski).