Kazimierz IV Andrzej Jagiellończyk is born to His Grace Władysław II Jagiełło, the Duke of Sandomierz and his fourth wife, Princess Zofia Holszańska of Halshany. Previous wives have only given him daughters and sons who have not lived to rule. Later the Princess would give him two more daughters: Jadwiga and Elżbieta.
1421, December – Age 3 – Krakow, Poland
Kaziu begins his training and tutelage. The remainder of his childhood is spent mastering languages, learning politics, horseback riding, and sword fighting. Tutors attempt to teach the young boy manners.
1429, Fall – Age 11 – Krakow, Poland
Kaziu’s mother brings him to Wawel Castle following the birth of his future sovereign, quickly instilling the important role he will soon play. The Grand Duke of Lithuania and his father are both ill, it is only a question of who will leave for the heavens sooner. His own sisters quite young, he spends much time with them and the young princess, they all become close.
1430, September 19 – Age 12 – Krakow, Poland
Kazimierz’s father dies, asleep one night only to never wake. He quickly becomes head of the household, now the Duke of Sandomierz. His sisters and mother weep.
1431, June 4 – Age 13 – Wilna, Lithuania
Sigismund Kęstutaitis dies, leaving the Grand Duchy of Lithuania open, and Kazimierz is nominated by the Voivode of Trakai. He is soon crowned Grand Duke by the Council of Lords, although his position is only in name. He spends his days corresponding with his sisters, friends, and mother, as well as learning Lithuanian and the customs of its land.
1436, December 5 – Age 18 – Wilna, Lithuania
Kaziu becomes of age, and official takes on a role of leadership in Lithuania. He is now Grand Duke not only in paper, although he must still refer to the Council of Lords for every decision.
1446, Spring – Age 28 – Krakow, Poland
He returns to his native Krakow for the first time in six years, having last seen his mother and sisters well over a year ago. His rule has rule has run smoothly, although he grows more impatient with the Council of Lords. He confides in the Princess Izolda, they secretly and dismissively begin discussions of a future takeover.
1448, October – Age 30 – Krakow, Poland
The Romanian Empire attacks Krakow, slaying the King and Queen. Kazimierz returns, angered in his inability to help. He comforts his friends, then decides to bring his sister and mother with him to Wilna.
1449, Winter – Age 31 – Krakow, Poland
Kazimierz travels back to Wawel Castle following the death of King Kol, he stays for months in order to aid the grieving Queen.
1451, May – Age 33 – Wilna, Lithuania
His advisors begin the discussion of marriage and heirs; they soon begin negotiations of a dowry. In a matter of months he is engaged to Princess Mairie of Scotland – they have never met.
1452, Spring – Age 34 – The Ottoman Empire
Kaziu meets Alexius and soon joins him in taking the throne. Riding with his Hussars, he watches as the latter makes advances in Ottoman territory, eventually fighting in the Battle of Larissa. After he returns home, further inspired to overthrow the Council of Lords.
1452, Present – Age 34 - Rome
He now lives in Rome for the time being, soon to meet his betrothed and finalize his marriage. In the meantime, he gathers more supporters in his quest to become Kind of Lithuania.
Amidst the bellows of labour and the inquisitiveness of sundry courtiers loitering outside of Queen Anne’s luxurious birthing-rooms, a cry erupts from lungs forged of aureate fibres intertwined with coal. Nigh a decade succeeding the parturition of the first Swedish royal, breath given unto a son, William –– name bequeathed in honor of Saint William of Gellone; a feudal, imposing leader amongst the Aquitaine peoples. He is born the first and only son in an impenetrable trio of heirs; the picture of his father and the crowning glory of his mother’s matrimonial prosperity. Long live the King.
ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ¹⁴²⁸ – ᴀɴ ᴀʟʟɪᴀɴᴄᴇ ꜰᴏʀɢᴇᴅ
An association to be likened to the confidence which is possessed between the moon and the ether which holds it and the concord wound betwixt Damon and Phythias, is stimulated between brethren — the sons of alliances blessed by Philotes. Coalitions had long been forged between Luxembourg and Sweden, the former noted for its wealth, the latter for its militaristic progression; but the camaraderie which soon formed between the children of monarchs had been borne from endearment alone - and a corresponding taste for havoc, joined at the hip and of one mine once juvenescent revelry had stepped in.
ᴏᴄᴛᴏʙᴇʀ sᴇᴠᴇɴᴛʜ, ¹⁴³⁵ – ʜᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍɪɢʜᴛʏ ꜰᴀʟʟ
Thirteen years of life have elapsed when the nape of his neck begins to prickle and swell with hive-like effects, unfurling across the vast swath of his frame in minuscule, reddened nodules; corralling the Prince to the royal bedchamber for a fortnight to recuperate from that which was like to seize his life. Though buboes did not suppurate upon his flesh, his mother cries that he has risen from the dead once he is mended and emerged from constraint, faint cicatrixes marring concealed areas of his frame in contingencies. He is considered fortunate to have evaded the widespread demise which swept through Sweden on account of such an ailment.
ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪɴᴛᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ¹⁴³⁸ – ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴍᴩʀᴇss
Only but meagre years had succeeded the espousal of Lucius and his sister, and the birth of their only child, before the news of the Empress’ malapropos and disputed death engulfed the Western nations. In inordinate amplitude had Emma been lamented in both Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire, and no expense had been restrained to revitalize her memory amidst the Swedish people; her image enduring as youthful and fair as she had been upon the portentous days in which her tremulous nuptials had been uttered, her place within the Swedish crown polished for the last as her body lady upon a land overruled by her murderer.
ᴍᴀʏ ᴇɪɢʜᴛʜ, ¹⁴⁵⁰ – ᴀ sʜɪꜰᴛ ɪɴ ᴩᴏᴡᴇʀ
Death is a vengeance delivered in trios; his sister gone first, father headlong in his grave soon thereafter, and his mother’s seclusion from court penetrating as keenly as if it were her sepulture succeeding the demise of the King. William is then exalted to the throne of Sweden in solitude. A hollow crown upon his head of flaxen and titular robes weighing down his shoulders fitting ill. Etta of Sweden is by then married and maternal, and his own mother abstracted; acquitted of all queenly obligations until her expiry in the proceeding wintertide. To combat the isolation which seeps into the chambers of his chest as thickly as tar, the King gathers a throng of men to fortify his reign in times of prevailing uncertainty; rearranging his privy council to meet the standards which would encompass his incipient rule.
ᴍᴏɴᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴅᴇᴄᴇᴍʙᴇʀ, ¹⁴⁵⁰ – ꜰᴇᴀsᴛ ᴏʀ ꜰᴀᴍɪɴᴇ
A ubiquitous famine of agriculture spreads across the lowlands and reaches the northern stratosphere of Sweden in a calamitous paucity of necessary amenities contributing to the success and longevity of a territory and the livelihood of its people. Within weeks thousands of deceased Swedes are accrued in the streets and set to flame by men of the church - burials, as though an emulation of the past two decades belonging to a weakened pestilence, becoming an extravagance. And thus the land of roses begins to wilt and the milk and honey coagulate. Death is hence rife whilst yields continue to worsen, and though the royal court persistently migrates from one palace to the next (ergo securing the safety of its ruler), the mortality of the Kingdom is challenged in several metropolises supplying the comprehensive weal of the realm. The poverty which was once attributed to servants alone had, by then, seized the bourgeois. Several strides were made to recuperate the perpetration of prosperity amongst the people — but the famine claims control of royal deliberations for nigh a year before rebirth limns upon the horizon and William’s own decision becomes clear to the people.
He must take a wife and bring an heir unto his Kingdom.
