The New International Encyclopædia/Louis the Great

LOUIS (I.) THE GREAT (c.1326-82). King of Hungary from 1342 to 1382. He was the son of Charles Robert, King of Hungary. He was an indefatigable warrior and generally victorious. His long war against Queen Joanna of Naples (see Joanna I.) was indecisive, although for a time Louis wore the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. With Venice he waged three wars and succeeded, in 1357, in expelling the Venetians from all the Dalmatian cities. In 1352 he had brought Moldavia under his power. In 1365 he won a great victory over the Turks. In 1370 he succeeded Casimir as King of Poland, to which the latter had already by conquest united Calicia. He was succeeded in Hungary and Poland by his daughter Mary, who became the wife of Sigismund of Brandenburg, subsequently Holy Roman Emperor. Louis was renowned for his chivalry and the splendor of his Court. He increased the royal power, gave charters to the cities, encouraged commerce and education, and reformed the administration of justice, thus on the one hand improving the welfare of his country, on the other, by his costly wars, menacing all prosperity. Consult Horváth, Geschichte Ungarns, vol. i. (2d ed., German trans., Budapest, 1876).