Background and career
Stephen Báthory (Hungarian: Báthory István; Polish: Stefan Batory; Lithuanian: ; 27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania as well as Prince of Transylvania (1576–1586), after previously being Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576).
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 the 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 Gdańsk rebellion.
He reigned for only a decade, but is considered one of the most successful kings in Polish and Lithuanian history, particularly in the military realm. 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 the Commonwealth borderlands and secured a highly favorable treaty of peace (the Peace of Jam Zapolski).
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