Władysław IV Vasa

Born 9 June 1595, eldest son of Sigismund III Vasa and Anna of Austria, Władysław carried claims to Sweden and Russia alongside his Polish birthright. In 1610 the Seven Boyars named him tsar after the Polish army captured Moscow, but his father's intransigence and an uprising blocked the coronation; he used the title grand duke of Moscow until 1634 anyway. Elected king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania in 1632, he fought personally in the Smolensk War of 1632-1634 and beat back foreign threats, including the Ottoman Empire. He founded the Commonwealth Navy, backed religious tolerance, and became a noted patron of music and the arts; his charisma steadied a fractious realm. He died 20 May 1648 without a legitimate son, passing the throne to his half-brother John II Casimir - and with him went the peace: the Khmelnytsky Uprising erupted that year, the Swedish Deluge followed in 1655, and Poland's power drained away, leaving his reign remembered as the last golden moment before the fall.