Hungarian István Báthory Polish Stefan Batory
born Sept. 27, 1533, Szilágysomlyó, Transylvania
died Dec. 12, 1586, near Grodno, grand duchy of Lith.
Prince of Transylvania (1571–76) and king of Poland (1575–86).
In 1571 he was elected prince of Transylvania by the Hungarians, and in 1575, as son-in-law of the late Sigismund I , he was elected king of Poland by the Polish nobility. A forceful and ambitious monarch, he successfully defended Poland's eastern Baltic provinces against Russian incursion and forced the cession of Livonia to Poland in 1582. He planned to unite Poland, Muscovy, and Transylvania and was preparing to renew the war against Russia when he died.