[3] Casimir IV Jagiellon was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
[3] Thus after his death in 1492, John I Albert was elected to the Polish throne, while the Lithuanian Council of Lords chose Alexander Jagiellon.
Ivan III of Russia claimed that he inherited rights to all Russian and Orthodox lands after the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
After the Tatars invaded Volhynia and Podolia in late 1494, John Albert suggested a military and further political alliance to his brother Alexander.
[5] He agreed, but negotiations dragged until spring 1498, when the Tatars invaded Podolia and Galicia and took thousands of prisoners.