Poland, or at least its nucleus, was ruled at various times either by książęta (Dukes) (ca. 10th-14th century) or by Kings (ca. 11th-18th century). The longest-reigning dynasties were the Piasts (ca. 960 – 1370) and Jagiellons (1386–1572). Intervening and subsequent monarchs were often rulers of foreign countries or princes recruited from foreign dynasties. During the latter period a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16th-18th centuries). Polish independence ended with the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1795) and was restored at the end of World War I (1918) on a republican basis.
created in 1807 as a satellite of Napoleon, dissolved at the Congress of Vienna and divided into the Russian Kingdom of Poland and the Prussian Grand Duchy of Poznań
