Extension:Ex-1.1.1
The Jewish mistress of King Casimir III, according to legend; the particularly favorable rights granted by him to the Jews are credit to her influence. The first stories about her appear about a century after Casimir’s time, in Jan Długosz’s 15th century Polish chronicle. The legend tells that Esterka bore the king two sons and two daughters: the sons were baptized and became the founders of several Polish aristocratic lines, while the daughters remained Jewish. The legend further reports that Esterka was murdered after the king’s death. This story, which became a symbol of Polish-Jewish coexistence, circulated widely in various literary versions, and later even became the subject of artistic and theatrical interpretations in both Yiddish and Polish. Modern studies generally claim that the story is constructed along the narrative model of the Biblical Book of Esther.