Louis I the Great (Hungarian: I. (Nagy) Lajos, Polish: Ludwik Węgierski, Croatian: Ludovik I., Slovak: Ľudovít I. Veľký) (5 March 1326, Visegrád — 10 September 1382, Nagyszombat/Trnava) was King of Hungary, Croatia, and Dalmatia etc. from 1342 and of Poland from 1370. Louis was the head of the senior branch of the Angevin dynasty. He was one of Hungary's most active and accomplished monarchs of the Late Middle Ages, extending her territory to the Adriatic and securing Dalmatia, with part of Bosnia and Bulgaria, within the Hungarian crown. He spent much of his reign in wars with the Republic of Venice and in competition for the throne of Naples, the former with some success and the latter with little lasting results.
Louis, named for his uncle, Saint Louis of Toulouse, was the eldest son of the Charles Robert and Elisabeth, daughter of Ladislaus the Short and sister of Casimir the Great, the Piasts who reestablished kinship in Poland. He was designated heir of his father at birth. In due time, he became king of Hungary, at the death of his father in 1342. He was crowned only a few days later on 21 July. Louis led armies many times. Besides his best known campaigns, he fought in Bulgaria, Bosnia, Wallachia, and against the Golden Horde. The first Ottoman-Hungarian clash occurred during his reign.
The most common coin of Louis is the 'Saracen Head' type. This type was struck 1373-1382 . Those without a privy mark were struck in Pécs by Johannes Saracenus (per Pohl). The Saracen's head is a pun on the surname of Jacobus Saracenus (Szerechen, in Hun.) and his brother, Johannes, courtiers of Italian descent who were ennobled by Louis. The image of a Saracen's head appeared on their coat of arms. Jacobus became the kammergraf at the Pécs mint in 1352, and the Comes Camerarum Regalium in 1369. He died in the early 1370s, at which time Johannes succeeded him as kammergraf.
