Vytautas

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Vytautas the Great
Grand Duke of Lithuania
Reign4 August 1392 – 27 October 1430
Predecessor
SuccessorŠvitrigaila
Bornc. 1350
Senieji Trakai, Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Died27 October 1430(1430-10-27) (aged 79–80)
Trakai, Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Burial
Vilnius Cathedral, Vilnius
Spouse
Kęstutis
FatherKęstutis
MotherBirutė

Vytautas (c. 1350 – 27 October 1430), also known as Vytautas the Great[1] (Lithuanian: Vytautas Didysisⓘ, Belarusian: Вітаўт, Vitaŭt,[2] Polish: Witold Kiejstutowicz, Witold Aleksander or Witold Wielki,[1] Ukrainian: Вітовт (Vitovt), Ruthenian: Витовт (Vitovt), Latin: Alexander Vitoldus, Old German: Wythaws or Wythawt)[3] from the late 14th century onwards, was a ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was also the prince of Grodno (1370–1382), prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), and the postulated king of the Hussites.[4]

In modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revered as a national hero and was an important figure in the national rebirth in the 19th century. Vytautas is a popular male given name in Lithuania. In commemoration of the 500-year anniversary of his death, Vytautas Magnus University was named after him. Monuments in his honour were built in many towns in independent Lithuania during the interwar period from 1918 to 1939. Vytautas knew and spoke the Lithuanian language with his cousin Jogaila.[5][6][7]

Struggle for power

1377–1384

Main article: Lithuanian Civil War (1381–1384)

Vytautas' uncle

Grand Duke of Lithuania until his death in 1377. Algirdas and Vytautas' father Kęstutis had ruled jointly in the form of diarchy, with Algirdas governing the east and Kęstutis the west, primarily responsible for defense against the Teutonic Order. Algirdas was succeeded by his son Jogaila, and a struggle for power ensued. In 1380, Jogaila signed the secret Treaty of Dovydiškės with the Teutonic Order against Kęstutis. When Kęstutis discovered this in 1381, he seized Vilnius, imprisoned Jogaila, and made himself Grand Duke. However, Jogaila escaped and raised an army against Kęstutis. The two sides confronted each other but never engaged in battle. Kęstutis was ready to negotiate, but he and Vytautas were arrested and transported to Kreva Castle
. One week later, Kęstutis was found dead. Whether he died of natural causes or was murdered is still a matter of debate.

In 1382, Vytautas escaped from Kreva and he sought help from the Teutonic Order, who were negotiating with Jogaila at the time. Jogaila and the Order agreed to the

Nevėžis River, in return for recognition as Grand Duke of Lithuania. However, in July of the same year, Vytautas broke with the Order and reconciled with Jogaila. He then burned three important Teutonic castles, and regained all Kęstutis' lands, except for Trakai
.

1385–1392

Main article: Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392)
Poland and Lithuania, 1386–1434

In 1385, Jogaila concluded the Union of Krewo with Poland, under which he married Jadwiga of Poland and became King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło. Vytautas participated in the Union and in 1386 was re-baptised as a Catholic, receiving the name Alexander. In 1386 Vytautas paid homage to Jagiello, after his coronation to the king of Poland.[8]

Jogaila left his brother

Vasili I of Moscow in 1391.[9]

The Polish nobles were unhappy that their new king spent too much time on Lithuanian affairs. It was clear that the war could continue for years and would not benefit Poland. In 1392, Jogaila sent

Astrava Treaty
in which Vytautas recovered all Kęstutis' lands, including Trakai, and was given more. Vytautas would rule Lithuania in the name of Jogaila. After Vytautas' death, all his lands and powers would revert to Jogaila.

Grand Duke of Lithuania

Policy towards the East

Latin language
)

Vytautas continued Algirdas' vision to control as many Ruthenian lands as possible. Much of the territory was already under the Grand Duke's rule, but the rest was controlled by the Mongols. Tokhtamysh, Khan of the Golden Horde, sought help from Vytautas when he was removed from the throne in 1395 after his defeat by Timur. An agreement was reached that Vytautas would help Tokhtamysh to regain power, and the Horde would cede more lands to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in return. In 1398, Vytautas' army attacked a part of the Crimea and built a castle there. Now Lithuania spanned from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. A number of Tatar captives were brought to ethnic Lithuania.

Continuing attempts on the part of Poland to subordinate Lithuania drove Vytautas for the third time into the arms of the Order, and by the Treaty of Salynas in October 1398, Vytautas, who now styled himself Supremus Dux Lithuaniae, ceded his ancestral province of Samogitia to the knights, formed an alliance with them for the conquest and partition of Pskov and Novgorod the Great.[9]

Principality of Smolensk coin with lions or leopards and the Columns of Gediminas, showing it as a vassal of Vytautas the Great, circa 1399–1401.

Inspired by his successful campaign against Timur, Vytautas and Jogaila won support from

Hermann II of Celje's attempt to negotiate a solution.[12]

Wars against the Teutonic Order

Main article: Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War

"We do not know on whose merits or guilt such a decision was made, or with what we have offended Your Lordship so much that Your Lordship has deservedly been directed against us, creating hardship for us everywhere. First of all, you made and announced a decision about the land of Samogitia, which is our inheritance and our homeland from the legal succession of the ancestors and elders. We still own it, it is and has always been the same Lithuanian land, because there is one language and the same inhabitants. But since the land of Samogitia is located lower than the land of Lithuania, it is called as Samogitia, because in Lithuanian it is called lower land [ Žemaitija ]. And the Samogitians call Lithuania as Aukštaitija, that is, from the Samogitian point of view, a higher land. Also, the people of Samogitia have long called themselves as Lithuanians and never as Samogitians, and because of such identity (sic) we do not write about Samogitia in our letter, because everything is one: one country and the same inhabitants."

—

Žemaitija (lowlands) and Aukštaitija (highlands).[13][14] Term Aukštaitija is known since the 13th century.[15]

Vytautas the Great Monument in Kaunas

In the

Grand Duke of Lithuania
. However, the treaty did not solve the problems, and all the parties prepared for war.

In 1408, Vytautas reached peace in the east and returned to Samogitian matters. In 1409 the second

Samogitian uprising against the Teutonic Knights began, as the rebels burned Skirsnemunė castle. Both Poland and Lithuania supported the rebels. Vytautas gathered a large army from 18 lands under his control. The army joined Polish forces and advanced towards the Teutonic headquarters at the castle of Marienburg (present-day Malbork). In 1410, Vytautas himself commanded the forces of the Grand Duchy in the Battle of Grunwald. The battle ended in a decisive Polish-Lithuanian victory. Even though the siege of Marienburg was unsuccessful, the Teutonic Knights never regained their strength and from then on posed a reduced threat to Poland-Lithuania. From now on, Poland-Lithuania began to be regarded in the west as a great power, and Vytautas stood in high favour with the Roman curia.[9]

As a result of the

Memel Territory
dispute of 1923. With peace established, Vytautas could now concentrate on reforms and the relationship with Poland.

Relationship with Poland

In 1399

Union of Vilnius and Radom
in 1401. Vytautas was granted wide autonomy, but after his death the title and powers of Grand Duke of Lithuania were to be transferred to the king of Poland. In case Jagiełło died first without an heir, the Polish nobility agreed not to elect a new king without consulting Vytautas. The unique feature of this union was that the Lithuanian nobility presented their own document: for the first time somebody other than dukes played a role in the state matters.

Church of Vytautas the Great. Built around 1400 in Kaunas

Vytautas was one of the creators of the Union of Horodło with Poland in 1413. According to the act of the union, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was to retain a separate Grand Duke and its own parliament. At the same time both the Polish and Lithuanian Sejms were to discuss all the important matters jointly. This union was important culturally as well as politically because it granted Lithuanian Christian nobles the same rights as the Polish szlachta. This act did not include Orthodox nobles. This paved the way for more contacts and cooperation between the nobles of Poland and of Lithuania.

In January 1429, at the

Cathedral of Vilnius
. The knowledge about his remains has been lost.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Vytautas "was certainly the most imposing personality of his day in Eastern Europe, and his martial valour was combined with statesmanlike foresight."

Vytautas the Great watch tower in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine

Reforms

Vytautas backed the economic development of his state and introduced many reforms. Under his rule the Grand Duchy of Lithuania gradually became more centralised, as local princes with dynastic ties to the throne were replaced by the governors loyal to Vytautas. The governors were rich landowners who formed the basis for the Lithuanian nobility. During Vytautas' rule, the influential Radvila (

Radziwiłł) and Goštautas
families began their rise.

In 1398, Vytautas brought over families of the Karaim (388 families) and Tatar peoples. Their principal role was to guard the castle and the bridges, but they also served as translators, farmers, traders, and diplomats. He retains a very high reputation among them, with the anniversary of his death being officially celebrated in 1930 in the kenesa in Vilnius.[17]

Family

Born in 1350 in the

Ivan Olshanski who outlived him.[18] Because of the relationship between the two women, the Bishop of Vilnius was unwilling to perform the ceremony without a papal dispensation; however, Jan Kropidło did not have such scruples and married them on 13 November 1418.[19] According to the 16th century Bychowiec Chronicle, his first wife was Maria Łukomska, however, this is not confirmed by other sources.[19]

Depictions

Vytautas and Kęstutis imprisoned by Jogaila. Painting by Wojciech Gerson

A sculpture for Vytautas is display on the Millennium of Russia monument in Veliky Novgorod.

Vytautas appears in several works of fiction dealing with the Polish-Lithuanian conflict with the Teutonic Order. He appears in the narrative poem Konrad Wallenrod by Adam Mickiewicz. He was portrayed by Józef Kostecki in Knights of the Teutonic Order, the 1960 adaptation of the famous novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

In 2014, a short animation was produced by "Four Directions of Fairy Tales" (Cztery Strony Bajek) in association with the Association of Polish Karaims, portraying the Karaim story of Vytautas and his magic horse, with voiceovers in several languages, including Karaim, Polish, English, and Lithuanian.[20]

In the video game Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Vytautas featured as a cavalry hero.

Vytautas is also mentioned in Jonathan Franzen's fictitious novel "The Corrections", which attributes his death in 1430 to Lithuania's gradual downfall as a "global player".[citation needed]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vytautas the Great.

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Vytautas the Great". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  2. ^ Vitaŭt in: Historical Dictionary of Belarus, Scarecrow Press, London 1998.
  3. ISBN 9789637326585
    .
  4. ISBN 1-84176-665-8
    .
  5. 15min.lt
    (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  6. ^ Statkuvienė, Regina. "Jogailaičiai. Kodėl ne Gediminaičiai?". 15min.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  7. 15min.lt
    (in Lithuanian). 20 November 2021.
  8. ^ Henryk Łowmiański (1999). Polityka Jagiellonów. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, p.59-60, ISBN 83-7177-104-5
  9. ^ a b c d  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Witowt". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 762.
  10. ISBN 83-06-01796-X
    .
  11. ^ Tekla Wołowska (1860). Historya Polska (Polish History) (in Polish). Paris: L. Martinet. p. 433.
  12. Akademia Umiejętności
    . p. 240.
  13. Vytautas the Great; Valkūnas, Leonas (translation from Latin). Vytauto laiškai [ Letters of Vytautas the Great ] (PDF) (in Lithuanian). Vilnius University
    , Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. p. 6. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  14. DELFI
    (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Aukštaitija". Ekgt.lt (in Lithuanian). Etninės kultūros globos taryba (Council for the Protection of Ethnic Culture). Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  16. ^ Frost 2015, p. 148
  17. ^ "Guide to Trakai Historical National Park" (PDF) (in Polish). Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  18. ^ Narbutt, Teodor (1847). Dzieje starożytne narodu litewskiego. Vilnius. pp. 562–3.
  19. ^ a b Tęgowski, Jan (1999). Pierwsze pokolenie Giedyminowiczów. Poznań-Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Historyczne.
  20. ^ English version on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpGQ5USWVOA

References

Vytautas
Gediminid dynasty
Born: c. 1350 Died: 27 October 1430
Preceded by
Jogaila

1392–1430 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Duke of Trakai
1392–1413 		Succeeded by
Duchy transformed into voivodeship
Preceded by
Title created
 Grand Duke of Ruthenia
1398–1430 		Succeeded by
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