Gediminas of Lithuania
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Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas - engraving of XVII ct. |
Gediminas (known as
Giedymin in
Ruthenian and Polish, in
Belarusian: as
Ð"едымiн (
Hiedymin) and
Ð"едзiмiн (
Hiedzimin), in
Russian: Ð"едимин; ca.
1275 â€" winter
1341 under
Veliuona) was the
Monarch of medieval
Lithuania with the title
didysis kunigaikštis which would be translated as
High King according to the contemporary perception. The later construct for its translation is Grand Duke (for its etymology, see
Grand Prince). He was the ruler of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1316 â€"
1341, which chiefly meant monarch of
Lithuanians and
Ruthenians. He was the true founder of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a
Baltic-
-Slavic empire claiming the heritage of ancient
Kievan Rus. He has a reputation of inveterate
pagan who fiercely resisted all attempts to
christianize his country, though the case is actually somewhat more complex.
*Latin:
Gedeminne Dei gratia Letphanorum Ruthenorumque rex, princeps et dux Semigallie*English translation:
Gediminas, by the grace of God, Lithuanians and Ruthenians king, duke of Zemgalia
*Lithuanian translation: Gediminas, Dievo malone lietuvių, rusėnų karalius, Žemgalijos valdovas ir kunigaikštis''
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Gediminas Tower named after the founder of Vilnius, although it was built considerably later. |
He was supposed by the earlier chroniclers to have been the ostler of
Vytenis, Grand Duke of Lithuania, but more probably he was Vytenis' younger brother and the son of
Butvydas (
Pukuwer), another Lithuanian grand duke. In any case, his purported
Rurikid origin was a later fake. According to the latest research, even his grandfather cannot be named with certainty. Gediminas became
Grand Duke (
didysis kunigaikštis) of
Lithuania in
1316 at the age of forty and ruled for 25 years.
The title he used in his official Latin correspondence and proclamations, consisted (example from breviary:
"Gedeminne Dei gratia Letphanorum Ruthenorumque rex, princeps et dux Semigallie") of elements: King of
Lithuanians and King of
Ruthenians, prince and duke of
Samogitia.
He inherited a vast domain, comprising
Lithuania proper,
Samogitia,
Red Russia,
Polatsk and
Minsk; but these possessions were environed by powerful and greedy foes, the most dangerous of them being the
Teutonic Knights and the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword. The systematic raiding of Lithuania by the knights under the pretext of converting it had long since united all the Lithuanian tribes against the common enemy; but Gediminas aimed at establishing a dynasty which should make Lithuania not merely secure but mighty, and for this purpose he entered into direct diplomatic negotiations with the
Holy See. At the end of
1322 he sent letters to Pope
John XXII soliciting his protection against the persecution of the knights, informing him of the privileges already granted to the
Dominicans and the
Franciscans in Lithuania for the preaching of God's Word, and desiring that legates should be sent to receive him also into the bosom of the church.
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Gediminas memorial in Vilnius |
On receiving a favorable reply from the Holy See, Gediminas issued circular letters, dated 25th of January
1325, to the principal
Hansa towns, offering a free access into his domains to men of every order and profession from nobles and knights to tillers of the soil. The immigrants were to choose their own settlements and be governed by their own laws. Priests and monks were also invited to come and build churches at
Vilnius and
Navahradak. In October
1323 representatives of the archbishop of
Riga, the
bishop of Dorpat, the king of
Denmark, the Dominican and Franciscan orders, and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order assembled at Vilnius, when Gediminas confirmed his promises and undertook to be baptized as soon as the papal legates arrived. A compact was then signed at Vilnius, in the name of the whole Christian World, between Gediminas and the delegates, confirming the promised privileges.
But the christianizing of Lithuania was by no means to the liking of the Teutonic Knights, and they used every effort to nullify Gediminas far-reaching design. This, unfortunately, was too easy to do. Gediminas chief object was to save Lithuania from destruction at the hands of the Germans. But he was still a pagan reigning over semi-pagan lands; he was equally bound to his pagan kinsmen in Samogitia, to his
Orthodox subjects in
Belarus, and to his
Catholic allies in
Masovia. His policy, therefore, was necessarily tentative and ambiguous, and, might very readily be misinterpreted.
Thus his raid upon
Dobrzyn, the latest acquisition of the knights on Polish soil, speedily gave them a ready weapon against him. The
Prussian bishops, who were devoted to the knights, at a
synod at
Elbing questioned the authority of Gediminas letters and denounced him as an enemy of the faith; his Orthodox subjects reproached him with leaning towards the Latin heresy; while the pagan Lithuanians accused him of abandoning the ancient gods. Gediminas disentangled himself from his difficulties by repudiating his former promises; by refusing to receive the papal legates who arrived at
Riga in September
1323; and by dismissing the
Franciscans from his territories. These apparently retrogressive measures simply amounted to a statesmanlike recognition of the fact that the pagan element was still the strongest force in Lithuania, and could not yet be dispensed with in the coming struggle for nationality.
At the same time Gediminas through his ambassadors privately informed the papal legates at Riga that his difficult position compelled him for a time to postpone his steadfast resolve of being baptized, and the legates showed their confidence in him by forbidding the neighboring states to war against Lithuania for the next four years, besides ratifying the treaty made between Gediminas and the archbishop of Riga. Nevertheless in
1325 the Order, disregarding the censures of the church, resumed the war with Gediminas, who had in the meantime improved his position by an alliance with
Wladislaus Lokietek, king of Poland, whose son
Casimir III now married Gedymin's daughter
Aldona.
An alternative view of the supposed readiness of Gediminas to be converted to Christianity is taken by Rowell in the book "Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire within East-Central Europe 1295-1345". Rowell believes that Gediminas never intended to become a Christian himself, since that would have offended the staunchly pagan inhabitants of Zemaitija and Aukstaitija, the ethnic heartland of Lithunania. Rather, his strategy was to gain the support of the Pope and other Catholic powers in his conflict with the Teutonic Order by granting a favourable status to Catholics living within his realm and feigning a personal interest in the Christian religion.
Rowell points out that the formulation of the letter to Pope John XXII of 1322 was intentionally vague, and that the phrase "fidem catholicam recipere" could be interpreted as "accept Catholicism (for himself", or simply "welcome the Catholic faith to Lithuania (ie allow catholics to practise their religion there)". As he states on page 197 of his book:
"The ambiguity of the phrase "fidem recipere" is surely deliberate. It gives the impression that the grand duke is asking for baptism and indeed it does mean this. However it is also so vague that it could simply mean that the Catholics were welcome in Lithuania. This is the admittedly casuistical meaning Gediminas later chose to give to the periphrases his letters employ for conversion".
Rowell also shows that while Gediminas allowed Catholic clergy to enter his realm for the purpose of ministering to his Catholic subjects and to temporary residents, he savagely punished any attempt to convert pagan Lithuanians or to insult their native religion. Thus in about 1339-40 he executed two Franciscan friars from Bohemia, Ulrich and Martin, who had gone beyond the authority granted them and had publicly preached against the Lithuanian religion. Gediminas ordered them to renounce Christianity, and had them killed when they refused. Five more friars were executed in 1369 for the same offence.
Rowell describes the cremation of Gediminas in 1342 as being a fully pagan ceremony, including human sacrifice, with a favourite servant and several German slaves being burned on the pyre with the corpse. All these facts demonstrate that Gediminas remained faithful to his native Lithuanian religion, and that his feigned interest in Catholicism was simply a ruse designed to gain allies against the Teutonic Order.
Rowell points out that the Templar Order had been suppressed only two decades previously by the King of France with the connivance of the Pope, and that that had encouraged Gediminas and other enemies of the Teutonic Order (eg the King of Poland and the Archbishop of Riga)to believe that a similar suppression of that Order might be achieved with Papal blessing. The letter of 1322 is to be understood in that political context.
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Gediminas castle in Lida. |
While on his guard against his northern foes, Gediminas from
1316 to
1340 was aggrandizing himself at the expense of the numerous Slavonic principalities in the south and east, whose incessant conflicts with each other wrought the ruin of them all. Here Gediminas triumphal progress was irresistible; but the various stages of it are impossible to follow, the sources of its history being few and conflicting, and the date of every salient event exceedingly doubtful. One of his most important territorial accretions, the principality of
Halych-Volynia; was obtained by the marriage of his son
Lubart with the daughter of the Galician prince; the other,
Kiev, apparently by conquest.
While exploiting Slavic weakness in the wake of the
Mongol invasion, Gediminas wisely avoided war with the
Golden Horde, a great regional power at the time, while expanding Lithuania's border towards the
Black Sea. He also secured an alliance with the nascent grand duchy of
Muscovy by marrying his daughter, Anastasia, to the grand duke
Simeon. But he was strong enough to counterpoise the influence of Muscovy in northern Russia, and assisted the republic of
Pskov, which acknowledged his overlordship, to break away from
Great Novgorod.
His internal administration bears all the marks of a wise ruler. He protected the Catholic as well as the Orthodox clergy, encouraging them both to civilize his subjects; he raised the Lithuanian army to the highest state of efficiency then attainable; defended his borders with a chain of strong fortresses; and built numerous castles in towns including
Vilnius, the capital to be. At first he moved the capital to the newly built town of
Trakai, but in 1323 re-established a permanent capital in Vilnius.
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An oak in Raudone under which Gediminas is reputed to have been mortally wounded. |
Gediminas died in the winter of
1341 in
Veliuona of a wound received at the nearby siege of
Bayersburg castle. He was married three times, and left seven sons and six daughters. Two of his sons perished in battle.
Jaunutis initially ruled
Vilnius after the death of his father and was formally Grand Duke of Lithuania until his elder brothers
Algirdas and
Kęstutis returned from military campaigns in
Ruthenia and forced him to abdicate his throne in their favor.
*
:
Pukuwer (
13th century â€"
1296), Grand Duke of
Lithuania 1291 â€"
1296:
Wida, daughter of
Widmund:
Olga, daughter of
Wsewelod of Salamakenks:
Jewna, daughter of
Prince Iwan of
Polatsk (? â€"
1344)
:
Vytenis;
13th century â€"
1316), Grand Duke of Lithuania
1296 â€"
1316:
Wojn (? â€" after
1342), Prince of
Polatsk 1315 â€" 13??:
Fiodor (? - ca
1362), Prince of
Kiev:
Olgimunt (Borys)
:
Manvydas (
Monwid) (ca
1288 â€"
ca 1342), Prince of
KernavÄ— and
Slonim :
Narimantas (Gleb, Dawid; ca
1295 â€"
2 February 1348), Prince of
Pinsk 13?? â€"
1348,
Polatsk,
Black Ruthenia:
Algirdas (Algirdas; ca
1296 â€" end of May
1377), Grand Duke of Lithuania
1345 â€"
1377:
Jaunutis (Jaunutis, Iwan; ca
1300 â€" after
1366), Grand Duke of Lithuania
1341 â€"
1345, Prince of
Izjaslawl 1346 â€"
1366:
Kęstutis (Kestutis;
1297 â€"
15 August 1382 Kreva), Prince of
Trakai, Grand Duke of Lithuania
1381 â€"
1382:
Koriat (Michal; ca
1300 â€" ca
1362), Prince of
Navahradak 1341 â€"
1347:
Lubart (Lubko, Lubartas, Dymitr; ca
1300 â€"
1384), Prince of
Polatsk 13?? â€"
1342,
Wlodzimierz,
Luck 1340 â€" 138?,
Volynia 1340 â€"
1349,
1350 â€"
1366,
1371 â€"
1383, King of
Galicja (independent kingdom
1253 â€"
1349)
1340 â€"
1349:
Maria (ca
1300 â€"
1349),
Princess of Lithuania:
Aldona (Anna; after
1309 â€"
26 May 1339), Princess of Lithuania,
Queen of
Poland 1333 â€"
1339:
Damilla (Elzbieta;
14th century â€"
1364), Princess of
Plock:
Eufemia (
14th century â€"
5 February 1342), Princess of
Halicz and
Wlodzimierz-
Halicz:
Augusta (Anastazja;
14th century â€"
11 March 1345), Grand Princess of
Vladimir-
Moscow*
Gediminids (Gediminaiciai)
*
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