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Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL)
Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) growth from the Duchy of Novaharodak (Novagradak in modern Belarus).
The territory of the Duchy of Novaharodak, which had been colonized by both the Kryvicy and the Dryhvicy, extended along the Nioman river between Horadzien (currently know as Hrodna or Grodno) in the west and Novaharodak in the east.
The duchy of Novaharodak was virtually surrounded by unassimilated Baltic tribes: the Jacviahi(Yatvegians) in the west (who were later belarusianized), the Nalshany in the north, the Litva in the east and Northeast, and the area called Aukstota in the south-eastern part of modern Lithuania. Another Baltic tribe, the Samogitians, who lived between Aukshtota and the Baltic Sea, did not merge with the Slavs but remained a separate ethnic group. It was the Samogitians and the inhabitants of Aukstota who became the ancestors of today's Lithuanians.
(detail, pls. see The origins of the Grand Duchy of Litva (Lithuania))
Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) existed in the center of Europe in the thirteenth-eighteenth centuries and comprised entire territories of contemporary Belarus, Ukraine, partially Poland (Podliasse province and/or as part of a unified state), Lithuania (Lietuva) and Latvia and stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Belarus was a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the whole period of its existence. Both Belarus and Ukraine point back to the days when they were part of the thriving GDL as proof of their cultural and political distinction from Russia. Successfully ruled by a dynastic line of dukes, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) develop a highly advanced system of state administration and stave off invading Crusaders longer than any other Central European power. Its statesmen conducted effective foreign policy and military campaigns and created a multi-ethnic state.
Establishment of a state- Mindauh and the consolidation of lands
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According to the chronicles of the period, Mindouh suffered military defeats in his mercenary activities and domestic rivals forced him to flee from "his" Litva to Novaharodak.
A very strong regional leader, Mindauh’s political tactics involved intrigue and brutality among princes of Lithuania and his own family members.
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Wherever Mindauh actually entered in the process of the unification of the GDL, much progress toward establishing the Grand Duchy was made under his rule. State institutions were formed
The adjoining Baltic tribes of Nalshany were subdued by force; whereas the old Belarusian principalities of Pinsk, Polacak, Viciebsk and others joined the new state voluntarily. The unification of Belarusan (tribes of Kryvich and Drehovich, later Radzimich too) and Litvanian lands was part of the historical process of rapprochement and helps to explain the dominant role of the Belarusian culture and the official status of the Belarusan language in the Grand Duchy.
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Links:
History of VKL(GDL)
History GDL RP
Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania
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The Gediminian dynasty and the strengthening of the GDL
Grand Duke Gedimin came to power in 1316, and started a new dynasty of leaders.
Gedimin employed several forms of statesmanship to expand and strengthen the GDL. He invited members of religious orders to come to the Grand Duchy, announced his loyalty to the Pope and to his neighboring Catholic countries and made political allies with dukes in Rus as well as with the Poles through marriage to women in his family. Gediminas’ political skills are revealed in a series of letters written to Rome and nearby cities. He put mentions the Franciscan and Dominican monks who had come to the GDL by invitation and were given the rights to preach, baptize and perform other religious services. He also included an open invitation to artisans and farmers to come and live in the GDL, promising support and reduced taxes to those who would come.
Along with his other political accomplishments, Gedimin established Vilnia as the capital of the GDL as early as 1323. During Mindauh’s rule, he managed to establish a stable state comprised of peoples of varied ethnicity and religious confessions. When his rule ended in 1341, he left the GDL viable and strong.
Jahaila and Vitaut
Jahaila succeeded to the throne in 1377
When Jahaila(Yagaila) became King of Poland, the Gediminian dukes engaged in a power struggle over who would rule Lithuania. In 1401, in the Acts of Vilnia and Radom, Vitaut, cousin of Jahaila, became the independent ruler of the GDL.
After several unsuccessful attempts by the Order and its allies to break the military alliance of the GDL and Poland, a combined Lithuanian-Polish army invaded the territory of the Order in July of 1410 and fought what would be called the Battle of Grunwald.
The victory was decisive, and the military power of the Order was effectively destroyed.
GDL and PK continued their territorial expansion in the years after the defeat of the Teutonic Knights, eventually stretching between the Baltic and the Black Seas by the 1420s.
Socially, the Jagiellonian period saw the rise of five estates: clergy, nobility, burghers, Jews and peasants, with the nobles exercising power over the other four.
The GDL under Vitaut, developed trade, urban areas, a currency system and a coat-of-arms. Under his rule, a notion of statehood and national consciousness developed which has been preserved throughout the following centuries.
In 1385 GDL) entered into a union with the Polish Kingdom Poland and Lithuania were bound by the Union, which lasted for more than 400 years (1386–1795) (The Commonwealth of the Both Nations)... Reign of the Lithuanian dynasty of the Jagiellonians was a golden age of the Polish history, and union with Lithuania was an axis of the whole history of Poland.
Note: In reading about the GDL, you may occasionally find the following Lietuvian - Polish spellings of names:
Gedimin: Gediminas-Giedymin
Vitaut: Vytautas-Witold
Jahaila: Jogaila- Jagiello
return to page: Photo-Travel on the field of the battle 1410
War 1409-1410
Armies of King Jahaila and Vitaut Grand
- Battle - July 15,1410
Links:
The state symbol "Pahonia" - in English "Chase" - is more 700 years old
HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS OF THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA
COINS OF GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA (12th c. – 1707)
The earliest Lithuanian coins, "kapos",.. circulated in the 12th-15th c. The latest "kapos" were triangular section alloys, which in the 2nd half of the 14th c. were remade into first silver coins – five denars (semi- groats) of Algerd . The obverse of these coins bore an inscription "PECHAT" (stamp) in old Belarusian, the reverse had a heraldic symbol consisting of a top of pike and a Double cross(Byzantine cross). Coins with a similar symbol on the obverse and the “Gedimin's columns”(Falcon) on the reverse might have been minted by Kestut (1345-1377, 1381-1382), brother of Algerd...
Coins of Great Duchy of Lithuania
Later bidenars of Jogaila with Pahonia(Vytis) on the obverse and the Double cross on the reverse and coins of Vitaut were struck. They bore Pahonia(Vytis) on the obverse and “Gedimin's columns”(Falcon), a heraldic symbol of Gediminian on the reverse. It should be noticed that coinage of Algerd, Kestut, Jogaila and Vitaut had double heraldic symbols: dynastic marks or symbols of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and a heraldic symbol of the suzerain. Such design conformed with the requirements of the time for the vassal coinage where symbols of the suzerain were obligatory. These coins demonstrate the earliest authentic images of Lithuanian coat of arms Pahonnia(Vytis), Double cross and “Gedimin's columns”(Falcon), similar to these on the seals of Lithuanian rulers. Vytis on coins of Jogaila and Vitaut varies in style and has heraldic differences, too. Artistic representation of this complicated heraldic symbol featuring an armed ruler on horseback varies from realistic to artistically stylised. Latin inscriptions in Gothic style were introduced for the first time on coinage of Vitaut. It was a clear evidence of the conversion of Lithuania to Christianity in 1387 and of growing influence of Western European culture.
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