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previous: Chapter 9 This webpage reproduces a chapter of The Story of Lithuania By Thomas G. Chase printed by Stratford House, Inc. New York, 1946 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Chapter 11

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 p77  Chapter X
The Last of a Dynasty

(The numbers link directly to the sections.)

Faced by an aristocracy eagerly searching for power, Alexander quite zealously attempted to assure and guarantee the line of Gediminas a continued, uninterrupted and perpetual reign in Lithuania. Since he had no immediate heirs, in his last will and testament he designated his brother Sigismund as his successor. In this manner he clearly affirmed the thesis, which Sigismund I (1506‑48) and Sigismund II Augustus (1544‑1572), the last representatives of the Gediminas dynasty, often sought to stress; namely, that the descendants of Gediminas possessed a hereditary right to the Grand Ducal throne of Lithuania. Fortunately, Alexander's choice was well received by the Lithuanian magnates and they unanimously proclaimed Sigismund as the Lithuanian Grand Duke in 1506. A little later, the Poles elected him as the Polish King, and thereby renewed the Polish-Lithuanian alliance.

1. Three Wars with Muscovy (1507‑37)

Sigismund I had scarcely inaugurated his rule, when Lithuania found herself once again involved in a serious struggle with Muscovy. It seems that one Michael Glinski, a boyar of Tatar stock, whose family had settled in Lithuania during the days of Vytautas, had attained a rather influential position as Grand Duke Alexander's  p79 Court Marshal and trusted favorite. His experiences and education in Italy and Spain had also conferred upon him a degree of prominence in German circles, where Maximilian I had become Emperor and head of the Habsburgs in 1493. After Sigismund's accession to the Grand Ducal throne, Glinski's fortunes suddenly collapsed. The Lithuanian gentry had never really regarded him with favor, while Sigismund proceeded not only to ignore Glinski himself, but also released his brother Ivan from his duties as the Palatine of Kiev. As a result, Michael Glinski did not hesitate to rebel in 1507. He attempted to bring about the secession of the eastern provinces of the Grand Duchy, including Slutsk and Minsk, under his own personal government. He succeeded, nevertheless, only in occupying Turov and Mozyr temporarily. That same year, he allied himself with Basil III (1505‑33) of Muscovy, who violating the truce of 1503, declared war on Lithuania, justifying his action with the explanation that it was necessary to defend the Orthodox populations living in the eastern sections of the Grand Duchy. Yet, it is interesting to note that Michael Glinski was a member of the Catholic Church.

Basil's and Glinski's efforts to capture Smolensk, the stronghold of the upper Dnieper, were shattered by the victory of the Lithuanian forces under the direction of Constantine Ostrogski at Orsha in 1508. A treaty, which gaud the maintenance of a perpetual peace between Muscovy and Lithuania, but allowed Basil to retain the territorial acquisitions he had gained in 1503, was then arranged. Glinski, of course, forfeited all his possessions and rights in Lithuania, and therefore took up his residence at Moscow.

During the following four years, Glinski, having become Basil's chief adviser, had painstakingly recruited large numbers of mercenaries from various parts of Europe and imported stores of artillery supplies from Germany. Furthermore, Emperor Maximilian I, at that same time, fostered the hostile policy adopted by Albert of Brandenburg, Grand Master of Teutonic Knights in Prussia, against Sigismund as the Polish King; he also sought to compel Sigismund and his brother, Ladislas, reigning in Bohemia and Hungary, to renounce all claims to these thrones in favor of the Habsburgs. Consequently, such circumstances seemed to cut  p80 off all possible assistance for Lithuania from Poland, allowing Glinski to entertain extravagant hopes of success in a renewed war against Lithuania. In 1512 and in 1513, Basil's and Glinski's armies again besieged Smolensk, but were repulsed on both occasions. In 1514, however, the fortress was captured by Muscovite troops. Glinski, disillusioned by the promises Basil had previously made, attempted to transfer his allegiance to Sigismund. His activities were quickly detected and he was imprisoned at Moscow, where he finally died in 1534.

Although some two months after the fall of Smolensk, Constantine Ostrogski once more inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Muscovites at Orsha, the Lithuanians failed to recover this province. And in spite of the fact that Sigismund disrupted Basil's alliance with the Crimean Tatars, the Lithuanian-Muscovite war continued for another eight years. In the meanwhile, Emperor Maximilian I and Sigismund I had signed the treaty of Vienna (1515), which ended the dispute concerning Ladislas' succession in Bohemia and Hungary, and prepared the way for the accession of Ladislas' son, Louis (1516‑26). Maximilian also agreed to withdraw all support from Muscovy and the Teutonic Order in Prussia. He sent his envoy, Sigismund Herbstein, to Moscow (1517) in order to bring Lithuania and Muscovy to terms. These negotiations proved fruitless simply because of Moscow's demands that among other territories, Polock, Vitebsk and Kiev be ceded by Lithuania. Other vain attempts at mediation were made by Charles V (1519), Maximilian's successor. Finally, after Basil's failure to win the cooperation of the Teutonic Knights, a truce was concluded in 1522; Muscovy retained provisional possession of Smolensk, Starodub, Gomel and Chernigov.

When Basil III died in 1533 and was succeeded by his three-year‑old son, Ivan, Lithuania for the first time took the initiative against Moscow in an effort to restore the mutilated eastern boundaries of the Grand Duchy. She cancelled the prolonged truce of 1522 and declared war. A five year desultory struggle ensued, being once again terminated by a truce in 1537. Lithuania, on this occasion, regained the small area of Gomel.

 p81  2. Secularization of the Order of the Cross (1525)

The abandonment of their monastic vows in 1525 is an event in the history of the Teutonic Knights which finally and completely uncovered the mixed motives that had sponsored their establishment on the shores of the Baltic in the name of Christianity during the thirteenth century. Even after 1515, when Maximilian renounced the protective attitude which the Emperors had always maintained towards the Knights, their Grand Master, Albert of Brandenburg, absolutely refused to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Polish Crown over East Prussia. And when summoned for this purpose by Sigismund I, he declared war on Poland (1519). A truce followed in 1521, but in no way dissolved the existing complications.

In 1522 Albert imitated the example already set by some of the Order's bishops: forsaking his Catholic religion, he adopted the teachings of Lutheranism. Shortly afterwards, having received the official sanction of Sigismund I, Albert decreed to convert his governed Prussian territories into a secular and hereditary principality, and thereby disband the Order of the Cross. And only under such conditions did he appear at Cracow in 1525, both as an obedient vassal and as the first Duke of Prussia, to offer his homage to Sigismund I. Thus did the existence of the Teutonic Knights on the Baltic come to an end, and the foundations of a Prussian Empire, which was to participate in the partitions of Poland and Lithuania during the eighteenth century, laid. As a result, many of the Knights became wealthy landlords in Prussia, while those who refused to adopt Lutheranism retired to other centers of the Order in Germany.

The Turkish invasion of Hungary in 1521, where his young nephew, Louis II, reigned, played an important role in indu­cing Sigismund, a Catholic, to consent to Albert's plans for Prussia. Even in this matter, Sigismund's grandiose hopes of preserving the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary for his dynasty⁠1 were thoroughly  p82 frustrated. After four years of uncertainty, during which time Sultan Soliman was engaged in Egypt, the Turks easily routed the feeble Hungarian forces at Mohacs in 1526 and overran the entire country. Louis II perished in the battle, leaving no heirs to succeed him. A constant fear of a Turkish attack on Poland influenced Sigismund to such an extent, that he no longer sought to pursue his interests in Bohemia and Hungary, but adopted a rather austerely neutral attitude towards the subsequent struggle for supremacy in Hungary between John Zapolya and Ferdinand of Austria.

3. The First Lithuanian Statute

Departing from all previous traditions, the Lithuanian magnates and a number of the lesser gentry elected two-year‑old Sigismund Augustus as his father's successor to the Grand Ducal throne in 1522. In turn, Sigismund I replied favorably to the repeated requests of the Lithuanian Diet and authorized it to undertake the work of codifying the laws which governed life in Lithuania. This task was entrusted chiefly to Albert Gostautas, the Lithuanian Chancellor, and was concluded in 1529. That same year, Sigismund Augustus was again proclaimed Grand Duke by the Diet, and his father promulgated this newly systematized body of laws, known afterwards as the First Lithuanian Statute.

This Lithuanian Statute was divided into some thirteen parts and two‑hundred-eighty‑two sections. It presented an excellent summary of the rights and obligations affecting the Grand Duke, the magnates, and the gentry. Its source material consisted both of the various general and particular privileges granted by the Lithuanian rulers and of the different unwritten regulations which had the force of law in the Grand Duchy.

It is worthy of note that besides the reorganization of the Lithuanian legal code, one of the earliest attempts to take up a land census in Europe was also made in 1528. And at the same time, Queen Bona's activities whom Sigismund I had married in 1518, gave a tremendous impetus to the spread of Renaissance culture both in Poland and in Lithuania. Undoubtedly due  p83 to her influence, her son, Sigismund Augustus, later completed the building of the magnificent Renaissance Grand Ducal palace in Vilnius, and amassed a vast collection of fine books and artistic works in Lithuania's capital city, to which many of the Lithuanian gentry had transferred their residence, and where not a few Italian humanists and architects also lived at that period.

4. Sigismund II Augustus (1544‑72)

Theoretically, Sigismund II Augustus had been coregent with his father in Lithuania since 1529, and in Poland since 1530. The Lithuanian magnates, the chief of whom was Albert Gostautas, however, had repeatedly and insistently demanded that the Grand Duke make the necessary arrangements to preside at the Grand Ducal Court in Vilnius for more extended periods of time than he had been accustomed to do. For this purpose the Lithuanian Diet dispatched a special delegation to Sigismund the Elder in 1538. Finally, in 1543, the latter consented to retire from active participation in the affairs of the Grand Duchy and to place the administration of Lithuania in the hands of his son, who, as a result, some four years before his father's death, became the acting Grand Duke (1544).

After his first wife, Elizabeth of the House of Habsburg, had died, Sigismund Augustus, quite against his parents' wishes, married Barbara Radvila, the widowed sister of the influential Lithuanian magnate, Nicholas Radvila the Brown. This event aroused a great deal of opposition, particularly among the Polish gentry, who looked upon this Lithuanian princess as a plebeian and as unworthy of the Polish Crown. The Lithuanians, nevertheless, quickly installed her as the Grand Duchess of Lithuania at Vilnius. Only two years later (1550), after Sigismund Augustus had obstinately refused to consider the requirements set forth by the Polish Diet — to divorce Barbara — did the Poles crown her as their Queen in the Cathedral of Cracow. Unfortunately, she died the following year.

The reign of Sigismund Augustus, the last of Gediminas' Grand  p84 Ducal dynasty in Lithuania, was marked by three significant events, which exercised a tremendous influence in Lithuania's subsequent history. They were: the war with Muscovy over Livonia; the Union of Lublin with Poland, unwillingly accepted by the Lithuanians as a possible source of aid against the aggressive tactics of Moscow; and the Agrarian Reform of 1557.

5. War with Muscovy for Livonia (1559‑71)

Just as Protestantism had provided a convenient opportunity for bringing about the final dissolution of the Order of the Cross in Prussia, so it also occasioned the final disruption of that political entity, which the Order of the Sword had formed from Lettish and Estonian territories on the Baltic shores, and which has been known both as Livonia and as "The Land of St. Mary."

Since the thirteenth century, an almost continuous struggle for supremacy had existed between the two partners who had cooperated in the conquest of Livonia; namely, the Archbishop of Riga and the crusading monks. According to original plans, the latter were obligated to act solely as the former's privileged assistants, and for the fulfillment of the task assigned them they were to receive one‑third of the vanquished areas. The Knights, however, rather quickly liberated themselves from the actual control of the Archbishop, who regarded himself as an independent ruler under Papal suzerainty. Furthermore, by reason of their fairly success­ful defense of Livonia against Muscovite incursions in the sixteenth century, they attained a definitely dominating position and even considered the bishoprics of Livonia as constituting their protectorates (1526). With the penetration of Lutheran teachings into Livonia, the seriousness of this civil strife was merely intensified. And in 1556, William of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Riga, his authority seriously threatened by a general revolt arising for commercial and religious reasons, found it necessary to issue an urgent appeal to Sigismund II Augustus, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, for immediate assistance against the Grand Master, William von Fürstenberg.

 p85  Sigismund answered the summons and endeavored to assume the role of mediator. After one of his envoys to Fürstenberg had been killed and the Archbishop imprisoned, Sigismund, at the head of an army of Lithuanians and Poles, marched to the Livonian frontier and encamped at Pasvalys, near Birzai. It is there that he succeeded in reconciling the Grand Master and the Archbishop. At the same time, he also entered innocent a mutual assistance agreement with the Order of the Sword (1557).

Sigismund's intervention in Lithuanian affairs was not at all acceptable to Ivan IV, who had faithfully continued to pursue the expansionist policy adopted by Muscovy in the fourteenth century [Ivan had crowned himself Tsar (1547), annexed Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1554)]. Denouncing the Order's pact with Lithuania as a violation of the truce of 1554, Ivan IV declared war and proceeded to invade Livonia. Fürstenberg unwillingly resigned his post in favor of the komtur of Daugavpils, Gothard Kettler (1558). The new Grand Master and the Archbishop then dispatched their legates to Sigismund with a plea for support against Muscovy. Consequently, a new treaty between Livonia and Lithuania was formed at the Diet of Vilnius in 1559: Sigismund promised to undertake the defense of Livonia, and the Order in turn ceded him five Livonian fortresses, and the Archbishop, two.

The influence exercised by the Lithuanian magnate, Nicholas Radvila the Black, as well as the subsequent Danish and Swedish occupation of Livonian territory, hastened the course of events. And in November, 1561, Gothard Kettler formally transferred all title over Livonia to Sigismund, the Grand Duke of Lithuania. The determination of Livonia's relation­ship to Lithuania's ally, Poland, was postponed for a later date. On this occasion, Kettler, having renounced Catholicism for Lutheranism, secularized the Order of the Sword, and proclaimed himself, with the approval of Sigismund, as the hereditary Duke of Courland and Semigallia (two Lettish provinces south of the Dvina) under the suzerainty of the Lithuanian Grand Duke. He established his seat at Jelgava (Mintauja) and allowed the secularized knights to retain the lands  p86 they had held in fief. With the exception of Riga,⁠2 which refused to recognize this agreement, and the areas which were in Muscovite,⁠3 Swedish,⁠4 and Danish hands,⁠5 Lithuania acquired the major portion of the Livonian state. And in 1566, at the Diet of Gardinas, Livonia as an incorporated province of Lithuania was endowed with the title of a duchy and granted the right of being represented at the Lithuanian Diets.

In the meantime, Ivan IV had carried the war for Livonia into the Ruthenian sections of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1563, he succeeded in capturing Polock. Although the Lithuanians under Radvila the Brown routed the Muscovite armies at Ula in 1564, they failed to recover Polock or cause Moscow to evacuate northeastern Estonia. Little sympathy was received from the Poles, who looked upon Lithuania's venture into Livonia as a purely Lithuanian affair, and considered themselves slighted by the annexation of Livonia to Lithuania alone. Sigismund's attempts during the Northern Seven Years War of the Scandinavian kings (1563‑70) to ally himself with Denmark and later with Sweden, did not alter the existing situation. In 1571, a truce was signed between Lithuania and Muscovy, the latter, of course, retaining provisional possession of the territories it had occupied.

6. The Land Reform of 1557

The Grand Ducal estates, governed by specially appointed deputies, had always supplied the Lithuanian Grand Dukes with one of their more important sources of revenue. Sigismund I, attempting to realize more fully the productive possibilities of these lands and better his own financial status, issued the instructions of 1514 and 1529 concerning their administration. It was his son, Sigismund II Augustus, nevertheless, who succeeded in introdu­cing a revolutionary change in the management of these Grand Ducal properties.

 p87  In 1557, he ordered these lands to be surveyed and measured. Furthermore, the magnates and boyars were required to prove the validity of their titles by documentary evidence, and consent to various transactions which permitted the Grand Ducal territories to be united into large tracts with clearly defined boundaries. As a substitute for the payment of tithes, landless ecclesiastical organizations were endowed with a grant of two valakas.⁠6 After these preliminary arrangements, estates were again carved out of these Grand Ducal possessions, manor-houses established where necessary, and a valakas of the surrounding vicinity, divided into three fields, was assigned to peasant families. The latter, in turn, were settled in villages, taxed a definite sum of money for the use of the land allotted to them, and obligated to render prescribed services for the benefit of the manor.

Since timber, tar, calking and the like had become exportable material to England (by way of Riga, Koenigsberg, and Danzig) in the sixteenth century, Sigismund II also concerned himself with the execution of a reform in the administration of the Grand Ducal forests. They too were measured, surveyed, and then assigned to the care of special wardens.

This land reform under the auspices of the Grand Duke was first carried out in the western sections of Lithuania, and later in the eastern areas. Its principles were rather quickly adopted by the Lithuanian gentry in general for privately owned estates.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 This dynasty originated with Grand Duke Gediminas (1516‑41) of Lithuania. The Poles refer to it as the dynasty of the Jagiellos, tra­cing it back to Jogaila, who became King of Poland in 1386. Jogaila, however, was the grandson of Gediminas.

2 Riga's resistance was broken by Stephen Bathory in 1582.

3 Vicinities of Narva and Tartu.

4 Vicinities of Tallinn and Pernau.

5 The Bishopric of Piltene in Courland, founded by the Danes in 1219, and the Estonian lands.

6 A valakas varied •from forty to fifty-nine acres, depending on the quality of the soil.

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