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 p43  Chapter VI
Vytautas the Great

(The numbers link directly to the sections.)

Vytautas the Great directed Lithuania through a period of unquestioned splendor. He not only consolidated the vast domains of the Lithuanian state, but even extended them further eastward by penetrating into the Donets and the upper Dnieper areas. He crushed the prestige of the Teutonic Knights, who for almost two centuries had plagued the peoples of the Eastern Baltic shores. He wielded a tremendous influence over Lithuania's Polish neighbors, who were governed by his cousin, Jogaila. And he reached the zenith of his meteoric career towards the very end of his life, when he decreed to replace his title of Grand Duke, which no longer befitted the dignity and the power that was his, with the more pompous title of King.

1. Beginnings of Vytautas' Reign

Vytautas the Great inaugurated his rule in Lithuania rather ambitiously and energetically. He proceeded to banish the rebellious and inefficient princes of the House of Gediminas, who enjoyed various assignments in Lithuania's eastern provinces. First of all, he expelled Svitrigaila, who without any delegation from the Grand Duke, had taken over the government of Vitebsk. When Kaributas of Novgorod-Severski marched against Vilnius, attempting to dethrone him, Vytautas routed his armies at Lyda, and then entrusted Novgorod-Severski to his own personal deputy. In 1393, he exiled Liubartas' son, Theodore, from Vladimir. That same year,  p44 he ejected Karijotas' son, Theodore, from Podolia; and to appease the contentions of the Poles, he permitted a tripartite division of this territory: the eastern section remaining with the Lithuanian Grand Duchy, the central portion being bestowed upon the Polish noble, Spytek of Melsztyn, and the western district being ceded to Poland. Vladimir was likewise dislodged from Kiev, and upon Skirgaila's death (1397), a simple Lithuanian boyar, John Algimantaitis of Alseniai, assumed its governor­ship.

Entertaining hopes of subduing the Tatars in the southeast, Vytautas easily arranged a peace treaty⁠1 with the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, who in 1395 had even attempted to besiege Vilnius. In 1398 on the island of Salynas (Salin) in the Nemunas, Vytautas agreed to surrender to them the territories between the Baltic Sea and the Nevezys River (Samogitia) as well as the left bank of the Sesupe in return for military assistance in his projected campaign against the Mongols. It is at this time that the Lithuanian nobles spontaneously proclaimed Vytautas as their king, and that Vytautas himself diplomatically, but clearly rejected Jadwiga's outrageous and unjust demands for the payment of tribute on the basis of Jogaila's pact of 1385. Vytautas' forces, however, responding to the appeals of Toktamish, the vanquished khan of the Eastern Kipchaks, suffered an overwhelming defeat on the Vorskla at the hands of the Tatars under Timur (Tamerlane), who was bent upon the total destruction of his former protege's Tatar empire.

Stunned as he temporarily was by this setback, Vytautas yielded to the pressure of the Polish lords and consented to regulate Lithuania's relations with Jogaila in a more definite way. The Poles were especially concerned about this matter because Jadwiga had died in 1399 without leaving an heir. In January, 1401, therefore, after prolonged deliberations, Vytautas, Jogaila, and representatives of the Lithuanian and Polish gentries signed the Vilnius-Radom compact. Since Jogaila then recognized him as the sovereign Grand Duke of Lithuania,⁠2 this covenant bettered Vytautas'  p45 status juridically; but since Jogaila, as Algirdas' successor, insisted that the government of Lithuania automatically pass to him and his descendants after Vytautas' death, the latter's rights to the Grand Duchy were seriously restricted. Furthermore, the Poles obligated themselves, in the event of Jogaila's death, to consult Vytautas and the Lithuanians before electing a new king. In other words, Lithuania and Poland simply agreed to continue the alliance, which had been created in 1385, when Jogaila accepted the Polish throne.

2. Vytautas and the Teutonic Knights

The military and diplomatic struggle carried on between the Lithuanians and the Teutonic Knights affected and dominated the history created during the second period (1401‑1422) of Vytautas' rule.

Although they had been surrendered for the fourth time⁠3 by the treaty of Salynas to the Order of the Cross, the Samogitians absolutely refused to submit to the Teutons. They violently resisted all efforts of the Germans to annex their lands and thereby complete the much desired overland junction with Livonia. Finally, when no longer able to defend themselves against the warrior-monks, they began to emigrate to the Highlander regions of Lithuania. The crusaders immediately issued a vehement demand that Vytautas expel these refugees. The Grand Duke rejected this request. As a result, in March, 1402, the Knights entered into an agreement with Jogaila's brother, Svitrigaila. The latter promised to cede Samogitia and even Polock, if the Germans assisted him in wresting the Grand Ducal Crown from Vytautas. War inevitably ensued. In May the Lithuanians destroyed the fortress of Klaipeda (Memel) and drove the Teutons out of the Lithuanian Lowland. In July, Svitrigaila and his allies laid siege to Vilnius for three weeks. Only after Livonian and Prussian troops had invaded Lithuania during the winter of 1403, and only after Pope Boniface IX had pronounced the ecclesiastical penalty of excommunication against the Germans on September 9, 1403, was a truce concluded  p46 at Vilnius (December); it was converted into a treaty five months later as Vytautas again renounced Samogitia.

Having obtained a temporary respite on the western front, Vytautas succeeded (1405) in recovering the important Eastern Slav province of Smolensk, which had previously fallen under his sway, but which had attempted to secede shortly after the Vilnius-Radom pact. Since Muscovy was also intensely interested in the acquisition of Smolensk, it immediately contested Vytautas' triumph. And during the summer of 1408, while hostilities were still in progress, Svitrigaila, who had been assigned to Bryansk, Novgorod-Severski, and Chernigov after his reconciliation with Vytautas, revolted and allied himself with Basil of Moscow in the hope of dethroning the Lithuanian Grand Duke. But when Vytautas pitched camp on the Ugra in the autumn of that same year, the position of the Muscovites had already become precarious due to the presence of the Tatars under Edigey in the vicinity of nearby Rostov. Consequently, they readily came to terms with Vytautas and recognized his rights to the Smolensk areas, which thereafter remained an integral part of the Grand Duchy for more than a century, and made the Ugra and Oka Rivers Lithuania's boundary with Muscovy. Vytautas finally imprisoned Svitrigaila, when the latter returned to Lithuania the following year.

In the meanwhile, it had become quite evident that the events of 1404 had not settled the fate of Samogitia decisively. The Lithuanian Lowlanders resented the rule imposed upon them by the Teutonic Knights. In 1407, therefore, they appealed to the princes of Western Europe for intercession, complained about the unreasonable number of hostages carried away into Prussia, and decried their new masters' lack of interest in the promotion of Christianity among them.

Since the Germans had stopped the import of grain into Lithuania from Poland by way of Ragnit, Vytautas took up the cause of the Samogitians, and proceeded to assist them in ejecting the Teutons from the Lithuanian Lowland. These events completely ruptured Vytautas' ties with the Order and rendered the avoidance of another war impossible. This time, however, the Lithuanians were not bound to face their implacable foes alone. Among the  p47 motives which impelled the Poles to join them against the Knights of the Cross were: the Polish desire to regain the lost Pomeranian seaboard; the hope of ending the constant and numerous frontier disputes with the Germans; the need of protecting Dobrzyn, which had been redeemed at a heavy price in 1404, from attacks of the Teutons, such as that of 1409; as well as the preservation of Jogaila's own personal interests in the welfare of the Grand Duchy, whose throne he had intended to relinquish only temporarily.

Vytautas conscripted his forces from both the Lithuanian and Ruthenian provinces of the Grand Duchy and even induced the Tatars under Soldan to come to his aid. Late in June, 1410, he left Vilnius and Gardinas to meet his Polish allies, who had summoned their gentry to arms for the first time in a half-century and had enlisted Czech and Silesian mercenaries upon his own insistence. Previously, at a conference held at Brest, Vytautas and Jogaila had selected Czerwinsk, near Plock in Masovia, conveniently enough located between the Lithuanian and Polish states and situated on a route leading to the Prussian capital of Marienburg, as the base of operations. During the second week of July this composite army directed by Vytautas, who acted as the Chief of the Allied Council of War, crossed the Prussian frontier to oppose Ulrich von Jungingen's Teutonic Knights, reenforced by volunteers and hired troops from various sections of Western Europe. And in mid-July the two powers engaged one another in a crucial battle on the fields lying between the towns of Grunewald and Tannenberg. The Germans were completely routed; their Grand Master was slain; fifty-one of their standards fell into the hands of the victors.

This success destroyed forever the prestige of the warrior-monks and put to an end German hopes for expansion on the Baltic shores. Nevertheless, the Lithuanians and Poles failed to exploit their victory in an efficient and adequate manner. Their delayed siege of Marienburg, where Henry von Plauen had retreated with the remnants of the Order, was fruitless. While aid from Germany and Livonia was sent to the desperate defenders of the Prussian capital, the allied army began to disperse. Vytautas left for Lithuania to repel the Knights of the Sword, who by  p48 reason of a previous truce had not been present at Grunewald. And as a result, in February, 1411, the Teutons obtained from their conquerors the ridiculously simple terms of the treaty of Thorn — the payment of an indemnity, the renunciation of all claims to Dobrzyn in favor of Poland, and the recognition of Lithuania's rights over Samogitia during the reigns of Vytautas and Jogaila. The mouths of the Nemunas and the Vistula Rivers, however, remained under German occupation.

These comparatively modest conditions imposed upon the Order of the Cross merely served to prolong the struggle. The Knights resolutely continued to brand the Lithuanians as pagans and accused Jogaila of unjustifiable cooperation with them. Furthermore, Emperor Sigismund showed himself rather anxious to disrupt the Lithuano-Polish Alliance. To counteract the influence exerted throughout Western Europe by these hostile elements, Vytautas agreed to a new pact with the Poles, formally Christianized Samogitia, made recourse to the Council of Constance, and finally by force of arms compelled the Order to accept the treaty of Melno.

The Lithuanians and Poles renewed their ties of friendship for the third time in twenty-eight years at Horodlo in October, 1413. The articles of this agreement recognized Vytautas as the supreme Grand Duke of Lithuania and the equal of the King of Poland. They also decreed upon the maintenance of the intimate association of the two countries as two distinct, separate and independent political entities by requiring each party to consult the other before proceeding with the election of their respective rulers; by obligating each to assist the other in time of war; by suggesting the reorganization of the Grand Duchy's administrative system on the pattern used in Poland⁠4 in order to provide the Lithuanian gentry with an opportunity to gain a more influential role in the executive department of Lithuania's monarchical form of government; and by attempting to knit closer relations between the Lithuanian and Polish upper classes through the bestowal of the coat of arms of forty-seven different Polish houses upon the same number of distinguished  p49 Lithuanian families. Since this pact of Horodlo confirmed the personal and property rights of the Catholic Lithuanian gentry alone, and determined that only Catholic boyars would be considered eligible for official state positions, it plainly sought to emphasize the Catholicity of the Grand Duchy.

After the events of 1411, the Lithuanians almost immediately found themselves involved in a dispute with the Teutonic Knights over the exact Lithuanian-Prussian borders. The Germans claimed the little strip of territory between Klaipeda (Memel) and the fortress of Veliuona (Junigeda) near the Dubysa River. Vytautas insisted upon a more natural frontier formed by the Nemunas. Attempted mediation by Emperor Sigismund's representative, Benedict Macra, failed (1412‑13). The Order simply rejected his proposal; namely, that since both Veliuona, which was then under Vytautas' control, and Klaipeda, which was still held by the Teutons, were in Samogitia, the right bank of the Nemunas should be regarded as an integral part of the Lithuanian state.

During the autumn of 1413, Vytautas, accompanied by his cousin, Jogaila, undertook the task of establishing the Catholic Church in Samogitia. The procedure followed seems to have been the same as that employed in the Christianization of the Highlanders. And to combat more effectively the propaganda spread by the Order, Vytautas dispatched not only his own personal delegates, but also some sixty baptized Samogitian boyars to the Sixteenth General Council at Constance in 1415. Recounting the hardships inflicted upon them by the Knights and decrying the unjustness of the Teutons' pretensions to Lithuanian lands, these men presented their case against the warrior-monks before the majestic assemblage. The representatives of the Poles, who at that time were experiencing difficulties of a similar nature with the crusaders, collaborated with the Lithuanians and even demanded the removal of the Order to the East, where its members would find fertile fields among the Tatars to carry on their mission.

Although the Council refrained from attempting to settle the political problems of the Lithuanians and the Teutonic Knights, nevertheless, it did appoint a committee to journey to Lithuania (1417) and complete the formation of the ecclesiastical organization  p50 among the Lowlanders. Consequently, the rector of the Vilnius Cathedral, Matthew, was consecrated bishop of the Samogitian diocese, Medininkai (Varniai) being made his See. Parish churches were founded at Vidukle, Luoke, Kaltinenai, Kelme, Raseiniai, Ariogala, Kraziai, and Veliuona. In 1418 Pope Martin V named Vytautas and Jogaila Apostolic Vicars for the areas of Pskov and Novgorod and entrusted the Bishops of Livonia to their protection. This indeed was an open rebuke to the German crusaders on the Baltic.

Seeking a definite adjustment of their relations with the Germans, the Lithuanians and Poles once again marshalled their forces at Czerwinsk on July 15, 1419, and prepared to march on Prussia. The intervention of the Papal Legate, Bartholomew Capra, effected a one year truce and temporarily averted an armed clash. But at Breslau, on January 6, 1420, Emperor Sigismund, who had been chosen as arbiter, stipulated that Samogitia must be ceded to the Knights after Vytautas' death and adjudged the contested districts of Polish Pomerania to the Order. This decision, of course, was acceptable neither to the Lithuanians nor to the Poles.

At that very moment, Sigismund was striving to insure his own succession to the Bohemian throne, which had been rendered vacant by the death of his brother, Wenceslaus, in 1419. To spite the Emperor, Vytautas responded to the offers made by the Hussites and sent Zigmantas Kaributaitis⁠5 as his regent to Bohemia in 1422. In the meanwhile, through the services of Jogaila, he was once more reconciled with Svitrigaila,⁠6 who had escaped from prison in 1418 and appeared anxious to renew his old conspiracy against the Grand Duke (1421). Finally, when Lithuanian and Polish troops invaded Prussia during the summer of 1422, the Teutonic Knights sued for peace. And on September 27th, at Melno, they renounced all their claims to Lithuanian Samogitia (with the exception of Klaipeda and its hinter­land), to Nieszawa and other towns on the Polish-Prussian border.

 p51  3. Vytautas' Prestige in the East and West

Vytautas, like his predecessors, attempted to dissolve the peculiar problem created by Lithuania's Ruthenian provinces. The residents of these areas had unquestionably retained all of their ancient institutions under the Lithuanian government,⁠7 although for a time after Lithuania's conversion they were excluded from the rights and privileges which the Catholic boyars were allowed to enjoy.⁠8 Nevertheless, it had always been customary to protect the Orthodox population in the East from every undue influence on the part of Muscovy, whose dukes hoped to destroy Lithuania's political control over these people by subjecting them to the spiritual authority of the Metropolitan of Moscow.

Since the Lithuanians had become Catholics, Vytautas was more interested in bringing about the reunion of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches⁠9 within his territories than in establishing a separate and independent metropolitanate at Kiev. Consequently, in 1396, he requested the Patriarch of Constantinople, but to no avail, to summon a synod in Lithuania in order to discuss the possibilities of ending the schism of the East. He was warmly supported in this matter by Cyprian, who was still acting as Metropolitan of Moscow. After an assembly of a number of Orthodox bishops of Naugardukas had denounced Photius, Cyprian's successor, as guilty of various doctrinal errors, Gregory Camblak was appointed Metropolitan for the Orthodox Christians of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1415), but without the approval of Constantinople. Gregory made his seat at Kiev, and in 1418 at the Council of Constance pronounced himself in favor of reunion with Rome.⁠a Shortly after returning to Lithuania, however, he died. The bitter opposition manifested by the Muscovites and other adherents of the Orthodox faith prevented any further progress towards the final settlement of this issue. And Photius easily regained ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Lithuania's Ruthenian subjects.

Un­success­ful though he was in his efforts to harmonize the religious  p52 differences existing between the eastern and western sections of his Grand Duchy, Vytautas' prestige as a political leader had attained tremendous proportions both in the East and in the West. He exacted heavy tribute from Pskov (1426) and Novgorod (1428) as a penalty for their uncertain economic policies towards Lithuania. In 1427, it was only the plea of his daughter, Sophia, that forestalled his occupation of Moscow, governed by his grandson, Basil II. And the Tatars in general, many of whom he settled about Vilnius, Trakai and Gardinas, acknowledged his supremacy.

In 1429, Vytautas played host to a number of European dignitaries, who had convened at his palatial fortress at Luck to discuss the danger created by the Turkish invasion of the continent. Among the participants, besides Vytautas' own ducal deputies and Jogaila, were: Emperor Sigismund, the Papal Legate, the Masters of the Teutonic and Livonian Orders, representatives from Tver, Ryazan, Denmark, Muscovy, Wallachia, Masovia, the different Tatar khanates, and the Byzantine empire. On this occasion, Emperor Sigismund suggested that Vytautas, in keeping with his dignity, permit himself to be crowned King of the Lithuanian state.

Vytautas did not hesitate to approve the proposal. Jogaila also lent his support to the plan, especially since it did not hinder the continuation of the Lithuanian-Polish alliance in any way. The Polish magnates, headed by Zbigniew Olesnicki, objected to this procedure most bitterly. Although reconciled to the fact that Vytautas had displaced Jogaila as the sovereign ruler of Lithuania, they had always entertained hopes of bringing about, after Vytautas' death, a real and physical union between the two countries under a man of their own choice. Disregarding their violent protests as well as their threats to declare war, and even rejecting the Polish throne offered him at Jogaila's expense, the Lithuanian Grand Duke unequivocally informed the Polish leaders that he had no intention whatsoever of altering his decision in the matter. He set the date of the coronation for September 8, 1430. The Poles, nevertheless, intercepted Emperor Sigismund's envoys and the bearers of the royal crown, necessitating the postponement of the ceremony until early November. Before final preparations could be completed, Vytautas died on October 27, 1430.

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The Author's Notes:

1 He may also have been unduly influenced in this matter by the fact that Svitrigaila attempted to induce the Knights to espouse his own cause against him.

2 Vytautas had already used this title since 1395. Previously, he had styled himself as the Duke of Trakai.

3 Surrendered by Jogaila in 1382; by Vytautas in 1384, 1390.

4 As a result, the palatinates of Vilnius and Trakai were formed. The remainder of the Grand Duchy, however, continued to be governed by the Grand Ducal deputies until the middle of the sixteenth century, although these individuals had gradually adopted the title of palatine.

5 This Lithuanian prince ruled in the country only until the following year, when Vytautas, having come to terms with the Emperor, recalled him. He, nevertheless, returned later (1424) to take an active part in the Hussite war.

6 He was again assigned to Chernigov, Bryansk, and Novgorod-Severski.

7 cf. p26.

8 cf.  p40, 49.

9 Separation of Constantinople from Rome became final on July 16, 1054.

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Thayer's Note:

a Some details on Grigorii Zamblak's involvement in the search for church unity, if from a staunchly Catholic viewpoint, are given by Moroni, Dizionario di Erudizione Storico-Ecclesiastica, art. Kiovia, Vol. XXXVII, pp29‑30.

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