Gediminas
gigatos | February 4, 2022
Summary
Gediminas, Italianized as Gedimino (1275 – Vilnius, 1341), was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death. Considered one of the most significant characters of the Lithuanian medieval history, it is attributed to him the merit of having started – or at least accelerated considerably in the post-Mindaugas era – the process of growth of the Grand Duchy that would have made it one of the most powerful states of Eastern Europe: moreover, during his dominion he succeeded in uniting the possessions already in his possession on the Baltic Sea to those on the Black Sea.
To him we owe the construction of the city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. His installation allowed the definitive affirmation of a new dynasty that later came to govern Poland, Hungary and Bohemia.
One last legacy concerns the religious field: Gediminas allowed paganism to survive in the fourteenth century, as he successfully repelled attempts to Christianize his country by resorting to ingenious stratagems to relate with the Pope and other Christian rulers.
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Origins
Gediminas was born in about 1275. Since written sources of the time are scarce, Gediminas” parentage, early life and assumption of the title of grand duke in about 1316 are obscure and continue to be the subject of historiographical debate. Summing up the various theories, Gediminas had to be the son of his predecessor Vytenis, or alternatively his brother, cousin or his stable boy. For several centuries only two versions of his origins circulated. The first one, reported in the chronicles written long after the death of Gediminas by the Teutonic knights, traditional opponents of Lithuania, states that the grand duke was a groom of Vytenis and, later, had killed him to sit on the throne. A second alternative account of the affair is contained in the Lithuanian Chronicles, which also appeared long after the death of Gediminas, reports that he was the son of Vytenis. Since when Gediminas became grand duke he was almost the same age as his predecessor, this specific parental relationship is unlikely. The two documents are therefore to be considered unlikely, one (the German chronicles) because it is intended to highlight the aspects of a negative figure, the other because it is a fanciful reconstruction, not based on concrete evidence.
Recent research indicates that an ancestor of Gediminias could have been Skalmantas. In 1974, historian Jerzy Ochmański noted that Zádonština, a Russian poetic text from the late fourteenth century, contains a line in which the two sons of Algirdas speak of their ancestors in this way: “We are two brothers – sons of Algirdas and grandsons of Gediminas, and great-grandsons of Skalmantas.” Thanks to this discovery, the doctrinal strand was born that considers Skalmantas as the long-sought progenitor of the Gediminid dynasty. Ochmański speculated that the poem skipped the generation represented by Butvydas and focused on that ancestor previously unknown to us. Lithuanian scholar Tomas Baranauskas is not convinced of this claim: according to his reconstruction, Skalmantas was the brother of Butvydas rather than his father, and, therefore, Vytenis and Gediminas were cousins.
Gediminas became grand duke in 1316 at the age of 40 and reigned for 25 years.
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The religious question
Gediminas inherited a vast domain, which included Lithuania Propria, Samogitia, Navahrudak, Podlachia, Polock (administered since 1315 by his brother Vainius) Many of these possessions were coveted by the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order, which had been at more or less constant war with the Lithuanians for some time. Gediminas chose to enlist the support of the Tatars against the Teutonic Order in 1319.
The systematic incursions into Lithuania by knights under the pretext of converting it had long since united all Lithuanian tribes. Gediminas aimed to establish a dynasty that would make Lithuania not only secure, but also powerful, and to this end he initiated direct diplomatic negotiations with the Holy See. At the end of 1322, he sent letters to Pope John XXII requesting his intervention to stop the aggressions of the knights, informing him of the privileges already granted to the Dominicans and Franciscans already present in Lithuania to spread the Word of God. The Grand Duke also asked the pontiff that the ambassadors sent would return only after having baptized the Lithuanian sovereign. This decision was supported by the archbishop of Riga, Frederic Lobestat. As a result of these events, a peace was made between the Duchy and the Order of Livonia on October 2, 1323.
Receiving a favorable response from the Holy See, Gediminas issued circular letters, dated January 25, 1325, to the main cities of the Hanseatic League, offering free access to his domains to men of all social classes and professions, from nobles to knights, from merchants to farmers. Those who moved would have to choose a place of settlement and live according to the customs and laws to which they were accustomed. Priests and monks were also invited to go and build churches near Vilnius and Navahrudak. In October 1323, emissaries of the archbishop of Riga, the bishop of Dorpat, the king of Denmark Christopher II of Denmark, the Dominican and Franciscan orders and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Karl von Trier met in Vilnius at the court of the grand duke: the grand duke reiterated the promises made and undertook to recognize the privileges already granted to Christians and to baptize them as soon as the legates sent to Rome would return. It was then signed a pact in Vilnius, in the name of all the Christian world, between Gediminas and those present in which it was reported in writing what had been said in words.
However, when in 1323 he made a raid in the lands of Dobrzyń and Sambia, places just conquered by the knights, he found an army ready to take revenge for what had happened. Once crushed by Gediminas (in a year and a half 20. 000 men between crusaders and German colonists), the Prussian bishops, loyal to the knights, questioned the authenticity of Gediminas” letters and accused him of being an enemy of the faith in a synod held in Elbing; the orthodox subjects of the Grand Duke reproached him for having winked at the Latin heresy, while the Lithuanians of pagan faith accused him of abandoning the ancient gods. Gediminas extricated himself from this complicated situation by repudiating his previous promises; he refused to receive the papal legates who had come to Riga in September 1323 and expelled the Franciscans from his territories. The measures taken offer a picture of the religious situation at the time of Gediminas and confirm that the pagan element was still very present in Lithuania, so much so that the sovereign was anxious not to antagonize his subjects. According to a historiographic reconstruction of Andres Kasekamp, even though the power was firmly in the hands of the pagans, the Orthodox Christians in Lithuania had become at least twice as numerous as the former.
Meanwhile, Gediminas had taken steps to privately inform the papal legates in Riga through his ambassadors that his difficult position forced him to postpone his resolute determination to be baptized. The legates trusted these words and forbade the neighboring Christian states to fight against Lithuania for the next four years, as well as again ratifying the treaty made between Gediminas and the Archbishop of Riga. However, ignoring the church”s warnings, the Order resumed war with Gediminas when the Germans killed one of the delegates sent to welcome the new Grand Master Werner von Orseln upon his arrival in Riga in 1325. The Lithuanian had shortly before found a new ally in Poland, King Ladislaus Lokietek: his daughter Aldona was baptized in order to marry Ladislaus” son Casimir III. In 1325 Gediminas and Ladislaus I joined forces for 4 years against the Teutonic Order and the most important result was in 1326 when the Lithuanians and the Poles raided Brandenburg.
An alternative reconstruction of the events has been proposed by a British historian, Stephen Christopher Rowell, who believes that Gediminas never intended to embrace Christianity: if this had occurred, it would have caused the lack of support of the inhabitants of Žemaitija and Aukštaitija, who were extremely attached to Baltic religious traditions. Both the pagans of Aukštaitija and the orthodox Rus” in fact threatened Gediminas with death if he decided to convert; in a similar prospect, which he desperately wanted to avoid, Mindaugas also found himself.
His strategy was to gain the support of the Pope and other Catholic powers in his conflict with the Teutonic Order by securing a favorable status for Catholics in his kingdom and pretending to pursue a personal interest in the Christian religion. While he allowed Catholic clergy to enter his realm for the purpose of interacting with his own faithful and temporary residents, he unthinkingly punished any attempt to convert pagan Lithuanians or insult their native religion. This explains the death of two Franciscan friars who came from Bohemia named Ulrich and Martin around 1339-40, who were guilty of overstepping their bounds by preaching in public against Lithuanian beliefs. Gediminas ordered them to renounce Christianity and had them killed when they refused. Five other friars were executed in 1369, under Algirdas” rule, on the same charges.
Gediminas” main goal throughout his life was to prevent the Germans from subduing Lithuania and he succeeded. At his death, the picture of the professed faiths was much more varied than in the past by virtue of the privileges granted. The repercussions were not only in the religious field: on a political level, the sovereign was in fact linked to his pagan relatives in Samogitia, his Orthodox subjects in today”s Belarus and his Catholic allies in Masovia. One of the main mysteries concerning the figure of Gediminas remains the authenticity or otherwise of his letters sent to the Pope. In fact, the question remains unanswered whether they were sincere declarations or a simple diplomatic ploy.
Among the communities that prospered during the time of Gediminas, the Jewish community should also be mentioned.
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Incorporation of Slavic lands
While worrying about his enemies in the north, Gediminas from 1316 to 1340 continued his expansion campaigns in several Slavic principalities located further south and east, already weakened by previous conflicts between them. The successes of Gediminas in the geographical region between today”s Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine seemed unstoppable; it is difficult to follow precisely the various stages of the war path because the sources are scarce and contradictory and the date of each event is extremely doubtful. One of the fundamental political moves made by Gediminas, the marriage of his son Lubart with the daughter of the local prince, led to a closer relationship with the most influential Grand Duchy neighbor to the south, the Kingdom of Galicia-Volinia.
About 23 km southwest of Kiev, Gediminas soundly defeated Stanislav of Kiev and his allies in the battle on the Irpin” River. He then besieged and conquered Kiev, exiling Stanislav, the last descendant of the Rajurikid dynasty to rule Kiev, first to Bryansk and then to Ryazan”. Theodore, brother of Gediminas, and Algimantas, son of Mindaugas of the Olshanski family, were sent to rule over Kiev. Thanks to these conquests, Lithuanian warriors were able to reach almost as far as the shores of the Black Sea.
While taking advantage of the Slavic weakness that had lasted since the Mongol invasion, Gediminas preferred not to antagonize the Golden Horde, a great power at the time. He also chose to form an alliance with the nascent Grand Duchy of Moscow by giving his daughter Anastasia in marriage to Simeon of Russia. The power he had increased over the years allowed him to help even the Republic of Pskov, coveted by Moscow and therefore held in high esteem by the Grand Duke, to prevent it from bordering another strong state. Recognized the lordship of the Grand Duke, Pskov separated from Velikij Novgorod.
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Domestic politics and death
Gediminas tried to administer Lithuania with great wisdom. The programs he pursued were various: protection of the Catholic and Orthodox clergy; improvement of the Lithuanian army to the highest possible level of efficiency; construction of defensive posts at the borders of his domains and in the main cities, including Vilnius. He first moved the capital to the newly built city of Trakai, re-locating it permanently to Vilnius in about 1320.
Gediminas died in 1341, perhaps killed during a coup dӎtat. His death is well documented by the Russian chronicles, which tell that his body was cremated according to traditional religious ceremonies in 1342 and for the occasion were performed included human sacrifices: to be offered to the gods were his favorite servant and several German slaves, all burned on a pyre with the corpse. Such a funeral rite would testify that Gediminas remained in all likelihood completely faithful to his native religion and that his interest in Catholicism was only boasted of for political purposes.
He was succeeded by one of his sons, Jaunutis, who was unable to control the unrest in the country and was deposed in 1345 by his brother Algirdas.
In Latin, the title of Gediminas was reported as follows:
Translatable to:
In his letters to the papacy in 1322 and 1323, he adds Princeps et Dux Semigalliae (Prince and Duke of Semigallia). In the Low German language the suffix is Koningh van Lettowen, which mirrors the Latin Rex Lethowyae (they both mean “King of Lithuania”). Gediminas” right to use the term rex, which the papacy had claimed the right to grant from the thirteenth century onward, was not universally recognized by Catholic sources. That is why he is referred to in one source as rex sive dux (Pope John XXII, in a letter to the king of France, referred to Gediminas as “he who calls himself rex.” In any case, the pope calls Gediminas rex when addressing him (regem sive ducem, “king or duke”).
It is unclear how many wives Gediminas had, but the Bychowiec chronicle mentions three: Vida of Courland, Olga of Smolensk, and Jewna of Polotsk, who was of the Orthodox faith and died in 1344 or 1345. Most modern historians and reference works state that Gediminas” wife was Jewna, deeming Vida and Olga fictitious persons, since no source other than this chronicle mentions them.
Another source claims that Gediminas had two wives, one pagan and another Orthodox. This case is supported only by the Jüngere Hochmeisterchronik (Chronicle of the Master of the Order) a chronicle of the late fifteenth century, which mentions Narimantas as a half-brother of Algirdas. One strand of scholars corroborates such a testimony since this would explain Gediminas” otherwise incomprehensible designation of a middle son, namely Jaunutis. Perhaps, following this reconstruction, Janutis was the eldest son of Gediminas and his second wife.
Gediminas is said to have left seven sons and six daughters, including:
The Grand Duke consolidated the power of a new Lithuanian dynasty, the Gediminids, and laid the foundations for the expansion of the state: for this reason, in a somewhat emphatic manner, he was sometimes called the “true” founder of the state.
In the modern collective imagination, he is also considered the founder of Vilnius, the present capital of Lithuania. According to a legend, probably set in 1322 during a hunting trip, Gediminas dreamed of a wolf made of iron that was on a hill and howled in a strange way, as if thousands of wolves were doing the same cry with him at the same time. He revealed his vision to his priest, Lizdeika: these told him that the dream should be interpreted as a sign of the fact that a city should be built in the exact point where the wolf howled. The Grand Duke decided to build a fortress on the confluence of the Vilnia and Neris rivers, the place seen in the dream. The story was a source of inspiration for the Romantics, in particular for Adam Mickiewicz, who gave the story poetic characters.
Gediminas is depicted on a commemorative silver litas issued in 1996 and has named several facilities across the nation.
Lithuanian folk music group Kūlgrinda released an album in 2009 titled Giesmės Valdovui Gediminui, which means “Hymns to King Gediminas”.
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Commemoration in Belarus
Gediminas (known as Hiedymin or Gedymin) is also widely celebrated in Belarus for being an important figure in national history.
In September 2019, a monument to Gediminas in Lida was unveiled.
There is an avenue called Bulvar Hiedymina in Lida, as well as several businesses: a type of beer, now no longer on the market, was dedicated to Gediminas by the Lidskaje piva brewery based in Lida.
Sources
