Kęstutis
gigatos | February 23, 2022
Summary
Kęstutis (Senieji Trakai, about 1297 – Krėva, August 15, 1382) was the sovereign of Lithuania and of the duchy of Trakai. He governed the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1382 together with his brother Algirdas and at the death of the latter with his nephew Jogaila (1381-1382). The name Kęstutis derives from an ancient form of the name Kęstas, which is in turn the diminutive of Lithuanian names such as Kęstaras and Kęstautas where Kęs-ti stands for face.
Kęstutis was born around 1297 from Grand Duke Gediminas and his wife Jewna: it was his younger brother Jaunutis (1300 circa – after 1366) to inherit the title of Grand Duke of Lithuania at the death of his father. In concert with his brother Algirdas, Kęstutis conspired to remove him from the throne and their attempt was successful: the seizure of power followed the division of the territory into two distinct spheres, one concentrated on the west and one on the east: the establishment of the duchy of Trakai was an immediate consequence of this political choice, aimed at a more efficient management of the domains. While in fact Algirdas consolidated his power in the east, Kęstutis organized the defenses of western Lithuania and Samogitia in such a way as to be able to resist the assaults of the Teutonic knights (active in those years to a far greater extent than any other phase of the Lithuanian crusade): he also tried his hand at leading several raids against the bordering Germanic populations.
Kęstutis resorted to both arms and diplomacy in the defense of the western borders of his country, and in 1349, in order to avoid further clashes with the Teutonic knights, he made an agreement with Pope Clement VI for the Christianization of Lithuania, receiving in exchange promises of royal crowns both for himself and for his sons. Algirdas voluntarily remained on the sidelines during these negotiations, so busy was he with maintaining order in the Ruthenian part of his domains.
The intermediary in the negotiations was Casimir III of Poland, the author of an unexpected assault against Volinia and Brėst in October 1349: because of this event, Kęstutis” plans fell through. During the ensuing war with the Poles, Louis I of Hungary made a peace agreement with Kęstutis, formalized on August 15, 1351, by which Kęstutis guaranteed his conversion to Christianity and military support to the Kingdom of Hungary in exchange for the royal crown. The agreement was sealed with a pagan rite, but Kęstutis had no intention of complying with the agreement and fled on the road to Buda.
In March 1361, Kęstutis was captured by the Crusaders after a battle fought near the Masurian Lakes: from there, he was transferred to Malbork Castle. According to the sources, Kęstutis, who was sixty years old at the time, was defeated in a duel by only three experienced knights. Negotiations on the liberation of Kęstutis were organized twice, without any concrete results: the ransom demanded by the Crusaders for the nobleman was probably too high. Kęstutis was able to escape imprisonment about six months later. With the help of his servant Alfas, he dug a hole in a three-meter thick wall in time and left the fortress on horses harnessed with Teutonic insignia. The escape was well planned and it is assumed that Algirdas and Birutė, Kęstutis”s wife, contributed greatly to its realization.
Algirdas died in 1377 and was succeeded in command by his eldest son Jogaila, born from his second marriage to Uliana of Tver”. Kęstutis and his son Vitoldo continued to recognize the authority of their nephew and cousin even when he was openly challenged by his half-brother Andrei of Polock, born from Algirdas” first marriage to Maria of Vicebsk (who died before 1349). Meanwhile, the Order continued its struggle against the pagan Lithuanians and both Jogalia and his uncle tried to establish a truce. On September 29, 1379 in Trakai, Kęstutis and Jogaila succeeded in doing so: it was the last agreement that the two would have made together, and it was expected to last ten years. In February 1380, Jogaila made a five-month agreement with the Livonian Order to protect its borders.
Also in the same year, on May 31, Jogaila signed an agreement with Hochmeister Winrich von Kniprode that took the name of the Treaty of Dovydiškės According to the document, Jogaila pledged not to intervene in defense of Kęstutis and his sons when Christians would attack them. It would not have been considered a violation of the treaty to provide the help deemed necessary for his uncle and cousins not to become suspicious. The real reason why this agreement was made has never been entirely clear: some historians attribute the responsibility to his mother Uliana, while others point the finger at his advisor Vaidila (who died in 1381). An alternative point of view, perhaps more comprehensive, takes into account the historical context and focuses on the generational difference: Kęstutis was close to eighty years old and was determined not to accept Christianity (as had been the case since the Gediminides had established themselves), while his nephew was fifty years younger and was just as determined to find a way to modernize his country and convert it. Another strand of historiography focuses attention on the common enemy located in the east, Muscovy: the treaty would have aimed to weaken his half-brother Andrei and the other half-brother Demetrius I Starshi as well as the Grand Duke Demetrius of Russia. Having secured the western front, Jogaila allied himself with the Khanate of the Golden Horde against the Grand Duchy of Moscow in what would later become known as the Battle of Kulikovo.
Strengthened by the treaty, the Teutonic knights raided the duchy of Trakai and Samogitia twice and in August 1381 the Commandery of Ostróda informed Kęstutis about the secret agreement made by his nephew with his enemies. In the same month, he took over the Polack rebellion against Skirgaila, one of Jogaila”s brothers, who was too far away to quell the revolt and his absence laid the foundation for conquering Vilnius, then the capital. Kęstutis became grand duke and his nephew Jogaila was captured on the way back: only by declaring his loyalty to his uncle was he released and his patrimony was returned to him, including the cities of Krėva and Vicebsk. Kęstutis meanwhile resumed his long-standing war against the Teutonic knights by raiding Warmian and attempting to seize Georgenburg (Jurbarkas).
On June 12, 1382, with Kęstutis away fighting another of his nephews, Kaributas (after 1350-after 1404) in the city of Novhorod-Sivers”kyj and his son Vitoldo was in Trakai, the residents of Vilnius, stirred up by the merchant Hanul of Riga, (who died between February 25, 1417 and December 12, 1418) allowed Jogaila”s armies to sneak into the town. The merchants were in fact completely dissatisfied with the mercantile policies of Kęstutis (especially with reference to the heavy duties imposed on goods entering and leaving Livonia, the beating heart of the Marian Land) and Jogaila took the situation to his advantage to regain the throne and re-align himself with the Teutonic knights. It was then that Kęstutis moved to gather his allies in Samogitia, just when at the same time his son Vitoldo was recruiting men in Hrodna and his younger brother Liubartas in the Principality of Galicia-Volinia.
In August 1382 the armies of Kęstutis and Jogaila met in Trakai for a fight that never started, because both sides agreed to negotiate. Kęstutis and Vitoldo went to Jogaila”s camp where they were immediately arrested and sent to Krėva Castle. The soldiers recruited by the elderly Lithuanian nobleman gradually returned to their homelands. On or about August 15, Kęstutis was found dead in his cell by Skirgaila; soon after, rumors spread that he had committed suicide, but it is uncertain whether Jogaila had assumed some role or not. A pagan funeral (the last in the history of the European continent) was organized for him in grand style, and his body was burned along with his horses and weapons in Vilnius. Vitoldo managed to escape capture by disguising himself in women”s clothing and continued to fight against his cousin until he became grand duke in 1392.
Kęstutis is a popular male name in Lithuania. Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis dedicated a symphonic overture to Kęstutis in 1902. Petras Tarasenka, a Lithuanian historian and archaeologist wrote a short story entitled Pabėgimas (The Escape) in 1957, describing the hectic stages of Kęstutis” escape from the Teutonic Order”s imprisonment in Marienburg Castle. A monument to Kęstutis was erected in Prienai, southern Lithuania, in 1937 and then restored in 1990. The “Grand Duke Kęstutis Motorized Infantry Battalion” of the Lithuanian Land Military Forces was inspired by the figure of the medieval ruler. One of the military districts in which Lithuanian partisans operated during the Soviet reoccupation of the Baltic countries was named in honor of the noble military district of Kęstutis.
Also read, biographies – Max Beckmann
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