Vladimir Olgerdovich [lower-alpha 1] (died after 1398) was the son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, his first wife was Maria of Vitebsk. He was the Prince of Kiev from 1362 to 1394. His sons Ivan and Alexander started the Belsky and Olelkovich families.
After the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, the Principality of Kiev was attached to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. [4] It is believed that Vladimir was installed in Kiev right after the battle and replaced Fiodor of Kiev. [5] Vladimir conducted independent politics and minted his own coins. [6] Initially the coins were heavily influenced by the numismatic traditions of the Golden Horde and copied symbolism from coins minted by Khans Jani Beg and Muhammad Bolak. [7] However, later the coins replaced the Tatar symbols (i.e. tamga) with letter K (for Kiev) and a cross (for Eastern Orthodox faith). [8] This could indicate that for a while the Principality still had to pay tribute to the Horde. [8] These were the first coins minted in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. [7]
In late 1384, Vladimir's troops detained Dionysius, the a metropolitan bishop, who died in captivity a year later. [9] This was part of the power struggle between Dionysius, Pimen, and Cyprian for the title of Metropolitan of Moscow.
When Jogaila became King of Poland in 1386, Vladimir swore loyalty to him. After the 1392 Ostrów Agreement, Vytautas became the Grand Duke of Lithuania and began to eliminate regional dukes replacing them with appointed regents. [6] This campaign could have been launched to discipline disloyal dukes, but turned into a systematic effort to centralize the state. In 1393, Vytautas confiscated Volodymyr-Volynskyi from Feodor, son of Liubartas, Novhorod-Siverskyi from Kaributas, Vitebsk from Švitrigaila. [6] In 1394, Vytautas and Skirgaila marched against Vladimir, who surrendered without a battle. Skirgaila was installed in Kiev while Vladimir received the Principality of Slutsk.
Vladimir, last mentioned in written sources in October 1398, was the 4th great-grandfather of Elizabeth Báthory.
Vasily I Dmitriyevich was Grand Prince of Vladimir and Moscow from 1389. He was the heir of Dmitry Donskoy, who reigned from 1359 to 1389.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 partitions of Poland–Lithuania. The state was founded by Lithuanians, who were at the time a polytheistic nation of several united Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, which by 1440, became the largest European state controlling an area from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.
Švitrigaila was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432. He spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund Kęstutaitis.
Algirdas was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377. With the help of his brother Kęstutis he created an empire stretching from the present Baltic states to the Black Sea and to within 80 kilometres of Moscow.
The Battle on the Irpin River was a semi-legendary battle between the armies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Principality of Kiev. According to the story, Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, conquered Volhynia before turning his attention to Kiev. He was opposed by Prince Stanislav of Kiev allied with the Principality of Pereyaslavl and Bryansk. Lithuanians achieved a great victory and extended their influence to Kiev. There are no contemporary sources attesting to the battle. It is known only from late and generally unreliable Lithuanian Chronicles. Therefore, historians disagree whether it was an actual battle in the early 1320s or a fictional story invented by later scribes. Lithuanians gained full control of the city only in 1362 after the Battle of Blue Waters against the Golden Horde.
Karijotas or Koriat was the Duke of Navahrudak and Vaŭkavysk, one of the sons of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Skirgaila was a regent of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for his brother Jogaila from 1386 to 1392. He was the son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his second wife Uliana of Tver.
Uliana Aleksandrovna was a daughter of Alexander of Tver and Anastasia of Galicia, daughter of Yuri I of Galicia. She was the second wife of Algirdas, the grand duke of Lithuania.
This page describes relatives of Jogaila, who was Grand Duke of Lithuania, and, known under the name Wladyslaw II Jagiello, king of Poland. Family relations up to two generations before him, and three generations after him are mentioned.
Jogaila, later Władysław II Jagiełło (ca.1351/1361–1434), was a Grand Duke of Lithuania and from 1386 King Jadwiga's husband and jure uxoris King of Poland. In Lithuania, he held the title Didysis Kunigaikštis, translated as Grand Duke or Grand Prince.
Fiodor was the prince of Kiev until 1362. Most likely he was the son of Butvydas, and a younger brother of Gediminas, the grand duke of Lithuania, his pagan name is unknown and he was baptized as Orthodox Fiodor. Only a couple of short notes survive regarding Fiodor's life.
The Ostrów or Astrava Agreement was a treaty between Jogaila, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his cousin Vytautas the Great, signed on 4 August 1392. The treaty ended the destructive Lithuanian Civil War, launched in 1389 by Vytautas who hoped to gain political power, and concluded the power struggle between the two cousins that erupted in 1380 after Jogaila secretly signed the Treaty of Dovydiškės with the Teutonic Knights. The Ostrów Agreement did not stop attacks from the Teutonic Knights and the territorial dispute over Samogitia continued up to 1422. According to the treaty, Vytautas became the ruler of Lithuania, but he also acknowledged Jogaila's rights to Lithuania. The details of the Polish–Lithuanian relationship were clarified in several later treaties, including the Union of Vilnius and Radom in 1401 and Union of Horodło in 1413.
The Battle of Blue Waters was fought at some time in the autumn of 1362 or 1363 on the banks of the Syniukha River, a left tributary of the Southern Bug, between the armies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Golden Horde. The Lithuanians won a decisive victory and finalized their conquest of the Principality of Kiev.
Andrei of Polotsk was the eldest son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his first wife Maria of Vitebsk. He was the Prince of Pskov and Polotsk (1342–1387). As the eldest son of the Grand Duke, Andrei claimed his right to the throne after his father's death in 1377. Algirdas left Jogaila, his eldest son with his second wife Uliana of Tver, as the rightful heir. Andrei's rivalry with Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland, eventually led to his demise.
The Treaty of Salynas was a peace treaty signed on 12 October 1398 by Vytautas the Great, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Konrad von Jungingen, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. It was signed on an islet of the Neman River, probably between Kulautuva and the mouth of the Nevėžis River. It was the third time, after the Treaty of Königsberg (1384) and Treaty of Lyck (1390), that Vytautas promised Samogitia to the Knights. The territory was important to the Knights as it physically separated the Teutonic Knights in Prussia from its branch in Livonia. It was the first time that the Knights and Vytautas attempted to enforce the cession of Samogitia. However, it did not solve the territorial disputes over Samogitia and they dragged on until the Treaty of Melno in 1422.
The Lithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392 was the second civil conflict between Jogaila, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his cousin Vytautas. At issue was control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then the largest state in Europe. Jogaila had been crowned King of Poland in 1386; he installed his brother Skirgaila as ruler of Lithuania. Skirgaila proved unpopular and Vytautas attempted to depose him. When his first attempt to take the capital city of Vilnius failed, Vytautas forged an alliance with the Teutonic Knights, their common enemy – just as both cousins had done during the Lithuanian Civil War between 1381 and 1384. Vytautas and the Knights unsuccessfully besieged Vilnius in 1390. Over the next two years it became clear that neither side could achieve a quick victory, and Jogaila proposed a compromise: Vytautas would become Grand Duke and Jogaila would remain Superior Duke. This proposal was formalized in the Ostrów Agreement of 1392, and Vytautas turned against the Knights. He went on to reign as Grand Duke of Lithuania for 38 years, and the cousins remained at peace.
The Lithuanian Civil War of 1381–1384 was the first struggle for power between the cousins Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland, and Vytautas the Great. It began after Jogaila signed the Treaty of Dovydiškės with the Teutonic Knights which was aimed against his uncle Kęstutis, father of Vytautas. Kęstutis briefly seized power in the Grand Duchy, but was betrayed by adherents of Jogaila primarily from Vilnius. During negotiations for a truce Kęstutis and Vytautas were arrested and transported to the Kreva Castle. Kęstutis died there a week later but Vytautas managed to escape and then sought an alliance with the Teutonic Knights. Subsequently their joint forces raided Lithuanian lands. Eventually the cousins were reconciled as Jogaila needed internal stability in anticipation of negotiations with the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Kingdom of Poland regarding the possible Christianization of Lithuania. The war did not settle the power struggle; it continued during the next Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392) which was resolved by the signing of the Ostrów Agreement. After more than ten years of struggle, Vytautas finally became the Grand Duke of Lithuania and ruled the country for thirty-eight years.
The Metropolis of Lithuania was a metropolis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was erected on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between 1315 and 1317. It was disestablished in 1371. The seat (cathedra) of the metropolis was initially in Navahrudak. It had only two metropolitan bishops. The establishment took place in the aftermath of the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' which was exploited by the rulers of Lithuania to greatly expand their territory. To help legitimize their annexations and to bind their new subjects more closely to the state, the royal powers favoured the erection of a metropolis for the inhabitants of the Grand Principality. To avert the possibility of the state going over to the Holy See, the hierarchs based in Moscow latterly supported the erection of the metropolis as the lesser of two evils. Throughout the existence of the metropolis, the metropolitans struggled for religious control of the Rus' eparchies with the secular and religious powers in the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Principality of Tver, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
The Metropolis of Kiev and all Rus' was a metropolis of the Eastern Orthodox Church that was erected on the territory of Kievan Rus'. It existed between 988 AD and 1596 AD. Canonically, it was under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The episcopal seat (cathedra) was located in the city of Kiev.
PEČAT or ПЕЧАТЬ -type coin was the first Lithuanian coin minted in the fourth quarter of the 14th c. in Vilnius, the capital city of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They were minted by Jogaila, Vytautas the Great, and possibly Algirdas or Skirgaila. The coins depict a unique symbol consisting of a spearhead with a cross. The name comes from the fact that on the reverse a circular inscription ПЕЧАТЬ in Cyrillic letters is impressed. The word means "stamp".
The first coins, anonymous (Type I), roughly imitate Tatar coins of Jani beg struck in Gulistán in the years 1351-1353 (Kozubovs'kyi 1994). Kozubovs'kyi regarded them as the oldest coins of Volodymyr from the sixties to the early eighties but Khromov, while facing some recent finds ( or a find ) from the Sumy province, is of the opinion that they were struck earlier, between 1354-63 under the rule of the Ruirikid Prince Theodore of Kyiv, and that they were struck somewhere to the east of the capital town, in the Sumy region ( Khromov 2004 , 2006 ).