Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt: biography, interesting facts, domestic politics, death. Vytautas - Grand Duke of Lithuania
Vytautas
IN itovt - son, Grand Duke of Lithuania, in Orthodox baptism and the second Catholic - Alexander, the first Catholic - Wigand (1350 - 1430). Participated in his father's campaigns against Moscow (1368 and 1372), Poland and Prussia. Upon his death (1377), Vytautas fought with his heir, first (1381 - 82) as his father's assistant, and then independently (1382 - 84). When, having no means to protect his power in Lithuania, Jagiello decided to unite Lithuania with the kingdom of Poland through marriage with Jadwiga, Vytautas reconciled with him and, as a regional prince of Lithuania, participated in the government activities of Jagiello (1384 - 90). With the strengthening of the position of Jagiello, who became the Polish king and introduced Lithuania into the Polish crown (1386), his attitude towards Vytautas changed; contrary to his promise, he did not give Trok to Vytautas. For Vitovt's opposition built on Lithuanian-nationalist soil, suitable elements were found without difficulty. In 1390, Vytautas, with the help of the Teutonic Order, began to reconquer Lithuania. At the same time (1390) Vitovt's rapprochement with Moscow took place: the Grand Duke married his daughter. In 1392 peace was concluded; Vitovt received all his father's inheritance and was recognized as the Grand Duke of Lithuania for life. Having occupied the grand prince's table, Vitovt immediately presented the regional princes with a demand for "subjugation", which significantly reduced their sovereign rights and undermined the original "old times". Having met with a refusal, partly supported by the population, Vytautas by force destroyed a number of large regional principalities, more closely rallied the remote parts of his state; various and heterogeneous incomes and free lands passed to him from the regional princes, on which Vitovt either started his own economy, or planted his service people. The Lithuanian boyars were betrayed by Vytautas, because he put forward the independence of Lithuania as the main principle of his activity. The significance acquired by the Lithuanian boyars before the union was consolidated and developed by the acts and events that accompanied it (the legitimization of the selectivity of the throne and the participation of the boyars in the election of the Grand Duke, the destruction of regional principalities, the creation of large administrative posts). Attracting the sympathy and hopes of the boyars and other segments of the population, Vytautas formed a strong state, not alien to Polish borrowings and not nationally homogeneous, but skillfully soldered by a single anti-Polish mood and imperiously directed from one center. In the hands of Vitovt was also the ideological center of the Russian land - Kyiv, which Vitovt used, showing concern for Orthodoxy. However, the Polish-Catholic influence that swept over Lithuania, in addition to the will of Vitovt, informed the ethnographic difference in the composition of the population of the nature of national and political hostility. In 1395 Vitovt annexed to Lithuania the comparatively weak and territorially connected Smolensk; in 1395-96 successfully fought with Ryazan; in 1397-98 Vitovt successfully fought against the Tatars; in 1398 he asked for help. Successes in foreign affairs and the strengthening of the internal forces of Lithuania made Vitovt's unstable dependence on Poland. Meanwhile, in Poland they demanded the complete subordination of Lithuania. When Yadviga turned to Vytautas for tribute, he, with the approval of his boyars, refused and concluded not only a separate peace with the order, which he had long sought (since 1392, Vytautas helped Jagiello in the fight against the Order), but also an allied treaty aimed against Poland (October 12, 1398, at the Salinsky congress), on the terms: 1) concessions to the Order of Zhmudi, which crashed into his possessions; 2) the conclusion of an agreement with Poland only with the general consent of the allies, and 3) the obligation of Vitovt and the Order to help each other in the conquest of Novgorod by the first, and Pskov by the second. Lithuanian and Russian boyars proclaimed Vytautas king. However, Jagiello achieved a successful resolution of the conflict, thanks to the failure of Vytautas in the fight against the Tatars. In 1399, with little help from the order and Poland, Vitovt organized a large campaign against the Tatars in the steppe, which ended unsuccessfully on August 12 of the same year with a battle on the Vorskla River. After that, without abandoning the fight against the Tatars, Vitovt turned his main attention to the settlement of relations with Poland, where, after the death of Jadwiga (1399), the situation of Jagiello became more complicated to the point of being deposed and returning to Lithuania. The Act of Vilna on January 18, 1401 confirmed the agreement of 1392. It was established by the charters of the pans of Lithuania (then) and Polish (March 11) that if Jagiello died before Vytautas, then the Polish king would not be elected without him and his boyars knowledge. Jagiello approved the Salin Treaty, an act of August 17, 1402, explained in favor of the Poles. Vytautas' strict loyalty in his Polish relations in itself set the stage for complications with the order. Misunderstandings due to fugitive zhmudins and the betrayal of Vitovt, who turned to the order, led to an unsuccessful campaign of 1402 - 4 years (peace on May 23, 1404, in general, on the old grounds). In 1401, the Vyazma princes (unsuccessfully) and Smolensk raised indignation. The fruitless campaign against Novgorod in 1401 ended in peace. In 1402, the Ryazans were defeated in an attempt to capture Bryansk. The movement to the East intensified after the peace with the order: in 1405 Smolensk was conquered, in 1406 the Pskov city of Kolozhe was captured. The latter led to war with Moscow: the fruitless campaigns of 1406-8 ended in peace. Vitovt's influence increased in Novgorod, which was connected with Lithuania by old trade routes. Relations with the Tatars, after slight hesitation, were established peacefully. In 1409, the issue of runaway Zhmudins was revived. Outwardly good relations (Vitovt helped the Order in Zhmud, the Order of Vitovt - in Russian affairs) deteriorated. Poland took the side of Lithuania, and in August the war began. On July 15, 1410, the so-called Battle of Grunwalden, fatal for the order, took place near Tannenberg. He was saved from final death only by Vitovt's fear that the strengthening of Poland at the expense of the order would be to the detriment of himself. Although Vitovt’s relations with Poland, established by the peace treaties of Thornsky (with the order: Zhmud goes into the lifelong possession of Jagiello and Vitovt; 1411) and Lyubovlsky (with the indecisive ally of the order, Emperor Sigismund, 1412) - were honorable and beneficial, nevertheless from the victory over the knights Poland won more. Vitovt and his advisers wanted more. According to the Horodel Acts (October 2, 1413), Lithuania from a temporarily autonomous Grand Duchy becomes autonomous forever; the Lithuanian boyars are granted some new rights (the adoption of Lithuanian boyars into the Polish coat of arms, the establishment of posts and Polish-Lithuanian sejms in the Polish way, but all this is only for Catholics). The Gorodel acts also developed the privileges of the gentry - the military class par excellence. Vitovt's available military forces at that time were reinforced by the Tatars, whom he settled a lot within Lithuania after the campaigns of 1397-98, having little interest in the question of faith, as well as wealthy peasants, for whom military service replaced all hardships and duties, and the bourgeoisie of privileged cities (with Vitovte penetrates Magdeburg law into Lithuania). Misunderstandings with the order began with Jagiello and Vitovt almost immediately after the conclusion of peace; their goals were not fully achieved, and the treaty allowed for various interpretations. In the summer of 1414, the war began, intermittently reaching out until September 27, 1422 (Melny peace, according to which the Order lost Zhmud forever). At the same time, Vytautas began relations with the Czech Hussites, hostile to Emperor Sigismund, who offered him the Czech crown. Vitovt agreed and sent his grandson Olgerd to the Czechs, with a significant detachment. However, the unanimous protest of the spiritual and secular authorities of Europe forced Vytautas and Jagiello, in agreement with whom he acted, to cut off the established connection with the Czechs (Kesmarck Treaty of 1423). ). Occupied mainly in the West, Vytautas in the East acted now less energetically. In 1415-16, the Western Russian bishoprics were separated from the all-Russian metropolis; Gregory Tsamblak was elected metropolitan. The division continued until 1419, when Vytautas reconciled, apparently, with Moscow. Tsamblak went to the Cathedral of Constance on the matter of uniting the churches, but to no avail (1418). Friendly, and since 1423 patronizing relations with Moscow, an alliance agreement with Tver (August 3, 1427), dependence of the Ryazan (1427) and other Upper Oka princes, peace with Novgorod (except for the disagreements of 1412-14 and the war of 1428) and Pskov (except for the war of 1426-27) - characterize Vitovt's Russian relations. In the Tatar East, Vytautas zealously intervened in disorder and victoriously repelled raids (especially in 1416, 21 and 25). The entire right-bank steppe to the Black Sea recognized his authority. At the conclusion of the Melny peace, Vitovt begins to support the almost completely weakened order and Sigismund against the ever-strengthening Poland. The idea inspired by the latter about the royal crown (and previously flashed by Vytautas) corresponded to the old dream of Vytautas and his advisers about the independence of Lithuania from Poland. Jagiello at the Lutsk Congress (beginning of 1429) agreed to the coronation of Vytautas, but then, under the influence of his pans, took him back. Vytautas tried to do without him, but died among negotiations and preparations (October 27, 1430). Vitovt's case was unstable: his acquisitions proved to be short-lived, the unbroken ties with Poland introduced and strengthened Polish-Catholic influence in Lithuania, which aggravated the national question in it to the degree of a political one; The union of Horodel was violated by the unauthorized election of Svidrigail, with the participation of the Orthodox boyars; as a result of the Tatar policy of Vitovt, a powerful Crimean Khanate was created, dangerous for Lithuania. For bibliography and partly sources, see the books Vitovt and His Politics Before the Battle of Grunwalden (St. Petersburg, 1885) and Essays on the Lithuanian-Russian History of the 15th Century Vitovt. The Last Twenty Years of Reigning (St. Petersburg, 1891) -Russian state up to and including the Union of Lublin" (Moscow, 1910). - See also "History of Ukrainian Rus", vol. V (Lvov, 1905) and vol. VI (Kyiv - Lvov, 1907). S. Ch.
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In the XIV century, not only in Europe fought for the division of land and power. To the east, where large territories were divided between small, but rather strong and powerful principalities, a serious struggle was also waged. The Slavs had little desire for unification. Almost all of them were satisfied with the situation when each principality was independent and capable of independently solving its problems. However, smaller formations were constantly attacked by the growing Principality of Moscow or Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or by the Tatars, who periodically raided the Slavic lands, devastating and turning them into a desert.
In such a difficult time for the Slavic states, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt came to power.The son of the Lithuanian pagan prince Keistut, Vytautas was baptized at birth according to Christian custom and was first named Wigand, and then (for some reason) Alexander. In the late 80s of the 14th century, it was this man who had to find himself in the very center of the whirlpool that engulfed the awkward, but huge Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
First, his uncle Algirdas (Olgerd) died, and in Lithuania a struggle begins between his son Jogaila and Keistut, Vitovt's father.
Vytautas' path to the grand ducal crown was not easy. In 1376, Keystut gave him the principality of Grodno with the cities of Brest, Kamenetz, Drogichin on the Bug. Already at that time, Vytautas distinguished himself by military prowess in battles with the crusaders. The chroniclers call him "good for youngsters." Several times Vitovt, at the head of the Grodno squad, fought off orders of the order. So, in 1377 he drove the enemy from under Trok, and in 1380 he defended Drogichin on the Bug. It was Vitovt Keistut who wanted to transfer the entire Trok principality to the board. But the Grand Duke Jagiello hatched other plans - to capture the principality of Trok and put his brother Skirgailo on the board. In 1382, inviting Keistut and Vytautas to Vilna for peace negotiations, he killed Keistut. Such a fate awaited Vitovt, whom Jagiello threw into the same dungeon of the Krevo Castle where his father died. Vitovt was saved by his wife, the daughter of the Prince of Smolensk Anna, and the maid Alena, who visited him. In the dungeon, the maid Alena turned to Vitovt: “Prince, you must run away as quickly as possible. Jagiello will destroy you, as he destroyed Keistut. Put on my clothes, and go with the princess, and I will stay here. It's already dark and no one will know." Vitovt protested: “What are you talking about? Do you know what awaits you then? “I know what awaits me, but no one will feel my death, and your death would be a misfortune for Lithuania. Run away, prince! Vitovt refused, and then the courageous girl answered: “I want to serve the motherland - it will be pleasant for me to die for Lithuania. You, freed, will do so much good for her, let me participate in this. When you love Lithuania, then listen to me.” Vitovt accepted Alena's sacrifice and put on her clothes.
The princess, together with Vitovt in disguise, left the dungeon. The guard mistook him for a servant. The prince descended on a rope from the castle wall and escaped from captivity. He went to Mazovia to Prince Janusz, who was married to his sister Danuta. Later, Princess Anna arrived in Chersk, where Vitovt was.
In 1383 and 1384 Vytautas, with the support of the Order, fought against Jagiello. The Grand Duke was forced to reconcile with Vitovt and return the Grodno principality to him, although the Trok principality went to Skirgailo.
As a result of all the upheavals, Jagiello, who by that time had received the Polish crown, decided to negotiate with Vytautas on the terms that the latter would rule Lithuania for life, but after his death, the Grand Duchy would go to the Polish king. Vitovt agreed.
In subsequent years (since 1392), Vytautas significantly strengthened his position in Eastern Europe. He gave his daughter as a wife to the Moscow sovereign Vasily Dmitrievich, thereby strengthening the alliance with Russia. In 1410, he personally commands the Lithuanian army, playing a crucial role in the defeat of the Teutonic Knights - a defeat from which the Teutonic Order has not yet recovered. And in 1429 the Pope of Rome grants Vytautas the title of King of Lithuania. And only the death of the Grand Duke prevented him from receiving it.
It was under the rule of Vitovt that numerous principalities were able to unite. There were legends about the power of Vytautas. Even now, historians believe that this politician and ruler played a significant role in the formation of an independent Slavic statehood. Torn apart by civil strife, attacked from the east by the Tatar hordes, and from the west by the German Teutonic knights, the Slavic land required a competent leader who could cope with the troubles.
This is how Vytautas became. The Grand Duke of Lithuania called for the union of neighboring lands into one state in order to repel all the attacks of enemies with the help of military force. So the army of Vitovt repulsed the Tatar Golden Horde. The fighting with the Tatars led to the fact that their troops stopped robbing and enslaving the Slavs.
Having solved one problem, another remained - the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order, under the guise of crusades, sought to conquer the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the surrounding lands. Vitovt's great achievement was the victory and complete defeat of the German troops near Grunwald. But the prince, having gathered an army and enlisting the support of Poland and other principalities, defeated the knights, blocking their way to the Slavic lands for a long time.
Vitovt did a lot for his lands. During his reign, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became quite a powerful and rich country. Vitovt was able to conquer lands outside the principality, expanding his possessions. The prince paid much attention to the military training of young people, as well as education. In addition, special collections of laws were written in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, according to which all the people of the principality had to live.
“And the great prince Vitovt was a strong ruler and glorious in all lands, and many kings and princes served at his court” ─so it is said about him in the annals. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia during the reign of Vitovt reached its power and stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from Brest to the Ugra River - a real empire. This is the result of Vitovt's life and political activity. It seemed that he did not know peace and devoted himself entirely to the care of the state.
The ambassador of the Teutonic Order, Konrad Kyburg, who arrived in Vilna in 1398, wrote the following about Vitovt: “The Grand Duke works hard, manages the region himself and wants to know about everything; visiting frequent audiences, we ourselves saw his amazing activity: talking to us about business, at the same time he listened to the reading of various reports and gave decisions. The people have free access to it, but anyone who wants to approach him is interrogated first by a specially appointed nobleman, and after that the request that has to be submitted to the monarch is either briefly stated on paper, or the petitioner himself goes with the aforementioned nobleman and orally transmits her grand duke. Every day we saw a lot of people coming with requests or coming from remote areas with some kind of assignment. It is difficult to understand how he gets time for so many studies; every day the grand duke listens to the liturgy, after which, before dinner, he works in his office, dines soon and after that for some time, also not for long, stays in his family or amuses himself with the tricks of his court jesters, then he rides a horse to inspect the construction of a house or ship or anything that grabs his attention. He is terrible only in wartime, but in general he is full of kindness and justice, knows how to punish and pardon. He sleeps little, laughs little, is more cold and reasonable than ardent; he receives good or bad news, his face remains impassive.
The wise rule of Vytautas was remembered in the following centuries as the golden times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The 16th-century poet Nikolai Gusovsky glorified Vitovt with inspiration:
Torchbearer of wars with the weak,
and with a strong peacemaker angel
He set down his naked sword,like a border post
Before the invasion of enemies from the south and east.
P about the materials of the sites http://great-rulers.ru andhttp://www.belarus.by/ru/belarus/history
Vitautas (Vytautas), the Grand Duke of Lithuania in Orthodox baptism and the second Catholic - Alexander, in the first Catholic - Wigand (1350-1429), in 1426 with an army he made an unsuccessful campaign against the Pskov suburbs. In the Pskov Chronicles it is recorded that the army of Prince Vitovt laid siege to Vrev.
Biography
Vitovt - the son of Keistut, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, in Orthodox baptism and the second Catholic - Alexander, the first Catholic - Wigand (1350 - 1430). Participated in his father's campaigns against Moscow (1368 and 1372), Poland and Prussia. After the death of Olgerd (1377), Vytautas fought with his heir Jagail, first (1381 - 82) as his father's assistant, and then independently (1382 - 84). When, having no means to protect his power in Lithuania, Jagiello decided to unite Lithuania with the kingdom of Poland through marriage with Jadwiga, Vytautas reconciled with him and, as a regional prince of Lithuania, participated in the government activities of Jagiello (1384 - 90).
With the strengthening of the position of Jagiello, who became the Polish king and introduced Lithuania into the Polish crown (1386), his attitude towards Vytautas changed; contrary to his promise, he did not give Trok to Vytautas. For Vitovt's opposition built on Lithuanian-nationalist soil, suitable elements were found without difficulty. In 1390 Vytautas, with the help of the Teutonic Order, began to reconquer Lithuania. At the same time (1390) Vitovt's rapprochement with Moscow took place: Grand Duke Vasily I married his daughter Sophia. Peace was concluded in 1392; Vitovt received all his father's inheritance and was recognized as the Grand Duke of Lithuania for life. Having occupied the grand prince's table, Vitovt immediately presented the regional princes with a demand for "subjugation", which significantly reduced their sovereign rights and undermined the original "old times". Having met with a refusal, partly supported by the population, Vytautas by force destroyed a number of large regional principalities, more closely rallied the remote parts of his state; various and heterogeneous incomes and free lands passed to him from the regional princes, on which Vitovt either started his own economy, or planted his service people. The Lithuanian boyars were betrayed by Vytautas, because he put forward the independence of Lithuania as the main principle of his activity.
The significance acquired by the Lithuanian boyars before the union was consolidated and developed by the acts and events that accompanied it (the legitimization of the selectivity of the throne and the participation of the boyars in the election of the Grand Duke, the destruction of regional principalities, the creation of large administrative posts). Attracting the sympathy and hopes of the boyars and other segments of the population, Vytautas formed a strong state, not alien to Polish borrowings and not nationally homogeneous, but skillfully soldered by a single anti-Polish mood and imperiously directed from one center. In the hands of Vitovt was also the ideological center of the Russian land - Kyiv, which Vitovt used, showing concern for Orthodoxy. However, the Polish-Catholic influence that swept over Lithuania, in addition to the will of Vitovt, informed the ethnographic difference in the composition of the population of the nature of national and political hostility.
In 1395 Vitovt annexed to Lithuania the comparatively weak and territorially connected Smolensk; in 1395 - 96 successfully fought with Ryazan; in 1397 - 98 Vytautas successfully fought against the Tatars; in 1398 Tokhtamysh asked him for help. Successes in foreign affairs and the strengthening of the internal forces of Lithuania made Vitovt's unstable dependence on Poland. Meanwhile, in Poland they demanded the complete subordination of Lithuania. When Jadwiga turned to Vytautas for tribute, he, with the approval of his boyars, refused and concluded not only a separate peace with the order, which he had been seeking for a long time (from 1392 Vitovt helped Jagiello in the fight against the Order), but also an allied treaty directed against Poland (October 12, 1398, at the Salinsky congress), on the terms: 1) concessions to the Order of Zhmudi, which crashed into his possessions; 2) the conclusion of an agreement with Poland only with the general consent of the allies, and 3) the obligation of Vitovt and the Order to help each other in the conquest of Novgorod by the first, and Pskov by the second. Lithuanian and Russian boyars proclaimed Vytautas king. However, Jagiello achieved a successful resolution of the conflict, thanks to the failure of Vytautas in the fight against the Tatars.
In 1399, with little help from the order and Poland, Vitovt organized a large campaign against the Tatars in the steppe, which ended unsuccessfully on August 12 of the same year with a battle on the Vorskla River. After that, without abandoning the fight against the Tatars, Vitovt turned his main attention to the settlement of relations with Poland, where, after the death of Jadwiga (1399), the situation of Jagiello became more complicated to the point of being deposed and returning to Lithuania. The Act of Vilna on January 18, 1401 confirmed the agreement. 1392 The charters of the pans of Lithuania (then) and Polish (March 11) established that if Jagiello died before Vytautas, then the Polish king would not be elected without him and his boyars knowing. Jagiello approved the Salin Treaty, an act of August 17, 1402 explained in favor of the Poles. Vytautas' strict loyalty in his Polish relations in itself set the stage for complications with the order.
Misunderstandings due to fugitive zhmudins and the betrayal of Vitovt Svidrigail, who turned to the order, led to an unsuccessful campaign of 1402 - 4 years (peace on May 23, 1404, in general, on the old grounds). In 1401, the Vyazma princes (unsuccessfully) and Smolensk raised indignation. The fruitless campaign against Novgorod in 1401 ended in peace. In 1402 the Ryazanians were defeated in an attempt to capture Bryansk. The movement to the East intensified after the peace with the order: in 1405 Smolensk was conquered, in 1406 the Pskov city of Kolozhe was captured. The latter led to war with Moscow: the fruitless campaigns of 1406-8 ended in peace. Vitovt's influence increased in Novgorod, which was connected with Lithuania by old trade routes. Relations with the Tatars, after slight hesitation, were established peacefully. In 1409 the issue of fugitive zhmudins was renewed. Outwardly good relations (Vitovt helped the Order in Zhmud, the Order of Vitovt - in Russian affairs) deteriorated. Poland took the side of Lithuania, and in August the war began. On July 15, 1410, the so-called Battle of Grunwalden, fatal for the order, took place near Tannenberg. He was saved from final death only by Vitovt's fear that the strengthening of Poland at the expense of the order would be to the detriment of himself. Although Vitovt’s relations with Poland, established by the peace treaties of Thornsky (with the order: Zhmud goes into the lifelong possession of Jagiello and Vitovt; 1411) and Lyubovlsky (with the indecisive ally of the order, Emperor Sigismund, 1412) - were honorable and beneficial, nevertheless from the victory over the knights Poland won more. Vitovt and his advisers wanted more.
According to the Horodel Acts (October 2, 1413), Lithuania from a temporarily autonomous Grand Duchy becomes autonomous forever; the Lithuanian boyars are granted some new rights (the adoption of Lithuanian boyars into the Polish coat of arms, the establishment of posts and Polish-Lithuanian sejms in the Polish way, but all this is only for Catholics). The Gorodel acts also developed the privileges of the gentry - the military class par excellence. Vitovt's available military forces at that time were reinforced by the Tatars, whom he settled a lot within Lithuania after the campaigns of 1397-98, having little interest in the question of faith, as well as wealthy peasants, for whom military service replaced all hardships and duties, and the bourgeoisie of privileged cities (with Vitovte penetrates Magdeburg law into Lithuania).
Misunderstandings with the order began with Jagiello and Vitovt almost immediately after the conclusion of peace; their goals were not fully achieved, and the treaty allowed for various interpretations. In the summer of 1414, the war began, intermittently reaching out to September 27, 1422 (Melny peace, according to which the order lost Zhmud forever). At the same time, Vytautas began relations with the Czech Hussites, hostile to Emperor Sigismund, who offered him the Czech crown. Vitovt agreed and sent the grandson of Olgerd, Sigismund Koributovich, to the Czechs with a significant detachment. However, the unanimous protest of the spiritual and secular authorities of Europe forced Vytautas and Jagiello, in agreement with whom he acted, to cut off the established connection with the Czechs (Kesmarck Treaty of 1423). Occupied mainly in the West, Vytautas in the East acted now less energetically. In 1415-16 the Western Russian bishoprics were separated from the all-Russian metropolis; Gregory Tsamblak was elected metropolitan.
The division continued until 1419, when Vytautas reconciled, apparently, with Photius of Moscow. Tsamblak went to the Cathedral of Constance on the matter of uniting the churches, but to no avail (1418). Friendly, and from 1423 patronizing relations with Moscow, an alliance treaty with Tver (August 3, 1427), dependence of the Ryazan (1427) and other Upper Oka princes, peace with Novgorod (except for disagreements in 1412-14 and the war of 1428) and Pskov (except for the war of 1426 - 27 years) - characterize Vitovt's Russian relations. In the Tatar East, Vytautas zealously intervened in disorder and victoriously repelled raids (especially in 1416, 21 and 25). The entire right-bank steppe to the Black Sea recognized his authority. At the conclusion of the Melny peace, Vitovt begins to support the almost completely weakened order and Sigismund against the ever-strengthening Poland.
The idea inspired by the latter about the royal crown (and previously flashed by Vytautas) corresponded to the old dream of Vytautas and his advisers about the independence of Lithuania from Poland. Jagiello at the Lutsk Congress (early 1429) agreed to the coronation of Vytautas, but then, under the influence of his pans, took him back. Vitovt tried to do without him, but died amid negotiations and preparations (October 27, 1430. Vitovt’s case was fragile: his acquisitions turned out to be short-lived, unbroken ties with Poland introduced and strengthened Polish-Catholic influence in Lithuania, which aggravated the national question in it to the degree of political ; The union of Gorodel was violated by the unauthorized election of Svidrigail, with the participation of the Orthodox boyars; as a result of the Tatar policy of Vitovt, the powerful Crimean Khanate of Girey, dangerous for Lithuania, was created.
For bibliography and partly sources, see the books by A. Barbashev "Vitovt and his policy before the Battle of Grunwalden" (St. Petersburg, 1885) and "Essays on the Lithuanian-Russian history of the 15th century Vitovt. The last twenty years of reign" (St. Petersburg, 1891) and the book M Lyubavsky "Essay on the history of the Lithuanian-Russian state up to the Union of Lublin inclusive" (Moscow, 1910). - See also M. Grushevsky "History of Ukrainian Rus", vol. V (Lvov, 1905) and vol. VI (Kyiv - Lvov, 1907). S. Ch.
VITOVT(c. 1350-October 1430) - Prince Gorodensky, Troksky, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1392-1430), son of the priestess Biruta and the Lithuanian prince Keistut Gediminovich, nephew of Olgerd. In baptism, he bore different names: in the first Catholic - Wiegand, in the Orthodox and second Catholic - Alexander. In Lithuanian history, it is called Viautas, in German - Witold.
From adolescence, he was repeatedly subjected to trials of fate: in 1363, together with his father, Keistut, he fled from the persecution of his uncle Olgerd and for several years had refuge in the possessions of the Teutonic Order. From 1368 he was a full-fledged participant in military campaigns, including in 1370 - the campaign of his father and uncle (Keystut and Olgerd) to Poland and Prussia, in 1372 - to Moscow, in 1376 - again to Prussia.
With the death of Olgerd (1377), relations between cousins - Vitovt (Prince of Lithuania) and Jagiello (Prince of Poland, Olgerd's heir) sharply escalated. In order to put an end to the claims of relatives to Polish lands, Jagiello decided to capture the entire Keistut family, including Vitovt. In 1381, Jagiello fulfilled his decision by giving the order to strangle Uncle Keistut and his wife Biruta. Vitovt miraculously managed to escape, dressed in the dress of the servant of the mother Biruta; he moved to Prussia, to the master of the Teutonic Order and again found refuge there.
In 1385 - after the union of Lithuania with Poland - Vytautas, relying on Lithuanian and Russian landowners who lived in the Russian regions of Lithuania, launched a struggle for the independence of Lithuania from Poland and achieved recognition from Jagiello for himself (as governor) of the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1386, he took part in the mass baptism of Lithuanians, which contributed to the spread of Catholicism in Lithuania. He legalized the system of participation of the aristocracy in the "election" of the Grand Duke, while destroying many regional principalities and creating a system of large administrative posts in his entourage. The consequence of his policy was the strengthening of the state, not alien to Polish borrowings, nationally not homogeneous, but exceptionally skillfully soldered by a single anti-Polish mood and imperiously directed from a single center and an autocratic ruler. In the hands of Vitovt was the former main church center of the Russian land - Kyiv, which the far-sighted ruler used, showing some concern for the Orthodox population. Not without the participation of the Russian Metropolitan Cyprian, who was in Vladimir far from Vitovt, the Lithuanian prince decided to intermarry with c. book. Moscow Vasily I Dmitrievich, having given his daughter Sofya Vitovtovna to him (1391). This marriage made the Western policy of Moscow strongly dependent on Lithuania and did not prevent Vitovt from continuing to pursue a rather aggressive policy towards the Western Russian principalities, to interfere in the affairs of Novgorod and Pskov.
In 1392 Vitovt was recognized as the Grand Duke for life. Meanwhile, the borders of his state were rapidly expanding: in 1395 he captured Orsha and Smolensk, which was relatively weak, but territorially connected with Lithuania; in 1395 - 1396 successfully went to the Ryazan lands; in 1397-1398 he fought with the Tatars so successfully that they recognized him as a worthy opponent. In 1398, the exiled Tokhtamysh asked for help from him. . Inspired by success in relations with the Horde, Vitovt moved on, but the troops of Timur-Kutluk blocked his path. In the battle on the Vorskla River in 1399, they utterly defeated the Lithuanian army. Vytautas managed to take advantage of the temporary weakening of Prince. Ryazan Oleg Ivanovich, who won Smolensk from Vitovt and gave it as a gift to his son-in-law, Prince. Yuri Svyatoslavich. True, just five years later, Vitovt regained the Smolensk lands back, expanded his possessions in southern Podolia and generally reached almost the Black Sea.
Kinship with the Moscow prince did not prevent him from time to time from invading the boundaries of the Moscow principality. In 1401, Vasily I sent troops to Zavolochye and Dvina, demanding that his father-in-law recognize these territories as Moscow. The peace treaty between Vasily and Vitovt in 1402 was violated in 1403 by Vitovt, who captured Vyazma and decided to move to Moscow through Smolensk. In 1405, Vasily led his army against Vitovt, but there was no battle. Long negotiations near Mozhaisk ended in a truce, leaving Vasily with the question of how to achieve independence from his father-in-law in a different, non-military way. Finally, in 1408 the border between Moscow and Lithuania was established along the Ugra River (1408).
Vytautas' apparently good relations with the Teutons, who repeatedly gave him shelter when he was young, worsened as Poland and Lithuania grew closer. On July 15, 1410, the so-called Battle of Grunwald took place near Tannenberg, which became fatal for the Teutonic Order. The combined Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and Czech troops defeated him. The only thing that saved the Order from final destruction was Vitovt's fear that the strengthening of Poland through victory would be to his own detriment. As a result of the battle, Zhmud, captured by the Order, retreated to Lithuania.
In the early 1420s, Vytautas began to establish relations with the Czech Hussites, who offered him the Czech crown. However, the unanimous protest of the spiritual and secular authorities of Europe forced Vytautas and Jagiello, who supported his cousin in his desire to move west, to cut off the established connection with the Czechs in 1423.
Fearing the strengthening of his son-in-law in Moscow and hindering the unifying policy of the Moscow principality, Vitovt repeatedly entered into contractual relations with the princes-opponents of Moscow: Tver (in 1427), Ryazan and Pronsk (in 1430), trying to rally around him disparate, incapable of defending themselves, anti-Moscow configured principalities. At the same time, he decisively abolished local principalities in Podolia, Kyiv, and Vitebsk, which led to the strengthening of Lithuanian influence in these lands and to an increase in the role and political significance of Lithuania.
Having achieved a lot in the creation and strengthening of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vitovt set the goal of his life to turn it into a kingdom. The German emperor Sigismund (1368-1437) contributed to this, wishing thereby to inflict damage on Poland, which also claimed the royal crown. Encouraged by the support of Sigismund, Vitovt appointed a coronation for 1430, inviting to it those Russian princes who supported him in the struggle against the Moscow principality. The royal crown was supposed to be delivered from Hungary, but the Polish lords managed to intercept it on the way. The failed coronation hastened the death of the eighty-year-old Vitovt (1430).
In the latest literature, Vitovt's activity is assessed depending on the nationality of the researchers (in Lithuania he is recognized as an outstanding statesman, in other countries historians' assessments are more restrained). But even in Russian historiography there are attempts to represent Lithuania in the late 14th - early 15th centuries. one of the main centers of the Slavic association, no less significant than the Moscow principality. They believe that its rulers, and above all Vitovt, quite successfully carried out the program of uniting part of the Baltic and North-West Russia.
Natalya Pushkareva
Jagiello handed over the throne to his cousin Vytautas in 1392. In 1399, Vitovt (reigned 1392-1430) once again tried to annex the Principality of Moscow, this time in alliance with the Horde Khan Tokhtamysh, who fled to Lithuania and dreamed of regaining the Khan's throne, but suffered a severe defeat in the battle of Vorskla. This defeat greatly weakened Lithuania, and in 1401 it was forced to confirm the regime of "personal union" with Poland, which led to the strengthening of the positions of the Polish nobility (gentry) on the lands of the principality.
In 1405, Vitovt attacked the Novgorod and Pskov lands, and they turned to Moscow for help. A war was brewing, but the forces of Lithuania and Moscow were approximately equal, moreover, the conflict was not beneficial to either side, and in 1408, after standing with the troops on the Ugra, Vitovt and the Moscow Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich made peace. At this time, in the west, the Polish-Lithuanian state waged a fierce struggle with the Teutonic Order. Peace on the eastern borders largely contributed to the fact that in 1410 the combined troops of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania inflicted a crushing defeat on the Order in Battle of Grunwald(Battle of Tannenberg). A direct consequence of this victory was the final renunciation of the Order in 1422 from Samogitia and the final liquidation of the Order in the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466.
Once again, Vitovt tried to intervene in Moscow affairs in 1427, when a dynastic strife began in Moscow, called "Shemyakina Troubles". Vytautas, relying on the fact that the Grand Duchess of Moscow, together with her son, people and lands, herself gave herself under his protection, seriously claimed the throne of the king of Lithuania and Rus'. It was a matter of official recognition by the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The recognition of Vitovt as a king and, accordingly, his country as a kingdom, would mean a radical change in the status of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the international arena. This was completely unfavorable for Jagiello and the Kingdom of Poland, which was striving to expand its influence on its eastern neighbor. According to legend, the crown of Vytautas was stopped on the territory of Poland, and Jagiello personally cut it with a sword. The already elderly Vytautas could not bear such a blow and died in 1430.
Perhaps this was the last attempt to assert the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as an independent power. The decisive planting of the Catholic faith and the expansion of the influence of the Poles, although it contributed to the rise of the economy, culture and science, at the same time firmly tied the country to a more developed Catholic Poland, and the system of privileges granted to the Catholic gentry tore apart the internal unity of the country. The transition of the Orthodox nobility to Catholicism, its Polonization, became massive. Oil was added to the fire by the enslavement of peasants in the first half of the 15th century. The response was mass peasant movements. The Orthodox majority, especially the lower strata of the population, increasingly focused on Rus'. An outflow of Orthodox Christians began from the Lithuanian lands: they went to the empty lands in the east and southeast, the former Wild Field, where the nomads were the owners. This was the beginning of the Cossacks in the lands bordering the Crimean Khanate.
