Everything about Duchy Of Lithuania totally explained
Duchy of Lithuania (; ) was a state-territorial formation of ethnic
Lithuanians, that existed from the 12th century until 1413. Most of the time it was a constituent part and a nucleus of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Other alternative names of the territorial formation, used in different periods, were
Aukštaitija or Land of Lithuania (11th – 13th centuries), Duchy of
Vilnius (14th – early 15th centuries),
Lithuania Propria or simply
Lithuania (in a narrow sense).
History
The formation emerged in the central and eastern part of the present-day Lithuania, known as
Aukštaitija, as the Lietuva Land . It is supposed to have formed in the central Lithuania on the left bank of the
Neris River and swiftly expanded eastwards. This very land was mentioned in 1009 as
Litua (see
Name of Lithuania). The territory was ruled by senior dukes of an ethnic Lithuanian tribe, Aukštaitijans or "Lithuanians", in the initial meaning of the name.
After the expansion of the Lithuanian state in the 12th or 13th century, when it became known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the
Kingdom of Lithuania (1251–1263), the Duchy of Lithuania became an administrative unit, governed by dukes and inherited by dynastic links. The main administrative center of the Duchy until the late 13th century might have been
Kernavė.
It is plausible that the Duchy of Lithuania, that became known as the Duchy of Vilnius since the 14th century, was formed of the eastern part of the original Duchy of Lithuania under the rule of Grand Duke of Lithuania
Vytenis at the end of the 13th century; its south-western part was transformed to a separate Duchy of
Trakai, under the dominion of
Gediminas, who had established himself in the newly constructed
Senieji Trakai Castle. The latter part was a progenitor of the future
Trakai Voivodeship.
The last Duke of Lithuania was
Vytautas the Great, who received it in 1392 from
Jogaila as a result of the
Astrava Treaty, who in turn had inherited it from his father
Algirdas. Since 1397, the Duchy had the status of an Eldership, comparable to that of the
Eldership of Samogitia. After the administrative reform of 1413 by Vytautas, based on the
Union of Horodło, the Duchy ceased to exist, becoming a part of the newly established
Vilnius Voivodeship.
Further Information
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