Kingdom of Lithuania
The Kingdom of Lithuania was a Lithuanian monarchy which existed from 1251 to roughly 1263.[1] King Mindaugas was the first and only crowned king of Lithuania. The status of a kingdom was lost after Mindaugas' assassination in 1263. Other monarchs of Lithuania are referred to as Grand Dukes, even though their status was almost identical to that of a king. Two attempts were made to re-establish the Kingdom – by Vytautas the Great in 1430 and by the Council of Lithuania in 1918.
Kingdom of Lithuania Lietuvos Karalystė | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1251–1263 | |||||||||
Territorial evolution of Lithuania in the 13–15th centuries | |||||||||
| Capital | Kernavė | ||||||||
| Common languages | Lithuanian, Ruthenian | ||||||||
| Religion |
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| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| King | |||||||||
• 1251–1263 | Mindaugas | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Status of kingdom received | 17 July 1251 | ||||||||
• Coronation of Mindaugas | 6 July 1253 | ||||||||
• Mindaugas assassinated | Autumn 1263 | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | LT | ||||||||
| |||||||||
King Mindaugas
In the early 13th century, Lithuania was inhabited by various pagan Baltic tribes, which began to organize themselves into a state – the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. By the 1230s, Mindaugas emerged as the leader of the Grand Duchy. In 1249, an internal war erupted between Mindaugas and his nephews Tautvilas and Edivydas. As each side searched for foreign allies, Mindaugas succeeded in convincing the Livonian Order not only to provide military assistance, but also to secure for him the royal crown of Lithuania in exchange for his conversion to Catholicism and some lands in western Lithuania. The status of a kingdom was granted on 17 July 1251, when the Bishop of Chełmno was ordered to crown Mindaugas by Pope Innocent IV.[1] Two years later, Mindaugas and his wife Morta were crowned as the king and queen of Lithuania.[1] In 1255, Mindaugas received permission from Pope Alexander IV to crown his son as a king of Lithuania.
The coronation and the alliance with the Livonian Order allowed a period of peace between Lithuania and Livonia. During that time the Lithuanians expanded east, while Livonia attempted to conquer Samogitia. Enticed by his nephew Treniota, Mindaugas broke the peace after the Order was defeated in the Battle of Skuodas in 1259 and Battle of Durbe in 1260. Lithuanian forces were however unable to prevent the devastating Mongol invasion of Lithuania in 1258–1259.[2] Treniota's influence grew as he waged a war against the Order and his priorities began to diverge from those of Mindaugas.[3] The conflict resulted in assassination of Mindaugas and two of his sons in 1263. The country reverted to paganism and its status as a kingdom was lost. The state survived as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the subsequent monarchs are known as Grand Dukes as they could not be crowned as kings until they converted to Christianity (the Christianization of Lithuania occurred only in 1387).
Attempts to re-establish the kingdom
There was an attempt by Grand Duke Vytautas the Great (ruled 1392–1430) to receive the royal crown. At the Congress of Lutsk in 1430, Sigismund, king of Hungary who was yet to be elected as Holy Roman Emperor, offered Vytautas the crown, and proclaimed Lithuania as kingdom. It did not come to fruition, because of the opposition from Polish nobles and later by Władysław II Jagiełło.[4] According to some historians the crown was sent to Lithuania by Sigismund, but it was intercepted by Polish forces,[5] but in reality Sigismund sent only the documents proposing alliance between him, Vytautas and Teutonic Order, and judgement from legal experts that the coronation can be performed by the bishop of Vilnius.[6] Soon afterwards Vytautas died without being crowned as king.
Following the Union of Lublin, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. While the kings of Poland were also titled the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, they did not use the title of the King of Lithuania, and the two parts of the Commonwealth were known to as the Grand Duchy and the Polish Crown.
After Lithuania declared independence in February 1918, the monarchy was re-established and the 2nd Duke of Urach was invited to become King Mindaugas II. However, the monarchy was short-lived and Mindaugas II never visited Lithuania.[7] The Kingdom of Lithuania was a client-state of the German Empire and following Germany's defeat in World War I in the fall of 1918, the idea of a monarchy was abandoned in favor of a democratic republic.
References
- Gudavičius, Edvardas (1998). Mindaugas (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Žara. ISBN 9986-34-020-9.
- Darius, Baronas (2006). "THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN FOREST LITHUANIANS AND STEPPE TATARS IN THE TIME OF MINDAUGAS" (PDF). Lithuanian Historical Studies (11): 1–16.
- Kiaupa, Zigmantas (2002). "Mindaugo karalystės raida". Gimtoji istorija. Nuo 7 iki 12 klasės (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Elektroninės leidybos namai. ISBN 9986-9216-9-4. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008.
- Frost 2015, p. 142-150.
- Stone, Daniel (2001). The Polish–Lithuanian State, 1386–1795. A History of East Central Europe. University of Washington Press. p. 11. ISBN 0-295-98093-1.
- Frost 2015, p. 148-149
- Page, Stanley W. (1959). The Formation of the Baltic States. Harvard University Press. p. 94. OCLC 100463.
Bibliography
Frost, Robert (2015). The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania. The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385—1569. Oxfrod. ISBN 978-0-19-820869-3.