Travel Guide

he society of Medieval Lithuania was a rural society, while the towns just began to emerge.
During the early Middle Ages (5–11th centuries) the chiefdoms were emerging in the territory of Lithuania. This process is reflected in “ducal” graves which appeared in the 5–6th centuries. This highest social stratum in about 11th century began to transform itself to the real dukes which were maintained by taxpayers. Until the end of the 13th century there were a lot of minor dukes – every district was headed by a separate local duke occupying place of a chief of an earlier period. These dukes were subjects to the dukes of lands, and since the creation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (c. 1183) – to the Grand Duke. In the 14th century the district dukes were replaced by the stewards, called tivuns (tij?nai). Tivun vas a representative of the sovereign, administrator of a district and judge.

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Traidenis
(1270-1282)

After the death of Mindaugas in 1263 there was a period of civil unrest, in which there were three Grand Dukes until Traidenis took power in 1270. These three were:

-Trenoita (1263-1265)
-Vaisvilkas (1265-1268)
-Svarnas (1268-1269)

Traidenis was one of the most prominent rulers between the time of Mindaugas and the accession of Grand Duke Gediminas in 1316. Though unclear as to how Traidenis came to power, his accession ended the seven year period of unrest.

Traidenis followed Mindaugas’ two main policies -internal consolidation of the State, and expansion into Eastern Slavic lands. Unlike Mindaugas’, who converted to Christianity in hopes of deflecting the Teutons, Traidenis remained Pagan.

Traidenis devoted much of his reign to unifying the various Lithuanian tribes against the incursion of the Teutonic Knights. As well, he actively encouraged other Baltic Peoples, such as the Semigallians, Jotvingians and Prussians to resist the Order..

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Mindaugas was the first, and only, King of Lithuania and the one to first introduce Christianity to the country.

Little is known about Mindaugas’ origins, except that he was one of 20 powerful Lithuanian princes. Even before his reign began, the emerging centre of Lithuania was in the Trakai/Vilnius region.

Against the ever encroaching Teutonic Order, Mindaugas united the various princes into a single state and was formally recognized as the ruler, and was crowned by the Pope. There were many reasons for Mindaugas’s conversion to Christianity and his drive to unite the various regions. One of the most paramount was to avoid the same fate as the Prussians – who were conquered by the Teutonic Order, which was searching for lands for themselves. The Prussians, as a culture, eventually died out, after several centuries of assimilation. With the acceptance of Christianity, Mindaugas was hoping that this would stop a Crusading order from “enforcing” the “true and proper faith” onto the heathen-Lithuanians. In the end, this did not happen, there was still military pressure.

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