The Lithuanians

Who rules

Name

not pinned: no Lithuanian duke is named in any source before Žvelgaitis, who appears in Henry of Livonia in the winter of 1204-1205

Title

the dukes (kunigaikščiai) of the Lithuanian lands; no ruler of all Lithuania

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

The ducal kindreds are known only from the treaty with the Volhynian court entered in the Hypatian chronicle under 1215 and dated 1219 by modern historians: five 'elder' dukes (Živinbudas; the brothers Daujotas and Viligaila; the brothers Dausprungas and Mindaugas), the Samogitian dukes Erdvilas and Vykintas, the Ruškaičiai (Rushkovichi), the Bulioniai (Bulevichi) and four dukes of Deltuva. These show the families, not who led them in 1200.

Confidence

low

Henry of Livonia, the Kievan and Novgorod chronicles and the 1219 treaty name no Lithuanian ruler for 1200. Henry says that Žvelgaitis, rich and powerful, led the great raid of 1205 for another, more powerful duke, which suggests a senior duke above the war leaders by then. In 1219 five elder dukes head the list and Živinbudas stands first. Whether any duke stood above the others on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

What the realm holds

• Lithuania proper (the Land of Lithuania): the Kernavė hillforts on the Neris, the fortified hill above the Neris and the Vilnia (later Vilnius), the forests to the Merkys and east towards Ašmena
• Deltuva: the land between the Neris and the Šventoji round the Ukmergė hillfort
• Nalšia: the north-eastern lake land (Utena, Švenčionys, Ignalina)
• Upytė: the Nevėžis valley round Panevėžys
• Dainava: the forest land between the Merkys and the upper Neman (Merkinė), shared with Yotvingians
• the hillforts along the Neman from Merkinė to the Kaunas confluence

How it was acquired

The ancestral land of the Lithuanian tribes, first named as Litua in 1009. The dukes hold by inheritance within kindreds: in 1219 brothers, a father and son, and families of several dukes sign together.

Allies and rivals

Polotsk: old partners and neighbours. The Rus' Primary Chronicle lists Lithuania among the peoples paying tribute to Rus' in the 11th century, but no tribute is recorded by 1200; the Kievan Chronicle, under 1180 (some date the war 1181), has Lithuanians and Livs in the Polotsk princes' following in the war over Drutsk. Novgorod and Pskov: raided. The Novgorod First Chronicle has Prince Yaroslav of Novgorod march to Luki against Polotsk in its year 6706 (1198), where the men of Polotsk met him with submission (poklon) and he turned back; Lithuanian raids into the Luki and Lovat country are placed around these years, but the entries could not be checked for this record and none is pinned to the winter of 1199-1200.

The Livs, Latgalians and Selonians of the Daugava: raided since about 1185 (Henry of Livonia: the Lithuanians laid waste the Liv lands and carried off many captives, and Meinhard and the Livs of Üxküll fled to the woods). The Semigallians: rivals; in February 1205 their leader Viestards helped the Germans destroy Žvelgaitis's host (later). The Samogitians: kinsmen and allies (both sign in 1219). The Yotvingians (Sudovians): kin Balts beyond the Neman who raid Volhynia and Masovia with or beside them.

Volhynia: Roman Mstislavich, now master of Galich as well, campaigned against the Yotvingians in the winter of 1196-1197 in revenge for their raids; Lithuanians and Yotvingians will ravage his land after his death in 1205 (later). Gorodno and the Rus' towns of Black Ruthenia: neighbours on the upper Neman; no war between them is recorded for these years. The Germans: the Daugava mission is weak after Bishop Berthold's death in July 1198; Riga does not exist.

The realm that morning

Each land's dukes hold its hillforts, levy its men and judge its people; there is no common treasury, coin or law-speaker known. The dukes of different lands combine for great raids, and the size and reach of the raids of the 1180s-1200s suggest coordination, but no source shows a supreme duke in 1200 (Baranauskas argues for a Lithuanian state from about 1183; most historians place its making under Mindaugas in the 1230s-1240s). Winter is the raiding season, when frozen rivers and bogs open the roads; no Lithuanian raid is pinned to the winter of 1199-1200.

Henry of Livonia, writing of about 1205, says the Lithuanians then lorded it over all the peoples round them, Christian and pagan, so that few dared stay in their villages, the Letts least of all. Borders: the Neman below Merkinė divides Lithuania from the Sudovians (the Prussians' ground on the Poland and Hungary map); Samogitia lies west of the Nevėžis; the Semigallians, Selonians and Latgalians lie to the north towards the Daugava; Polotsk's western land (Braslav, the upper Vilia, the Minsk land) lies east across forest and lakes; the Rus' towns of Gorodno and Novogrudok hold the upper Neman to the south; Dainava's forests run south into Yotvingian ground. No treaty or truce with any neighbour is known to be in force.

No raiding belt is drawn for the winter of 1199-1200 because no raid is dated to it; the chronic raiding grounds are the Liv and Latgalian lands of the Daugava, the Novgorod frontier at Luki and the Lovat, and the Volhynian and Masovian borders, where the Yotvingians are the main raiders.

Wealth

No coin of their own: silver changes hands by weight, as ingots and cut silver. Wealth comes from war (slaves, cattle, horses, ransoms and plunder from Livonia, Estonia, Rus' and Poland), from rye, barley, cattle and horse rearing, and from forest goods (furs, wax, honey). Trade runs down the Neman towards the Prussian and Curonian coast and through the Daugava to Gotland traders, and east to Polotsk.

Military

Mounted war bands of the dukes and their retinues, swift in winter over frozen rivers and marshes; foot levies of the lands to defend the hillforts. Fortification is earth and timber on steep hills (Kernavė, the Vilnius hill, Merkinė, Ukmergė); no stone castles in 1200 except possibly the first stone work on the Vilnius hill, which is dated to about the 13th century. Scale: Henry of Livonia counts 1,200 Lithuanians killed when Žvelgaitis's host was caught returning from Estonia in February 1205; Kiaupa and his co-authors count at least 22 Lithuanian incursions into Livonia, 14 into Rus' and 4 into Poland between 1201 and 1236.

Threats

• Rus' retaliation: Novgorod and Pskov from the north-east, Roman Mstislavich of Volhynia and Galich from the south
• the Semigallians and, from 1200, the German crusaders on the Daugava (Bishop Albert sails during 1200; Riga is founded in 1201)
• feuds between kindreds and lands, which the sources of these years do not record but the treaty of 1219 implies

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. spring to summer 1200 (sailing season)Bishop Albert of Livonia sails up the Daugava with crusaders recruited in Germany and lands near Holme and Üxküll; the Daugava, the Lithuanians' road north to the Livs and the Estonians, gains a hostile power with garrisons.Depends on: Albert's recruiting and the Saxon and Westphalian crusaders taking ship from Lübeck and Gotland Stopped by: a failure of his recruiting, shipwreck, or a Liv rising that keeps him from landing
2. not pinned (the Novgorod chronicles place Lithuanian raids into the Luki and Lovat country around 1198-1200)A Lithuanian war band raids the Novgorod land on the Lovat in winter and is pursued by the Novgorodians.Depends on: frozen rivers and the dukes' choice of target; Novgorod's frontier at Luki being unwatched Stopped by: a truce, a harder winter target elsewhere, or Novgorodian and Polotsk watch on the Lovat and the Daugava

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201 (later)Lithuanian envoys make peace with the Germans at the new Riga, according to Henry of Livonia.Depends on: Albert holding the lower Daugava and founding Riga Stopped by: Albert's failure in 1200
2. winter 1204-1205 (later)Žvelgaitis leads a great raid through the Daugava lands into Estonia and is killed on the way home, with 1,200 of his men, by the Semigallians under Viestards and the Germans of Riga (February 1205).Depends on: the Lithuanian-Semigallian enmity and the German presence at Riga Stopped by: any change in the Daugava balance before then
3. 1205 after 19 June (later)Lithuanians and Yotvingians ravage the Volodymyr land (Turiisk) after Roman Mstislavich's death.Depends on: Roman dying in battle against the Poles at Zawichost Stopped by: Roman surviving

Places of note

• Kernavė hillforts: the greatest Lithuanian hillfort complex on the Neris, probably the dukes' main centre
• The hill above the Neris and the Vilnia: a wooden hillfort with a settlement at its foot where Vilnius will stand (the name first appears in 1323)
• Merkinė hillfort: the fort at the mouth of the Merkys on the Neman, facing the Yotvingians
• Ukmergė hillfort: the hillfort of Deltuva on the Šventoji

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign notes on the Church do not deal with Lithuania; nothing in them conflicts with this record.
• Historians disagree on how organised the Lithuanians were: Baranauskas sees a state from about 1183; Gudavičius and most others a confederation of lands that became a state under Mindaugas. The record treats 1 January 1200 as a world of land dukes with no named overlord.

Evidence: No Lithuanian name is recorded before 1205 and the lands are named only from 1219 (Deltuva) and the 1250s-1260s (Nalšia, Upytė). The raids are known from brief notices in the Novgorod and Kievan chronicles and from Henry of Livonia, who writes from about 1200 and looks back to the 1180s. The Novgorod entries for 1198-1200 could not be checked for this record. Archaeology (Kernavė, the Vilnius hill) shows the hillforts.

On the map: Lithuanian lands were districts of settlement round hillforts separated by wide forest and bog; the outline is a convention. The northern and eastern edges (against the Selonians, Latgalians and Polotsk) and the southern edge against Black Ruthenia are guesses from later borders and place names.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronicle of Novgorod (kept year by year; the Synodal manuscript written in the 13th and 14th centuries). Novgorod's own record, kept at St Sophia. Read online
• The Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission. Read online