Lithuanian nobility

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lithuanian nobility was a privileged legal status in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , composed of Lithuanian and some Ruthenian noble families. The families received their privileges mostly for military service in the Grand Duchy. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Lithuanian nobility was largely mixed with the Polish Szlachta . In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania together with the Kingdom of Poland , the number of noblemen reached up to 7%, which was the largest proportion in Europe. In some parts of the country it was even 10%.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Before the formation of the Lithuanian state, the lower nobles in Lithuania were called Bajorai , the members of the higher nobility Kunigai . The latter term goes back to the old German Kunig (= king). The higher nobility came from the class of tribal leaders. After the creation of a Lithuanian state by the Grand Duke Mindaugas , they gradually became subject to higher rulers and later also to the Lithuanian king . After Mindaugas' death, all Lithuanian regents had the title of Grand Duke (Lithuanian: Didysis kunigaikštis ) or king. The higher aristocratic families used the pagan first names of their ancestors as family names, for example Goštautai, Radvilos, Astikai or Kęsgailos . These families acquired great wealth and became magnates . During the Union of Horodło in 1413 they received family arms .

While the Lithuanian nobility initially consisted exclusively of ethnic Lithuanians, more Ruthenian aristocratic families were added with the territorial expansion . As early as the 16th century, the Ruthenian aristocratic families began to call themselves gente Ruthenus, natione Lithuanus .

development

In the 15th century there was already a solid class of nobility in Lithuania. Over time, the influence of the higher nobility increased while that of the lower nobility diminished. The largest landowners began to call themselves gentlemen (ponai or didkai) and the Lithuanian “council of gentlemen” was created to look after their interests.

In the 16th century, the Lithuanian nobles gave up calling themselves Bajorai and adopted the Polish name “Szlachta”.

When the Grand Duke began to distribute state land, he became dependent on the great landowners who demanded greater freedoms and privileges. The nobility received administrative and legal power in their domains and gained increasing rights in state politics. The legal status of the nobility was now based on a number of privileges granted to them by the Grand Duke:

Privileges

In 1387, Grand Duke Jogaila - the newly crowned King of Poland - gave nobles and soldiers personal rights, including the right to inheritance and management of land and property inherited from their ancestors or given by the Grand Duke. For this they had to do military service, build and maintain castles , bridges and roads and guard the castles.

In 1413 Vytautas and Jogaila signed the Union of Horodło. This renewed the Polish-Lithuanian Union and established a general Sejm . At the same time, it guaranteed the nobility the right to inherit land given by the Grand Duke. 43 noble families received Polish noble coats of arms. Almost all Veldemai (dependent farmers) became serfs .

The privilege of May 6, 1434 guaranteed the Catholic and Orthodox nobility the freedom to sell their land and prohibited prosecutions without a fair trial.

In 1447 Casimir IV restricted the positions in the Catholic Church and in state institutions exclusively to persons of Lithuanian origin. This was the beginning of serfdom in Lithuania as the peasants fell out of the jurisdiction of the Grand Duke.

In 1492 the Jagiellonian Alexander renewed the privilege of 1447 and restricted the generous rights in foreign policy . Without the advice of the gentlemen, he could not dismiss senior officials and lower officials had to be appointed in the presence of the voivodes of Vilnius , Trakai and other voivodships . The sale of various state and church positions to the nobility was prohibited. This meant that city dwellers could no longer become civil servants.

In 1506 Sigismund I (the elder) confirmed the position of the "Council of Lords" and restricted admission to the nobility .

On April 1, 1557, Sigismund II fully established serfdom. The peasants lost their land ownership and personal rights.

In 1569, the Union of Lublin created the Polish-Lithuanian federal state and the nobility received the right to choose a common ruler for Poland and Lithuania.

In 1588, the Third Statute of Lithuania extended the rights of the nobility. He received triple immunity : legal, administrative and tax. With this the separation between the nobility, peasants and townspeople was finally completed. Most of the nobility rights existed from now until the third division of the Polish-Lithuanian federation.

Relations with the Kingdom of Poland

After the Union of Horodło (1413), the nobility in Lithuania had the same rights as those of the Kingdom of Poland. In the centuries that followed, the Lithuanian nobility began to merge with the Polish. The Lithuanian and Ruthenian languages disappeared in favor of Polish. First, the Lithuanian magnate families were Polonized, even if many - we the Radziwiłłs - remained loyal to the Grand Duchy and resisted being fully incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland. Gradually the Polonization of the population expanded and the vast majority of the Lithuanian nobility became part of the Polish Szlachta. Nevertheless, the Lithuanian nobility retained their identity as members of the Grand Duchy and its members represented its interests in the Sejm .

After the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Union

The lower nobility, who had retained the Lithuanian language , suffered particularly from the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, which annexed most of the old Grand Duchy of Russia . Under Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, the situation of the nobility deteriorated. In the period from 1833 to 1860, 25,692 nobles in the province of Vilnius (Vilnius) and 17,032 in the province of Kovno (Kaunas) lost their noble status as the Russian government decided to reduce the potential for resistance against the Russian state. The Lithuanians were now officially regarded as " Russians seduced by Poles and Christianity ". The Lithuanian-language press was banned and a program to restore the "Russian sources" was launched.

In the 19th century the formula was: gente Lithuanus, natione Polonus (Lithuanian people of Polish nation) and the Polonization continued to grow . The 1897 census showed that only 27.7% of the nobility within the Lithuanian borders reported Lithuanian as their mother tongue .

In the period between the First and Second World War , land reforms in independent Lithuania limited the large estates to 150 hectares and the property of those nobles who fought on the Polish side in the Lithuanian-Polish war were confiscated. In the interwar period and after the Second World War, many Lithuanian nobles emigrated to Poland and in 1945–1953 many were deported to Siberia by the Soviets .

It was only after the country had regained its independence in 1994 that an association of the Lithuanian nobility was founded.

heraldry

The oldest motif in Lithuanian heraldry is two crossed arrows. In the Horodło Union of 1413, 47 Lithuanian families adopted Polish coats of arms , after which other coats of arms were adopted by Lithuanian noble families.

Influential Lithuanian noble families

Families of Lithuanian origin

Ruthenian families

Livian families

literature

  • (Lithuanian) Rimvydas Petrauskas Giminaičiai ir pavaldiniai: Lietuvos bajorų grupės XIV a. pabaigoje-XV a . I pusėje in: Lietuva ir jos kaimynai: nuo Normanų iki Napoleono: prof. Broniaus Dundulio atminimui. Vilnius, 2001, p. 107-126.
  • (Lithuanian) Rimvydas Petrauskas: Lietuvos diduomenė XIV a.pabaigoje - XV a.:sudėtis-struktūra-valdžia . Aidai, Vilnius; 2003.
  • (Lithuanian) Kiaupienė, Jūratė (2003). Mes, Lietuva: Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės bajorija XVIa. Viešasis ir privatus gyvenimas . Vilnius: Lithuanian institute of history. ISBN 9955-595-08-6 .
  • Aleksandravičius, Egidijus: The double fate of the Lithuanian gentry. In: Lituanus , Volume 45, No. 3. 1999, accessed on September 6, 2007 (English, Historiographical notes on the research of Lithuanian nobility).
  • Schmalstieg, William R .: Lithuanian names. In: Lituanus , Volume 28, No. 3. 1982, accessed on September 6, 2007 (English).

Web links