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King Mindaugas of Lithuania lived for 60 years and reigned for a combined 27 years of his monumental life.
He was the first King of Lithuania and its very first Head Of State, a legacy which has continued all the way until the present day; he united tribes, repelled the Crusades, and created the country of LIETUVA, otherwise known as Lithuania.
His years are a legacy that needs both exploring and explanation – he ruled from 1236 until 1263.
Born sometime around 1203, the birth and origins of King Mindaugas belong more to the Arthurian realm of mysticism than what we know as fact.
What we do know is that our hero was born during the Baltic Crusades*, a period of time when the focus of Christianizing Europe turned from the Holy Land in Jerusalem to the numerous tribes of the Baltic coast along with their ‘Eastern European’ neighbors. The focus of these Crusades was essentially modern-day Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, all of whose territory consisted of pagan tribes with quite a radical extent of linguistic and cultural practices between them.
A young Mindaugas would have been brought up in this internecine war era, an era which would have been perceived by the Lithuanian tribes as an all-out invasion by non-local forces.
These invading forces were well-armed, backed by the papacy, had a written language, and came with a ferocity which was at all times at odds with the moral values they were purporting.
It was the irony of the Crusades: converting people to accept God’s love through violence and savagery.
Beginning with Estonia and then Latvia around 1202, the Brothers of the Sword, Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights invaded and all but quashed the various tribes living in those two Baltic Countries in a series of campaigns known as the Livonian Crusade.
However, these deranged madmen of the Baltic Crusades were going to meet their match in the Lithuanians!
It was the rise of King Mindaugas that was to secure the reputation of Lietuva (Lithuania) in the annals of history as a truly independent kingdom and eventual master of the largest landholding territory in Europe at the time. The Lithuanians were never to be conquered.
At the very same time in Europe, Henry III (father of the great King Edward I ‘Longshanks’) was the reigning king of England (1216-1272).
Henry III’s father was John ‘Lackland’ and his uncle was Richard ‘The Lionheart.’ Henry III had inherited a paltry kingdom, as much of the lands that his father had previously inherited on the western-half of France (Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Poitou, and Aquitaine/Gascony) had been either traded away in the signing of the Magna Carta or lost via revolt.
It is interesting as a contrast because Henry III’s grandparents, the legendary King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, held the largest kingdom in Europe during the late 1100’s throughout their somewhat tumultuous reign during the infamous Plantagenet Dynasty.
Just as Henry III’s kingdom was collapsing (in the future to expand under Edward I) the Kingdom of Lithuania was on the rise.
Sources conflict somewhat with regards to Mindaugas’ early official dates of rulership and based on historical references they seem to be split into two phases. As “Grand Duke” in 1236, Mindaugas was the first in a line of rulers of the “Grand Duchy of Lithuania” which continued well beyond his reign, lasting from 1236 – 1795.
Mindaugas, under this so-called “Duchy,” proclaimed himself king in 1251 and reigned until his death in 1263.
- GRAND DUKE OF LITHUANIA 1236 – 1251
- KING OF LITHUANIA 1251 – 1263 (crowned on July 06, 1253)
In the first phase, Mindaugas was consolidating his power as the leader of various pagan tribes who were allied against the invading Germanic (Teutonic) forces attempting to Christianize the lands south of the Daugava River which separates modern-day Latvia from Lithuania.
In the second phase, Mindaugas had eradicated his enemies and taken control over a unified Lithuanian territory; he also begins expanding his borders into northern Poland and western Belarus.
According to the American Lithuanian Literary Association: “By 1236, most of the territories of Lithuania were united into one kingdom, under the rule of the Grand Duke Mindaugas” (1965:21). The authors of this work also attribute the victory of the Battle of Saule to Mindaugas’ leadership; although, not all sources I’ve read are entirely clear about who, exactly, lead this revolt.
The Wikipedia page describing this battle attributes partial Žemaičiai (Samogitian) leadership to a Duke Vykintas who was apparently a political rival of Mindaugas later to be subjugated.
However, what we do know is that this historic battle took place on September 22, 1236 and either Mindaugas led the revolt or its victory catapulted him to ultimate leadership over the Lithuanian tribes by uniting them.
I think there are kernels of truth on both sides of the argument, for shortly after the decisive Battle of Saule, Mindaugas takes his place as the vaunted Grand Duke of Lithuania in the same year. The battle itself takes place near the current city from which it derives its name, Šiauliai — although the exact location of where it was fought remains unknown. (Saulė also means ‘sun.’)
The term “Grand Duke” is also worth noting as it has been the subject of ongoing academic and political controversy.
It is somewhat confusing as a “Duke,” grand or otherwise, indicates a subordinate relationship to a higher political authority. Mindaugas managed to transcend from a Grand Duke to a King in the span of 15 years.
Here’s how scholar S. C. Rowell describes these terms in his book “Lithuania Ascending:”
“We shall follow Giedroyć in defining as dukes rulers ‘of an independent polity . . . with an allegiance to a higher regnal power’ and call prince ‘any person related by blood to a ruler.’ The head of this hierarchy is the grand duke (in Lithuanian didysis kunigaikštis and in Russian velikii kniaz).” – (Rowell 2014: 50).
For all intents and purposes the idea of a Grand Duke was nearly the same as a King as far as monarchical titles were concerned in various parts of Europe over time.
We do know that in 1219, 17 years before the Battle of Saule, Mindaugas is purported to have been among the Princes and Dukes that signed the Treaty of Galicia-Volhynia which cemented peaceful relationships between the Lithuanians and their eastern Rus’ian (Ruthenian) neighbors.
Mindaugas would have been just 17 years old at the signing of that treaty!
The great Mindaugas was from the Lithuanian region of Žemaitija (Samogitia) and would be referred to as Žemaičiai (Samogitian).
During Mindaugas’ rise to power his effectiveness came in uniting various Lithuanian pagan tribes against the Christian crusaders who were attempting to enter their territory from the north and south.
Mindaugas created an uneasy peace with the Aukštaitija living on the eastern swath of the country which eventually resulted in the successful establishment of an independent nation.
The Story of the Lithuanian Nation: From Pagans to Kings
The other brilliant tactic that Grand Duke Mindaugas formulated was TRADE. In 1251 this economic benefit was to allow a temporary peace to be made with the Livonian Order, which served to secure its northern border south of the Daugava River bordering Latvia – the Latvian tribes had all but succumbed to the crusaders and as a result lost an inestimable part of their language and culture.
The Lithuanian tribes were adamantly opposed to repeating those atrocities.
Therefore, the truce with the Livonian Order was somewhat of an irony.
However, if we look deeper into the period between the Battle of Saule in 1236 and the Livonian truce circa 1251 we see that Mindaugas as Grand Duke was preparing for his eventual kingship. He was doing this by (1) uniting the various Lithuanian-speaking tribes; and, (2) by creating deeper trade routes with the ‘Rus to the east.
These trade routes were an insurance-like buffer against becoming indebted to the crusading armies (ibid.: 76).
By the time 1250 rolled around there were not just 1 set of crusaders trying to stamp out the Lithuanian pagan religion and language, but 2. As previously mentioned, there were the Livonian Order (Baltic Crusaders) coming from the north as well as the Teutonic Knights trying to break in through the south.
It’s like having robbers at your front and back door!
“After subduing the resistant Prussians, they colonized the conquered areas with Western settlers – Germans, Saxons, and others – in order to bridge the territorial gap between the Prussian possessions and Livonia. To completely unite their dominions, they had to acquire Samogitia, a western Lithuanian province inhabited by a fiercely independent Lithuanian tribe.” – (Vardys & Sedaitis 1997: 10)
This incursion from the occupied Prussian territory in the south eventually broke through the Lithuanian littoral and allowed the crusading invaders to create an outpost called Memel, which we know today as Klaipdėda. Today this city is one of the most picturesque in the world!
In a purely stop-gap political measure to prevent further loss, Mindaugas does a few extremely radical things – certainly radical for his time and cultural mores.
- Mindaugas converts to Christianity
- Mindaugas proclaims himself king in 1251 (crowned in 1253)
- Mindaugas expands his territory
- Mindaugas reverts back to paganism
The importance of the Lithuanian pagan religion and the land cannot be overstated enough to those not familiar with the Lithuanian heritage.
As the last country in Europe to be officially Christianized, the pagan tribes fought tooth and nail to retain their traditional religious practices – it is absolutely amazing to witness the proportion of how deeply rooted their pagan religion was in relationship to the energy expended in defending it.
The crusaders fought wars of attrition and counted on the eventual subjugation of native populations through fear, intimidation, economics, and demographic exchange. Mindaugas foresaw this and with a prescient mind did whatever was necessary to keep his kingdom secure.
For this Mindaugas is a national hero.
He was extremely astute politically because we know that “When King Mindaugas of Lithuania first converted to Catholicism, he asked the Pope in 1253 to grant him rights to any (west) Rus’ian lands his subjects might conquer” (Rowell: 20).
In terms of being king, S. C. Rowell also tells us that: “Mindaugas is the only ruler of Lithuania to have borne this title in the full legal sense. His crown was sent to Vilnius in 1253 by Pope Innocent IV” (ibid.: 64).
Mindaugas was crowned King on 06 July 1253. This date is known as STATEHOOD DAY, Valstybės (Lietuvos karaliaus Mindaugo karūnavimo) diena in Lithuanian.
The words outside of the parenthesis, Valstybės diena, literally means ‘state day.’ The words inside the parenthesis mean ‘Lithuanian king Mindaugas’ coronation.’ July 6th is celebrated as a national holiday in Lithuania.
This commemorative coin was issued in 2003 and designed by Juozas Kalinauskas. There was also one made for Mindaugas’ beautiful wife Morta (right).
For a full list of Lithuanian collectable pneumatics, check out this Wiki site on the Commemorative Coins of Lithuania, it’s cool.
In the next 10 years of Mindaugas’ reign, which were to end with his death in 1263, he was betrayed by the very peace that he brokered with the Livonians! As they continued to try and force their way into Lithuanian lands, support for this ‘Christian’ king never sat too well with his subjects.
It was the singular irony of his rule: the pagan king turned Christian to lead the pagans.
By 1261 things had taken their toll on the mighty Mindaugas and it is here we see his true Lithuanian character emerge. He reverts back to paganism! It’s just as well as all of his nobility and subjects were still pagan having never converted.
This underscores the reality of the times and the true heart of this man who was Žemaičiai to the very end.
Like any king or monarch of any age, Mindaugas went to the extremes of leadership in order to protect his homeland, even if that meant a false conversion to a new religion. Despite any historical blowback, Mindaugas was a true hero and the ultimate king.
Acting on the Pope’s blessings, Mindaugas expanded the territory of Lithuania to include the cities of Hrodna, Navahradak, Minsk, Vitebsk, and Polatsk in both Belarus and Poland.
Subsequent rulers such as the Gediminas Dynasty would expand Lithuania from the Baltic Sea all the way to the Black Sea covering portions of Russia and most of the Ukraine.
In a final dynastic struggle against opposing internal political forces, King Mindaugas was killed in 1263.
In his later years he increasingly strove to ally himself with the kingdoms he had conquered and acquired – it was only under subsequent dynasties that they finally saw the wisdom of his ways and sought out political marriages between royal houses.
Mindaugas lives on as Lithuania’s FIRST and ONLY king. “Į Sveikatą!”
*NOTE: I am using the term “Baltic Crusades” to refer to both the Livonian Crusades and Northern Crusades of the 12th and 13th century, there are other usages of this term as well. These crusades were all sanctioned by the Holy Roman Empire.
KING MINDAUGAS SOURCES CITED:
- American Lithuanian Literary Association. 1965. Lithuania Past and Present: Eight Centuries in the Life of a Nation. New York: ALLA.
- Rowell, S.C. 2014. Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire Within East-Central Europe, 1295-1345. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Vardys, V. Stanley and Judith B. Sedaitis. 1997. Lithuania: The Rebel Nation. New York: Westview Press.
- A List of Lithuanian Books to read! (Family History Foundation link)
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