Kfstutis (d. 1382)

Grand duke of Lithuania (1381-1382).

Kestutis (Ger. Keistut, Pol. Kiejstut, Russ. Keistut) was born around 1300, a son of Grand Duke Gediminas. For several decades before becoming ruler of Lithuania, Kestutis supported the power of his brother, Grand Duke Algirdas (1345-1377), and frequently led Lithuanian and allied armies against the Teutonic Order. Because Kestutis had placed Algirdas on the throne of Lithuania, deposing their brother Jaunutis, he retained special influence. He ruled the important lands of Trakai, Podlachia, Brest-Litovsk, Hrodna (Grodno), and possibly Samogitia.

In the wars of the Baltic Crusades, Kestutis became well-known to the Teutonic Order and its guest crusaders, and was even praised by them for his chivalrous qualities. Not only did he successfully fight off crusaders from all over Europe, but he also conducted negotiations for exchanges of prisoners and for possibilities of Lithuanian baptism. He nevertheless remained a pagan, yet learned many of the customs of the Christians. It is said that, when captured by the Teutonic Order, he escaped by riding away on the Grand Master’s horse, impersonating a knight of the order.

Algirdas’s son and successor, Jogaila, was not willing to defer to Kestutis, and made a pact with the Teutonic Order against him. Kestutis deposed Jogaila in 1381, seizing Vilnius and becoming grand duke. But Jogaila continued the struggle for power through new alliances with the Teutonic Order. He seized and imprisoned Kestutis, and the old campaigner died in prison in 1382. He had been married to the Lithuanian noblewoman Birute, and one of his sons, Vytautas, became grand duke of Lithuania.

-Rasa Mazeika

Bibliography

Janulaitis, Augustinas, Lietuvos Didysis Kunigaiks tis Kestutis (Vilnius: Kardas, 1998).

Kiaupa, Zigmantas, and Jurate Kiaupiene, The History of Lithuania before 1795 (Vilnius: Lithuanian Institute of History, 2000).

Kucinskas, Antanas, Kestutis (Kaunas: Sakalas, 1938).

Mazeika, Rasa, “The Role of Pagan Lithuania in Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Religious Diplomacy in East-Central Europe (1345-77)” (Ph. D. diss., Fordham University, 1987).