Duchy of Trakai

Duchy of Trakai Trakų Kunigaikštystė
Duchy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
← 1337–1413 →
Coat of arms
Capital		Senieji Trakai, later Trakai
History
•	Established by Kęstutis	1337
•	Union of Horodło	1413
Today part of		Lithuania, Poland, Belarus

Duchy of Trakai was a subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the 14th and early 15th centuries. The Duke of Trakai was an important position held either by the Grand Duke of Lithuania himself or his second-in-command.

History

After the demise of Gediminas in December 1337, the Duchy of Lithuania was divided into two parts: Grand Duke Algirdas ruled Vilnius and the Eastern Aukštaitija while his brother Kęstutis received the Duchy of Trakai.

In 1382, during the Lithuanian Civil War (1381–1384), Kęstutis was imprisoned at the Kreva Castle and died. His nephew Skirgaila was named the new Duke of Trakai by his brother Grand Duke Jogaila. Vytautas, son of Kęstutis, then waged the Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392) to regain his patrimony in Trakai and seize power in Lithuania. The war was ended by the Ostrów Agreement on August 4, 1392. The agreement transferred the Duchy from Skirgaila to Vytautas.

On October 2, 1413, Vilnius and Trakai Voivodeships were created by the Union of Horodło from the Duchy of Trakai. The voivodeships were ruled by an appointed official and not by the dukes.

Geography

One could delineate the boundaries of the Duchy of Trakai by referring to the donative writ of Grand Duke Jogaila: from the Livonian border (Upytл) to Kobrynin (Masuria), and eastward from Podlesie to Pinsk. Navahradak was still part of the Duchy of Trakai.

Dukes of Trakai

• Kęstutis (1337–1382)
• Skirgaila (1382–1392)
• Vytautas the Great (1392–1413)

References

• A. Prochaska, Codex Epistolaris Vitoldi, p. 3
• * Memorandum of the Eastern and Southern Boundaries of Ethnographic Lithuania May 23, 1967