Gediminids

King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania

Lithuanian dynasty that ruled in Poland, Lithuania, Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

Grand Duke of Lithuania

Gediminas ( – December 1341) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death in 1341. Gediminas is traditionally considered to have been the founder of Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania (see: Iron Wolf legend). During his reign, he brought under his rule lands streching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The Gediminids dynasty he founded and which is named after him came to rule over Poland, Hungary and Bohemia.

Algirdas ( – May 1377) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377. With the help of his brother Kęstutis (who defended the western border of the Duchy), he created an empire stretching from the present Baltic states to the Black Sea and to within of Moscow.

Kęstutis ( – 3 or 15 August 1382) was the sole Duke of Trakai from 1342 to 1382 and Grand Duke of Lithuania, believed to rule together with his brother Algirdas (until 1377), and with his nephew Jogaila (from 1377 to 1381).

The House of Gediminas (), or simply the Gediminids, were a dynasty of monarchs in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that reigned from the 14th to the 16th century. A cadet branch of this family, known as the Jagiellonian dynasty, reigned also in the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Bohemia. Several other branches ranked among the leading aristocratic dynasties of Poland and Russia into recent times.

Švitrigaila (before 1370 – 10 February 1452) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432. He spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund Kęstutaitis.

Jaunutis (; ; ; Christian name: Ioann; also John or Ivan; – after 1366) was Grand Duke of Lithuania after his father Gediminas died in 1341 until he was deposed by his elder brothers Algirdas and Kęstutis in 1345.

250px|thumb|Expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 13th–15th centuries

thumb|150px|Skirgaila, 16th century imaginative portrait thumb|150px|Trakai Island Castle. For ten years Skirgaila was Duke of Trakai. thumb|150px|Document with attached Seal of Skirgaila (18 June 1387) thumb|150px|Seal of Skirgaila, 1382

Lithuanian noble (1365–1440)

Queen consort of Poland (c.1309–1339)

prince of Greater Lithuania

Grand duchess of Moscow and Vladimir

Butvydas or Pukuveras (died ) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from until his death in . Butvydas is believed to have been the father of Grand Duke Gediminas, under whom Lithuania emerged as a major Northern and Eastern European power.

Butigeidis (died 1290 or 1291) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1285 to 1290 or 1291. He assumed power after the death of Daumantas. He is the first known and undisputed member of the Gediminid dynasty.

thumb|A fantasy portrait from the 18th century thumb|The Staraya Ladoga|fortress of Ladoga

thumb|Lutsk Castle, Ukraine, built by Liubartas and improved by [[Vytautas the Great. During Lithuanian rule the city started to prosper]]

Lengvenis ( – after 19 June 1431) was one of the sons of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who was the prince of Novgorod (1389–1392; 1406–1411). He was one of the most famous commanders of Vytautas the Great. He was baptized in the Eastern Orthodox rite as Semën to be titled the prince of Novgorod.

Wife of Grand Duke Vytautas

Belarusian noble

Youngest daughter of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his second wife, Uliana of Tver

Grand Prince of Kyiv

thumb|Authentic seal of Kaributas, 1386 thumb|Seals of Kaributas, 1385 (1841) Kaributas (Koribut, Korybut, baptized Dmitry; after 1350 – after 1404) was a son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and reigned in Severian Novgorod until 1393.

Russian noble and politician

Eldest son Algirdas, Duke of Pskov and Polotsk

prince of Kiev

thumb| Karigaila (, died on 16 September 1390 in Vilnius) was a son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his second wife Uliana of Tver. He became the ruler of Mstsislaw after he captured it from the Principality of Smolensk. He is sometimes mistaken for his brother Constantine, who was the founder of the House of Czartoryski.

prince of Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Karijotas or Koriat (baptized Michal; died between 1358 and 1363) was the duke of Navahrudak (since 1341) and Vawkavysk. A member of the House of Gediminas, he was one of the sons of Gediminas, the grand duke of Lithuania.

Manvydas or Monwid (; died in 1348?) was the eldest son of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and inherited Kernavė and Slonim after his father's death in 1341. Nothing else is known about his life. Matthias of Neuenburg mentioned that two sons of Gediminas perished in the Battle of Strėva in February 1348. One was Narimantas and the other is believed to be Manvydas.

Lithuanian noble

Russian noble

thumb|150px|Seal of Vygantas, Duke of Kernavė, 1388 Vygantas (baptized Alexander; ; died June 28, 1392, in Vilnius) was Duke of Kernavė. He was one of the sons of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1345–1377), and his second wife Uliana Alexandrovna of Tver.

Vainius or Voin (died between 1338 and 1342) was the Lithuanian Prince of Polotsk from 1328 to his death. Very little is known about Vainius, brother of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. He is mentioned in written sources in 1324 for the first time. In 1328 he, already as Prince of Polotsk, signed a treaty with the Livonian Order and Novgorod. His only known son Liubartas died in 1342 during fights with the Livonian Order.

Russian noble and rebel

14th-century prince

Grand Princess consort of Muscovy

thumb|Kaunas Castle was unsuccessfully defended by Vaidotas

thumb|''Bobrok's ambush regiment'', miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle of Ivan the Terrible (16th century).

princess consort of Moldavia

duke of Podolia

thumb|St. Thomas' Church in Prague, the burial place of Butautas Butautas (baptized Henryk; died on May 7, 1380, in Prague) was a son of Kęstutis, Grand Duke of Lithuania. He attempted to depose his uncle Algirdas and usurp power in Lithuania, but failed and was forced into exile. He joined the court of the Holy Roman Emperor and even inspired a poem about conversion to Christianity. Butautas is sometimes confused with his brother Vaidotas.

Jaunė (, , literally, young woman in Lithuanian; died ca. 1344) was daughter of Prince Ivan of Polatsk and wife of Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania (1316���1341). She is mentioned in written sources only once – the Bychowiec Chronicle, a late and unreliable source. Therefore, some historians cast a serious doubt on her existence, but modern reference works still widely cite her as the ancestress of the Gediminids dynasty.

book by Nicolas Novikov

prince of Kyiv from 1443 to 1454

Lithuanian noble

Lithuanian princess, daughter of Kęstutis, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and wife of Janusz I of Warsaw

Skalmantas or Skolomend is the name of a possible ancestor of the Gediminid dynasty. In 1975 historian Jerzy Ochmański noted that Zadonshchina, a Russian literary monument written at the end of the 14th century, contains lines in which two sons of Algirdas name their ancestors: "We are two brothers – sons of Algirdas, and grandsons of Gediminas, and great-grandsons of Skalmantas (Skolomend)." This led to the hypothesis that Skalmantas was the long-sought ancestor of the Gediminids and that he and his son Butvydas started the Gediminids dynasty.

thumb|300px|The Korela Fortress was built by Patrikas and his father on the bank of the [[Vuoksi River]] Patrikey Glebovich or Patrikas Narimantaitis (, Finnish: Patrika Narimantinpoika) was a grandson (or great-grandson) of Gediminas who exchanged his lands in and near Starodub in Siveria for the Korela and Oreshek fortresses in the Novgorod Republic. He also founded the town of Yamskaya krepost (Yamburg) (now Kingisepp) near Pskov. His male line descendants include the Golitsyn, Kurakin, and princely houses of Russia.

Lithuanian noble

The House of Mstislavsky (, ; , ) was a Russian princely family () of Gediminid origin who prior to their move to Russia ruled the Principality of Mstislavl. In the following, the Mstislavsky family produced some notable military commanders such as Ivan Mstislavsky who fought in the Livonian War. His son, Fedor Mstislavsky was one of the Russian magnates during the Time of Troubles and the leader of the Seven Boyars who temporarily ruled the country.

200px|right|thumb|Zbaraski coat of arms 200px|right|thumb|Korybut coat of arms, for comparison 200px|thumb|right|Possessions of Zbarski family in 16th-17th centuries thumb|200px|right|Krzysztof Zbaraski The House of Zbaraski () was a Polish-Lithuanian princely family of Ruthenian origin in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland domiciled in Volhynia (today Ukraine). The name is derived from the town of Zbarazh, the core of their dominions branched off the princely . . They claimed to be Gediminids descended from Kaributas and their coat of arms is stamped with the Korybut coat of arms. The line en

princely family

Agrypina or Agrafena (; ) was a Lithuanian noblewoman from the Gediminid dynasty. She was a daughter of Grand Duke Algirdas by his first wife Maria of Vitebsk. In 1354, she married the Russian prince Boris of Suzdal and became the princess of Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal.

Russian religious leader

noble family

Lithuanian princess (~1428-~1490)

Polish noble family