The Lithuanian Nobility in the Late-Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: Composition and Structure

Abstract

This paper presents a critical review of the historiographically dominant theory stating that the upper layer of the Lithuanian nobility formed its independent power only around the middle of the fifteenth century. The extant sources shed little light on the role of the nobility in the political processes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. A complex of sources, more fully reflecting the specifics of the country, appeared only after the arrival of writing in Lithuania at the end of the fourteenth century. It was only in this period that the place of the nobles in the system of government became evident. Therefore, it is possible to speak about a distorted perspective, suggested by the early records. The paper presents a definition of the nobility and an analysis of the origin, composition and structure of the Lithuanian ruling elite in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Consequently it is possible to speak about the prerequisites of the rule of this social group and the duality of the power of the grand duke and the nobility. Two principal tendencies of the development of the Lithuanian nobility in the fifteenth century – personal continuity and internal transformation (family structure) – are distinguished.