Maria of Vitebsk was the first wife of Algirdas

Algirdas

Algirdas was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. Algirdas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians...

, future Grand Duke of Lithuania (marriage took place around 1318). Very little is known about her life. The only child of a Russian prince Yaroslav, Maria was the only heir to the Principality of Vitebsk. After her father's death ca. 1345, Vitebsk

Vitebsk

Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...

 fell permanently under control of Algirdas and other Gediminids

Gediminids

The Gediminids were a dynasty of monarchs of Grand Duchy of Lithuania that reigned from the 14th to the 16th century. One branch of this dynasty, known as the Jagiellons, reigned also in Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Bohemia...

. Maria gave birth to five sons, all of whom grew up while Algirdas was still only a regional duke in Slavic lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. All five sons were baptized in Orthodox rite

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 and ruled Russian lands giving rise to prominent clans of Russian dukes (Trubetskoy family

Trubetskoy family

Trubetskoy , Трубецкой , Трубяцкі , Trubecki , Trubetsky , Трубецький , Troubetzkoy , Trubezkoi or Trubetzkoy , is a Ruthenian Gediminid gentry family of Black Ruthenian stock, like many other princely houses of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later prominent in Russian...

 from Demetrius I Starshy, Czartoryski family from Constantine, Sanguszko family from Fiodor, Belsky and Olelkovich

Olelkovich

The Olelkovich family was a 15th–16th-century noble family from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Their main possession was the Duchy of Slutsk–Kapyl; therefore, they are sometimes known as Slutskys. They hailed from the Lithuanian Gediminids and Russian Rurikids...

 families from Valdimir

Vladimir Olgerdovich

Vladimir Olgerdovich was a son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his first wife Maria of Vitebsk. He was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1362 to 1394. His sons Ivan and Alexander started the Belsky and Olelkovich families....

). After Maria's death, Algirdas married another Russian princess, Uliana of Tver. After Algirdas' death, eldest sons of Maria and Uliana battled over succession rights.