Pact of Vilnius and Radom
Encyclopedia
The Pact of Vilnius and Radom was a set of three acts passed in Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

, Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...

, and confirmed by the Crown Council in Radom
Radom
Radom is a city in central Poland with 223,397 inhabitants . It is located on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship , having previously been the capital of Radom Voivodeship ; 100 km south of Poland's capital, Warsaw.It is home to the biennial Radom Air Show, the largest and...

, Kingdom of Poland
Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)
The Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons was the Polish state created by the accession of Jogaila , Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Polish throne in 1386. The Union of Krewo or Krėva Act, united Poland and Lithuania under the rule of a single monarch...

 in 1401. The union amended the earlier act of the Union of Krewo
Union of Krewo
In a strict sense, the Union of Krewo or Act of Krėva was a set of prenuptial promises made in the Kreva Castle on 14 August 1385 by Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, in exchange for marriage to the underage reigning Queen Jadwiga of Poland...

 (1385) and confirmed the Ostrów Agreement
Ostrów Agreement
The Ostrów or Astrava Agreement was a treaty between Jogaila , King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his cousin Vytautas the Great, signed on August 4, 1392...

 (1392). Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, became fully in charge of the Lithuanian affairs, while Jogaila
Jogaila
Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...

, King of Poland, reserved the rights of an overlord. After the death of Vytautas, Lithuania was to be ruled by Jogaila or his legal heir. The union is generally seen as strengthening of the Polish–Lithuanian union.

Background

Both Jogaila
Jogaila
Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...

, King of Poland, and Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, sought to renew the Polish–Lithuanian union, which existed since 1385. In 1399, Queen Jadwiga of Poland
Jadwiga of Poland
Jadwiga was monarch of Poland from 1384 to her death. Her official title was 'king' rather than 'queen', reflecting that she was a sovereign in her own right and not merely a royal consort. She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, the daughter of King Louis I of Hungary and Elizabeth of...

 died due to childbirth complications, leaving Jogaila a foreigner king with no heir. If Polish nobles forced Jogaila to abdicate the throne, he would return to Lithuania demanding the throne of the Grand Duke. Vytautas would be forced either to return to Duchy of Trakai
Duchy of Trakai
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:...

 or launch another civil war. The same year Vytautas suffered a major defeat in the Battle of the Vorskla River against the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...

 and faced rebellions in the Principality of Smolensk
Principality of Smolensk
The Principality of Smolensk was a Kievan Rus' lordship from the eleventh to the fifteenth century...

, Republic of Pskov, and Velikiy Novgorod.

Provisions

Negotiations began in late December 1400 in Hrodna
Hrodna
Grodno or Hrodna , is a city in Belarus. It is located on the Neman River , close to the borders of Poland and Lithuania . It has 327,540 inhabitants...

. The union was signed in three separate acts: one by Jogaila (the original of which did not survive), another by Vytautas and the Lithuanian nobles (in Vilnius on January 18, 1401), and the third by the Polish Royal Council (in Radom on March 11, 1401). It is significant that for the first time the Lithuanian nobles issued a political act in their own name, not merely as witnesses to the Grand Duke's treaties.

Vytautas was instituted as the Grand Duke of Lithuania (magnus dux) while his cousin Jogaila, King of Poland, retained the rights of an overlord (supremus dux). The union legalized the Grand Duchy's independence leaving Vytautas fully in charge of all Lithuanian affairs. However, this independence was to be temporary – after Vytautas' death Lithuania was to be governed by Jogaila or his legal heir. The Polish and Lithuanian nobles agreed not to elect a new King of Poland without consulting each other. At the time neither Jogaila nor Vytautas had heirs, but each hoped to sire legitimate sons that would inherit both the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy (eventually it would be Jogaila who would succeed in this).

Aftermath and evaluations

The renewed alliance stabilized the situation, allowing Vytautas to launch an offensive against the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

 and to initiate the first Samogitian uprising. Eventually, the joint Polish–Lithuanian forces achieved a decisive victory against the Knights in the Battle of Grunwald
Battle of Grunwald
The Battle of Grunwald or 1st Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410, during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Jogaila and Grand Duke Vytautas , decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights, led...

 in 1410. The treaty has been variously interpreted by Lithuanian and Polish historians. Some argued that it was a diplomatic failure on Vytautas' part, as the union blocked the path to his possible coronation as King of Lithuania. Others saw it as a concession by the Poleswhen their plan to fully incorporate the Grand Duchy into the Kingdom of Poland failed. A third school of thought considered the union to be a mutual compromise: Lithuania abandoned plans for full independence, while Poland abandoned plans for full incorporation of Lithuania into a unitary state. More recent academic works do not exaggerate the union's importance and see it as mere codification of the actual Polish–Lithuanian relations that had existed since 1392.
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