Treaty of Dovydiškes
Encyclopedia
The Treaty of Dovydiškės , Daudiske, or Daudisken was a secret treaty
signed on May 31, 1380 between Jogaila
, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Winrich von Kniprode
, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
. The treaty was directed against Jogaila's uncle Kęstutis
and its effect was to precipitate the Lithuanian Civil War (1381–1384)
.
' death in 1377. Algirdas named his son Jogaila as his successor and not Kęstutis, his brother and co-ruler. Kęstutis and his son Vytautas acknowledged Jogaila's title and maintained friendly relations with him even when his right of inheritance was challenged by Andrei of Polotsk
, Algirdas' eldest son. The Teutonic Knights continued their crusade against pagan Lithuania. A large campaign was organized in winter of 1378. Teutons reached Brest
and as far as the Pripyat River
. Livonian Order raided Upytė
. Another campaign threatened the capital in Vilnius
. Kęstutis offered to negotiate a truce and exchange of prisoners. On September 29, 1379, a ten-year truce was signed in Trakai
. It was the last treaty that Kęstutis and Jogaila signed jointly. However, the truce protected only Christian lands in the south, thus Kęstutis' pagan realms in northern and western Lithuania were still vulnerable to Teutonic attacks. In February 1380, Jogaila, without Kęstutis, made a five-month truce with the Livonian Order
to protect his Lithuanian domains and Polotsk, just taken from his rival Andrei of Polotsk.
, Vytautas and his adviser Ivan Olshanski
. Vytautas' presence further complicated explanations of the treaty and it is unclear if he knew about the negotiations. The Teutons sent grosskomtur Rüdiger von Elner, komtur
of Elbing
Ulrich von Fricke, and vogt
of Dirschau
Albrecht von Luchtenberg. The place where the treaty was signed is not known. The name of Dovydiškės is found only in the chronicles of Wigand of Marburg
as Dowidisken. The treaty itself mentions Daudiske; German language
texts have used Daudiske or Daudisken. However, no such place is known either in Lithuania
or Prussia
. Some theories claim that the treaty was signed somewhere between Kaunas
and Insterburg
or that the village was named Šiaudiniškė (Szaudiniszki).
The clauses of the treaty were, overall, convoluted and not entirely clear. Jogaila and the Knights agreed not to attack each other. Based on the terms of the accord, Jogaila agreed not to intervene during attacks by the Teutonic Knights against Kęstutis or his children. However, if it was necessary to help to avoid any suspicions, it would not be a violation of the treaty. Historians noted that the treaty was somewhat superfluous as Jogaila's lands were protected by the ten-year Truce of Trakai, signed in 1379. The primary purpose of the treaty was to guarantee the neutrality of the Teutonic Knights in the power struggle between Jogaila and his brothers, Dukes Andrei of Polotsk
and Dmitry of Bryansk, and their ally Dmitri Donskoi
, Grand Duke of Moscow
. Jogaila, having secured his western front, directed his attention to the east, where he allied himself with the Golden Horde
for the upcoming Battle of Kulikovo
against the Grand Duchy of Moscow
. Some historians blamed Uliana of Tver, mother of Jogaila, or his adviser Vaidila
, others pointed out generational differences: Kęstutis was about 80-years old and determined not to accept Christianity while Jogaila was about 30-years old and was looking for ways to convert and modernize the country.
and Samogitia
, lands of Kęstutis. While raiding towards Trakai, the Teutonic Knights used bombards
for the first time and destroyed Naujapilis taking some 3,000 prisoners. Subsequently the Teutonic Knights informed Kęstutis about Jogaila's secret pact. Kęstutis hesitated and asked his son Vytautas for advice. Vytautas replied that no such treaty was made. At the end of 1381, Kęstutis decided to fight against Jogaila. He seized Vilnius
and declared himself Grand Duke. An internal war erupted which ended in Kęstutis' death in the Kreva Castle
and Vytautas' reconciliation with Jogaila in 1384.
Treaty
A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...
signed on May 31, 1380 between 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...
, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Winrich von Kniprode
Winrich von Kniprode
Winrich von Kniprode was the 22nd Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. He was the longest serving Grand Master, holding the position for 31 years ....
, the Grand Master of 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...
. The treaty was directed against Jogaila's uncle Kęstutis
Kestutis
Kęstutis was monarch of medieval Lithuania. He was the Duke of Trakai and governed the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 1342–82, together with his brother Algirdas , and with his nephew Jogaila...
and its effect was to precipitate the Lithuanian Civil War (1381–1384)
Lithuanian Civil War (1381–1384)
The Lithuanian Civil War of 1381–1384 was the first struggle for power between the cousins Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland, and Vytautas the Great. It began after Jogaila signed the Treaty of Dovydiškės with the Teutonic Knights which was aimed against his uncle Kęstutis,...
.
Background
The treaty was signed soon after Grand Duke AlgirdasAlgirdas
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...
' death in 1377. Algirdas named his son Jogaila as his successor and not Kęstutis, his brother and co-ruler. Kęstutis and his son Vytautas acknowledged Jogaila's title and maintained friendly relations with him even when his right of inheritance was challenged by Andrei of Polotsk
Andrei of Polotsk
Andrei of Polotsk was the eldest son Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his first wife Maria of Vitebsk. He was Duke of Pskov and Polotsk . As the eldest son of the Grand Duke, Andrei claimed his right to the throne after his father's death in 1377...
, Algirdas' eldest son. The Teutonic Knights continued their crusade against pagan Lithuania. A large campaign was organized in winter of 1378. Teutons reached Brest
Brest, Belarus
Brest , formerly also Brest-on-the-Bug and Brest-Litovsk , is a city in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the city of Terespol, where the Bug River and Mukhavets rivers meet...
and as far as the Pripyat River
Pripyat River
The Pripyat River or Prypiat River is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper....
. Livonian Order raided Upytė
Upyte
Upytė is a small village in Panevėžys district municipality in northern Lithuania. It is situated some 12 km southwest of Panevėžys on the banks of Vešeta Creek. It is now the capital of an elderate. In 1987 it had 580 residents...
. Another campaign threatened the capital 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...
. Kęstutis offered to negotiate a truce and exchange of prisoners. On September 29, 1379, a ten-year truce was signed in Trakai
Trakai
Trakai is a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies 28 km west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Because of its proximity to Vilnius, Trakai is a popular tourist destination. Trakai is the administrative centre of Trakai district municipality. The town covers 11.52 km2 of...
. It was the last treaty that Kęstutis and Jogaila signed jointly. However, the truce protected only Christian lands in the south, thus Kęstutis' pagan realms in northern and western Lithuania were still vulnerable to Teutonic attacks. In February 1380, Jogaila, without Kęstutis, made a five-month truce with the Livonian Order
Livonian Order
The Livonian Order was an autonomous Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order and a member of the Livonian Confederation from 1435–1561. After being defeated by Samogitians in the 1236 Battle of Schaulen , the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were incorporated into the Teutonic Knights...
to protect his Lithuanian domains and Polotsk, just taken from his rival Andrei of Polotsk.
Provisions
To cover up the signing of the treaty, the Teutonic Knights organized a five-day hunt in May 1380. The Lithuanian side was represented by Jogaila and his adviser VaidilaVaidila
Vaidila was a favorite and brother-in-law of Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Chronicles present Vaidila as a kitchen assistant who rose to the top and entered the nobility only through his marriage to Jogaila's sister Maria in 1379. However, this portrayal is likely biased...
, Vytautas and his adviser Ivan Olshanski
Ivan Olshanski
Ivan Olshanski is the first known and undisputed member of the princely Olshanski family. Historians only know his fathers name, Algimantas. Ivan was a faithful companion of Vytautas the Great, Grand Duke of Lithuania. They both were married to daughters of Sudimantas of Eišiškės...
. Vytautas' presence further complicated explanations of the treaty and it is unclear if he knew about the negotiations. The Teutons sent grosskomtur Rüdiger von Elner, komtur
Komtur
Komtur was a rank within military orders, especially the Teutonic Knights. In the State of the Teutonic Order, the Komtur was the commander of a basic administrative division called Kommende . A Komtur was responsible for the alimentation of the Knights by the yield from the local estates, he...
of Elbing
Elblag
Elbląg is a city in northern Poland with 127,892 inhabitants . It is the capital of Elbląg County and has been assigned to the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1999. Before then it was the capital of Elbląg Voivodeship and a county seat in Gdańsk Voivodeship...
Ulrich von Fricke, and vogt
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
of Dirschau
Tczew
Tczew is a town on the Vistula River in Eastern Pomerania, Kociewie, northern Poland with 60,279 inhabitants . It is an important railway junction with a classification yard dating to the Prussian Eastern Railway...
Albrecht von Luchtenberg. The place where the treaty was signed is not known. The name of Dovydiškės is found only in the chronicles of Wigand of Marburg
Wigand of Marburg
Wigand of Marburg was a German herald of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and one of the notable chroniclers of the Middle Ages.Wigand expanded upon the earlier work of Nikolaus von Jeroschin...
as Dowidisken. The treaty itself mentions Daudiske; German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
texts have used Daudiske or Daudisken. However, no such place is known either in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
or Prussia
Prussia (region)
Prussia is a historical region in Central Europe extending from the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea to the Masurian Lake District. It is now divided between Poland, Russia, and Lithuania...
. Some theories claim that the treaty was signed somewhere between Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
and Insterburg
Chernyakhovsk
Chernyakhovsk is a town and the administrative center of Chernyakhovsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Instruch and the Angrapa Rivers, forming the Pregolya...
or that the village was named Šiaudiniškė (Szaudiniszki).
The clauses of the treaty were, overall, convoluted and not entirely clear. Jogaila and the Knights agreed not to attack each other. Based on the terms of the accord, Jogaila agreed not to intervene during attacks by the Teutonic Knights against Kęstutis or his children. However, if it was necessary to help to avoid any suspicions, it would not be a violation of the treaty. Historians noted that the treaty was somewhat superfluous as Jogaila's lands were protected by the ten-year Truce of Trakai, signed in 1379. The primary purpose of the treaty was to guarantee the neutrality of the Teutonic Knights in the power struggle between Jogaila and his brothers, Dukes Andrei of Polotsk
Andrei of Polotsk
Andrei of Polotsk was the eldest son Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his first wife Maria of Vitebsk. He was Duke of Pskov and Polotsk . As the eldest son of the Grand Duke, Andrei claimed his right to the throne after his father's death in 1377...
and Dmitry of Bryansk, and their ally Dmitri Donskoi
Dmitri Donskoi
Saint Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy , or Dmitry of the Don, sometimes referred to as Dmitry I , son of Ivan II the Meek of Moscow , reigned as the Prince of Moscow from 1359 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1363 to his death. He was the first prince of Moscow to openly challenge Mongol authority in...
, Grand Duke of Moscow
Grand Duchy of Moscow
The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
. Jogaila, having secured his western front, directed his attention to the east, where he allied himself with 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...
for the upcoming Battle of Kulikovo
Battle of Kulikovo
The Battle of Kulikovo was a battle between Tatar Mamai and Muscovy Dmitriy and portrayed by Russian historiography as a stand-off between Russians and the Golden Horde. However, the political situation at the time was much more complicated and concerned the politics of the Northeastern Rus'...
against the Grand Duchy of Moscow
Grand Duchy of Moscow
The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
. Some historians blamed Uliana of Tver, mother of Jogaila, or his adviser Vaidila
Vaidila
Vaidila was a favorite and brother-in-law of Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Chronicles present Vaidila as a kitchen assistant who rose to the top and entered the nobility only through his marriage to Jogaila's sister Maria in 1379. However, this portrayal is likely biased...
, others pointed out generational differences: Kęstutis was about 80-years old and determined not to accept Christianity while Jogaila was about 30-years old and was looking for ways to convert and modernize the country.
Aftermath
In 1381, without violating the treaty, the Teutonic Knights raided Duchy of TrakaiDuchy 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:...
and Samogitia
Samogitia
Samogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai/Šiaulē. The region has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect...
, lands of Kęstutis. While raiding towards Trakai, the Teutonic Knights used bombards
Bombard (weapon)
A bombard is a large-caliber, muzzle-loading medieval cannon or mortar, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls. The name bombarde was first noted and sketched in a French historical text around 1380. The modern term bombardment derives from this.Bombards were usually used during...
for the first time and destroyed Naujapilis taking some 3,000 prisoners. Subsequently the Teutonic Knights informed Kęstutis about Jogaila's secret pact. Kęstutis hesitated and asked his son Vytautas for advice. Vytautas replied that no such treaty was made. At the end of 1381, Kęstutis decided to fight against Jogaila. He seized 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...
and declared himself Grand Duke. An internal war erupted which ended in Kęstutis' death in the Kreva Castle
Kreva Castle
Kreva Castle is the ruins of a major fortified residence of Grand Dukes Gediminas and Algirdas in Kreva village, Belarus. Algirdas's brother Kęstutis was imprisoned and murdered in Kreva Castle in 1382. The Act of Krewo, the first step towards the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, was signed in...
and Vytautas' reconciliation with Jogaila in 1384.