Theme 4. The Ukrainian Lands under the Rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland (the Second Half of the 14th - the First Half of the 16th Centuries)

The purpose of the theme lies in the study of the period, when Ukraine was under the foreign authorities. The purpose also is to give understanding of the events due to which the Ukrainian territories were divided between Poland and Lithuania, to show what differences were between Polish and Lithuanian ruling, and how the autonomy of the Ukrainian principalities folded.

This theme covers the following main topics: the reign of Liubard Hedyminovych in Volyn principality; the invasion of foreigners into Halychyna and Volhynia; the possessing Halychyna and Volhynia by the Poles and the Lithuanians; the annexing Ukraine by the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas; the formation of the appanage principalities under the Lithuanian Princes; the reasons of successes of the Lithuanians in Ukraine; the reign of Liubard Hedyminovych in Volhynia; Halychyna under the Polish authority; the ruling of Vladislav Opole in Halychyna; the Ukrainian lands in the Grand Duchy Lithuania; the Krewo Union of 1385; the reign of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas; the internal war in Ukraine; the liquidation of the Ruthenian appanage principalities; the Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars; the uprising of Mukha in Halychyna; the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire.

The reign of Liubard Hedyminovych in Volyn principality. Having killed Yurii II the boyars welcomed Liubard (1340 - 1385), the son of the Li­thuanian Grand Duke Gedymin. Liubard accepted the Orthodoxy Christi-anity. According to the historian Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Liubard was a husband of a daughter of Yurii II Boleslaw. However, this point of view is lack of evidences [23].

The foreigners invided Halychyna and Volhynia. In 1340 the Polish King Casimir the Great invaded Halychyna under colour of avenging for the killing of Yurii II and other foreign Catholics. He seized the Lviv castle, freed some western merchants and took away the insignias of the former Galician Princes [23].

Meanwhile, the Hungarians and the Lithuanians approached to Halych. Then Galician boyars led by Dmytro Dedko asked the Golden Horde's Tatars for help. Due to supporting of Tatars they made a peace with the Hungarians, Lithuanians and Poles. These enemies allowed the boyars to make their self­governing in Halychyna. Dmytro Dedko was proclaimed the "Headman ("starosta") and Ruler of Rus". His ruling in Halychyna lasted until his death in 1349 [23].

This year Casimir the Great bought from the Tatars the right on Halychyna. The cost was annual taxes. After this Casimir secondly invaded Halychyna, took Lviv and proclaimed himself the "Sir of Rus". Later on, it led

to the Polish-Lithuanian war for the Ukrainian lands. In 1350 Casimir and his nephew Louis, the King of Hungary, arranged that after the death of Casimir Louis would possess Poland and Halychyna.

Liubard with the help of the Lithuanians attacked the Poles in Haly- chyna. In return, the Poles and Hungarians took Volodymyr-Volynskyi. They left for Liubard only the town Lutsk. For a long time the Poles had been besieging the fortress Belz defended by the garrison under the voivode Drozd [23].

The Poles and Lithuanians possessed Halychyna and Volhynia. In 1352 the war ended by the treaty, according to which Halychyna was given to Poland, Volhynia turned to Lithuania. Meanwhile, Liubard was forced to become a vassal of the Polish King. In other words, he offered military support to the King of Poland in exchange for the ruling of Volhynia.

In Halychyna the Polish King Casimir made policy of linking this region to Poland. However, he left the name the "Kingdom of Rus" and the Ukrainian language in administration. Meantime, he granted his officers the Ukrainian lands. Many towns were given Magdeburg rights by him. He maintained the Catholic monasteries and not pursued the Orthodox Christians [1; 3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas annexed Ukraine.

The formation of the appanage principalities under the Lithuanian Princes. After conquering Ukraine was divided in the following manner: the land of Berestia was given to Algirdas' brother Keistut; Liubard Hedyminovych got Volhynia; Narymund-Hlib Keistutovych (died in 1348) got Turiv-Pinsk land; Volodymyr Algirdasovych got Kyiv region and Pereiaslav region; Koribut- Dmytro Algirdasovych got Chernihiv land; brothers Koriatovyches got Podillia; Jagiello Algirdasovych got Vitebsk land, Minsk, Mstyslav and Novhorodok.

Thus, by 1370 the largest part of the Ukrainian territory had belonged to Lithuania (almost 90 per cent of that is now Ukraine), Halychyna had been under Poland, Zakarpattia belonged to the Hungarian Kingdom, and Bukovyna was a part of Moldavia [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The reasons of successes of the Lithuanians in Ukraine. Ukrainian nobles welcomed the Lithuanians, who saved traditional Russian admini­stration - appanage principalities, and allowed nobles to participate in the governing their country.

The Lithuanian Princes were popular among the Russes, because they accepted the Orthodoxy Christianity and accepted Rus administration, mili­tary organization, and architecture. The Lithuanian legal system accepted the "Ruska Pravda" (the Truth of Yaroslav the Wise). The Rus language was recognized as the official one [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The reign of Liubard Hedyminovych in Volhynia. After the death of the Polish King Casimir in 1370 Liubard broke out his vassalage and made the Volhynia independent. These Liubard's affairs were supported by his brother the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas (1341 - 1377). It is known that in the domestic policy Liubard welcomed the trade of Volhynia merchants. Also he built the castle of Lutsk, the Orthodox churches and the town of Liubar [23].

Halychyna under the Polish authority. The Poles, however, tended to make quite different policy in Halychyna. They spread the Catholicism, which was very unpopular among the local people. Also the official language was the Latin, not the Ruthenian. Many lands were given to Polish nobles.

In 1370 the Polish King Casimir died. His lands according to the agreement of 1350 turned to his nephew Louis, the King of Hungary. Louis also got Poland and Halychyna, with Belz-Kholm land and Kremianets [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The ruling of Vladyslav Opole in Halychyna. In 1372 Louis gave Halychyna to the Prince Vladyslav Opole (Polish: Wtadystaw Opolczyk, 1372 - 1378) for a military service. Vladyslav titled himself "By the Grace of God, Sir and Diditch (lord) of the Russian land". He welcomed the German colonization in Ukraine and maintained the Catholicism.

Vladyslav tended to make policy independently from his Seignior, the King of Hungary Louis.

The Ukrainian lands in the Grand Duchy Lithuania. Shortly before the events mentioned above the Grand Lithuanian Duke Algirdas had died. In 1377 it led to the internal war among some of his relatives for the ruling. In 1382 the new Grand Duke Jagiello strangled his uncle Keystut in a prison. The son of Keistut Vytautas (Vitovt) fled to Germany.

In the foreign policy Jagiello had to defend against the Teutonic Order and Moscow State. The latter had risen from the former Vladimir-Suzdal principality [23].

The Krewo Union of 1385. In 1385 in order to defend the Lithuanian state Jagiello made alliance with Poland by way of his marriage with its Queen Jagwiga. She was 11 years old, he was nearly 23 years old. The Polish nobles found him a more attractive match for their young Queen, than the more powerful Austrian Duke Wilhelm, to whom she had been previously engaged.

In 1385 the Union of Krewo was concluded. In return for becoming the King of Poland Jagiello agreed that he and all Lithuanians would accept the Catholicism. He attached "for all eternity" his Lithuanian and Ruthenian lands to Poland. Besides these, Jagiello obliged to pay the Austrian Duke Wilhelm 200 000 florins for the violation of the latter's marriage contract. In 1386 the wedding of Jagiello and Jagwiga was celebrated.

In 1386 Jagwiga's sister Maria, the Queen of Hungary, restored Vla- dyslav Opole the ruler of Halychyna. In turn, in 1387 the army of Jagwiga occupied the whole Halychyna, annexing this land to Poland [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The reign of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas. The Lithuanian and Ruthenian opposition of the Krewo Union galvanized around Vytautas, Jagiello's cousin. In addition, this Prince got the support from the Teutonic Order. In 1392 Vytautas forced Jagiello to recognize his de facto control over the Lithuanian and Ruthenian lands.

In the meantime in 1390s Vytautas was making policy aimed at the ceasing of appanage principalities of Ruthenia. In 1393 he took away the Chernihiv principality from the hands of Dmytro-Korybut. Then, Vytautas left the Volhynia without its Prince Fedir Liubardovych. After this, Vytautas banished the Prince Volodymyr Algirdasovych from Kyiv. In 1394 such fate befell Fedir Koriatovych, who was forced to flee from Podillia to Hungarian Zakarpattia [23].

After these affairs of Vytautas, in Ukraine only five little principalities were. Little by little they transformed into the great landlords estates. In the former centres of the great principalities the officers of the Lithuanian Grand Prince Vytautas governed. The result of such policy was the centralization of Ruthenia around the Grand Duke of Lithuania [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

Vytautas also got support from Moscow, when he had married his daughter Sophia to the Grand Moscow Prince Vasiliy II. On the other hand, Vytautas took part in the affairs of the Golden Horde. He supported the Khan Tokhtamysh in his internal war against the Khan Yedigei. In the battle of the Vorskla River in 1399 Tatars under the Khan Timur-Kutluk defeated the army of Vytautas. However, he continued to intervene into Tatars' affairs. The letter from one of the Tatar Khans named Mengli-Giray, in which he allowed Vytautas to rule Russian lands, is preserved [23].

At the same time the defeat at the Vorskla River affected the foreign affairs at the Western boards. Teutonic knights activated their raids because of rumours about the weakness of Lithuania. Having taken into account these circumstances, in 1401 Vytautas had to make the new Union with Poland, recognizing himself a vassal of Polish King Jagiello. The Union agreement was signed in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania [23].

For his ruling Vytautas had been building fortresses in Ukrainian steppes in order to protect these lands from Tatars' raids. New fortresses were Karavul (on the bank of the Dniester River), Dashiv (modern Ochakiv), Bilhorod and Chornohorod (on the bank of the Dnieper), Khadjibey (the modern town of Odesa), and etc. It is remarkable that fort Khadjibey became one of the greatest ports on the Black Sea coast [6; 7].

In 1410 joined forces of Lithuania and Poland, including troops from Ruthenia, defeated the Teutonic Order in the battle of Grunwald. After the victory Poland ceded Lithuania Western Podillia. In 1413 a new Union in Horodel, at the Bug River, was made. By this Union Poland finally recognized the legality of the title of the Grand Lithuanian Duke. However, the election of the Grand Duke had to be controlled and approved by the Polish King. Lithuanian Catholic feudal gained the same rights that Polish ones already had in the State administration. In particular, now Lithuanian Catholic nobles were able to elect both the Lithuanian Grand Prince and the Polish King. In 1430 Vytautas died [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The internal war in Ukraine. Very soon magnates of Lithuania and Ruthenia elected the new Grand Lithuanian Duke. It was Svydryhailo, the youngest brother of Jagiello. In his turn, Jagiello as the Polish King recog­nized the new ruler of Lithuania, but Polish nobles proclaimed the election of the Grand Duke to be illegal, because they had not participated in it. Then the Polish King under the pressure of nobles was forced to proclaim a war against Svydryhailo. During the conflict Poland annexed Podillia and Polish army besieged Lutsk. More than these actions the Poles inspired a revolt of some Lithuanian nobles, which for the most part were the Catholics. The rebels required to give the title of the Grand Duke to Sygizmund, the prince of Starodub and the youngest brother of Vytautas. The King Jagiello endorsed this election in 1432.

The war between Svydryhailo and Sygizmund attracted German knights, the Tatars and the Wallachians, who were robbing the Ruthenia. In 1434 Jagiello died and nobles elected his son Vladislaw the Polish King. Shortly after, in 1435, forces of Svydryhailo were defeated by Sygizmund's army at the river Sviata, near town Vilkomyr. Svydryhailo was forced to cede Belarus to the rivals, but at the same time he was saving a foothold in Ukraine. In 1440 having been the Grand Lithuanian Duke Sygizmund was killed by conspirators. The title of the Grand Duke passed to 13 years old 38

Casimir, the youngest brother of the Polish King Vladislaw [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The liquidation of the Ruthenian appanage principalities. The Grand Duke Casimir gave Svydryhailo Volhynia. Kyiv was possessed by the Prince Olelko Volodymyrovych. Later on, Kyiv passed to his son Semen Olelkovych. In 1444 Casimir became the King of Poland, saving the title of Grand Lithuanian Duke.

Under the reign of Casimir the rights of the Orthodox Christians were limited. Only Catholics occupied the state offices. After the death of Svyd- ryhailo appanage Volyn principality was converted into a province of the Lithuanian Duchy. Kyiv principality suffered the same fate in 1471. This year instead of deceased Kyivan Prince Semen Olelkovych, a voivode named Martyn Hashtovt was appointed there. To enter Kyiv Hashtovt stormed this town [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 12; 14; 17; 18; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars. In 1491 the Lithuanian throne was possessed by Alexander. Moscow took part in the border conflicts with Lithuania for Chernihiv and Smolensk. In 1501 Alexander became the King of Poland. He would be on this throne till his death in 1506.

During his ruling Moscow took form Lithuania Chernihiv, Novhorod- Siverskyi, Starodub, and etc. By 1506, 319 towns and villages of Ukraine and Belarus had come under the ruling of the Moscow Duke. Even the Hetman of Lithuania, main commander of the army, Kostiantyn Ivanovych Ostrozkyi fell into a Moscow prison. Later on, he ran away and returned to the fight. This man was the first Ukrainian, who was the Hetman (General) of the Grand Duchy Lithuania.

In 1511, when the King of Poland and the Grand Prince of Lithuania was Sygmunt I the Old (1506 - 1548), the Moscow army seized Smolensk. Shortly before in Belarus the army led by the Ukrainian Prince Michael Hlynskyi had revolted. The revolt was supported by the Moscow Duke Va- silii III, but in 1511 the rebels were beaten by the Lithuanians at the town of Orsha and M. Hlynskyi was forced to flee to Moscow. This revolt is considered to be the last attempt of Ruthenia nobles to free the Ukrainian lands from Lithuania [3; 5; 6; 7; 10; 14; 16; 17; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

The uprising of Mukha in Halychyna. In Halychyna other events, which had significance for the history of Ukraine, took place. In the middle of the 14^th century the Hospodar (the Prince) of Moldova Stephan the Great 39

(1457 - 1504) annexed Bukovyna land. In 1490 he was one of the supporters of an anti-Polish revolt of the Galician people, the leader of which was the man named Mukha. Nearly 9 000 rebels led by him were defeated by the Polish army at the Dniester River [5; 6; 7].

The Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. In the Southern bor­der and some of the Eastern parts of what is now Ukraine the Golden Horde was. This Tatars' State was splintered by internal wars between the Khans. In 1449 the Khan Haji-Giray finally proclaimed the separation of the Crimean Khanate from the Golden Horde. His son made an alliance with Lithuania, but in 1482 he suddenly took Kyiv which was previously ruled by Lithuanian vicegerent. The Tatars burnt the city-castle, robbed churches and imprisoned a lot of Kyivan people [23].

The reaction of the Lithuanian Grand Duke and the Polish King Casimir, however, was indifferent about that Tatars' action.

Between 1482 and 1497 the successor of Haji-Giray, his son Mengli- Giray often led the Crimean Tatars for plundering Kyiv land, Podillia, Volhynia and even Chernihiv region. Plundering Ukraine the Tatars every year imprisoned from 5 000 to 15 000 Christians [16].

In 1497 the Tatars were defeated by the Ukrainian magnate Kostiantyn Ostrozkyi. In addition to all miseries which fell upon the Ukrainian people, since 1498 the Turks periodically raided the Southern Ukraine. By that time Moldavia, which held Bukovyna, had already been a vassal of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey).

The Tatars and the Turks sold their prisoners in the markets of Kapha (Kaaffi) and Kozlov (modern Eupatoria) in Crimea. A lot of these Ukrainians were forced to be slave oarsmen on Turkish galleys [3; 5 - 7; 10; 14; 16; 17; 23; 28; 30; 32; 38].

Questions

1. What role did the Krewo Union play in the process of the annexing the Ukrainian lands by the foreign states?

2. How did the Lithuanian Duke Vytautas change Ukraine?

3. Why did the internal war start after the death of Vytautas? What reasons causing this war did become the religous ones?

4. Describe the policy of the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate, and Lithuania toward Ukraine.