The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th Century: the searching for a model of statehood

Abstract

<p>At the end of the fourteenth century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania began its rapprochement with the Kingdom of Poland. This was a cultural incorporation of the state into the area of Central Eastern Europe, which brought about significant changes in the region, as the union of the two states fundamentally changed the situation in the region. Although the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was formally integrated into the region, it is difficult to define what was hidden in the structure of this state. The historiography of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania uses a variety of terms to describe it: a barbarian state, a military democracy, a federation, a confederation or even an empire. None of these terms is adequate to represent the model of statehood of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and we need to try to find out what kind of state it was. Contemporary historiography offers at least a few concepts for describing this type of state formation, which could be productive for the study of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s statehood model. These would be the concepts of a composite monarchy and a multiple kingdom. The aim of this paper is to consider the suitability of these concepts for describing the structure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the fourteenth century.</p>