Family of Gediminas - Siblings

Siblings

It is known that Gediminas, born about 1275, had one sister (or possibly two, see below for the wife of Andrei of Kozelsk) and several brothers: Vainius, Fiodor of Kiev, possibly Vytenis, and possibly Margiris. If Vytenis, who was Grand Duke of Lithuania from about 1295 to 1315, was indeed Gediminas' brother, he was probably the eldest son. Historians recognize one son of Grand Duke Vytenis, Žvelgaitis, who may have died before his father. In 1310 Žvelgaitis, already a mature man, led an army to nearby Livonia in modern-day Latvia and Estonia. After Vytenis died in about 1315, Gediminas became the Grand Duke. There are no sources indicating that Vytenis' brothers or other family members advanced competing claims.

Vainius first appears in written sources in 1324. In 1326, as Duke of Polatsk, he signed a treaty with the Livonian Order and Novgorod. Scholars place his death sometime between 1338 and 1342. Vainius' only known son, Liubko, died in 1342 during a battle with the Livonian Order.

Fiodor, whose relationship to Gediminas was not established until the 20th century, was the longest-lived brother, surviving until at least 1362. In about 1325, with help from Gediminas, he became a Duke of Kiev. Fiodor was baptized in the Eastern Orthodox rite and his pagan name is unknown. Kiev was still under the influence of the Golden Horde, and Fiodor acknowledged fealty to the Horde's Khan. This subordination lasted until 1363, when Gediminas' son Algirdas soundly defeated the Horde in the Battle of Blue Waters. Scholarly opinion had long considered Fiodor a Rurikid, rather than a Lithuanian, because of his Christian name. In 1916, however, a list of property belonging to Theognostus, a deceased Metropolitan of Moscow, and compiled in the 1330s, was published; among the items listed were two silver cups gifted by "Fiodor, brother of Gediminas".

Margiris, the defender of Pilėnai, is often suggested as the most likely candidate for the fourth brother. The chronicles of Hermann de Wartberge mention that in 1329 Gediminas and two of his brothers raided Livonia. By that time Vytenis was already dead and Fiodor was probably occupied with establishing himself in Kiev. One of these two brothers must then have been Vainius; the identity of the other still puzzles historians. Alvydas Nikžentaitis suggests that he was Margiris because sources attest to his high status and wealth. Sources mention one son of Margiris, who was captured by the Teutonic Knights soon after his father's suicide in 1336 and did not return.

The only direct written mention of Gediminas' sister is a legend describing the murder of two Franciscan friars who came to Vilnius to spread Christianity. This legend was first presented in Chronica XXIV Generalium, a chronicle written before 1369. The events probably took place around 1340, and some eyewitnesses could still have been alive when the chronicle was written. According to the legend Friar Ulrich's preaching angered townspeople. He and his companion, Martin, were seized and brought before Gediminas, who ordered the friars killed. Ulrich was tortured and his body tossed into a river. Martin's body was rescued by Gediminas' sister, an Orthodox nun. She buried Martin at the monastery where she lived. The legend was retold in other sources, including the Bychowiec Chronicle, where the number of martyrs was increased to fourteen and the initially realistic story acquired a number of miraculous trappings.