Reign of Mindaugas

Mindaugas first appears in 1219 among the senior Lithuanian dukes who concluded a treaty with Galicia–Volhynia. By marriage, murder and conquest he rose to supreme power: the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle already calls him ruler of all Lithuania in 1236, and by 1248 he held the towns of Black Ruthenia — Navahrudak, Vawkavysk, Slonim. Where he lived is uncertain: some place his residence at Navahrudak, while the castle of Voruta, where he once withstood a siege, has never been found — at least fourteen sites have been proposed, among them Kernavė and Vilnius. The marker on the map is therefore approximate.

In 1248–1254 he faced a coalition of his nephews Tautvilas and Edivydas, Prince Vykintas, the Samogitians, Daniel of Galicia, Vasilko of Volhynia and the Livonian Order. Mindaugas broke it up by winning over the master of the Order with gifts and turning to Rome: in 1250 or 1251 he was baptised a Roman Catholic, by a bull of 17 July 1251 Pope Innocent IV authorised his coronation, and in the summer of 1253 he was crowned king. The exact day is unknown; Lithuania celebrates 6 July as Statehood Day. In 1254–1255 he made peace with Daniel: the lands of Black Ruthenia passed to Daniel’s son Roman, and Mindaugas’s daughter married Daniel’s son Shvarn.

After the Samogitians defeated the Order at Durbe in 1260, Mindaugas broke with the knights, and he may have returned to paganism. In 1263 his nephew Treniota and Prince Daumantas, whose wife Mindaugas had taken, killed him and two of his sons; the sources date his death to 5 August or to 12 September. Lithuania never had another crowned king, but the state Mindaugas had built survived as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.