Duchy of Trakai
vassal state of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1337–1413
Duchy of Trakai (Lithuanian: Trakų Kunigaikštystė) 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
After the demise of Gediminas in December 1341, the Duchy of Lithuania was divided into two parts: Grand Duke Algirdas ruled Vilnius and the Eastern Aukštaitija while his brother Kęstutis received the Duchy of Trakai. The ruler of the Duchy of Vilnius also was the Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Lithuanian Civil Wars
1381–1384
In 1382, during the Lithuanian Civil War, Kęstutis was imprisoned at the Kreva Castle and died. His nephew Skirgaila was named the new Duke of Trakai by his brother Grand Duke Jogaila.
1389–1392
Vytautas, son of Kęstutis, then waged a new Lithuanian Civil War to regain his patrimony in Trakai and seize power in Lithuania. The war was ended by the Ostrów Agreement on August 4, 1392. The agreement transferred the Duchy from Skirgaila to Vytautas.
Union of Horodło in 1413
On October 2, 1413, Vilnius and Trakai Voivodeships were created by the Union of Horodło from the Duchy of Trakai.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Duchy of Trakai” as vassal state of Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1337–1413. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4463693. Authority coordinates are 54.667, 24.750. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1341, 1381, 1384 and 1382.
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This entry incorporates text from “Duchy of Trakai” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.