Names and titles of Władysław II Jagiełło
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Jogaila, later Władysław II Jagiełło (ca.1351/1363–1434), was a Grand Duke of Lithuania and from 1386 King Jadwiga's husband and jure uxoris King of Poland. In Lithuania, he held the title Didysis Kunigaikštis, translated as Grand Duke or Grand Prince (kunigaikštis is a cognate of König and king, and didysis magnifies it).
He is known under a number of names: Lithuanian: Jogaila Algirdaitis; Polish: Władysław II Jagiełło; Belarusian: Jahajła (Ягайла). As a monarch who ruled two states under different names and who used a number of titles, particularly in Lithuania, Jogaila has been accorded a variety of designations in history books. The study of his names and titles sheds light on the nature of sovereignty in both Lithuania and Poland and on the balance of power between the two states in the early days of the Polish-Lithuanian unions.
Ruler of Lithuania
Jogaila's father Algirdas was supreme ruler of Lithuania and ruled the country with his brother, Kęstutis, the Duke of Trakai; after Algirdas's death in 1377, his son Jogaila ruled in the same way with Kęstutis, but this arrangement between the two relatives soon came under strain.
Jogaila began his reign in the eastern part of Lithuania, the duchy where his father had ruled, which bordered on territories of former Kievan Rus, and he left the government of the western duchy to his uncle Kęstutis, who ruled from his castle at Trakai. Jogaila ruled many more Russian subjects than Lithuanian, and his titles often reflected this. The tradition of coregency among Lithuanian rulers enabled them to simultaneously pursue a western policy towards Poland and the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights and an eastern one towards the Russian powers, for example the Principality of Moscow, the Novgorod Republic, and the Pskov Republic. The Principality of Moscow, especially after Prince Dmitri's defeat of the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, posed a particular threat to Lithuania and Jogaila's rule.
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