Lithuania: Europe's Last Pagan Giant (1263–1387)

In 1253 Lithuania crowned a Christian king. Ten years later he was dead, and Lithuania went back to its old gods – then grew from the Baltic forests toward the Black Sea. How did Europe's last pagan state survive the crusades, rule lands full of Orthodox Christians, and why did it finally accept baptism in 1387? The story of medieval Lithuania from Mindaugas to Gediminas, Algirdas, Kęstutis, Jogaila and Vytautas: the Teutonic Order, the Mongol collapse of the Rus' lands, the letters Gediminas sent to the Pope, the battle of the Blue Waters, the Union of Krėva (Krewo) and the 1387 baptism of Lithuania – and what that deal cost. Chapters: 00:00 1253: A Christian King 00:56 The Squeeze 02:21 The Crown That Failed 04:50 The Pagan Who Wrote to the Pope 06:42 The Empty East 08:29 How Pagans Ruled Christians 10:28 The Wedding That Ended It 12:30 The Answer Watch next on Europa Obscura: The Serpent Queen of Lithuania Wasn't Just a Fairy Tale – Eglė, the house snakes and the gods of pagan Lithuania (Perkūnas, Saulė, Laima). ▶    • The Serpent Queen of Lithuania Wasn't Just...   Researched and written in Lithuania. Narration is a synthetic (AI) voice; some scenes with no surviving image are AI illustrations and are labelled on screen. Legends and disputed chronicle accounts are marked as such. Sources: Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (VLE): "Mindaugas", "Gediminas", "Algirdas", "Vytautas Didysis", "Lietuvos krikštas", "Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė" – vle.lt D. Baronas & S. C. Rowell, The Conversion of Lithuania: From Pagan Barbarians to Late Medieval Christians (Vilnius, 2015) D. Baronas, "Thirteenth-century Lithuania: high hopes on difficult terrain", Lithuanian Historical Studies 8 (2005) D. Baronas, "Good faith and Realpolitik: approaching the art of politics of Lithuanian rulers in the fourteenth century", Studia Historica Brunensia 66/2 (2019) R. Petrauskas, "The last medieval kingdom: the coronation of Mindaugas", Orbis Lituaniae, ldkistorija.lt R. Petrauskas, interview, LRT "Mokslo ekspresas" D. Vashchuk, Lithuanian Metrica charters, Ukrainian Historical Journal Further reading: S. C. Rowell, Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire within East-Central Europe, 1295–1345 (Cambridge, 1994) Image credits (all from Wikimedia Commons – title – author – licence; licence texts: creativecommons.org/licenses): Medieval lead papal bulla (PAS find 287705) – Birmingham Museums Trust, Tom Brindle – CC BY-SA 4.0 Radziwiłł Chronicle (photo) – shakko – CC BY-SA 3.0 Neris valley from Kernavė, 2008 – Phillip Capper – CC BY 2.0 Kernavės sen., Lithuania - panoramio (12) – VietovesLt – CC BY 3.0 Kernave - panoramio (2) – Modris Putns – CC BY-SA 3.0 Gediminas Avenue, Vilnius, Statehood Day 2023 – Pofka – CC BY-SA 4.0 Річка Синюха – Mr.Rosewater – CC BY-SA 3.0 Mikytai.gamtovaizdis.2007-06-15 – Algirdas at Lithuanian Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 Kreva Castle 2020 – Viktar Palstsiuk – CC BY-SA 4.0 Baltic Tribes c 1200 – MapMaster – CC BY-SA 3.0 Teutonic Order 1260 – S. Bollmann – CC BY-SA 3.0 Lithuanian state in 13-15th centuries – M.K. – CC BY-SA 2.5 Map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown of Poland 1386–1434 – Poznaniak – CC BY-SA 3.0 Kalozha - Каложа - panoramio – Viktar Palstsiuk – CC BY-SA 3.0 Other images: public domain artworks, maps and documents (Wikimedia Commons). Animated maps: our own, base geography Natural Earth (public domain), borders after the maps credited above. Music (Pixabay Content License): Universfield – Dark Mystery Piano; RubyZephyr – Ironclad Siege; DarkJustice – Crown of Forgotten Bones; DeusLower – Stellar Guardian (Medieval Music) and Stellar Guardian (Slowed ver.); AbXtra – L'Essor de Bouvines; Vadim_Makes_Sound – The Stone Choir; Bykenneth – Fantasia Medieval. Sound effects: Pixabay and our own. #Lithuania #MedievalHistory #Paganism