Tarp riteriško mobilumo ir indigenato: svetimšaliai riteriai Lietuvos didžiojo kunigaikščio dvare XV a. pirmojoje pusėje

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Indigenatas; Vokiečių Ordinas (Teutonic Order; Kryžiuočių ordinas); Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštija, XV a.; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); 14 amžius; 15 amžius; Mobilumas; Svetimšaliai; Užsienio riteriai; Valdovai; Vytautas; Aliens; Foreign knights; Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 15th century; Indigenisation; Lithuanian XIV-XV c. history; Mobility; Monarchs; The Great Duchy of Lithuania; Vytautas.

ENThe paper analyses the life of foreign knights in the Court of the Grand Duke of Lithuania in the early 15th century. Foreign knights would arrive in Lithuania for different reasons. Those could have been messengers of foreign rulers, soldiers who came specifically for a military campaign, or people travelling the world. Increasingly frequent arrivals of foreigners were predetermined by active international policies of Grand Duke Vytautas that attracted knights from different countries to his Court. Foreign knights were an important military force in war marches and social support in the Court service. The arrival of high rank foreigners was a Court event that was appropriately exploited to enhance the monarch's prestige. Their names were included in the sovereign's document witness lists, and they were granted other signs of recognition.The majority of the knights would arrive from Poland, the territories of the German Order, Silesia, Czekia, and some of them from Burgundy, Castille, Hungary, and Scandinavian states.However, not so many foreign knights would stay to live in Lithuania for a longer time. Even though the principles of the indigenization law were first laid out in the privilege of Casimir Jagiellonian in 1447, one can assume that informal restrictions for foreigners to get land ownership or positions in Lithuania had existed before. Foreign knights who would settle down in the Courts of Vytautas or Švitrigaila considered their service to the Grand Duke as temporary and combined it with the land ownership in their native countries. Even some individuals of the Duke rank, such as Dukes of Silesia Conrad the White and Wacław from Opava, would also become courtiers of the Grand Duke. By forging close ties with foreign nobles, Lithuanian rulers would acquire potential informants who would open new opportunities of acting in international policies. Meanwhile, the communication with the arriving foreign peers allowed the Lithuanian nobles to get to better know the Western forms of the noblemen, and particularly the knight, culture. [From the publication]