Stacje Jagiellonów na Litwie

ENStations were services guaranteeing board and lodging for the travelling ruler, his wife and their milieu, as well as forthe officials, envoysor couriers travelling in state matters. In Poland of the Jagiellon period the inhabitants of the royal, bishop’s and monastic estates were to maintain such places. Stations were not individual obligation which could only concern the land owners, but were always approached collectively from the end of the 14th century, i.e. at least from the times of Vytautas (the regent of Jagiełło in Lithuania in the years 1392-1401, and later Grand Duke in the years 1401-1430) until the end of the reign of Casimir Jagiellon (d. in 1492) stations in Lithuania were organized perfectly, in meticulous detail. Most often we find information about stays in magnate manors, which almost until the 16th century played the role of administrative-economical and judicial centres of individual manors. We do not, however, know whether the Jagiellons stayed in Lithuania in private estates of their subjects, but it is highly probable because they were obliged to serve such services. In mid-16th century the aforementioned obligation was exchanged for monetary rent.