Duchy of Lithuania Lietuvos kunigaikštystė (Lithuanian)
Division ofGrand Duchy of Lithuania
13th century–1413
Coat of arms
Domain of KingMindaugas (dark yellow) during the times of theKingdom of Lithuania, making up the initial Duchy of Lithuania.
Government
• Type	Feudal monarchy
Grand Duke of Lithuania
• ca. 1236–1263	Mindaugas
• 1295–1316	Vytenis
• 1316–1341	Gediminas
• 1345–1377	Algirdas
• 1377–1392	Jogaila
• 1392–1413	Vytautas
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Established	13th century
• Union of Horodło	1413
Succeeded by Kingdom of Lithuania
Today part of	Belarus Lithuania Latvia

TheDuchy of Lithuania (Latin:Ducatus Lithuaniae;Lithuanian:Lietuvos kunigaikštystė) was a state-territorial formation of ethnicLithuanians that existed from the 13th century^[1] to 1413. For most of its existence, it was a constituent part and a nucleus of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania. Other alternative names of the territorial formation, used in different periods, wereAukštaitija or Land of Lithuania (13th century), Duchy ofVilnius (14th – early 15th centuries),^{[2][unreliable source?]}Lithuania proper, or simplyLithuania (in a narrow sense).

The formation emerged in the central and eastern part of present-day Lithuania, known as Aukštaitija, or the Lietuva Land (Lithuanian:Lietuvos žemė). It is supposed to have formed in central Lithuania on the left bank of theNeris River and swiftly expanded eastwards. This land was mentioned in 1009 asLitua (seeName of Lithuania). The territory was ruled by chieftains of an ethnic Lithuanian tribe, Aukštaitians or "Lithuanians", in the original sense of the term.

After the expansion of the Lithuanian state in the 13th century, when it became known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and theKingdom of Lithuania (1251–1263), the Duchy of Lithuania became an administrative unit, governed by dukes^[3] and inherited through dynastic links. The main administrative center of the Duchy until the late 13th century might have beenKernavė.

It is possible that the Duchy of Lithuania, which became known as the Duchy of Vilnius from the 14th century on,^[4] was formed out of the eastern part of the original Duchy of Lithuania under the rule of Grand Duke of LithuaniaVytenis at the end of the 13th century; its southwestern part was turned into a separateDuchy of Trakai, under the dominion ofGediminas, who had established himself in the newly builtSenieji Trakai Castle. It is known for certain that the Duchy of Trakai existed as the domain of Kęstutis at the beginning of his rule in 1337. It was a progenitor of the futureTrakai Voivodeship.

The last Duke of Lithuania (Latin:Dux Lithuaniae)^{[citation needed]} wasVytautas the Great, who, as a result of the 1392Astrava Treaty, received the Duchy fromJogaila, who, in turn, had inherited it from his fatherAlgirdas. Since 1397, the Duchy had the status of an Eldership, comparable to that of theEldership of Samogitia. After the administrative reform of 1413 by Vytautas, based on theUnion of Horodło, the Duchy became part of the newly establishedVilnius Voivodeship of theGrand Duchy of Lithuania.

• Lithuania portal
• History of Lithuania
• History of Lithuania (1219–1295)
• History of Vilnius
• Lithuania proper

55°N25°E / 55°N 25°E /55; 25

• States and territories established in the 13th century
• States and territories disestablished in 1413
• 1413 disestablishments in Europe
• History of Lithuania (1219–1569)
• Former subdivisions of Lithuania
• States and territories established in the 12th century
• Vilnius Region

• CS1: unfit URL
• CS1 Lithuanian-language sources (lt)
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Lithuanian-language text
• Articles containing Latin-language text
• All articles lacking reliable references
• Articles lacking reliable references from September 2025
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2025
• Coordinates on Wikidata