Piastowie i Giedyminowicze. Dzieje wzajemnych stosunków w średniowieczu
The Piast and Giedyminowicz dynasty. The history of mutual relations in the Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: The history of mutual relations between the dynasties of Poland and Lithuania in the Middle Ages is undoubtedly one of the most interesting topic for a historian researching the Middle-aged history of this part of Europe. A determinant of the intensity of contacts between the Piast and Giedyminowicz dynasties is the moment of family connections entered by them via marriages. Initially, it was marrying a female representative of the Giedyminowicz dynasty, who accepted the religion of their husbands and became mothers of Christian princes. The first Piast who decided to marry Giedymin’s daughter, Elżbieta, was Wacław (Wańko), a prince of Płock, and son of Bolesław the Second. A early as the 14th century shows a series of marriages with female representatives of a Lithuanian dynasty in a Piast dynasty from Mazowsze. A baptism of Lithuania was a result of an increasing number of marriages between the two dynasties. All of them were concluded in order to gain common political aims and, infrequently, aims of the promoters of these marriages. Most often it was concerned with a mutual defense against their common enemies. Usually, the first years of marriages were in accordance with political calculations, and, with time, the paths of both parties used to fall apart.

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