До питання про час польсько-литовського «гербового розбратання»
The issue of dating a Polish-Lithuanian „heraldic gap”

Summary/Abstract: The next Polish-Lithuanian Union was established in 1413 in Horodło. One of its elements was the brotherhood of Polish and Lithuanian gentry, the result of which was giving the Catholic Lithuanian boyars the same rights ascribed to the Polish gentry, as well as the admission of 47 Lithuanian families into the Polish heraldry. At the beginning of the 1430s however there was a strong conflict between the Polish Crown and Grand Lithuanian Duchy. Initially, it was “a coronation storm”, and, then a war with a new grand duke Świdrygiełło. In consequence, Świdrygiełło was thrown out of the throne and replaced by Zygmunt Kiejstutowicz, and a new union, the so called Grodno union (1432, 1434) was signed on the strength of the Polish conditions. The Grand Duchy was divided into two parts, the one controlled by Świdrygiełło and the other under the ruling of Kiejstutowicz. Despite the conflict between them, both of them in line with their supporters were against the Polish coronation aspirations. It made some of the Lithuanian boyars lose Polish heraldry and return to former ones before 1413 as a sign of protest, and, at the same time, defense of Lithuanian identity and independence. The information on sending the Polish heraldry back by the Lithuanians is found in Kronika Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego i Żmudzkiego, including its version, namely Kronika Bychowca, which places the very event under 1453 and, combines it with a Polish-Lithuanian convention in Parczew. The author of the article, basing on sfragistic studies, rejects this information, and relates the very protest to a difficult political situation between the Crown and Lithuania at the beginning of the 1430s mentioned before.

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