Sądy starostów generalnych żmudzkich (druga połowa XV – pierwsza połowa XVI w.)
The Court of the Elders of Samogitia (the Second Half of the Fifteenth – the First Half of the Sixteenth Century)

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the article is to determine the place of the elders’ court within the judicial system of Samogitia in the period from 1450 (i.e. from the time when Jonas Kęsgaila, or Kęsgailaitis, took offi ce) to the legal and administrative reform carried out in 1566. Only a few hypotheses have been presented for the earlier years. It is possible to divide the analysed time into two periods: before and aft er the First Lithuanian Statute (1529). Based on ca 200 documents from various manuscript col-lections and the Metrica of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania it is possible to reconstruct some aspects of this court’s operations, including its jurisdiction, attitude towards the courts of grand dukes and courts of tenutaries, its composition, the court of vice-elders, and the place and time of court sessions.

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