Yatvingians in the Genesis of Lithuanian Anti-Teutonic Orientation

Scarce sources of the past of Sudovia (Sūduva, Yatvingian lands) clearly reveal several episodes illustrating relations between the inhabitants of the area and the Lithuanians. They witness a much more complex paradigm of political communication between these groups than might be expected. When Mindaugas started to strengthen his rule in Lithuania, Lithuanian ‘indifference’ to the Yatvingians disappeared. At the beginning of the 1240s Mindaugas was becoming a genuine, rather than a nominal ruler of part of Sudovia, at least of its northeast. However, the strife, which began in 1246 between Mindaugas and the Yatvingians and lasted nearly the entire period of his rule, conditioned enormous concessions made by the king of Lithuania to the Teutonic Order in Sudovia. When the war against the Christians was taken over by Treniota in 1261, the struggle of the Yatvingians (and the Prussians) against the Crusaders became more intensive. These were good signs indicating the beginning Lithuania’s support for the Yatvingians. The character of Treniota’s relations with the Yatvingians conformed to the political situation and traditions established by his predecessors, first and foremost, by Mindaugas. All that weakened the support of the Lithuanian monarch to Yatvingian anti-Teutonic resistance, despite the relentless advance of the Order’s military machine towards Lithuania’s borders. The Lithuanian ruler did not maintain any political contacts with the Order, but being in its neighbourhood he acquired friends.