nding a papal legate to Grodno, where Mindvog and his
wife were baptized, and he was made King of Lithuania (1252). Soon
after he had a dispute with the Livonian Knights to whom he was forced
to cede the country of the Jmouds. He again became a pagan and, marching
against the Knights, defeated them. Upon his return from this (p. 080)
expedition, he was murdered by a chief named Dovmont whom he had
injured. Lithuania again fell into anarchy until another enterprising
chief named Gedimin restored order in 1315.

Gedimin invaded Russia, defeated a Russo-Tartar army in 1321, and took
Tchernigof and Vladimir. He then went south, where the Russian cities
readily opened their gates to him, hoping for relief from the Mongol
yoke. He took the old capital Kief, and there had his sons baptized in
the Greek church and tried to marry them into the families of Russian
dukes. He established his capital at Wilna where he attracted many
German artists and mechanics by granting them special privileges. He
died a pagan, in 1340, dividing his country among his sons and his
brother.

One of his sons, Olgerd, succeeded in getting possession of the whole,
and then started upon a career of conquest. He first attacked
Novgorod, where one of his brothers had taken refuge, and made
conquests east and south, until he reached the Black Sea. Although he
was a pagan, Simeon the Proud, Grand Duke of Moscow, gave him his
daughter; but this did not prevent Olgerd from waging war with
Simeon's successors. In 1368, he defeated the Tartars of the Lower
Dnieper, and destroyed Cherson in the Crimea.

When he died he followed Gedimin's example by dividing his territories
among his sons, but one of them, Jagellon, became sole ruler by
putting his brothers to flight and his uncle to death. At this time
the Russian language was adopted and with it the Greek Church,
although Jagellon was still a pagan. When he married Hedwiga, the (p. 081)
heiress to the Kingdom of Poland, he embraced the Roman Catholic
church; in 1386, he went to Cracow, where he was crowned King of
Poland, and soon after gave orders that his people must join the same
church, converting them as Vladimir had introduced Christianity among
the people of Kief. Jagellon made Cracow his capital. Some time
afterwards one of his cousins, Vitovt, raised a revolt against him in
Lithuania, and Jagellon was compelled to cede that territory to him.
Thus Vitovt became Grand Duke of Lithuania.

Vito