Nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania information
Legally privileged class in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Columns of Gediminas, symbol of the House of GediminasMedieval Coat of Arms of Lithuania was inherited by oldest familiesCrossed arrows motive indicates the oldest type of heraldry in Lithuania after formal Christianization, like Kościesza coat of arms
The Nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or Greater Lithuanian szlachta (Lithuanian: bajorija, šlėkta, Polish: szlachta Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego) was historically a legally privileged hereditary elite class in the Kingdom of Lithuania, Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth (including during period of foreign rule 1795–1918) consisting of Lithuanians from Lithuania Proper; Samogitians from Duchy of Samogitia; following Lithuania's eastward expansion into what is now Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, many ethnically Ruthenian noble families (boyars); and, later on, predominantly Baltic German families from the Duchy of Livonia and Inflanty Voivodeship.[1] It traced its origins via Palemonids to Polemon II of Pontus.[citation needed]
Families of the nobility were responsible for military mobilization and enjoyed Golden Liberty; some were rewarded with additional privileges for success on the battlefield. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ducal titles were mostly inherited by descendants of old dynasties while the relatively few hereditary noble titles in the Kingdom of Poland were bestowed by foreign monarchs. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had one of the largest percentages of nobility in Europe, with szlachta (nobility) constituting close to 10% of the population, but in some constituent regions, like Duchy of Samogitia, it was closer to 12%. However, the high nobility was extremely limited in number, consisting of the magnates and later, within the Russian Empire, of princes.
Over time, the vast majority of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania voluntarily became Polonized and recognized Polish national thought as a natural continuation of Greater Lithuanian national thought. The currently living, completely Polonized families include the Radziwiłł family, the Czartoryski family, the Tyszkiewicz family, the Sanguszko family, and the Sapieha family and almost 2000 more families[1].
^ abKrzysztof Buchowski, Litwomani i polonizatorzy, p. 20–50, 2006 Białystok, Uniwersytet w Białymstoku, ISBN 978-83-7431-075-8
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