Algirdas Grand Duke of Lithuania, 18th Great-grandfather

October 2, 2014

My 18th great-grandfather was born and is burred in Vilnuis, Lithuania. His conquest of Slavic lands that had been held by the Kievan Rus was his claim to fame. He was successful in establishing a headquarters in the Crimea. My 18th great-grandmother, his wife, was an Orthodox Russian princess, but he still tried to take over Moscow by military force. He is buried at Cathedral of the Theotokos
in Vilnuis.

Algirdas (c. 1296 – May 1377) was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. He ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians.

With the help of his brother Kęstutis, who defended the western border of the duchy, he created a vast empire stretching from the Baltics to the Black Sea and reaching within 50 miles of Moscow.

Algirdas was one of the seven sons of the Grand Duke Gediminas. Before his death in 1341, Gediminas divided his domains, leaving the youngest son Jaunutis in possession of the capital of Vilnius, with a nominal priority. With the aid of his brother Kęstutis, Algirdas drove out the incapable Jaunutis and declared himself a Grand Prince in 1345. Thirty-two years of his reign (1345–1377) were devoted to the development and expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Two factors are supposed to have contributed to achieve this result: The extraordinary political sagacity of Algirdas, and, the lifelong devotion of his brother Kęstutis.

A neat division of their dominions is illustrated by the fact, that Algirdas appears almost only in East Slavic sources, whereas the Western chronicles are aware mostly of Kęstutis. The Teutonic Knights in the north and the Tatar hordes in the south were equally bent on the subjection of Lithuania, while Algirdas’ eastern and western neighbors Muscovy and Poland generally were hostile competitors.

Algirdas not only succeeded in holding his own, he acquired influence and territory at the expense of Muscovy and the Golden Horde, and extended the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the northern shore of the Black Sea.

Principal efforts of Algirdas were directed to securing the Slavonic lands which had been a part of the former Kievan Rus. He procured the election of his son Andrew as the Prince of Pskov, and a powerful minority of the citizens of the Republic of Novgorod held the balance in his favor against the Muscovite influence. However, his ascendancy in both these commercial centers was, at best, precarious.

Algirdas occupied the important principalities of Smolensk and Bryansk in western Russia. Although his relations with the grand dukes of Muscovy were friendly on the whole — he married two Orthodox Russian princesses – that did not prevent him from besieging Moscow in 1368 and again in 1372, both times unsuccessfully.

An important feat of Algirdas was his victory over the Tartars in the Battle of Blue Waters at the Southern Bug in 1362. It resulted in breaking up of the powerful Kipchak horde and compelled the khan to migrate still farther south and establish his headquarters for the future in the Crimea.

Algirdas Grand Lithuania (1296 – 1377)
is my 18th great grandfather
Aleksandra Alexandra Duchess Lithuania (1365 – 1434)
daughter of Algirdas Grand Lithuania
Cymburgis Masovia (1391 – 1429)
daughter of Aleksandra Alexandra Duchess Lithuania
Katharina Archduchess Austria Von Habsburg (1420 – 1493)
daughter of Cymburgis Masovia
Christof I VanBaden (1453 – 1527)
son of Katharina Archduchess Austria Von Habsburg
Beatrix Zahringen (1492 – 1535)
daughter of Christof I VanBaden
Sabine Grafin VonSimmern (1528 – 1578)
daughter of Beatrix Zahringen
Marie L Egmond (1564 – 1584)
daughter of Sabine Grafin VonSimmern
Richard Sears (1590 – 1676)
son of Marie L Egmond
Silas Sears (1638 – 1697)
son of Richard Sears
Silas Sears (1661 – 1732)
son of Silas Sears
Sarah Sears (1697 – 1785)
daughter of Silas Sears
Sarah Hamblin (1721 – 1814)
daughter of Sarah Sears
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
daughter of Sarah Hamblin
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Mercy Hazen
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse