Lietuvos istorijos institutas

The title of this article is taken from a somewhat unusual image of the ruler as fisherman. It comes from a summary of the now lost letter from Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania (1392–1430) to Paul von Rusdorf, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (1422–1441). The letter accompanied a batch of sturgeon sent to Marienburg as a gift to the grand master and other officersof the Teutonic Order. The grand duke emphasised that this was fish he had caught himself in the Dniester estuary. Given that this piece of evidence has received little attention so far, this article will: 1. present the manuscript containing the document; 2. date the document; 3. analyse its contents; 4. consider what political purposes Vytautas might have been pursuing at the time; 5. examine what, if any, insights this information could give to a more general picture of Vytautas’ political activities in the last decade of his rule; 6. offer a critical edition of the summary of the letter.