Lietuvos istorijos institutas

This article presents an analysis of the urban development of Samogitia’s border with the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from the end of the 16th to the early 19th centuries by looking at the history of the small town of Vegeriai as one of the more important cases. The research shows that border-town urbanisation was slow and irregular, coming in three waves where the third and last wave in the late 16th to early 17th century was particularly long. Three attempts at founding the small town of Vegeriai are discussed (in 1602, 1652 and 1754), which were initiated by representatives of families belonging to the Samogitian elite. The importance of liturgical life on the small town’s appearance and its vitality are highlighted. Attention is also drawn to the fact that in the second half of the 18th century Vegeriai became an important border communications hub between Samogitia and the Duchy of Courland, where a multinational community was being formed, trade ties were being developed, and the influence of the Jews and the arriving German Lutherans increased.

Based on genealogical data, the article investigates the marriage policy of the Gorski family (Nałęcz coat of arms) from its establishment in Samogitia in the second half of the sixteenth century to its rise in the first half of the eighteenth century. First, a general portrait of the

The Battle of Jurbarkas of 1698 was the first significant battle of the civil war in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. The army loyal to the republicans and the detachments hired by the nobles of some districts fought against the part of the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania loyal to the Sapieha, and the Tatars. The Sapieha won the battle, but after this victory the republicans became even more active.