Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland at the time of Jagiello and Witold in the Ruthenian historical annals

The aim of the article is to carry out a review of Ruthenian annals, particularly with the view of finding entries relating to the Grand Lithuanian Duchy and the Kingdom of Poland, during the rule of Ladislaus Jagiello. The author also analyzes the issue of the degree of interest of various chronicle-writing centers in problems relating to the Polish-Lithuanian union and the image of the two rulers – Jagiello and Witold that had been created by them. From the analyzed data one can clearly see that the events in the Grand Lithuanian Duchy had been carefully followed by various Ruthenian centers which testifies to the fact that good-neighborly relations with the Duchy had been treated with due attention. On the other hand, the information conveyed by them had not always been precise. The way of presenting Lithuanian topics in Ruthenian annals was closely associated with the traditional image of Lithuania and Lithuanians, as well as with the image of religious dissenters, including among others Catholics, as it had functioned in the social awareness of Ruthenian residents. At the turn of the 14th and at the beginning of the 15th century, on the territory of north-eastern and north-western Ruthenia there already circulated an image of Northern Ruthenia or its part as an “entirely Ruthenian land”. In the effect of this way of reasoning, Witold is presented in the annals as the leader of a tight-knit “Lithuania”, “Lithuanian land”, and Ruthenians are referred to as his subjects only indirectly. The annals devote a lot of attention to the rule of Witold and there is much less information in them about Jagiello. All annals fail to even mention his death in the year 1434. However, their authors were well aware of the fact that Ladislaus Jagiello was a Polish king, ally and sovereign of Witold