The status of Samogitian Land court judges in the second half of XVI century

After administration and courts reform in 1564 – 1566 in Samogitia, as well as in other states of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, courts were divided into three different types: Land court, Castle court and Court of Succamerarius (Lith. Pakamaris). Because of its jurisdiction and democratical features in its election system, Land court became the main court in GDL states. In historiography there are some controversies about courts reform. One of them is that the main purpose of courts reform was to give some independence for local boyars in their social caste. This purpose was legitimate on the regulations of 1566s Lithuanian Statute where it was declarated that boyars can independently elect judges for their civil court, which was called Land court. On the other hand, researcher D. Vilimas argued that although the judges were elected, they still dependent on the local noblemen. Moreover, D. Vilimas argued that Land court judges were from middle boyars caste. D. Vilimas theses were based on his and R. Ragauskiene research. Those researches were mostly on Eastern part of GDL, so their research does not provide information on Western side of GDL where trends were possibly different. To review D. Vilimas and R. Ragauskiene research it is necessary to carry out investigation on Western side of GDL Land courts. Firstly we could focus on Samogitian Land court and its judges who started their careers at Land court from the second half of XVI century to the end of XVI century. Why Samogitia? It is because it was the biggest land of Western part of GDL. Moreover, Samogitia had different status from Eastern part of GDL lands. Samogitia was called „Duchy“ while Eastern lands of GDL were called „provinces“. The aim of this research is to describe the main features of GDL Land courts, to determine Samogitian land court in the second half of XVI century, to analyse the first generation of Samogitian Land court judges and after the identification of their status, to characterise the prototype of Samogitian Land court judge in the second half of XVI century