The Lithuanian nobility was historically a legally privileged class in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania consisting ofLithuanians, from the historical regions of Lithuania Proper and Samogitia, and in some cases Ruthenian noble families. Families were primarily granted privileges for their military service to the Grand Duchy. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, became less distinguishable from Polish szlachta, although preserved Lithuanian national awareness. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had one of the largest number of nobility in Europe, close to 7% of the population, in some regions, like Samogitia, it was closer to 10%.

 Nobility in The Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Prior to the creation of the Lithuanian state by Mindaugas, lesser members of the nobility were called bajorai (singular - bajoras) and greater nobles, kunigai (singular - kunigas), from the Old German: kunig, meaning "king", or Lithuanian: kunigaikštis, usually translated as duke, Latin: dux. They evolved from tribal leaders, and were chiefly responsible for waging wars and organizing raids operations into enemy's territory. After the establishment of a unified state they gradually became subordinates to greater Dukes, and later to the King of Lithuania. After Mindaugas death all Lithuanian rulers held the title Grand Duke (Lithuanian: Didysis kunigaikštis), or king (rexwhich was used in Gediminas' title).

Ethnic Lithuanian nobility had different names than common people, as their names were made of two stems. Greater noble families generally used the Lithuanian pagan given names of their precursors as their family names; this was the case with Goštautai, Radvilos, Astikai, Kęsgailos and others. Those families acquired great wealth and evolved into magnates. Their representatives are respectively Jonas Goštautas, Radvila Astikas, Kristinas Astikasand Mykolas Kęsgaila. Those families were granted coats of arms under the Union of Horodlo in 1413.

While at the beginning the nobility was almost all Lithuanian, with territorial expansion more Ruthenian families joined Lithuanian nobility. Already in the 16th century several Ruthenian noble families began to call themselves gente Ruthenus, natione Lithuanus. A good example is the Chodkiewicz family, that claimed its ancestry from theHouse of Gediminas. According to a military census in 1528, ethnic Lithuanian lands had 5730 horsemen and Ruthenian lands of the Grand Duchy - 5372.

The Evolution of Nobility

In the late 14th century Grand Dukes Jogaila and Skirgaila began forming professional forces. Instead of calling all men to war, a class of professional warriors - bajorai (future nobles) - was formed. In the early 15th century,Vytautas the GreatGrand Duchy of Lithuania further: as there were not enough warriors, Vytautas relieved soldiers from taxes and labour on the land by granting them veldamai, dependent peasants. At first the land was given to the serving men until death (benefice), but during the 14th and 15th centuries most of it became patrimony, granted by privileges of the monarch. Whilst during the 14th century the Grand Duke owned about ⅔ of the Duchy's land, by 1569 he was a direct owner of only ⅓. In the 15th century, the noble social class was already formed in Lithuania; for quite a long time it remained open and anyone could be ennobled for services to the Grand Duke. In time, the influence of lesser nobles decreased and greater nobles acquired increasingly more power, especially during theinterregnum fights following Vytautas' death.

Wealthier families were distinct from other nobles because they had latifundias in different lands including Lithuanian, Ruthenian and even Polish. In the 15th century, the biggest landowners began to call themselves "lords" (ponai or didikai), and the Lithuanian Council of Lords was established to represent their interests. In time most of them received titles borrowed from the Holy Roman Empire - dukes, earls and others. Grand Duchy of Lithuania offices were held almost exclusively by magnates. In the 16th century, Lithuanian nobility stopped calling themselves bajorai; they adopted Polish term szlachta (Lithuanian: šlėkta) instead. Landlords called themselves ziemionys or ziemiane.

The Privileges of Nobility

The Grand Duke became dependent on powerful landowners after he distributed state land, after which time landowners demanded greater liberties and privileges. The nobles were granted administrative and judicial power in their domains and increasing rights in state politics. The legal status of the nobility was based on several privileges, granted by the Grand Dukes:

• In 1387 Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila, newly crowned King of Poland, granted a privilege to nobles and soldiers. They were granted personal rights, including the right to inherit and govern land and estates inherited from ancestors or gifted by the Grand Duke. The nobles also had duties to serve in the military, safeguard castles, build and repair castles, bridges, roads, etc.
• In 1413 Vytautas and Jogaila signed Union of Horodło. The act renewed Polish-Lithuanian union and established a common Sejm and guaranteed the right to inherit lands gifted by the Grand Duke. 43 Lithuanian noble families were granted Polish coats of arms. Most of the veldamai became serfs.
• Jogaila's privilege in 1432 in essence repeated previous acts. Military service remained the main way to receive land.
• Privilege of May 6, 1434 was granted by Sigismund Kestutaitis to Catholic and Eastern Orthodox nobility. They were guaranteed freedom to dispose their land. The act prohibited persecutions without a fair trial.
• In 1447 Casimir I Jagiellon limited positions within the Catholic Church or state institutions only to people from Lithuania. Some nobles were released from their duties to the Grand Duke. This privilege also marked the beginnings of serfdom in Lithuania as peasants were removed from the Grand Duke's jurisdiction.
• 1492 privilege by Alexander Jagiellon renewed the 1447 privilege and added a few more provisions, the most important of which limited the Grand Duke's rights in regards to foreign policy. The Grand Duke became dependent on the Lithuanian Council of Lords. Without the consent of the Council no high official could be removed from his position. Lower posts had to be appointed in the presence of voivodes of Vilnius, Trakai, and other voivodeships. The privilege also prohibited selling various state and church positions to nobility. This way the Grand Duke was limited from exploiting the conflict between higher and lower nobility and profiting from selling the positions. This privilege also meant that city residents could not become officials.
• In 1506 Sigismund I the Old confirmed the position of the Council of Lords in state politics and limited entry to the noble class.
• On April 1, 1557 Sigismund II Augustus initiated the Wallach reform, which fully established serfdom. Peasants lost land ownership and personal rights, becoming completely dependent on the nobles.
• Union of Lublin in 1569 created the new state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The nobility was granted the right to elect a common ruler for Poland and Lithuania.
• The Third Statute of Lithuania, completed in 1588, further expanded the rights of nobility. Laws could be enacted only by the General sejm. The nobility was granted triple immunity - legal, administrative, and tax. The statute finalized the division between nobility, peasants, and city residents.

Most of the nobility rights were retained even after the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795.

The Ties to the Kingdom of Poland

After the Union of Horodło (1413) Lithuanian nobility acquired the same rights as the nobility of the Kingdom of Poland (szlachta). During following centuries Lithuanian nobility began to merge into Polish nobility^{[citation needed]}. The process accelerated after the Union of Lublin (1569) which created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Lithuanian nobility self-polonised, replacing Lithuanian and Ruthenian languages with Polish although the process took centuries. In the 16th century a newly established theory amongst Lithuanian nobility was popular, claiming that Lithuanian nobility was of Roman extraction, and the Lithuanian language was just a morphed Latinlanguage. In 1595 Mikalojus Daukša addressed Lithuanian nobility calling for the Lithuanian language to play a more important role in state life. However, the usage of Lithuanian declined, and the Polish language became the rule in the offices of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late 17th century.

At first only Lithuanian magnate families were affected by Polonization, although many of them like the Radziwiłłsremained loyal to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and safeguarded its sovereignty vis-à-vis the Kingdom of Poland. Gradually Polonization spread to wider population, and for the most part Lithuanian nobility became part of both nations' szlachta. Nonetheless the Lithuanian nobles did preserve their national awareness as members of the Grand Duchy, and in most cases recognition of their Lithuanian family roots; their leaders would continue to represent the interests of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the General sejm and in the royal court. Lithuanian language was used during Kościuszko Uprising in the proclamations calling to rise up For our freedom and yours. And Lithuania nobles did rise to fight for independence of their nation.

After partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The lesser Lithuanian nobility still preserving Lithuanian language suffered after the partitions of the Commonwealth left most of the former Grand Duchy under control of the Russian Empire. Situation worsened during the rule of tzar Nicholas I of Russia. After November uprising imperial officials wanted to minimize the social base for another potential uprising and thus decided to reduce the noble class. During the period of 1833-1860, 25,692 people in Vilna Governorate and 17,032 people in Kovno Governorate lost their noble status. They could not prove their status with monarchs privileges or land ownership. They did not loose personal freedom, but were assigned as one steaders Russian: однодворцы in rural areas and as citizens in towns. Following the January Uprising imperial officials announced that "Lithuanians are Russians seduced by Poles and Christianity" andbanned press in the Lithuanian language and started the Program of Restoration of Russian Beginnings.

During the 19th century a Latin formula gente Lithuanus, natione Polonus (Lithuanian people, Polish nation) was common in the Lithuania Proper and former Samogitian Eldership. With Polish culture becoming one of the primary centers of resistance to the Russian Empire, Polonization in some regions actually strengthened in response to official policies of Russification. Even larger percentage of Lithuanian nobility was Polonised and adopted Polish identity by the late 19th century. A Russian census in 1897 showed that 27.7 % of nobility living within modern Lithuania's borders declared Lithuanian as a mother language. This number was even higher inKovno Governorate, where 36.6 % of nobility identified the Lithuanian language as their mother language.

The processes of Polonization and Russification were partially reversed with the Lithuanian National Revival, which also began around that time. Although originating mostly from the non-noble classes, a number of nobles re-embraced their Lithuanian roots. During the interbellum years the government of Lithuania issued land reform limiting manors with 150 hectares of land, and confiscating land from those nobles who were fighting in the Polish-Lithuanian War on the Polish side. Many members of the Lithuanian nobility during the interbellum and after the World War II emigrated to Poland, many were deported to Siberia during the years 1945-53 of Soviet occupation, many manors were destroyed. Association of Lithuanian Nobility was established in 1994.

The Heraldry of Lithuania

The most ancient heraldry has motive of crossed arrows. According to the Union of Horodło of 1413, 47 Lithuanian noble families adopted Polish nobility coat of arms. Later more families adopted more coat of arms.

 The Influential Noble Lithuanian Families

• Alelkaičiai
• Olshanski (Alšėniškiai)
• Astikai
• Czartoryski
• Gediminaičiai
• Gedgaudai
• Giedraičiai
• Goštautai
• Kęsgailos
• Mangirdaičiai
• Mantautaičiai
• Pac (Pacas)
• Radziwiłł (Radvila)
• Sviriškiai
• Valmantaičiai

The Noble Families from Ruthenia

• Chodkiewicz
• Hlebowicz
• Ogiński
• Ostrogski
• Sapieha
• Tyszkiewicz
• Wiśniowiecki
• Zasławski

The Noble Families from Livonia

• Plater
• Tyzenhaus
• Römer

The List of Early Lithuanian Dukes

Early dukes of Lithuania (including Samogitia) reigned before Lithuanians were unified by Mindaugas into a state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. While the Palemonids legend provides genealogy from the 10th century, only few dukes were mentioned by contemporary historical sources. All of them were mentioned in written sources the 13th century. Data about them is extremely scarce and is usually limited to few brief sentences. The primary sources are the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia and Hypatian Codex.