- Vaidotas
Vaidotas or Wojdat (14th century - after 1401) was a son of
Kęstutis ,Grand Duke of Lithuania . In reliable historical sources he is mentioned only twice.cite encyclopedia | editor=Simas Sužiedėlis | encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Lituanica | title=Vaidotas | year=1970-1978 | publisher=Juozas Kapočius | volume=VI | location=Boston, Massachusetts | id=LCC | 74-114275 | pages=21]According to the chronicles of
Wigand of Marburg , he was the commander of thegarrison of theKaunas Castle during a three-week-long siege in April of 1362. After strong resistance the castle was taken over and then destroyed. Vaidotas with 36 men tried to break through, but was captured. The defeat was one of the largest and important military victories of the Teutonic Knights in the 14th century.From a document by his brother
Vytautas the Great from 1401 it is know that Vaidotas and his brotherTautvilas Kęstutaitis were given to ruleNavahrudak equally. [lt icon cite encyclopedia | editor=Vytautas Spečiūnas | encyclopedia=Lietuvos valdovai (XIII-XVIII a.): enciklopedinis žinynas | title=Vaidotas | year=2004 | publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas | location=Vilnius | id=ISBN 5-420-01535-8 | pages=76] His further fate is unknown.Because of very limited historical sources, Vaidotas is sometimes confused with Vaidutis (Waydutte), son of
Butautas and grandson of Kęstutis. Some historians also argue that Butautas and Vaidotas were the same person and their names are different because of a different dialect. [cite book | title=Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire Within East-Central Europe, 1295-1345 | first=S. C. | last=Rowell | pages=xxxiii | year=1994 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series| isbn=9780521450119 ] Further confusion is introduced byBychowiec Chronicle , an unreliable chronicle from the 16th century, which claims that Vaidotas died in his youth in Lithuania.See also
*
Gediminids
*House of Kęstutis – family tree of VaidotasReferences
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