Alšėniškiai

The House of Alšėniškiai (Belarusian: Гальшанскі, romanized: Halšanski, Polish: Holszański) was a Lithuanian by origin[1] Ruthenianized and predominantly Eastern Orthodox princely family of Hipocentaur coat of arms.

[2] According to the ancient genealogy of Lithuanian princes written by Teodor Narbutt, Alšis was to be the eleventh generation of the Palemonids, and was to give rise to the Alšėniškiai, who ended in the late 16th century.

[2] The history of this house, already based on some writings, only begins with Jonas Alšėniškis (c. 1379-1402), whose father Algimantas (Ougemundes) presents the first historically proven generation of the Alšėniškiai.

[2] For the first time Alšėniškiai family is mentioned in written sources at the end of the 14th century when Ivan, son of Algimantas, assisted Vytautas in the Lithuanian Civil War (1381–1384) against Jogaila.

However, late and unreliable Lithuanian Chronicles created a fanciful genealogy of Algimantas that connected him to the legendary Palemonids that allegedly hailed from the Roman Empire.