[10] Because written sources of the era are scarce, Gediminas' ancestry, early life, and assumption of the title of Grand Duke in ca.

At the end of 1322, he sent letters to Pope John XXII soliciting his protection against the persecution of the knights,[17] informing him of the privileges already granted to the Dominicans and Franciscans in Lithuania for preaching Christianity.

[21] On receiving a favourable reply from the Holy See, Gediminas issued circular letters, dated 25 January 1323, to the principal Hanseatic towns, offering a free access into his domains to men of every order and profession from nobles and knights to tillers of the soil.

The Prussian bishops, who were devoted to the knights, questioned the authority of Gediminas' letters and denounced him as an enemy of the faith at a synod in Elbing; his Orthodox subjects reproached him with leaning towards the Latin heresy, while the pagan Lithuanians accused him of abandoning the ancient gods.

Gediminas disentangled himself from his difficulties by repudiating his former promises; by refusing to receive the papal legates who arrived at Riga in September 1323, and by dismissing the Franciscans from his territories.

[24] At the same time Gediminas privately informed the papal legates at Riga through his ambassadors that his difficult position compelled him to postpone his steadfast resolve of being baptised, and the legates showed their confidence in him by forbidding the neighbouring states to war against Lithuania for the next four years, besides ratifying the treaty made between Gediminas and the archbishop of Riga.

Nevertheless, disregarding the censures of the church, the Order resumed the war with Gediminas[15] by murdering one of his delegates sent to welcome the Grand Master for his arrival to Riga in 1325.

[20][25] He had in the meantime improved his position by an alliance with Wladislaus Lokietek,[26] king of Poland, and had his daughter Aldona baptized for the sake of betrothing her to Władysław's son Casimir III.

[27] Baptizing himself would have implications for Gediminas domestically; it would have offended the staunchly pagan inhabitants of the major Lithuanian regions of Žemaitija and Aukštaitija.

In addition, these heartland pagans together with the Orthodox Rus' threatened Gediminas with death if he decided to convert;[28] a similar scenario also happened to Mindaugas, which he desperately wanted to avoid.

[citation needed] Despite Gediminas' chief goal to save Lithuania from German attacks, he still died as a pagan reigning over semi-pagan lands.

[34] While exploiting Ruthenian weakness in the wake of the Mongol invasion, Gediminas avoided war with the Golden Horde, a great regional power at the time, while expanding Lithuania's border almost towards the Black Sea.

However, Gediminas offset the influence of Muscovy in northern Russia, and assisted the republic of Pskov, which acknowledged his overlordship, to break away from Great Novgorod.

[38] He was cremated as a part of a pagan ceremony in 1342, which included a human sacrifice, with his favourite servant and several German slaves being burned on the pyre with the corpse.

[45] The Lithuanian folk music group Kūlgrinda released an album in 2009 titled Giesmės Valdovui Gediminui, meaning "Hymns to Ruler Gediminas".

[49] In contemporary Low German he is styled simply Koningh van Lettowen, mirroring the Latin Rex Lethowyae (both meaning "King of Lithuania").

[53][51] According to the notary's transcript, the oval seal of Gediminas had a twelve corners edging, at the middle of the edging was an image of a man with long hairs, who sat on a throne and held a crown (or a wreath) in his right hand and a sceptre in his left hand, moreover, a cross was engraved around the man along with a Latin inscription: S DEI GRACIA GEDEMINNI LETHWINOR ET RUTKENOR REG (English: Gediminas', by the grace of God, the King of the Lithuanians and the Rus' people, seal).

[57] In 1337, a Lithuanian banner is mentioned for the first time in Wigand of Marburg's chronicles, who wrote that during the battle at Bayernburg Castle (near Veliuona, Lithuania) Tilman Zumpach, head of the Teutonic riflemen, burned the Lithuanian banner with a flaming lance and then mortally wounded the King of Trakai, however, he didn't describe its appearance.

The Bychowiec Chronicle mentions three wives: Vida from Courland; Olga from Smolensk; and Jaunė from Polotsk, who was Eastern Orthodox and died in 1344 or 1345.

[59] Most modern historians and reference works say Gediminas' wife was Jewna, dismissing Vida and Olga as fictitious, since no sources other than this chronicle mention the other two wives.