Gediminas' Cap
[8] Gediminas' Cap lost its significance following the Union of Lublin in 1569 which abolished a separate inauguration of the Lithuanian monarchs in Vilnius Cathedral.
[1][2] In the 20th century, following the Act of Independence of Lithuania, Lithuanian litas banknotes were issued with a portrait of Vytautas the Great wearing Gediminas' Cap to commemorate his 500th death anniversary in 1930.
[20] In 1398, the Lithuanian nobility declared Vytautas the Great as the King of Lithuania and, following the Congress of Lutsk in 1430, the crowning was sanctioned by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor.
[21] John I Albert unilaterally declared himself as the Supreme Duke of Lithuania in 1492, but this title was rejected by the Lithuanian Council of Lords.
[2] The first inauguration ceremony of a Lithuanian Grand Duke about which there is reliable information is that of Casimir IV Jagiellon, as reported by Jan Długosz.
[28] But instead he was elected as Grand Duke upon his arrival to Vilnius on June 29, 1440, with the ringing of church bells and the singing of the Te Deum laudamus.
[30][31] It manifested Lithuania as a sovereign state and its ruler Casimir IV Jagiellon stressed himself as a "free lord" (pan – dominus).
The newly elected ruler was dressed "in a ducal cap with pearls and precious stones set in it, also the usual robe that today the princes of the Reich wear at the imperial coronation.
[41] Following the Union of Lublin, which formed the federative Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, and the death of the last Gediminid ruler Sigismund II Augustus in 1572, separate inaugurations in Vilnius Cathedral were abolished, therefore Gediminas' Cap lost its ceremonial significance.
[2] The demand of a separate inauguration ceremony of the Grand Duke of Lithuania was raised by the nobles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (e.g. Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł, Eustachy Wołłowicz, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Konstanty Ostrogski) during the negotiations of the Union of Lublin, however it was not officially included into it.
[43] On 20 April 1576 a congress of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's nobles was held in Grodno which adopted an Universal, signed by the participating Lithuanian nobles, which announced that if the delegates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania will feel pressure from the Poles in the Election sejm, the Lithuanians will not be obliged by an oath of the Union of Lublin and will have the right to select a separate monarch.
