The family included the siblings, children, and grandchildren of the Grand Duke and played the pivotal role in the history of Lithuania for the period as the Lithuanian nobility had not yet acquired its influence.

[1] Because none of his brothers or sisters had known heirs, Gediminas, who sired at least twelve children, had the advantage in establishing sovereignty over his siblings.

Known for his diplomatic skills, Gediminas arranged his children's marriages to suit the goals of his foreign policy: his sons consolidated Lithuanian power within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while his daughters established or strengthened alliances with the rulers of areas in modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

[2] The relationships among Gediminas' children were generally harmonious, with the notable exception of Jaunutis, who was deposed in 1345 by his brothers Algirdas and Kęstutis.

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

Various theories have claimed that Gediminas was either his predecessor Grand Duke Vytenis' son, his brother, his cousin, or his hostler.

In 1868, a letter issued by the Council of Riga in 1323 was published that contained a small note mentioning Vytenis as "the brother and predecessor" of Gediminas.

[5][6] Ochmański posited that the poem skipped the generation represented by Butvydas, and jumped back to the unknown ancestor.

This subordination lasted until 1363, when Gediminas' son Algirdas soundly defeated the Horde in the Battle of Blue Waters.

[7] The only direct written mention of Gediminas' sister is a legend describing the murder of two Franciscan friars who came to Vilnius to spread Christianity.

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

[15] 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.

[16] The historian S. C. Rowell argues that Gediminas' wife was a local pagan duchess, on the grounds that his marriage to a princess from a neighboring land would have been noted in other contemporary sources, and that the reliability of the Bychowiec Chronicle has been questioned.

Gediminas had at least five daughters and seven sons, whose shrewd marriages helped to consolidate and expand the Grand Duchy's influence to areas east and west of Lithuania.

Those marriages speak to Gediminas' diplomatic talent in building alliances with the neighboring states that shared his goals to destroy the Teutonic Order and contain the growing power of Moscow and Poland.

The marriage took place soon after Mikhail Yaroslavich, Dmitri's father, was killed; his sons were searching for strong allies against Yury of Moscow, their principal competitor for the throne of Vladimir and All Rus'.

Maria's brother-in-law, Alexander I, nevertheless maintained friendly relationships with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and his daughter Uliana married Algirdas, the son of Gediminas, who continued the Gediminid line.

Gediminas' daughter Elzbieta married Wacław of Płock, one of the dukes of Masovia in modern-day eastern Poland.

She is mentioned for the last time in 1361, when her brother Kęstutis escaped from Marienburg and sought refuge at his sister's house; historians put her date of death at around 1364.

[25] Both parties agreed to install Bolesław, cousin of Władysław I and nephew of Gediminas' son-in-law Wacław of Płock, with the marriage to take place later.

[26] According to Teodor Narbutt, Eufemija was drowned beneath the ice of the Vistula River on 5 February 1342 in order to keep her out of the succession disputes.

[2] Her two sons Vasilei and Konstantin did not survive infancy; her daughter Vasilisa married Mikhail Vasilevich of Kashin, a Tverite prince opposing Lithuania.

[7] However, some historians disagree with the conclusion that David was Gediminas' son-in-law, expressing skepticism about the reliability of Stryjkowski's sources.

[33] It is unclear why, but Jaunutis, a middle son not mentioned in any written sources before the coup d'état accomplished by his brothers, was designated by Gediminas as his heir in Vilnius and consequently became the Grand Duke.

Before deposing his brother Jaunutis in 1345, he ruled Kreva and, despite remaining pagan, married Maria, a daughter of the last prince of Vitebsk.

Their successful collaboration is celebrated in Lithuanian historiography, and gave rise to a much debated theory that a tradition of co-rule or diarchy in Lithuania was customary and arose as early as 1285.

While Algirdas was mostly active in the east, Kęstutis occupied himself by managing the Duchy's interactions with the Teutonic Knights, Poland, and other western European entities.

Kęstutis, Duke of Trakai, despite exercising considerable autonomy while controlling the western provinces of the duchy, was loyal to Algirdas and acknowledged his superiority.

He was baptized as Gleb and went on to rule Pinsk, Polotsk, and – as his patrimony by invitation of Novgorod's nobles – Ladoga, Oreshek and Korela.

Rather than promoting Liubartas and risking a war with Poland, Gediminas married his daughter Eufemija to Boleslaw-Yuri II of Galicia.