Peace of Brest (Brześć Kujawski): the Order drops Švitrigaila¶

What the chronicles say [Historical record]¶

The Peace of Brześć Kujawski, 31 December 1435, ended the war between Poland and the Teutonic Order. The Order dropped Švitrigaila and agreed to support only dukes of Lithuania chosen jointly by Poland and Lithuania (Wikipedia, Lithuanian Civil War of 1431–35; VLE, Bresto taika). It follows the defeat of Švitrigaila and the Livonian Order at Pabaiskas on 1 September.

Peace of Brest (Brześć Kujawski): the Order drops Švitrigaila


Type	event
Years	1435-12-31
Status	Historical record
Book	V · The Wolf’s Legacy
Note	Peace of Brest (Dec 1435): Teutonic Order forced to abandon Švitrigaila after Pabaiskas.

What really happened [The saga’s invention]¶

The peace is the Iron Saint’s retreat in the North: the Order, shorn of Livonia’s leadership, cuts loose a client it can no longer afford. Švitrigaila, who is a man of the old realm in his own telling, loses Polotsk, Vitebsk and Smolensk piece by piece; the saga’s own judgement is that the dynasty’s id survives and its soul does not. His mother Uliana of Tver is remembered in the monastery she founded at Vitebsk.

Consequences¶

Caused by Pabaiskas. The saga uses it as the last act of the Order as Lithuania’s patron of civil war.

Dramatisation¶

Book V ch. 15 “Švitrigailos Žlugimas” (Švitrigaila; autumn 1435 to winter 1437; Polotsk and Lutsk).

Relations

Caused by: Battle of Pabaiskas

Causes: Žygimantas assassinated at Trakai — Without the Order, Švitrigaila’s partisans (the Čartoriskiai) strike in 1440.

Location: Brześć Kujawski

Connections¶

graph LR
  brzesc_kujawski["Brześć Kujawski"]
  ev_brest_peace["Peace of Brest (Brześć Kujawski): the Order drops Švitrigaila"]
  ev_pabaiskas["Battle of Pabaiskas"]
  ev_zygimantas_killed["Žygimantas assassinated at Trakai"]
  ev_brest_peace -->|Location| brzesc_kujawski
  ev_brest_peace -->|Causes| ev_zygimantas_killed
  ev_pabaiskas -->|Causes| ev_brest_peace
  style ev_brest_peace stroke-width:3px