Morta (baptized c. 1252 by the bishop of Chełmno, died c. 1263) was the
Grand Duchess of LithuaniaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania was an Eastern and Central European state from the 12th /13th century until 1795. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the pagan Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija...
(until 1253) and later
Queen of LithuaniaKing of Lithuania, the title of rulers of Lithuanian state recognised by the Pope. The first of them was King Mindaugas who founded the Christian Kingdom of Lithuania; his successors, however, were known as Grand Dukes, as Lithuania reverted to paganism until the end of 14th century...
(1253–1262). There is very little know about her life; even her
pre-ChristianisedLithuanian mythology is an example of pagan mythology containing archaic elements, developed by Lithuanians throughout the centuries.-History of scholarship:The information about Baltic paganism in general is very sketchy and incomplete...
name is unknown. The only clue into her origin or birth place is a short mention in the comments following the treaty signed in 1219 between the Lithuanian dukes and Galicia–Volhynia. It says that
MindaugasMindaugas was the first known Grand Duke of Lithuania and the only King of Lithuania. Little is known of his origins, early life, or rise to power; he is mentioned in a 1219 treaty as an elder duke, and in 1236 as the leader of all the Lithuanians...
killed many members of the Bulaičiai family, including Vismantas whose wife Mindaugas took for himself.
Morta (baptized c. 1252 by the bishop of Chełmno, died c. 1263) was the
Grand Duchess of LithuaniaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania was an Eastern and Central European state from the 12th /13th century until 1795. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the pagan Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija...
(until 1253) and later
Queen of LithuaniaKing of Lithuania, the title of rulers of Lithuanian state recognised by the Pope. The first of them was King Mindaugas who founded the Christian Kingdom of Lithuania; his successors, however, were known as Grand Dukes, as Lithuania reverted to paganism until the end of 14th century...
(1253–1262). There is very little know about her life; even her
pre-ChristianisedLithuanian mythology is an example of pagan mythology containing archaic elements, developed by Lithuanians throughout the centuries.-History of scholarship:The information about Baltic paganism in general is very sketchy and incomplete...
name is unknown. The only clue into her origin or birth place is a short mention in the comments following the treaty signed in 1219 between the Lithuanian dukes and Galicia–Volhynia. It says that
MindaugasMindaugas was the first known Grand Duke of Lithuania and the only King of Lithuania. Little is known of his origins, early life, or rise to power; he is mentioned in a 1219 treaty as an elder duke, and in 1236 as the leader of all the Lithuanians...
killed many members of the Bulaičiai family, including Vismantas whose wife Mindaugas took for himself. It is generally assumed that Morta was Vismantas' wife.
Edvardas GudavičiusEdvardas Gudavičius is one of the best known historians in modern Lithuania specializing in early history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1953 he graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute with a degree in engineering. Gudavičius started his career as a mechanic at one of the factories in Kaunas,...
, a modern Lithuanian historian, based on toponyms, determined that the Bulaičiai family most likely came from the
ŠiauliaiŠiauliai , is the fifth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 129,075. It is the capital of Šiauliai County. Unofficially, the city is the capital of Northern Lithuania...
region. Based on this evidence and hypotheses, residents of Šiauliai call the city home of Morta.
It is known that Mindaugas had more than one wife. Probably, Morta was his second wife as
VaišvilkasVaišelga or Vaišvilkas was the Grand Duke of Lithuania...
, eldest son of Mindaugas, was already a mature man active in international politics when Morta's sons were still young and dependent on the parents. After her death, Mindaugas married her sister, the wife of
DaumantasDaumantas, later Dovmont , Christian name Timothy , ; c. 1240? – May 17, 1299), was a Lithuanian princeling best remembered as a military leader of the Pskov Republic between 1266 and 1299...
. It is also known that two of her sons were killed together with Mindaugas in 1263.
Family
The written sources contain little information on Morta's family and it is not entirely clear how many children she had. The chronicles mention two sons, Replys and Gerstukas, in 1261. In 1263 two sons, Ruklys and Rupeikis, were assassinated together with Mindaugas. This is the only information available and historians disagree on whether these were the same two sons, whose names were distorted by medieval scribes, or whether there were four sons.