The mythical "Black Sea estate" of Vytautas

Nicholas Zharkikh

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The facts collected above indicate that Vytautas occupied the middle Pobozhye with Bratslav in 1394 and later actually owned it. He never went south of Bratslav.

He also made three campaigns to the south in 1397, 1398 and 1399. [Zharkikh M. I. Push to south: three years of Vytautas’ policy. – K.: 2017]. The direction of the first two campaigns cannot be defined more specifically, the third was directed to the left bank of the Dnieper and ended with the defeat of Vytautas in the battle with the Tatars on the Vorskla.

After that, Vytautas made no attempts to expand his state to the south, limiting himself to helping various claimants to the Horde throne.

The idea that Vytautas owned the southern steppes all the way to the Black Sea coast is based on a misunderstanding of the "List of Švitrigaila’s Towns".

My assumption is as follows: Emperor Sigismund and the Polish King Jagiello from time to time discussed plans to divide Moldavia, so that its southern part was to be annexed to Sigismund’s Hungarian possessions, and its northern part was to be annexed to Jagiello’s possessions.

Was Vytautas promised anything as the future Lithuanian king? It can be assumed that he was promised Transnistria and the lands east of the Dniester, which were adjacent to his Podillja possessions.