Distant friends draw nigh: The Realms of Great Britain AND Lithuania S.C. ROWELL

Con ten ts

General Introduction | S

Royal Connections | 7

Military Contacts: From Foes to Friends, Knights to NATO | 1 5

Trade and Agriculture | 21

Religious Exchange and Asylum | 25

Migration | 3 1

Culture I 33

List of Illustrations | 36

1. Unit rakis Manor Eitute, Trakai, Lithuania. Restoration work sponsored in part by the Sainshurу Foundation Photograph, courtesy: The British hmbassv at Vilnius

ELIZABETH II, BY THE GRACE OE Goi) OE THE UNITED KINGDOM OI (I RE AT BRITAIN

and N orthern Ireland and oe H er other Realms and T erritories Q u i i n, H ead oe the C ommonwealth, D i lender of ehe: Елеен General Introduction

D u rin g one of the hottest summers on record in Europe Lithuanian work­ men were busy carrying out reconstruction work on the main palace of the Parliament or Seimas ot the Lithuanian Republic, partly in anticipation of a State Visit to be paid to the Republic in October 2006 by Her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by her husband, His Royal High­ ness The Duke of Edinburgh. Queen Elizabeth is the first reigning British monarch to visit Lithuania, although several of her own children and ances­ tors have been to Vilnius in various capacities over the ages. Her Majesty’s visit sets the seal on the restoration of full diplomatic ties between Lithuania and the Court of St James in 1991. Since that date British artists and schol­ ars, scientists and soldiers, diplomats and tradesmen have been active in re­ establishing relationships between the British Isles and Lithuania, which thrived for centuries before the tragedies unleashed on Europe in 1939. The Lithuanian Embassy in London, which was never forced to close down, as happened in some western countries, has taken on a new lease of life, serving the largest population of Lithuanians Great Britain has ever known, and propagating closer links between these two ancient nations, who stand now side by side as members ot the European Union and the North Atlan­ tic Treaty Organization [NATO]. Indeed, direct and indirect connections between the various realms of Great Britain (England, Scotland and the United Kingdom) and the Baltic, especially Lithuania (both the Grand Duchy and modern Republic thereof), can be said to stretch back tor more than a millennium. In the late ninth- century King Alfred ot England included an account of the South-western Baltic lands, as related to him by his Jute servant, Wulfstan, in his transla­ tion ot Orosius’ Historia adversus pavanos. The king expected his subjects to be able to read his updated Anglo-Saxon version of this classical Christian universal history in their own language. More than three hundred years later another Englishman, Bishop Bartholomew of Magdeburg (in Germany) gave a classic description of Lithuania in his encyclopaedia, De Rerum Proprietatibus [On the Properties of Things], which was translated into En­ glish by John Treviso in the fourteenth century. This formed the basis of European accounts of the country for centuries, noting how Lithuania is full of forests and marshes, rich in natural products such as timber and furs, wax and honey. It could be visited best in winter, when “waters and rvuers ben yfrore [frozen)”. Roads, it must be confessed, have improved a

S little since 1250, and tourists come in considerable num­ pian, Sir John Gielgud claimed descent from the bers throughout the year. Lithuanian Gelgaudas gentry family, which fought for Britons have been visiting Lithuania, and Lithuanians, Lithuanian and Polish freedom from the Russian yoke England since the fourteenth century. Various individuals (with some support from Britain) in 1831 and 1863—1864. and communities from England and Scotland too have The British television celebrity, Mel Giedroyć, is a lived in Lithuania since the sixteenth century. In the 1680s scion of the distinguished Lithuanian noble family, which an English merchant company was invited to build a gave the Grand Duchy many administrators of Church port for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at Šventoji, and and State. Leading members of the British Jewish Com­ in the early nineteenth century British agricultural munity are proud of their Litvak origins in the Grand methods were adopted by Lithuanian landowners seek­ Duchy of Lithuania. Those tor whom ball games have ing to increase yields on their estates. English fashions replaced other forms of organized religion will be aware in architecture and park building were particularly popu­ that the Scottish Association Football Club, Heart of lar in the nineteenth century. Sefton Park in Liverpool Midlothian is now owned by a Lithuanian company, and the gardens of the Tyszkiewicz familv’s Užutrakis Lithuanians such as Tomas Danilevičius have played in Manor Estate outside the historic town of Trakai were the English League, and the London team, Chelsea, is designed bv the same landscape gardener, Eranęois owned currently by a Russian businessman, Roman Edouard Andre. Today British scientists are working w ith Abramovich, whose family hails from the small their Lithuanian colleagues at the Ignalina nuclear power Lithuanian town of Tauragė. plant. The story is by no means one-sided. While mi­ In sum contacts between Great Britain and Lithuania gration between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries have developed over many centuries anti are growing was largely from Great Britain to Lithuania, since 1795, ever stronger today. These interests on both sides are and especially since 1991, the movement has been more often of secondary importance to the parties concerned, intense in the opposite direction. but they have been and are shared at the highest levels. Lithuanians have contributed much to British cul­ In the following sketch of the more prominent exchanges ture and society. In more recent times the Lithuanian between Britons and Lithuanians we will concentrate on pilot Romas Marcinkus joined the Royal Air Force (as certain interlocking topics: links with the Royal Family, 89580 Flight Lieutenant Marcinkus), defended Great military contacts, religious and political migration, trade Britain from enemy attack during the Second World War and agriculture, and culture. and, after being captured later by German forces, took part in the unsuccessful escape of Allied prisoners of war from Stalag Luft III in March 1944, which has be­ come enshrined in British folk memory by John Sturges’ 1963 film, The Great Escape. The renowned English thes­

6 Connections

In 1390 King Richard II, whose wife, Queen Anne, was herself the great grand daughter of a Lithuanian prin­ cess, granted English merchants a charter for their fac­ tory in Gdańsk, with the intention of trading further with the newly converted Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1392 he issued a safe conduct for Henry Bolingbroke (who was to rule England as King Henry IV between 1399 and 1413) addressed to the supreme duke of Lithuania, Jogaila (then ruling Poland too as king Władysław II), requesting assistance for the earl, who was planning to travel via Jogaila’s realms to Jerusalem. This came in the same year as Bolingbroke travelled to Prussia for the second time. In 1390 he had joined in the attack on Vilnius made by the Teutonic Order and Prince Vytautas of Lithuania, during which, one English chronicler claims, he killed there the brother of the king of Poland. During the unsuccessful but destructive siege the brother 3. Kiny Henry IV (1 3 9 9 —1413), kiny o f of King Jogaila, Prince Karigaila, did indeed perish. England, and crusader in Lithuania (13 90) In July 1419 the envoy of King Henry V, the English Carmelite provincial, Thomas de Balden, took part in negotiating a peace between Poland, Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights at Bandzyn. The next year Henry sent his Burgundian envoy Ghillebert de Lannoy to enlist the support of Grand Duke Vytautas for a crusade against the Turk. De Lannoy has left one of the most detailed descriptions we have of mediaeval Vilnius and Trakai, the major political and commercial centres of Lithuania Proper. In 1424 John Norton, a doctor of laws, was sent to discover Vytautas’ views of Church reform, as well as to intervene in a trade dispute on behalf of Eng­ lish merchants in Gdansk. Later Henry Vi’s government would senil letters to Vytautas pledging support for Lithuania against Prussia during the Council of Basle. Lithuania was already being courted by English monarchs as a possible ally in military, commercial and religious policy. Lithuanian rulers sometimes had more pressing problems to deal with.

7

In 1449—1450, as the English lost Rouen and were defeated by the French at Formigny and difficulties arose with trade exports to East-Central Eu­ rope, King-Grand Duke Casimir of Poland and Lithuania ( 1440/1447—1492), along with the king of Portugal, England’s constant ally, Afonso V, were considered as candidates to be admitted to the Most Noble Order of the Garter (August 4 1450). According to the Order’s statutes a candidate had to take up his stall in person within a year of his election. However, there was an exception for “Strangers the which may not well come in their proper 5. Gilt badge or merchant's tag persons, that they might be stalled by Attorneys” , if they “be letted and bearing the Arms o f England disturbed by great affairs” . Thus in 1453 John Newport, steward of the Isle and the Motto o f the Most of Wight and member of parliament was sent with the order’s insignia and Noble Order o f the Garter robes to Casimir, who at that time was in Lithuania and recovering from an attack on his life. In 1454, as relations with the Teutonic Order deteriorated into a state of war, the Polish nobleman, Andrzej Teczyński was instructed to visit Henry VI and two years later the insignia and robes were sent again. Casimir was never installed (in person or by proxy) in St George’s Chapel Windsor and his election was declared void in 1472. Nevertheless a brass plaque does mark the thirteenth stall in the north side of the choir, which had been set aside for him. An English knight fought a duel at Casimir’s court (which he had heard 6. Gtsimir Jogailaitis, grand duke o f Lithuania was famed for its chivalry) and Casimir’s own courtiers repaid the gesture. (1 4 4 0 —1492) and king The Lithuanian treasury administrator, Aleksandras Soltanas visited the court of Poland ( 14 4 7 — 14 9 2 ), of King Edward IV during a tour of central- and western European courts elected to the Most Noble Order and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1476. Edward endowed him with the silver o f the Garter, 14 5 0 SS chain, a symbol of membership of the English royal household.

4 The Tudor monarchs also maintained contacts with their Lithuanian counterparts. In 1500 King Henry VII (1485—1509) was invited by Grand Duke Alexander (1492/1501 — 1506) to take part in a pan-European cru­ sade against the Turk; despite initial enthusiasm Henry evaded the issue on grounds of financial caution. Correspondence was maintained between King Henry VI11 (1509—1547) and Sigismund the Old (1506—1548) and their respective servants. There were various plans to marry Sigismund Augustus (grand duke, 1529—1572, king, 1548—1572) off to Mary Tudor or even the future Queen Elizabeth (1547). Later another Lithuanian and Polish monarch, Władysław IV Vasa (1632—1648) entertained thoughts of marrying King James I’s daughter, Elisabeth. As it is, Queen Elizabeth II can trace her connections with the Jagiellonian line through her German ancestry. On the other side legends have developed over the alleged candidacy of the English Elizabethan poet, Sir Philip Sidney, for the Polish crown after the extinction of the male line of the Jagiellonian dynasty in 1572 and the fruitless election of Henri de Valois as Polish and Lithuanian monarch. A little later Vilnius, as depicted in Tomasz Makowski’s than this an English embassy was “waylaid” by the palatine of Vilnius and 1613 Map o f the Grand chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Nicholas Radvila the Red. This Duchy of Lithuania

10 representative of the leading Protestant family within the heard divine service psalms, a sermon, and the sacra­ Grand Duchy of Lithuania intercepted the English am­ ments ministered according to the reformed churches; bassador, Sir Jerome Horsey, in Vilnius as he made his whereat his brother cardinal Ragavill, did murmur. His way to visit Ivan the Terrible to further the interests of hightness did invite me to dinner, honored with 50 Queen Elizabeth and the English merchants of the Mus­ halberdeers thorow the cittie: placed gonners and his covy Company in 1S7S: guard of 500 gentilmen to bring me to his pallace; him­ “When I came to Villna, the chief citie in Lithuania, self accompanied with many yonge noblemen, receaved I presented myself and letters pattents from the Quen, me upon the tarras; brought me into a very large room that declared my titells and what I was, unto the great where organes and singing was, a long table set with duke viovode Ragaville, a prince of great excelencie, pallentins, lordes and ladies, himself under a cloth of prowes and power, and religious protestant; gave me estate. I was placed before him in the middest of the great respect and good enterteynment; told me, though table; trompetts sound and kettle droms roared. The I had nothing to say to him from the Quen of England, first service brought in, ghesters and poets discourse yet, he did so much honnor and admire her excelent merely, lowed instruments and safft plaied very musi­ vertus and graces, he would also hold me in the cally; a set of dwarffes men and women finely attired reputacion of her majesties ambassador; which was som came in with sweet harmony still and mournfull pieps pollacie that his subjects should think that I was to and songs of art; Davids tymbrils and Arons swett negotiate with him. Take me with him to his church; soundinge bells as the termed them. The varietie made

I I the tyme pleasing and short. His hightness drank for the Majesty the angelicall Quen of England her health. Strange portraturs, Ivons, unicorns, spread- eagels, swans and other made of sugar past, som wines and spicats in their bellies to draw at, and succets of all sorts cutt owt of their bellies to tast of; every one with his sylver forcke__ Some pastvmes with lyons, bulls and bares, straing to behold, I omytt to recite”. Lithuanian Protestant noblemen like Radvila did indeed seek to create alliances with foreign princes to support their own policies in Lithuania, as Horsey intimated. They studied abroad and travelled around western and central European universities and courts. Their formidable personal wealth impressed those whom they met and they became ‘specialists’ on relations between the Grand Duchy and Great Britain. The Calvinist soldier and grand marshal of Lithuania, Kristupas Manvydas Dohorostajskis (1562—1615), visited London with a Radvila. Radvan, his poet, praised Britannia in reflection of Elizabeth I’s own propaganda for its Celts and Englishmen, who protected the reformed religion: Queen Eliza­ beth was renowned for being a “most mighty maid, who rules an empire flourishing with [true] religion, blessed with august peace, happy and rich in uncounted triumphs, who has beaten back the cruel Spaniard’s savage fleets” , a reference to the Armada of 1588. Lithuanian politicians and Chris­ tian and Karaite scholars were up to date with disputes between England and Spain and between non-Anglicans and the royal authorities. In April 1633 Jonušas Radvila visited London as envoy where he en­ joyed the patronage of Charles I’s sister, the exiled Queen Elisabeth of Bohemia. He discovered that both the Spanish faction at court and the English one (lords spiritual and temporal and the commons) were inclined favourably towards the Polish-Lithuanian monarch, Władisław IV Vasa.

On February 18 1649, a little under three weeks after the event, the 8. In his poem celebrating his patron ’s wedding palatine of Vilnius, Albertas Stanislovas Radvila, Jonušas’ distant cousin, Jonas Radvanas describes the defeat of the noted in his diary how Charles I had been condemned to death by “a most Spanish Armada shameful and unheard-of decree” as a “private gentleman by the name of Stuart” in a public square in London. He has the details of Charles’ last moment with Bishop Juxton, his speech on the scaffold and his regrets over the execution of Lord Strafford (in 1641). Radvila even “knew” about a EPITHALAMIVM prophecy made to Charles during his visit to Spain in 1623 that he would I N N V P T I A S fare ill, if he did not convert to Roman Catholicism. IflLLVSTRISi On January 23 1651 the king ol Poland-Grand Duke of Lithuania, John S a c m agnificido I MI N1 D.CH R.I STO P HO- } Casimir, imposed a “contribution” (of a tithe on their income) on all of his I R I MONV1DI DOROHO h ) STAYSKI. MAGNI DVCAT V S LI T VA, ‘ * N IAE IN CI JO R I S, PR A E FEC T I subjects (in Poland, Lithuania anil Prussia) of English or Scottish descent in V OLCO VlSCENSIS.&’ff K T c order “to meet the needs of His Majesty' the King of the Commonwealth of • G FNERO S I S S. AGI STR1S VIRG1NIS D.SOP England [the exiled Charles II]” and finance the defence of Poland-Lithuania g CMODKIKVIC1IAE , C O MIT IS S AE IN fe Sklovv & Myfz. IHuftrii meinen* DRi D.IOANN1S CHODKIEWICZ from attack by the Turks. Quite how much was collected from British mer­ Caftcllani Vilnrn. Sćc.Sćc. FILI AE. chants and their kin in Lithuanian towns is not known. In Prussia (then a Pocticr схрге(Тмт,а IOAN1 RADVAN ~ro{ÄT89 vassal of Poland) £10,000 was raised, although it remains unclear as to how * Q7* Vilnar In Offi linai much of this ever reached the destitute Stuart. Twenty years later Charles II knighted an English merchant in Lithuania, George Bennet. Bennet was the

1 2 King’s secretary. His son James studied at Vilnius University and in 1674 he published an epic poem to celebrate the defeat of the lurks at the Battle of Chotim (167 3): Virtus dextcrae Domini. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Lithuanian noblemen came to visit England anil the roval court more and more frequently as part of their grand tour of western Europe, as students and on semi-official busi­ ness. Teodoras Bilevičius visited London in August and September 1678. In his diary he describes the fertile English countryside, its huge farm animals and sheep the size of oxen, the very tasty beer and the plethora of local customs, mostly aimed at pleasure. He notes that Catholicism is not toler­ ated openly in the country. London seems to him larger than Paris, full of people, houses and trading goods; hunting grounds, royal palaces — modest as far as splendour is concerned, but large and with an impressively uni­ formed armed life guard. Like many a modern tourist he was impressed by the changing of the guards and also by the royal menagerie complete with a huge owl sent by the tsar of Muscovy. The Crown Jewels in the Tower impressed him almost as much as the heads of traitors displayed on the gates of London bridge, itself more a world wonder than a mere bridge. A century after Bilevičius, Franciszek Ksawery Michał Bohusz, canon of Vilnius, travelled for five weeks in England in 1778 with his patron Antoni Tyzenhausen. He was enthralled by London with its “ 2,000 dwelling houses and 500 coffee houses” (where maids apparently would go to win their beaus); the amount of charitable work done to help so many poor people there also left a positive impression. The park at Vauxhall (entrance one shilling) dazzled the cleric with its 3,000 lamps. The Royal Collection has valuable pieces of memorabilia from Poland and Lithuania thanks to the marriage of James Francis Stuart, the Old Pre­ tender, to Clementina Maria Sobieska, the granddaughter of Jan III Sobieski, one time king of Poland and Lithuania. From this marriage (and subsequent distribution of Stuart belongings) the Sobieski Book of Hours came into Hanoverian hands. Other valuable prayer books belonging to Lithuanian rulers are preserved in English connections. Władysław Warneficzyk’s prayerbook is held by the Bodleian Library in Oxford fBodley Rawl. Liturgy.d.6]; the British Museum has acquired those of his nephews, Alexander Jagiellończyk (grand duke 1492—1506. king of Poland 1501—1506) [Br. Mus., Add. 386031, and Sigismund the Old (1506—1548) [Br. Mus., Add. 15281]. Queen Bona Sforza’s book is held in Oxford [Bodley Douce 40J. In more recent years contacts between British royalty and Lithuania have been renewed by official v isits paid to the country by HRH The Prince Andrew and his elder brother, HRH The Prince of Wales. These royal war­ riors bring us full circle back to the military traditions of Henry IV. The difference is that today Great Britain and Lithuania fight alongside, rather than against one another, for ideas and goals common to most European nations.

M ilitary Contacts: From Foes to Friends, Knights to NAFO

B y the fourteenth century pagan, and later Catholic Lithuania was well known as a place on the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem (via Constantinople) and the mercantile route eastwards from Bruges to North-western Rus’ appears in route records from at least 1380. English noblemen, including a future king, Henry IV travelled to Prussia ostensibly to prove their piety and martial skill by helping the Teutonic Knights quell Europe’s last pagans. Prayers were offered for Bolingbroke (as Henry was known) in the churches of York to this end in 1391 (by which time in fact Lithuania had been Catholic officially for four years, but the Teutonic Order continued their attacks). Some English provincial churches contain memorials to men who took part in these crusades. A good example is the tomb of Sir Roger de Felbrigg (d. 1380) in St Margaret’s Parish Church at Felbrigg in Norfolk. English crusaders to Prussia are noted in various records from 1328—1329, with numbers clustering around the periods 1338—1370 and 1384—1394. Sir Geoffrey le Scrope of Masham was killed in an attack on Vilnius in 1362 and was buried with a memorial window in the church at Königsberg. A 9. St Margaret’s Church, Felbrigg, Norfolk Lithuanian convert, captured around the same time, is mentioned with pride in the family history of the earls of Warwick, would be one of the first known Lithuanians in England. 10. Brass monument to Sir Roger de Felbrigg (d. 1380), who went on crusade to Prūse Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick (1389-1439), who also went on (Lithuania), St Margaret's Church, Felbrigg, reysa or armed pilgrimage as a youth “to Russy, Lettowe, Polevn and Spruse,

Norfolk Westvale, and other coostes of Almavn toward Englond However, as the English Franciscan friar and Ox­ by such coostes as his auncestry hadde labored in, and ford university teacher, Roger Bacon, who used the Teu­ specially Erie Thomas his graunffadre”, recalls with pride tonic Order’s crusades in the Baltic in the mid-thir­ how Thomas Beauchamp “ in warre had taken the Kynges teenth century as an example of how forceful conver­ son of Lettowe and brought hvm into Englond and chris­ sions were not successful, could have prophesied, tened hvm at London naming hym after himself Tho­ Lithuania would be converted in the end voluntarily with mas” . This seems to be an example in England of the official baptism overseen by Grand Duke Jogaila, for fashion known from the continent for “collecting” whom the crown of Poland proved to be more than Lithuanian converts. Most probably Earl Thomas did worth a Mass. not baptise a Lithuanian in England but did stand as During the seventeenth century, when Lithuania godfather to the Lithuanian noble Survila (christened as was at war in Livonia (modern day Latvia and South­ Thomas) who, along with his sons, served the Teutonic ern Estonia) and was itself invaded on several occa­ Order in Prussia in the late-fourteenth and early-fif- sions to devastating effect by Muscovite and Swedish teenth centuries. At the same time as Survila, Prince armies, English and Scottish soldiers took service with Butautas Henry of Lithuania was baptised. the grand-ducal army. In the 1660s the Radvila duke’s The Baltic Crusades are commemorated not only private militia was commanded by a Scottish settler in English brasses but also major pieces of literature, from the duke’s town of Kėdainiai, one George Gor­ both prose chronicles and poetry. In the Prologue to don. After the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth was the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer tells us how: partitioned by Austria, Prussia and Russia in the eigh­ teenth century, with most of Lithuania being taken by Russia in 1795 (the district of Suvalkija to the south ot the River Nemunas was occupied for a dozen or so years by Prussia), the British Authorities were dismayed but found themselves unable to do anything to help A K N IG H T there was, and that a worthy man, either Poland or Lithuania. However, when Poles and

That from the time that he first began Lithuanians rose up against Russia in 1830—1831 British public support lay firmly with the rebels. On July 12 To riden out, he loved chivalry, 1831 an English ship set sail from London to bring Truth and honour, freedom and courtesy. 6,000 carbines, 1,600 pistols, 2,500 sw'ords and am­ munition for the Lithuanian insurgents. It arrived oil Full worthy was he in his Lorde's war, the coast at Palanga on July 31, but when the pilot And thereto had he ridden, no man Jarre, discovered that the Lithuanian general, Gelgaudas, had been defeated by Russian forces and had fled to Prussia, As well in Christendom as in Heatheness, he turned his ship around and headed back. A second And ever honour’d fo r his worthiness shipment of arms for 12,000 men was sent from Lc Havre in a British vessel, but once more, when the At Alisandre he was when it was won. ship reached the Memel (Klaipėda) coast in Septem­ Full often time he had the board begun ber its captain decided to make for Portugal, since all attempts at making a landing had failed. When the Above alle nations in Prusse. Poles and Lithuanians rose up once more in 1863—1864 In Lettowe had he reysed, and in Russe, there was no repeat of the attempt at supplying the

No Christian man so oft o f his degree. rebels with materiel. This time British interests in Rus­ sia were even greater than they had been a generation earlier arui, despite public support for those lighting for freedom from Russian tyranny, the British Gov­ ernment was too embarrassed to intervene. As a re-

16 suit the flow of emigres from Lithuania and Poland to Great Britain (mainly the industrial cities of England, Wales and Scotland) would increase dur­ ing the second half of the nineteenth century. As the First World War drew to a close in 1918 the interests of Great Britain coincided with those of Lithuania for the first time in centuries. Britain was the first of the major allied powers to take an interest in the Baltic States and their desire for independence in order to prevent them falling out of undesirable German influence and into an even worse fate, namely Bolshevik control. A naval squadron under Rear Admiral Alexander Sinclair was dispatched to the Estonian and Latvian ports in December 1918. In 1919 Lord Curzon, the foreign secretary, considered the Balts to be “too small and too near to Russia and Germany to maintain themselves” and so they needed protection. Could this have been an extension the view of which Michał Römer heard rumours, as he records in his diary thoughts of asking the British to take Lithuania under their wing as a protectorate? Winston Churchill favoured the new Baltic states as a buffer against Soviet Russia. In 1919 and 1920, according to the historian E. Anderson, Britain “ran the Baltic” . In July 1920 Lloyd George, the British Liberal statesman advised the Poles to withdraw from Vilnius, which had been occupied ille­ gally by Polish troops under the command of General Żeligowski. Needless to say, the government in Warsaw continued to refuse to take such a step. British sympathies lay more with Lithuania than French-backed Poland. Brit­ ain opposed Polish attempts in 1920 to restore its 1772 borders and pro­ posed at the end of that year that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania form a Baltic alliance. It was a Briton, Professor J. Y. Simpson who arbitrated in the border disputes between Latvia and Lithuania in 1921 as a result of which Latvia received Iluksta in return tor surrendering Palanga and Mažeikiai to Lithuania. These towns had been part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the demarcation of Russian gubernia boundaries “rationalized” Baltic borders after the Third Partition of Poland-Lithuania. A street in the Lithuanian seaside resort of Palanga still bears the arbitrator’s name. In the 1930s Baden Powell visited Palanga to meet Lithuanian scouts. Another visitor to the new Baltic republic, John Buchan wrote idyllically about the great plain between the Vistula and the Dvina: “ In the winter the snow lies deep upon it and in summer the fields are a riot of wild-flowers. Waves of green wheat and strips of blue-flowering flax sweep up to the dark barrier of fir-forest beyond. Swift, shallow rivers water it, and a multitude of lakes, fringed with reeds and haunted by wild duck, lie dotted about it”. When the Memelland, which, along with its centre, the town of Memel, or Klaipėda in its old Lithuanian name, had been part of Eastern Prussia for centuries, became part of the Lithuanian Republic in January 1923 as the result of a local uprising supported tacitly by both the Kaunas government and the German authorities, Great Britain gave its support to the union of these territories. After the Treaty of Versailles (1918) the area had been While it was part of the German Empire Klaipėda had been home to many British families. The Muttrays of Memel were descended from the disillu­ sioned Jacobite, Thomas Muttray; and the Simpsons of Memel, who came originally from Forfar, had settled around 1680 at Šventoji and later moved across the border to Memel. They traded in Zemaitijan agricultural pro­ duce with Gdańsk. In the nineteenth century most ships calling at Memel flew the British flag and the town had established British Anglican and Non­ conformist communities, each with their own churches. However much individual Britons could appreciate the beauty and wealth ol Lithuania and however much the British authorities promoted trade with Lithuania and sought to encourage cooperation between the three Baltic States and, eventually, Poland, with which Lithuania had no diplomatic ties as a result ol the occupation ol the Vilnius District, as an ally Britain could not be relied upon completely for support since it also had interests in other parts of the world, be it the Empire or western Europe (especially Belgium and the Low Countries), as Anthony Eden was willing to admit. The Soviet invasion of Lithuania on June 15 1940 left Lord Halifax “quite cold” . Even so Great Britain never recognized the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and the other Baltic States de jure and was party to the Atlantic Charter of August 1941, whereby Winston Churchill along with the president of the United States acknowledged that “they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them” and that after the War there should be no territorial changes with­ out the consent of the people of the countries involved. British intelligence officers trained l.ithuanian resistance fighters at the end of World War Two, but it was also a British traitor, Kim Philby, who reported on their activities to the Soviet occupying forces. Britain was in no position to send troops to 12, 13. Simpsonoy., Palanya: the street named Lithuania or cause its already fragile relationship with the Soviet Union to . . „ . . , J ° 1 in honour of the British mediator in the deteriorate further. Lithuanian gold reserves, which had been placed with the temtorial disputes between Lithuama and Bank of England for safe-keeping before the War were handed over to Mos- Latvia, 19 2 1

18 cow by a Labour government some time after the War in an attempt to improve Anglo-Soviet relations, but an equivalent of their value was restored to Lithuania after 1991. The Lithuanian Republic maintained a diplomatic representation in London throughout the post-war period. It is the Second World War, which provides the best example ol Lithuanian military cooperation with British forces. Captain Romas Marcinkus (1907—1944) joined the Lithuanian Air Force in 1927. He was a keen footballer and the first Lithuanian stunt parachutist. Despite going into retirement in 1939 he led a group of Lithuanian volunteers to join the French Air Force in March 1940. He was awarded the croix de guerre for his services before the Fall of France in May 1940. He escaped to Africa and made his way to Britain, where on Christmas Eve 1940 he was commis­ sioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. In May 1941 he was appointed flight lieutenant to Fighter Squadron Number One, Hying Hurri­ cane 11В fighters from Redhill. In February 1942, when he was shot down near Gravelines in Belgium, while attacking three German battle cruisers that were attempting to break through the English Channel, Marcinkus was captured and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III POW camp. His knowledge of German, which allowed him to gather intelligence on railway timetables and German troop movements, and his skills in forging documents were used to help the mass breakout of allied airmen in March 1944, which was the basis for John Sturges’ 1963 film “The Great Escape” . The Lithuanian pilot was among some 100 allied airmen who escaped, but was recaptured in Gdańsk. He was one of the 50 escapees who were shot in revenge by the German military. On June 2 1 2001 the British Embassy commemorated Marcinkus’ achieve­ ments. Three Harrier GR7 fighters of the Royal Air Force flew over Vilnius, with one of the aircraft trailing its fellows to symbolize respect for their dead comrade. The British Ambassador presented Flight Lieutenant Marcinkus’ closest surviving relative, his nephew Alvydas Grieblillnas with three medals: the 1939—1945 Star, the Aircrew Europe Star and the War Medal.

14. Flight Lieutenant Ramas Marcinkus, RAF. A Rrilish and Lithuanian War Hero

14 The commemoration of Might Lieutenant Marcinkus’ services to the people of Great Britain coincided with British support for Lithuanian membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Since then Brit­ ish airmen have been stationed at the Lithuanian airbase near Šiauliai (at Zokniai) to defend common NATO airspace from intrusion. Lithuanian forces, like their British comrades-in-arms are also taking part in military missions in Afghani­ stan and Iraq.

15. A Harrier GR 7 fiyhterfrom the Royal Air Force flies over Vilnius in honour of its fallen comrade, Fliyht Lieutenant Romas Marcinkus, June 2 1, 2 0 0 1 . View near the British limbossy

2« Trade and Agriculture

/\lter Lithuanians accepted Roman Catholicism in 1387 trade and com­ mercial policy linked their country more and more via the Hanse trade network with merchants in Scotland and England. As peace came to Lithuania after more than a century of war with the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and Livonia, Lithuanian control of the major northern continental river routes (especially the Dvina and Nemunas) and alliance with those authorities in command of the Vistula and Pregel routes (Poland and Prussia) facilitated the export of products from deep within the continent such as timber, wax, honey, grain and furs. This system of river transportation ended completely only after the Second World War. The English bought Lithuanian timber and potash, wax, corn and furs, while English cloth was traded successfully in Kaunas and Vilnius (imported via Antwerp and Gdańsk). The Lithuanian ruler, King Casimir, took English cloth from the customs’ houses of Lithuania to grant as livery to deserving members of his household. Recent archaeo­ logical excavations in the Lower Castle in Vilnius (currently under recon­ struction) have revealed lead merchant seals from cloth consignments. One example, which was once gilt, bears the arms of the English king and the motto of the Order of the Garter. England was also a source of certain other luxury goods. A 1599 inventory of the chattels of the late Standard

16. Old Aberdeen, Cathedral Church o f St Machar (ca 152 0 ). Aberdeen had close trading links with the Baltic from the Middle Ages onwards. The Udiversity of Aberdeen along with the Universities o f Kiel, Odense, and Klaipėda, among others, set up the North European Historical Research Network in 19 9 6 to foster the study of links between nations around the North and Baltic Seas

21 Bearer of Maišiagala, Martynas Poclberezskis, notes a cage of (singing) birds from England. In 1450 King Henry VI sought the intervention of King- Grand Duke Casimir in trade squabbles with Prussia anil offered the Lithuanian and Polish ruler membership of the Order of the Garter. The Scots also traded with the Baltic anil when Aberdeen built its new church on the eve of the Reformation, the builders included Sigismund the Old’s Vytis coat of arms (a knight on horseback bearing his sword aloft) as part of the ceiling decoration. They did not include the arms of Poland. Trade issues lie behind much of the correspondence between the Lithuanian and British monarchs. In 1555 Queen Mary Tudor wrote to Sigismund Augustus and Queen Catherine with a request to help English merchants in Lithuania. Scottish immigration to Lithuania is best exemplified by the case of the town of Kėdainiai, which belonged to the Calvinist branch of the Radvila family. Scottish settlement here increased in the late 1640s, as life became more difficult in both Scotland and England. In the early 1660s four teach­ ers in the Radvila school in Kėdainiai (founded 1629) were Scots, namely James Patterson, Alexander Nichols, Thomas Ramsay, and John Halson. Scots contributed most to building the Calvinist church in Kėdainiai. Some came to this eastern Lithuanian town from Prussia, while some had been resident previously on the Lithuanian coast at Šventoji. Some houses in the centre of Kėdainiai are still called “Scottish houses”, and one, once owned by the Bennet family, anil now known as 4, Didžioji Str., has been placed on the Lithuanian national heritage list. In the 1660s George Anderson became provost of Kėdainiai, while George Bennet was chief executive. The certifi­ cate of gentry status issued by King Charles II to George Bennet in 1671 is still preserved in the Manuscript Department of the Central Library of the

17. Kėdainiai — home lo Rritish merchants in the seventeenth ami eighteenth centuries, hritish Calvinists helped build the tonn 's Calvinist church

22 Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius. The life of right to remain freely in Palanga, build houses, estab­ the Scottish community in Kėdainiai is reflected in reli­ lish farms, deal in various goods with the inhabitants gious charity presented to the community by various of distant provinces and build a sea port on the River Protestant groups in Scotland and England (see below). Šventoji. In May 1685 Richard Brinley, Thomas During the Muscovite occupation of Vilnius in 1655— Richardson, John Hurst, Robert Archer and others 1660, which was the first time foreign troops had ran­ were granted a charter for Šventoji granting them all sacked the citv since Henry Bolingbroke had assisted the other liberties, immunities and prerogatives usually con­ Teutonic Knights in a similar move in 1390, some towns­ ceded, along with freedom of worship as Roman men petitioned the tsar to expel English and Scottish mer­ Catholics, Calvinists or Lutherans, the manors of chants from the Lithuanian capital. Such moves to un­ Polibgaren and Purvia Zelva, and freedom from dues dermine the competition were not successful in the long in the district of Palanga and the whole of Žemaitija. run, although the commercial life of British setders dete­ Fairs were to be held in the town at Epiphany and on riorated alongside that of the grand duke’s other subjects the Monday after the feast of St John the Baptist (June as war after war struck Lithuania and Poland in the late 24). This charter was confirmed at Lwów in June 1686 seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. after abuses had occurred. However, bv the early eigh­ At the end of the seventeenth century English mer­ teenth century the settlement collapsed as commer­ chants were invited to build a Lithuanian port at Šventoji. cial activity proved to be unsuccessful. In 1679 Richard Brinley and his companions obtained As the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was par­ a charter from King Jan Sobieski to trade out of Šventoji titioned by its voracious neighbours (1772—1795), its last for six years free from taxation. By 1685 there were envoy in London, the Żemaitijan nobleman Bukaty at­ several dwelling houses and grain stores in Šventoji (ac­ tempted to enlist British support by reminding the De­ cording to a new charter from Sobieski). The new name partment of Trade and Colonies that the Grand Duchy of the port was Janmarienburg. It was endowed with a of Lithuania abounded in hemp and timber and could charter, Magedeburg Law, and a coat of arms. In re­ furnish the Royal Navy with supplies. In 1775 there turn for the charter the monarch received 200,000 were British plans to renew the port at Palanga (a con­ /Joties. tinuation of the English Company’s activities at nearby From the charter granted to Brinley and his fellows Šventoji in the 1680s) and British travellers commented in Grodno in April 1679 and recorded in the 141st. on the value of the amber trade passing through that Book of Inscriptions ol the Lithuanian Metrica we learn otherwise decidedly unimpressive town. that Richard Brinley, famed for his zeal and application, In 1774 Nathanial Wraxall toured northern Eu­ along with other “ English denizens” was granted the rope, during which time he visited Palanga, “a miser-

18, 19. Šventoji, the only port of the Grand Duchy o f Lithuania. It was founded by a company of English merchants at the end o f the seventeenth century able town”, remarkable only for the amounts of amber found in the vicinity. There he was searched by King Stanisfaw’s officials. When he found himself in nearby Klaipėda (where the customs’ house search was much more- rigorous), he heard that the King of Prussia had designs on Palanga in order to concentrate the whole of the amber trade in his own hands. The predic­ tion was to be proved only half correct: in twenty one years Palanga would be in Russian hands along with most of the rest of Stanisfaw’s Lithuanian lands. In the early nineteenth century British agricultural advances were adapted by Lithuanian landowners and taught at the University of Vilnius. The reforms introduced at Dowspuda near Białystok (now in Poland) by the leader of the Army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, General I.udvikas Pacas, in the years 1815—1830 were based on English innovations transmit­ ted to east-central Europe by Scottish specialists. This gentleman not only imported Scottish implements and machinery, he also settled Scottish farmers in villages on his estate. He had spent the years 1814—1816 in Britain. Michał Oczapowski, who taught economics anti land economy at the University of Vilnius published a translation of several articles by Sir John Sinclair “On the social significance of the farm” in the Dziennik Wileński. The occupation of Poland and Lithuania by the Russian Empire does not seem to have put a halt to specialized migration from Britain to those countries. Between the world wars Britain was Lithuania’s largest trading partner, importing considerable amounts of bacon and selling industrial products to Lithuania in return. After 1933 the Baltic was meshed in the economic- rivalry developing between Great Britain and Germany. London deliberately increased its imports from Lithuania and offered tariff reductions. Kaunas was given to understand in no uncertain terms that if it wished to sell to Britain it must also buy from Britain. Today the British Chamber of Commerce is active in Vilnius, taking under its wing various types of businessman from those investing in prop­ erty- and Lithuanian commercial enterprises to British exporters. The retail chain British Home Stores has also set up shop in Vilnius. Great Britain is becoming an increasingly more important trading partner for Lithuania to­ day. Lithuanian exports to the United Kingdom account for approximately 4.5 percent of total Lithuanian exports, while British investments in Lithuania in 2005 amounted to 637.4 million litai (approximately L127.5 million), or 3.5 percent of total foreign investments in Lithuania. Great Britain is in ninth place on the list of foreign investors.

20 The Utenos Trikotažus factory in Utena, which exports excellent uiulenyear to Rritish and other European chain stores

24 Religious Exchange

R ‘ligious themes thread through British-Lithuanian re­ lations. English Roman Catholics fled from persecution in England to Žemaitija and English and Scottish Protes­ tant merchants, unable to make a proper living at home, often for reasons of religious persuasion, were common in Vilnius, Kėdainiai, Raseiniai and other Lithuanian towns. In 1554 the English Protestant zealots Catherine Bertie (nee Willoughby, first Brandon duchess of Suf­ folk) and her second husband, Richard Bertie, fled Lon­ don for the continent. Eventually their cause was taken up by the Polish Protestant divine Jan Łaski (known in England as John O’Lasko). They travelled eastwards to Poland-Lithuania, where they enjoyed the support of Nicholas Radvila the Black and through him gained access to the king-grand duke, who farmed out the grand-ducal lordship of Kražiai in Western Lithuania, or Žemaitija, to the English couple in return for a considerable amount of gold and pearls. We read in a confirmation of the later Radvila charter to the same estate how: “Duchess Catherine Suffolk of England and her spouse Richard Bertie, having experi­ enced certain perils in England, in order to safeguard their health had come to our realms for our renown and sovereign glory, and whilst they were in this our realm of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania they gave us divers costly jewels in gold and pearls, which according to the value of the day were worth 3,666 thalers, ...we took those jewels... into our treasury, and from those monies we gave them our manor of Kražiai in the land of Žemaitija along with the town of Kražiai, its farm and the boyars estate which lies thereby...” The Berties farmed the lordship of Kražiai for a little over a year between 1557 and 1559, when they returned to England, only to be disappointed that the new queen, Elizabeth, was not quite so zealous as they. Catherine

25 died in 1580 as Mrs Bertie and her husband followed her to the grave two years later. Their alabaster memo­ rial tomb in St James’ Church at Spilsby is a charming, albeit somewhat odd monument to their renaissance taste. After they left Lithuania Kražiai was taken over by the Radvilas. However, the castle the Radvilas built there was given by one of their ilk, Christopher the Orphan, to the Society of Jesus, which established an eminent school there to defend Roman Catholicism from Cal­ vinist and Lutheran attack. According to John Loxe’s propaganda the Berties were much more than tax farmers: “quietlv entertained of the king, and placed honourably in the earldom of the said king of Poland, in Samogelia, called Crozen,

22. The Bertie Tomb in the parish church at Spilsby where master Berty with the Duchess, having the king’s absolute power of government over the said earldom, continued both in great quietness and honour, till the death of Queen Mary” . On April 1 1 559 Catherine wrote “from our house in Crossane in Senwytte” to Lord Cecil that the Augsburg Confession was safe in “Poland” , where 23, 24. Kražiai. The Jesuit College was neither Augsburg nor Rome but Christ and his Gospel founded in the Castle built by the Radvilas after are guides for the Poles. the Berries returned to Enaland In 1570—1571 Sebastian Lvvius, a member of the Protestant church in Vilnius asked English assistance tor his brother Paul, whom the Muscovites had captured and held for ransom along with his wife, three sons and four daughters for £600. He claimed he could not collect the ransom money in Vilnius because Arians were perse­ cuted there. English religious policy wras known to Lithuanian Protestants such as Andrius Volanus, and the Trakai Karaite apologist and community leader, Isaac ben Abraham (c. 1525—c. 1586), whose work was still circu­ lating in London Jewish circles in the nineteenth century and was distributed to Jewish students by the Rothschild family in order to protect them against Protestant mis­ sionary attempts to convert them. Isaac ben Abraham was secretary of the Trakai Karaite community under whose stewardship the Karaite school was founded in that town on the site still belonging to the community today. The Karaites are considered by some specialists to be the descendants ol the Biblical Samaritans and their religious texts are ol importance to Christian and Jewish scholars to this day. Isaac’s opus magnum, lliz/uk ‘emunah, or “ Bulwark of the f aith” (translated into i-atin and published in Spain and Germany as “ I lie l iery Darts

26 (confirming that England has never been as isolated from continental Europe as she wishes her enemies to believe). The same Rogers reminded the Virgin Queen’s henchman, Lord Walsingham, that the pa­ latine of Vilnius, Radvila, was a friend of England. Bosgrave was arrested with his fellow Jesuit, Edmund Campion and was saved from the torture and death inflicted on St Edmund only by repeated intercession from the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Stephen Bathory, who pointed out in January 1583 25. Abraham ben Isaac’s Bulwark o f the Faith, a Karaite apologia written in Frakai in the sixteenth eentuiy and used by the London Jenish how Bosgrave was needed in the Commonwealth for G immunity in the nineteenth century as a sourcefor arguments to counter the cause of education. After Bosgrave’s return Polish Evangelical missionaries translations of St Edmund Campion’s work were pub­ lished in Vilnius by Nicholas Radvila, newly converted to Catholicism (1584), the same year as Piotr Skarga SJ published a tract defending the late martyr. of Satan”) defended Karaite understanding of Scripture Among the other illustrious British teachers at the and their practices, noting at the same time the perse­ Jesuit Academy in Vilnius were the Scottish philosopher, cutions of various types ot Christian in England, France John Hay SJ, and the Leicestershire-born Jesuit Fr and Spain. This was in sharp contrast with the toler­ Laurence Arthur Faunt (1554—1591), who was professor ance he saw as being typical of the Grand Duchy of of dogmatic theology in Vilnius in 1590, studied in Louvain Lithuania. in 1570 when he became a Jesuit, and then studied the­ Isaac was familiar with the work of the Lithuanian ology under St Robert Bellarmine in Rome. He wrote Arian theologian Simon Budny. Budny corresponded in tracts on Protestant concepts of the Eucharist, the Petrine 1562 with members of the University ol Oxford. He supremacy, and conflicts between the secular and reli­ had met the English merchant Ralph Rutters in Lithuania gious authorities. Fr Hav was the first librarian of Vilnius and had learned ol the Oxford Martyrs and the work ol University and compiled the library’s first catalogue. In John Foxe, which he considered to be “very important 1570 he took part in public debates against heresy and for salvation” and as “having many followers in Poland, taught philosophy from 1572. Fr Richard Singleton (d. Lithuania, Siebenbürgen and Moravia’ Budny’s man 1607) was another British Jesuit teacher of philosophy in London was one Thomas Glover, who had also vis­ and divinity. In the 1650s an Irish Jesuit, Fr Edward ited the divine in Lithuania. Lock, taught logic in Vilnius. On the other side of the religious divide Lithuania Four Scottish students feature among those mem­ was home to persecuted British Catholics, whose trials bers of the academy who wrote verse in 1604 in honour at the hands of Elizabeth I’s henchmen were well ot the canonization of St Casimir. British students at the known in the Grand Duchy. The Jesuit Academy in academy were among those who welcomed King-Grand Vilnius, founded in 1579, which was to be the fore­ Duke Sigismund III Vasa to Vilnius in 1609. A piece of runner of Vilnius University, became the home ot verse composed by a British student and published in British Jesuit students and teachers. Father James the record ot this visitation, Gratulationes a studiosa iuventute Bosgrave, who was born of a gentry family at Academiae Vilnensis Societatis Jesu facte, is the first English Godmanstone in Dorset in 1 547 and entered the So­ poem known to have been published in Lithuania. ciety of Jesus in 1564, taught theology and math­ Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth cen­ ematics at the new Jesuit university in Vilnius before tury the Church of England sponsored Protestantism returning to England in 1580 as a missionary. His in Lithuania. In the 1650s a Lithuanian scholar, journey home was tracked by Elizabeth’s network of S. Chyliński was sent by the Calvinist community in continental spies, including John Rogers at Elbing Kėdainiai to study at Oxford University. Chyliński used

27 his time wisely to translate the Bible into Lithuanian. collections on behalf ot Kėdainiai. It had already heard of He even managed to obtain funds for publishing part the troubles facing Protestants in war-torn Poland and of his work from members of the University and other Lithuania in 1704. The King, George II, the prime minis­ well-inclined personages. Publication began in Lon­ ter, Sir Robert Walpole (who issued a bank bill for £50), don at the press of E. Taylor, but shortage ot funds and the secretary of state, Lord Harrington all contrib­ brought the printing to a standstill and in 1661 833 uted to the cause. A Sunday collection for “Samogitia and copies were pulped. Kieydan in Poland” was held in all the churches of In May 1722 the General Assembly of the Church of Edinburgh. The money was sent to Gdańsk, where part Scodand set up collections to educate two Lithuanian stu­ ot it was used to buy commercial goods in 1731. dents in Edinburgh and corresponded with the Protes­ Support from individuals and associations in Great tant cleric Bogusław Kopyewicz in Vilnius. The British Britain tor religious communities under pressure did community in Kėdainiai sent two of its members, Pastor not end in the eighteenth century. In Soviet times the James [JakubJ Gordon and James Grey |Jakub Gray] in Anglican foundation at Oxford, led by the Revd Michael 1730 to ask for assistance for their fellow townsfolk, who Bourdeaux, Keston College, drew constant attention had suffered the dire effects of the Northern Wars against to the persecution ot believers in Soviet Lithuania among Sweden and Russia. They claimed they would use any other republics of the USSR. Keston College publi­ monies received to form a merchant company, presum­ cized the underground publication, the Chronicle of ably along the lines of previous British merchant compa­ the Catholic Church in Lithuania. This support given nies, such as that which had attempted to build the port to the persecuted Church in the Soviet Union has been at Šventoji fifty years before. Seeking alms from Great recognized by the Lithuanian authorities. On Novem­ Britain was already established practice lor continental ber 15 2005 Canon Bourdeaux was invested with the Protestants by the eighteenth century. The British gov­ Officer’s Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great by ernment saw the provision of charity as a means of sup­ President Valdas Adamkus in Vilnius. Meanwhile ordi­ porting continental Protestantism and undermining the nary Roman Catholics contributed financially towards religious settlement in neighbouring Catholic realms. The support for their persecuted brethren in Lithuania and Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had been set other parts of the Soviet Union via the Vatican charity, up for just this purpose in 1699. The SPCK organized Aid For The Church In Need.

27. Canon Michael Bourdeaux receives a high Lithuanian decoration for his services to the persecuted L ithuanian Koman Catholic Church during the Soviet Occupation

24

M ig ratio n

M igration between Great Britain and Lithuania inspired by economic and ideological factors has been a feature of the two countries’ relations for more almost five hun­ dred years. However, a major watershed came in the nineteenth century as Lithuanians began to emigrate for political and economic reasons to Great Britain or via the British Isles to North and South America and vari­ ous parts of the British Empire. After the failure of the Uprisings of 1830—1831 and 1863-1864 Lithuanians as well as Poles made their way westward. The English actor, Sir John Gielgud claimed to be descended from the Gelgaudas family, which took part in both uprisings in western Lithuania (the Gelgaudai owned the fine Re­ naissance castle near the River Nemunas, now known as Panemunė). His great grandmother, Anielia Aszpergerowa Gielgud, was a renowned actress from south-eastern Poland. Lithuanian Jews also fled persecution in the Russia Empire and settled in London in the second half of the nineteenth century. The grandson of one such immi­ grant, the former Labour Member of Parliament, who now sits in the House of Lords as Lord Greville Janner ol Braunstone has sponsored the Holocaust Education Trust to map more than 200 Jewish mass grave sites in Lithuania, victims of the nazi occupation. By 1900 there were 9,000 Lithuanians in London (not including the Lithuanian Jews who had fled from pogroms in the Russian Empire). Before 1914 there were 10,000 in the whole of the United Kingdom, two thirds of them in Scotland. Between 1918 and 1937 numbers rose from 1,560 to 1,681 in London. Lithuanians, like other immi­ grants, set up their self-help foundations and between 1921 and 1953 the Lithuanian Assistance Association (Lietuvių pašalpinė druių/iju) functioned in the British capital. 28. Panemune Castle, centre of opposition As the Second World War came to an end B. K. Balu­ to Russian rule in the 1830 and 1863—1864 tis, the Lithuanian envoy in London took charge of all IJprisinas. h mnerlv h(>mc n > the (ielgaudas family

J1 Lithuanian refugees in Europe except for those in the US zones in Germany and Austria. In March 1943 the Foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, explained the Lithuanian refugee question but there was no response from the British government until the end of the war, even though Great Britain was always more favourable to the Baltic refugees than was the US. In September 1945 Aneurin Bevin raised the refugee ques­ tion, insisting that they not be regarded as citizens of the Soviet Union nor be sent to the USSR The British Government established the Prisoners of War / Displaced Persons Division to support sell-admin­ istration among the Baltic refugees who had come to Germany during the last stages of the war. This Division also organized the first settlements of Balts. The Baltic Cygnet Programme was set up in 1946 to bring 1,000 women of Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian descent to Britain to work as nurses and in 1946—1947 the Westward Ho Programme instigated the resettlement of Displaced Balts in South America and the British dominions of Canada and Australia. The Britanijos lietum newspaper was established in 1947 and served as a source of informa­ tion for Lithuanian refugees throughout Western Europe. In Nottingham the Marian Fathers founded their monas­ tery and published the magazine Šaltinis to serve the Lithuanian mission, which organized religious services throughout England. In Scotland the weekly newspaper, Išeivių draugas, served local Lithuanians from 1914. Those who first worked in the mines and factories of Lanarkshire and other counties gradually developed their own small businesses and found white-collar employment. Emigration to Britain has increased since Lithuania once more became a free nation. Between 1991 and 2004 many Lithuanian work people have sought a bet­ ter life in Britain, often saving their wages to support the families they left behind. Since Lithuania became a member of the European Union in May 2004 it has been easier for Lithuanians to obtain employment le­ gally in Britain, which, like Ireland, is one of the few older members of the EU, which has not placed re­ strictions on immigration from new member states. 1 his policy has been highly beneficial to the economies of both Britain and Lithuania alike. According to official Lithuanian statistics the number of those migrating be­ tween Lithuania and the United Kingdom should be measured in the hundreds of thousands.

32 Culture

W e have seen how cultural contacts between Britain and Lithuania have In short the Royal Visit comes developed over the centuries to include chivalric codes, landscape garden­ at a time when historical connec­ ing, the building of “English” — stvle stately homes like the Tyszkiewicz house tions between the British Isles and at Lentvaris, not far from Vilnius. English literature has been well-received the Baltic in matters political, mili­ in Lithuania and London has been an important centre for publishing tary, cultural, spiritual and eco­ Lithuanian texts varying from a seventeenth-century translation of the Bible nomic are thriving against the back­ to modern literary classics (published after 1945). Such prominent figures ground of shared interests and com­ in British cultural life as Sir Robert Baden Powell and G. K. Chesterton have mitments on the European and been enthralled by Lithuania and the Lithuanian capital. world stage. Lithuanian opera singers such as Violeta Urmana and Edgaras Montvidas have proved to a great success in opera productions for the Royal Opera 29. The renowned House, Covent Garden and Glvndebourne. Dalia Ibelhauptaitė has directed English Actor, Sir John Gielgud, who claimed theatre and opera in London and taught master classes at the Royal Na­ descentfrom the tional Theatre Studio and the National opera Studio in London. The Gelgaudas family Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and English National Opera have collaborared in presenting Anthony Minghella’s production ot Madam Buterflv. Several English historical epics, including Elizabeth I with Helen Mirren

and Jeremv Irons, have been filmed on location in Lithuania. Trakai Castle 30. The opera soprano Violeta Urmana, star of became for a while sixteenth-century London. British theatre companies the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, seen and orchestras are no longer a rarity in Lithuania and pop stars of a here in a production of II Trovatore from the certain age play to large audiences in Lithuanian arenas. Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Vilnius The British Council has established an office in Lithuania to foster the teaching of English and cultural contacts between the two coun­ tries. British English has become the number one foreign language studied in Lithuania during the past decade. It sponsors exhibitions, concerts and British cultural days in various Lithuanian cities. Meanwhile in Lon­ don the British Lithuanian Society has been active since 1992 with the intention ol familiarising the British public with Lithuania and improve relations in areas of culture, politics, economics, education, tourism and sport. fourisin from the British Isles to Lithuania is thriving and thousands of kilted Scots descend regularly on Vilnius and Kaunas, this time to attend football matches, rather than settle permanently

И

List of Illustrations 16. Kėdainiai, home to British merchants in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Courtesy: Mr. Romas Mičiūnas. Front cover: Letters patent issued to George Bennet, rojai secretary', by King Charles II, 1671. Courtesy: The Central Library of the Lithuanian Academy of 17. Old Aberdeen, Cathedral Church of St Alachar (ca 1520). Aberdeen had Sciences, Vilnius. close trading links with the Baltic from the Middle Ages onwards. The University of Aberdeen along with the Universities of Kiel, Odense, and Klaipėda, among Inside Front cover: HM The Queen graciously receives HE The President oj others, set up the North European Historical Research Network in 1996 to Lithuania and Mrs. Valdas Adamkus at Holyroodhouse. Photograph: Džoja foster the study of links between nations around the North and Baltic Seas. Gunda Barysaitė. Courtesy: The Press Service of the Office of the President of the Courtesy: The Elder of St Machars Cathedral, Old Aberdeen. Lithuanian Republic. 18. View of Šventoji, the only port of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was Inside Back cover: Trinity College Cambridge, and the Lithuanian Institute of founded by a company of English merchants at the end of the seventeenth History, Vilnius. Courtesy: Lithuanian Institute of History. century. It is now a holiday resort. Back cover: Sketch map to illustrate sites in the Grand Duchy, and Republic of 19. Plan of Šventoji from 1688. Taken from Palangos istorija, ed. V. Zulkus Lithuania connected with Great Britain. Artist: A. Dapsys. (Klaipėda, 1999), 153. 1. Užutrakis Manor Estate, Trakai Lithuania. Restoration work sponsored in 20. Utenos trikotažas is a highly successful Lithuanian producer of high-quality part by the Sainsbury Foundation, which provided over 100,000 litai to under garments with a strong export record with regard to the United Kingdom recreate urns and statuary destroyed during World War Two. Courtesy: Mr. and Western Europe. Algimantas Stankevičius, Trakai. 21. Book 51 of the Lithuanian Metrica, recording the farming out of the grand- 2. Edgaras Jankauskas playing for Edinburgh’s Heart of Midlothian Associa­ ducal estate at Kražai to the English Protestant refugees Catherine, Duchess of tion Football Team. Suffolk, and her spouse Richard Bertie. Courtesy: The Lithuanian Institute of 3. King Henry IV (1399—1413), king of England and crusader (as Henry History. Bolingbroke) in Lithuania (1390). 22. The Berties’ tomb in Spilsby Parish Church. 4. Vilnius Castle. A tower from the fifteenth-century reconstruction oj the Upper 23. 24. The Jesuit College was founded in the seventeenth century on the site Castle, Vilnius. Photograph: Audronė Uzielaitė. of the castle built by the Radvila family after it took over the lordship of Kražiai 5. Gilt badge or merchant’s tag bearing the Arms of England and the Motto of from the Berties in the mid-sixteenth century. The college buildings, seen her the Most Noble Order oj the Garter, Lithuanian National Museum, Plombas from a seventeenth-century painting, have been restored and now function as a No. M 3344. Courtesy: The Lithuanian National Museum. cultural centre. Courtesy: Mrs Stasė Butrimienė. 6. Casimir Jogailaitis, grand duke oj Lithuania (1440—1492) and king oj 25. Abraham ben Isaac’s Bulwark of the Faith, a Karaite apologia written in Poland (1447—1492), elected to the Most Noble Order of the Garter, 1450 Trakai in the sixteenth century and used by the London Jewish Community in Photograph: Stasė Butrimienė. the nineteenth century as a source for arguments to counter Evangelical mission­ aries. Photograph taken from A FI istoty' of Lithuania (Vilnius, 2002), 12. 7. Tomasz Makowski’s depiction of Vilnius from his engraving of the map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1613) commissioned by Nicholas the Orphan 26. Vilnius University, alma mater of many British Catholic refugees. Courtesy: Radvila. Work on drafting this map is held to have been done by Fr James Mr. Romas Mičiūnas. Bosgrave and his mathematics pupils. V. Drėma, Dingęs Vilnius. Lost Vilnius. 27. Canon Michael Bourdeaux receives a high Lithuanian decoration for his Ischeznuvshiy Vil’nyus (Vilnius, 1991), 34—35. services to the persecuted Lithuanian Roman Catholic Church during the Soviet 8. Jonas Radvanas, Epithalamium in nuptias illustris ac magnijici domini d. Occupation, November I 5 2005. Photograph: Džoja Gunda Ban saite. Cour­ Christophori Monvidi Dorohostayski... (Vilnius: In officina Ioannis Karcani, ca tesy: The Press Senke of the Office of the President of the Lithuanian Republic. 1588). D. Narbutienė, S, Narbutas, XV—XVI a. Lietuvos lotyniškų knygų 28. Panemunė Castle, centre of opposition to Russian rule in the 1830 and sąrašas (Vilnius, 2002), 158. 1863—1864 Uprisings. Formerly home to the Gelgaudas family. Courtesy: Mrs 9. St Margaret’s Church, Felbrigg, No folk Courtesy: Revd P. Coates. Stasė Butrimienė. 10. Brass monument to Sir Roger de Felbrigg (d. 1380), who went on crusade 29. The famous English thespian, Sir John Gielgud, whose ancestors hailed from to Prūse (Lithuania), St Margaret’s Church, Felbrigg, Nojolk. Courtesy: Revd Panemunė in Lithuania. P. Coates. 30. The opera soprano Violeta Urmana, star of the Royal Opera House, Covent 11. The Scottish House, Kėdainiai, Didžioji g. 4. Courtesy: Mr. Romas Garden, seen here in a production of II Trovatore from the Lithuanian National Mičiūnas. Opera and Ballet Theatre, Vilnius. Courtesy: Mr. Romas Mičiūnas. 12. 13. Views of Simpsono g., Palanga: the street named in honour oj the 3 1. Užutrakis Manor Estate from the air. A fine Lithuanian landscape. Photo­ British mediator in the territorial disputes between Lithuania and Latvia, graph: Mr. Algimantas Stankevičius, Kaunas. 1919-1921, Professor James Young Simpson, a Russian specialist from British Military Intelligence. Courtesy: Mrs Darija Vasiliauskienė, Palanga. The Author wishes to express his thanks to those people who gave 14. Flight Lieutenant Romas Marcinkus, RAF. A British and Lithuanian War freely of their time and talents to help illustrate this text and whose Hero. Photograph: Gražina Sviderskytė, Uragano kapitonas (Vilnius, 2004). names do not appear elsewhere in this publication, especially the 1 5. A Harrier GR7 flies over the British Embassy in honour if Flight Lieutenant Lot ai Museum in Kėdainiai, Prof, and Mrs A. Butrimas, Dr R. Miknvs, Marcinkus, June 21 2001. Courtesy: The British Embassy at Vilnius. Miss J. Mažeikaitė, Mr. A. Stankevičius, Ms B. Lisauskaitė.

DISTANT I RIHNDS DRAW NIGH: THLRHALMS OI GRLAT BRITAIN AND LITHUANIA S.C . Rowell

© (Text) S.C. Rowell, 2006 Designed by Algimantas DapSys

Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla Kražių g. 5, 01108 Vilnius Printed by UAB „Petro ofsetas** Žalgirio g. 90, 09 B) i Vilnius ISBN 9986-780-86-1