A Lithuanian nation state

Happy Statehood Day 💛💚❤️

The 6th of July is Lithuania’s 4th of July, except, instead of independence, it celebrates sovereignty, protection (supposedly) and unity.

The celebration was adopted in 1991 following Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union, and, although only being 34 years old, it commemorates a day from almost a millennium ago when Lithuania received it’s statehood.

It was all the way back in 1153 when the first, and only King, Mindaugas received his crown from the Pope. Delivered by the grandmaster of the Livonian order, this act proclaimed Lithuania as a Catholic Kingdom and sovereignty of these loosely sketched and relatively unknown pagan tribes on the edge of European maps was finally established.

This coronation was for recognition amongst European leaders but also for it’s protection (rather ironically from the crusading orders such as the Livonians who had crowned him King..) as Lithuania was still very much a majority pagan nation which had been subject to papal crusades for years. Unfortunately for Lithuania, these crusades resumed for another 150 years only a decade later after Mindaugas was assassinated in 1263...

Finally, the day celebrates unity, as the coronation was also what brought together the many duchy’s of this land under a single banner.. with Mindaugas receiving recognition from his peers as well as adversaries at home in Lithuania (There was such a thing as a grand duchy before and after this too.. which in many ways was like a King, however let’s leave that part out!).