BEFORE BEGINNING, I WOULD like to say a few words on the issue of chronology and difficulties related to it. A certain confusion in the sequence of regnal periods and the accuracy of their dating comes from using the chronology included in the chronicles and annals, containing mistakes in dating ranging from a couple of years to decades. Therefore, after the death of Spytek of Melsztyn in 1399, the younger brother of the king, Švitrigaila, received western Podillya in 1400. Švitrigaila then fled to the Teutonic Order in 1401, after which he forced Władysław II Jagiełło to include this territory in the Ruthenian domain of the king. In 1410, after defeating the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald, the king handed Podillya over to Vytautas as a life-long possession in appreciation of his help. This could have been the end of the story, since Vytautas appointed starostas in Kamyanets from 1411.

At the same time, the king kept granting lands in Podillya, which was under the control of Vytautas. At least one such land assignations was recorded in 1413. However, the Podolian noblemen had refused to swear to Vytautas twice, in 1414 and 1418, so the king had to intervene. The earliest documents regarding Vytautas's land assignations in the region are dated 1418. Having obtained the whole territory of Podillya in 1410, Vytautas, therefore, took total control of it only eight years later— and, even then, only with the help of Władysław. The main obstacle was, first and foremost, the incoming noblemen, who resisted him in western Podillya.

Lastly, the Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxemburg had little hope of restoring his sovereignty over Podillya, which used to be a vassal state of the Hungarian Crown. Moreover, Fedir Koriatovych, the last ruler of Podillya, had been under his protection at least by 1412. These events will all be considered in more detail below.

The Short Rule of Švitrigaila

The death of Spytek of Melsztyn in the Battle of the Vorskla River in 1399 posed the question: who would take possession of Podillya? Władysław II Jagiełło solved the problem in a peculiar and unexpected way— in a family-based way, so to speak. Through the charter of 1400, the king granted Podillya to his younger brother, Švitrigaila. And apparently, afterwards, he regretted this decision quite frequently.