Scholarly and popular literature has devoted much attention to the famed flight of Kęstutis, the duke of Trakai (†1382), brother and close ally of the Lithuanian grand duke, Algirdas (1345–1377), from Marienburg in 1361. This picture suggests that Kęstutis managed to escape by demonstrating unusual skills and his flight must have been an embarassing loss to the Teutonic Order. In my opinion, this matter seems clear as long as modern historiography in question is not set against the source material. So this paper is a preliminary effort to question some built-in ideas regarding Kestutis’s flight in particular and his relations with the Teutonic Order in general.
It has long been known that the German chronicler Wigand of Marburg produced the most detailed account of how Kęstutis was taken prisoner and later escaped. Wigand has been supposed to have retold this event two times in something different manner. Such a view of nineteenth–twentieth century historiography was to refute a Dlugossian story according to which Kęstutis was taken prisoner and managed to regain his freedom twice. After a renewed collation of Wigand’s accounts there can longer be no doubt that Kęstutis indeed was taken prisoner two times and in this respect Jan Długosz was right. The manner of his two flights differs. First Kęstutis fled from Marienburg in the guise of the Teutonic Knight. Secondly, Kęstutis was simply left in a tent after the Teutonic Knights retreated. There are at least two possibilities to connect these stories. The first would suggest that the so-called story of the second captivity depicts the Teutonic Knights trying to intercept Kęstutis on his way to Lithuania. The second possibility would suggest that the Teutonic Knights took Kęstutis captive in the course of a campaign that occured after he had returned from Marienburg in the late autumn of 1361.
The final argument of this paper contends that the circumstances for Kęstutis to flee from Marienburg were favourable and he managed to make use of them. The flight of Kęstutis was not a misfortune for the Order. The Order could not have been very interested in keeping Kęstutis in Marienburg because his policies were favourable to it in some respect. It must be borne in mind that in his fight against the Order Kęstutis did not use diplomacy involving the question of accepting the Christian faith. His major weapon was a sword; though this did not, of course, prevent to maintain friendly relations with the Order from time to time. Kęstutis used to block the proposals of Polish, Hungarian, Czech rulers to introduce Christianity peacefully into Lithuania. He let similar proposals from various popes fall on deaf ears. Acts of this kind on his part were obvious proof of the necessity of the Teutonic Order’s fight against the infidels and that is why Kęstutis was more useful in Lithuania than in Marienburg. | 
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