, capital of the voivodeship, in the 17th century Trakai Voivodeship together with
Vilnius Voivodeship was established by the
Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great in 1413 according to the
Union of Horodło. Vytautas copied the Polish system of administrative division in order to centralize and strengthen the government. Trakai Voivodeship replaced the former
Duchy of Trakai, which was ruled directly by the Grand Duke or his close relative (brother or son). The Duke of Trakai () was replaced by appointed officials –
voivodes and his deputy
castellan. The voivodeship was divided into four :
Grodno,
Kaunas,
Trakai (ruled directly by the voivode), and
Upytė. The biggest cities in the voivodeship were
Kaunas,
Grodno and
Trakai. The western portion of the voivodeship was split off in 1513 by
Sigismund I the Old and transferred to the
Polish Crown. It was organized as the
Podlaskie Voivodeship. In 1793, the counties of Grodno, Sokółka and Wołkowysk one of
Nowogródek Voivodeship were merged into Grodno Voivodeship. After the
Union of Lublin the voivodeship, together with the whole Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until the
partitions of the Commonwealth in 1795. Most of the territory became part of the
Russian Empire, while territories west of the
Neman River – part of the
Province of East Prussia. ==Voivodes==