Polish lords stopped the crown sent for Vytautas in 1430, he died uncrowned, and his grave in Vilnius Cathedral has never been found

Vytautas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1392 to 1430 under the union with Poland, whose king, Jogaila, was his cousin. Emperor Sigismund offered him a royal crown. Vytautas set his coronation as King of Lithuania for 8 September 1430 in Vilnius. Sigismund's envoys carried the crown, but the Polish authorities would not let them cross the border, and the coronation never took place. The historian Rimvydas Petrauskas writes that the Polish elite saw a Lithuanian kingdom as a threat to the union and to its own interests. The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz blamed Sigismund for the plan. Vytautas died in October 1430 without a crown. He was buried in Vilnius Cathedral, but the exact place is unknown. In 1930, for the 500th anniversary of his death, a stone sarcophagus dated 27 October 1930 was placed in the Chapter Crypt. It is still empty. Lithuania made 8 September, the planned coronation day, a national holiday in 1930. Searches in the crypts around 1931 found the remains of King Alexander Jagiellon, Barbara Radziwiłł and Elisabeth of Austria, but not Vytautas. In July 2026 the Lithuanian government approved about €7.5 million for research at the cathedral. Archaeologists plan to drill into the western wall of the royal mausoleum in autumn 2026. Identification would need DNA from relatives buried in Prague or Kyiv. Researchers hope for an answer by 2030, the 600th anniversary.