Albertas was a son of Martynas Goštautas and an unknown daughter of Semyon Semyonovich Galshansky [be] (also called Trabski).[3] Albertas' father married later Anna Galshansky, daughter of his first wife's uncle Yury Semyonovich Galshansky [be].[3] Albertas was orphaned at the age of several years and was brought up by his stepmother and maternal grandmother, Maryna Trabska, daughter of Prince Dmitri Semyonovich Drucki in 1490 bequeathed to him her entire estate.[4]
It is likely that Goštautas studied around 1492 at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In 1501, he travelled to the imperial court in Vienna.[5]
Goštautas handing the Statute to the King, litas coin
It is believed Goštautas, as well as the rest of Goštautai family members, had retained their native Lithuanian language.[6] He knew the Polish language perfectly.[5] Influenced by the ideas of the Protestant Reformation, Goštautas was a supporter of the Lithuanian culture and language in state affairs and had a nationalistic attitude: he segregated non-Lithuanian and Polish-speaking Franciscans, took care of the representatives of Lithuanian literature, such as Abraomas Kulvietis, and showed distrust to Ruthenian inhabitants of the Grand Duchy.[7][8]
These estates were inherited by Sophia and she managed them together with her husband, and after his death she held them until her death on August 1549. After her death, the estate passed to King Sigismund II Augustus.[9] The marriage was a significant elevation for Albertas, whose family was not one of the knyaz families. In 1522, King Sigismund I the Old gave Sofia, her husband and offspring the right to seal letters with red wax, which only royal blood persons were entitled to.[9]
