The territory was ruled by chieftains of an ethnic Lithuanian tribe, Aukstaitians or "Lithuanians", in the original sense of the term.

After the expansion of the Lithuanian state in the 13th century, when it became known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Lithuania (1251-1263), the Duchy of Lithuania became an administrative unit, governed by dukes and inherited through dynastic links. The main administrative center of the Duchy until the late 13th century might have been Kernave.