Everything about The Kingdom Of Livonia totally explained
The
Kingdom of Livonia was a short-lived (
1570 –
1578) northern European
kingdom in
Livonia, territory of modern
Latvia and
Estonia. It was situated north of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, west of
Muscovy, east of
Sweden, and bordered the
Baltic Sea. The Kingdom of Livonia was a nominally declared state by
Ivan IV during
Livonian war. On June 10 1570 the Danish Duke Magnus of Holstein arrived in Moscow where he was crowned as King of Livonia. Magnus took the oath of allegiance to Ivan as his overlord and received from the corresponding charter for the vassal kingdom of Livonia in what Ivan termed his patrimony. The treaty between Magnus and Ivan IV was signed by an oprichnik and by a member of the zemskii administration, the d’iak V. Shchelkalov.The territories of the new kingdom still had to be conquered. The new king Magnus of Livonia left Moscow with 20000 Russian soldiers on the conquest of Swedish controlled
Reval. Ivan’s hope of the support of Frederick II of Denmark, the older brother of Magnus, failed. By the end of March 1571 Magnus gave up the struggle for Reval and abandoned the siege.
In 1577 having lost Ivan’s favor and getting no support from his brother, Magnus called on the Livonian nobility to rally to him in a struggle against foreign occupation. He was attacked by Ivan’s forces and taken prisoner. On his release he renounced his royal title. Magnus spent the last six years of his life at the castle of Pliten in Courland where he died as a pensioner of the Polish crown.
Names
History
The
Protestant Reformation came to
Scandinavia in
1530s, and following the
Count's Feud civil war,
Denmark converted to
Lutheranism in
1536. Later that year, Denmark entered a
union with Norway and its colonies. Two and a half centuries of wars with
Sweden followed. In
1561 during the
Livonian War the
Livonian Confederation fell to the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Eight years later, in
1569, when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and
Kingdom of Poland formed the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Livonia became a joint domain administered directly by the King and Grand Duke. By
1562,
Muscovy found itself in wars with the kingdoms of Poland and Sweden. The armies of
Ivan IV were initially successful, taking
Polock (
1563) and
Pärnu (
1575) and overrunning much of Grand Duchy of Lithuania up to
Vilnius. Eventually, in
1569 Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland consolidated their alliance with the
Union of Lublin, forming the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Eric XIV of Sweden didn't like this and The
Northern Seven Years' War between
Free City of Lübeck, Denmark, Poland, and Sweden broke out. While only losing land and trade,
Frederick II of Denmark and his brother Bishop
Magnus of
Ösel and
Courland were not faring well. But in
1569 Erik XIV became
insane and his brother
John III of Sweden took his place. After all parties had been financially drained,
Frederick II let his ally, King
Zygmunt II August, know that he was ready for peace. On
December 15,
1570, the
Treaty of Stettin was concluded.
In the next phase of the conflict, in
1577 Ivan IV took opportunity of the Commonwealth internal strife (called the war against
Gdańsk in Polish historiography), and during the reign of
Stefan Batory in Poland invaded Livonia, quickly taking almost the entire territory, with the exception of
Riga and
Tallinn. In
1578 Magnus of Livonia recognized the
sovereignty of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (not
ratified by the
Sejm of Poland-Lithuania, or recognized by Denmark). The Kingdom of Livonia was beaten back by Muscovy on all fronts. In 1578 Magnus of Livonia retired to Poland and his brother all but gave up the land in Livonia.
Subsequent
Having rejected peace proposals from its enemies, Ivan IV found himself in a difficult position by
1579, when
Crimean Khanate devastated Muscovian territories and burnt down
Moscow (see
Russo-Crimean Wars), the
drought and
epidemics have fatally affected the economy,
Oprichnina had thoroughly disrupted the government, while Lithuania
had united with Poland (1569) and acquired an energetic leader, Stefan Batory, supported by
Ottoman Empire (
1576). Stefan Batory replied with a series of three
offensives against Muscovy, trying to cut the Livonia from main Muscovian territories. During his first offensive in 1579 with 22,000 men he retook
Polotsk, during the second, in
1580, with 29,000-strong army he took
Velikie Luki, and in
1581 with a 100,000-strong army he started the
Siege of Pskov but failed to take the fortress. Frederick II had trouble continuing the fight against Muscovy unlike Sweden and Poland. He came to an agreement with John III in 1580 giving him the titles in Livonia. That war would last from
1577 to
1582. Muscovy recognized Polish-Lithuanian control of
Ducatus Ultradunensis only in
1582. After Magnus of Livonia died in
1583, Poland invaded his territories in The
Duchy of Courland and Frederick II decided to sell his rights of
inheritance. Except for the island of
Œsel, Denmark was out of the
Baltic by
1585. As of
1598 Inflanty was divided onto:
Wenden Voivodeship (województwo wendeńskie, Kieś)
Dorpat Voivodeship (województwo dorpackie, Dorpat)
Parnawa Voivodeship (województwo parnawskie, Parnawa)Further Information
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