- This article is about the region in Europe. For other uses see Livonia (disambiguation).
Livonia once was the land of the Finnic Livonians, but came in the Middle Ages to designate a much
broader territory controlled by the Livonian Order in Balticum on the eastern coasts of the Baltic
Sea in present-day Latvia and Estonia.
Its frontiers are the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Finland in the north-west, Lake Peipus
and Russia to the east, and Lithuania
to the south.
Livonia was called Лифляндия (Liflandiya) in
Imperial Russia and Inflanty in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and was
inhabited by various Baltic and Finnic
peoples ruled by an upper class of Baltic Germans. Some group of Baltic
Germans joined Polish nobility ranks and thus polonised.
From the 12th century Livonia was an area of economic and political expansion of the
Danes and the Germans; particularly of the Hanseatic League and the Cistercian
Order. About 1160 Hanseatic traders of Lübeck established their trading post in the place of future Riga. The
Chronicle of Henry of Livonia from
the 1220s gives a firsthand account of the Christianization of
Livonia, granted as a fief by the Hohenstaufen King of Germany Philip of Swabia to Albert of Buxhoeveden, nephew of the Archbishop of Bremen, who sailed with a convoy of ships filled
with armed crusaders to carve out a Catholic territory in the East, an aspect of
the Northern Crusades. Albert founded Riga in 1201 and built himself a cathedral there, as Prince-Bishop of Livonia.
Thus, from the early 13th century Livonia became a confederation
(Livonian Confederation) of lands ruled by the Order of the Brothers of the Sword (founded by
Albert in 1202, joined with the Teutonic Knights in Prussia in year 1237) and the territories
belonging to the archbishop of Riga and bishops of Couronia, Ösel-Wiek and Dorpat, where Albert's brother Hermann established himself as prince-bishop.
In 1561 during Livonian War
Livonia fell to the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. Organisation of Livonia in the Commonwealth:
Next: wars between Poland, Sweden,
Denmark and Russia for control of
Livonia.
The Livonian language is still spoken in parts of Latvia and Estonia, but is understood to be fast
approaching extinction.
Neil Gaiman, in his comic book The Sandman, portrayed the last
sinner in Hell as being a 10th-century mass
murderer from Livonia, who was too proud of the magnitude of his sins to accept forgiveness.
"...but I am Breschau of Livonia! This is my sin!"
"No one cares any more, Breschau. No one remembers. I doubt one mortal in a hundred thousand could even point to where
Livonia used to be, on a map."
Polish Livonia
Polish Livonia (or Inflants) was the remainder of Livonia, that was kept by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the
Treaty of Oliva in 1660.
Livonia, which had been a common territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1561,
was conquered by Sweden in 1620s, in the course
of the Polish War, and conquest of the majority was completed by 1629. Under Swedish rule the
country became known as Swedish Livonia, which was formally
recognised in Oliva, 1660.
- Inflanty
Voivodship including
See also:
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