2. Medieval Livonia: social, cultural and economic developments

Question 1

• Different historiographic views on the 13th century conquest and Medieval Livonia

Answer 1

 Baltic German historiography (Leonid Arbusow, Reinhard Wittram, Gert von Pistohlkors). Apologetic view of the conquest, Medieval Livonia as the period of independence
 Estonian national historiography (Hans Kruus, Sulev Vahtre) The conquest as one of the more radical turning points in Estonian history. End of independence, general negative outcome for the Estonians
 Current dominating discourse in Estonia and elsewhere (Eric Christiansen, William Urban, Anti Selart). Conquest of Estonian territory as part of the Northern Crusades (to the Baltic region, Prussia and Finland), viewpoint which is (largely) devoid of national incentives and tries to examine local history in a larger (European) context

Question 2

• Political map of Medieval Livonia in ca 1340:

Answer 2

Territory of the Livonian Order
Archbishopric of Riga
Bishopric of Dorpat (Tartu)
Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek
Bishopric of Courland
Duchy of Estonia (Danish) → to the Teutonic Order in 1346
The towns of Riga, Reval/Tallinn and Tartu/Dorpat

Question 3

politics

Answer 3

• The Livonian bishops were vassals of the Emperor
• The Livonian Diet (Landtag) since 1422, an irregularly meeting institution, for some kind of general political coordination, mainly matters of external relations
  Four estates:
  the clergy
   the order
   the knights-vassals
  the towns

Question 4

• Consolidation of the medieval social order

Answer 4

 Introduction of feudal relations
First tax for the Estonians – the church tithe
Network of castles and churches The country church – centre of the parish (rural administrative unit)
Towns

Question 5

• The languages:

Answer 5

The German-speaking elites spoke Low German, partly until the 18th century.
 In written texts High German since the late 16th and 17th centuries

Question 6

why Estonians where angry and who helped them

Answer 6

• Coastal Swedes
• St George’s Night Uprising 1343–1345
• The bailiffs of Turku and Viborg in the Swedish province Finland promised assistance
• The position of the Estonians in the society
  The process of enserfment
  *

Question 7

• The rise of Russia

Answer 7

By the late 15th century, Muscovy (Moskva) had subjected other Russian principalities and destroyed Mongol-Tatar supremacy
 1492 the fortress of Ivangorod on the Russian side of the Narva river

Question 8

• The Livonian-Russian war 1501–1503

Answer 8

Wolter von Plettenberg, Master of the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order (1494–1535): He chose to acquire the rank of imperial prince in 1526 and thus the lands of the order in Livonia fbrmally became part of the Holy Roman Empire
The Battle of Smolino 1502: After Plettenberg’s inconclusive victory at the battle of Smolino in 1502, Livonia concluded a truce with Muscovy, which enabled Livonia to exist peacefully for another half’-century. However, this was only a temporary respite. Livonia’s eastern neighbour, Pskov, one of the last independent Rus’ian principalities, was annexed by Muscovy in 1510. The end for f’eudal Livonia came with Muscovy’s first full-scale effort to conquer Livonia in 1558. The order’s troops were badly outnumbered by the Muscovites and the once-proud Livonian knights were decimated at the Battle of Ermes (Ergeme) in 1560

Question 9

• The emancipation of the Livonian Order from the Teutonic Order

Answer 9

 The master of the order in Livonia, Gotthard Kettler, negotiated a ktcta Subjectionis wrlh Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke Sigismund Augustus, and on 28 November 1561 Kettler swore allegiance to Sigismund. All of Livonia north of the Daugava river not under Swedish or Muscovite control initially came under direct Lithuanian rule, and as of 1569 under joint Polish-Lithuanian administration as the Duchy of Livonia (Inflanty). The fina1 curtain for the Ordenstaat came on 5 March 1562 when Kettler, following the example of Albert von Hohen zollern’s Teutonic Knights in Prussia, secularised the order and became the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia, a hereditary fief under Polish suzerainty, consisting of the territory of Livonia south and west of the Daugava

Question 10

• The Reformation

Answer 10

 the citizens of Riga seized the opportunity to rid themselves of their feudal overlords, the order and the archbishop of Riga (and expropriate their property). The monasteries were dissolved.
 The Protestant Reformation fatally weakened the ideological under pinnings holding the ecclesiastic territories of Livonia together. It also severed the link between the Livonian and Prussian branches of the Teutonic Order