3. The Livonian wars: the collapse and partitions of medieval Livonia (1558–1629)

Question 1

• The Rise of Russia

Answer 1

 Ideological ambitions: Muscovy as the ‘Third Rome’
1547 Ivan IV adopts the title of the Tsar / Czar = Emperor (from Latin Caesar)
 The main opponents in the West:
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita)
Kingdom of Sweden

Question 2

• The end of medieval Livonia

Answer 2

1558 the Russian military attack
. The end for feudal 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.
* The Bishop of Osel-Wieck sold western Estonia to Danish King Frederick II in 1559, who installed his younger brorher Duke Mag nus of Holstein as ruler. Magnus purchased the Bishopric of Courland in 1560 and had greater ambitions. In 156l the city of Reval and the knights of northern Estonia placed themselves under the protection of Swedish King Eric XIV. Thus began the meteoric rise of the Swedish Empire, which would become the dominant power in northern Europe in the seventeenth century.

Question 3

• The partition of medieval Livonia

Answer 3

Tallinn and the nobility in northern Estonia surrendered to Sweden 1561
* Master of the Livonian Order, Gotthard Kettler surrendered to Poland-Lithuania 1561
* The Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1582
* Swedish acquisitions 1561 –1645Livland, Ösel (Saarema)