As the Livonian Confederation was in decline due to internal struggles, a faction of the order favored rapprochement with Poland–Lithuania, while another faction violently opposed it.[2] After a civil war starting in 1556, the pro-Polish faction gained the upper hand.[2]
With the Treaty of Pozvol, concluded in 1557, the Livonian Confederation had turned to Poland–Lithuania for protection, triggering Ivan IV of Russia's intervention in what was to become the Livonian War.[4] In 1558, Ivan IV had conquered the Dorpat (Tartu) area, annihilating the Bishopric of Dorpat.[5] With the Treaty of Vilnius of 31 August 1559, Gotthard von Kettler, Grand Master of the Livonian Order, had put the order's lands under protection of Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus.[6] The order ceded about one seventh of its territory, allowed Sigismund to garrison its most important castles, and agreed to share with him any conquests made from Ivan IV.[7] The alliance was intended to neutralize the imminent threat of annexation of the order's lands by Russia, yet despite earning military support from Polish-Lithuanian chancellor Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł, Kettler was defeated in Ērģeme (Ermes, 1560) and unable to prevent the occupation of most of Livonia by Russian forces.[6] After the treaty, the disintegrating order agreed to secularization if necessary, and since Sigismund was reluctant to support it militarily, continued its search for a protector at the courts of Denmark-Norway and the Holy Roman Emperor.[7]
In November 1561 the new Grand Master Gotthard Kettler secularized the Order and surrendered Livonia to Sigismund Augustus, retaining the Duchy of Courland for himself as Polish-Lithuanian vassal. The Northern Crusade was over, the Northern Wars had begun.
The treaty comprised the Pacta subiectionis by which the Livonian estates accepted Polish-Lithuanian superiority.[9] This document is also known as Provisio ducalis.[10]
Also included was the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti by which Sigismund II Augustus guaranteed the Livonian estates several privileges, including religious freedom with respect to the Augsburg Confession, the Indigenat (Polish: Indygenat), and continuation of the traditional German jurisdiction and administration.[9] The terms regarding religious freedom forbade any regulation of the traditional Protestant order by religious or secular authorities, and ruled that cases of disagreements be judged only by Protestant scholars.[11]
In contrast, Livonia north of the Daugava was subordinated directly to Sigismund II Augustus as Duchy of Livonia,[8] also referred to as Livonia transdunensis, with Kettler installed as Sigismund's "Royal administrator".[10] These territories however excluded Riga, then a Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, part of Estonia with Reval (Tallinn), which was under Swedish protection, and the westernmost part of Estonia with Øsel (Ösel, Saaremaa), which was Danish.[8]
Consequences
In the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a stable political system was established on the basis of the 1561 treaty, and only in 1617 this was modified by the Formula regiminis and Statuta Curlandiæ, which granted the indigenous nobles additional rights at the duke's expense.[13]
Báthory however regarded the re-conquered territories as his war booty,[10] refused to confirm the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti, and in 1582 replaced it with the Constitutiones Livoniae, which tolerated Indigenat and Augsburg Confession, but revoked their status as elementary right and else did not contain any privileges.[9] The traditional German administration and jurisdiction was gradually impaired by the establishment of voivodeships, the appointment of Royal officials, and the replacement of German with Polish as administrative language.[9]Riga was added to Polish-Lithuanian Livonia by the Treaty of Drohiczyn of 14 January 1581, including a Corpus Privilegiorum Stephanorum similarly reducing its freedoms.[15]
Under Stephen Báthory, the Duchy of Livonia was subjected to Counter-Reformation led by bishop Otto von Schenking, who had converted to Catholicism, and the Jesuits of Riga and Dorpat (Tartu).[11] The respective Jesuit colleges and the Catholic bishopric with its see in Wenden (Cēsis) were founded in 1566.[15] Counter-reformation focussed on the Latvian and Estonian population, since they were not explicitly mentioned in the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti - a disputed interpretation since the German Livonian estates traditionally spoke for all Livonians.[11]Lutherans were forbidden to preach in Estonian, Latvian and Russian language, while at the same time Catholic documents were published in these languages.[15] Stephen Batory participated in the Counter-Reformation by granting revenues and estates confiscated from Protestants to the Catholic Church and by initiating a (largely unsuccessful) recruitment campaign for Catholic colonists.[16]
Swedish rule ended the Counter-Reformation, and the privileges of the Livonian nobles resembled those outlined in the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti.[18] When in 1710 Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Russia during the Great Northern War, the capitulations explicitly referred to the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti, with the respective references being confirmed in the Treaty of Nystad (1721).[18]
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