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Swedish Livonia

Baltic dominion of the Swedish Empire (1629–1721)

Summary

Baltic dominion of the Swedish Empire (1629–1721)

Field	Value
native_name	Svenska Livland
conventional_long_name	Swedish Livonia
common_name	Livonia
status	Vassal
empire	Sweden
status_text	Dominion of the Swedish Empire
event_start	Truce of Altmark
year_start	1629
date_start	25 September
event_end	Treaty of Nystad
year_end	1721
date_end	30 August
event1	Treaty of Oliva
date_event1	23 April 1660
event2	Great Northern War
date_event2	1700–1721
event3	Conquered by Russia
date_event3	1713
event_pre	Conquered by Sweden
date_pre	1621
p1	Duchy of LivoniaDuchy of Livonia
s1	Riga GovernorateRiga Governorate
image_flag	Naval Ensign of Sweden.svg
flag_border	no
flag	List of flags of Sweden
flag_type	Flag
image_coat	Coat of arms of Swedish Livonia (18th century).svg
symbol	Coat of arms of Vidzeme
symbol_type	Coat of arms
(18th century)
image_map	Sw BalticProv en.png
image_map_caption	Baltic provinces of Swedish Empire in the 17th century.
capital	Riga
common_languages	Swedish, Estonian, Latvian, Livonian, Low German (Latin as lingua franca)
religion	Lutheranism
leader1	Gustav II Adolf
year_leader1	1611–1632
leader2	Frederick I
year_leader2	1720–1751
title_leader	King of Sweden
representative1	Jacob De la Gardie
year_representative1	1622–1628
representative2	Erik Dahlberg
year_representative2	1696–1702
title_representative	Governor-General
today	Estonia
Latvia
legislature	Diet

(18th century) Latvia

Swedish Livonia () was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1629 until 1721. The territory, which constituted the southern part of modern Estonia (including the island of Ösel ceded by Denmark after the Treaty of Brömsebro) and the northern part of modern Latvia (the Vidzeme region), represented the conquest of the major part of the Polish-Lithuanian Duchy of Livonia during the 1600–1629 Polish-Swedish War. Parts of Livonia and the city of Riga were under Swedish control as early as 1621 and the situation was formalized in the Truce of Altmark 1629, but the whole territory was not ceded formally until the Treaty of Oliva in 1660. The minority part of the Wenden Voivodeship retained by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was renamed the Inflanty Voivodeship ("Livonian Principality"), which today corresponds to the Latgale region of Latvia.

Riga was the second largest city in the Swedish Empire at the time. Together with other Baltic Sea dominions, Livonia served to secure the Swedish dominium maris baltici. In contrast to Swedish Estonia, which had submitted to Swedish rule voluntarily in 1561 and where traditional local laws remained largely untouched, the uniformity policy was applied in Swedish Livonia under Karl XI of Sweden: serfdom was abolished, peasants were offered education as well as military, administrative or ecclesiastical careers, and nobles had to transfer domains to the king in the Great Reduction.

The territory in turn was conquered by the Russian Empire during the Great Northern War and, following the Capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710, formed Riga Governorate. Formally, it was ceded to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, together with Swedish Estonia and Swedish Ingria.

Kings and Queen of Livonia

the House of Vasa

Gustav II Adolf the Great (Gustavs II Ādolfs Lielais) (1611 – 1632)
Christina (Kristīna) (1632 – 1654) House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken
Charles X Gustav (Kārlis X Gustavs) (1654 –1660)
Charles XI (Kārlis XI) (1660 – 1697)
Charles XII (Kārlis XII) (1697 – 1718)
Ulrika Eleonora (Ulrika Elenora) (1719 – 1720) House of Hesse
Frederick I (Frederiks I) (1720 – 1751)

Governors-general

The dominion was ruled by appointed governors-general, but retained its own diet.

Jacob De la Gardie (1622–1628)
Gustaf Horn (1628–1629)
Johan Skytte (1629–1633)
(1633–1634)
Bengt Oxenstierna (1634–1643)
Herman Wrangel (1643)
(1644)
Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna (1645–1647)
Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1649–1651)
Gustaf Horn (1652–1653)
Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1655–1657)
Axel Lillie (1661)
Bengt Oxenstierna (1662–1665)
Clas Åkesson Tott the Younger (1665–1671)
Fabian von Fersen (1671–1674)
(1674–1686)
Jacob Johan Hastfer (1687–1695)
Erik Dahlberg (1696–1702)
Carl Gustaf Frölich (1702–1706)
Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt (1706–1709)
Henrik Otto Albedyll (1709)
Niels Jonsson Stromberg af Clastorp (1709–1710)

|File:Ducatuum Livoniae et Curlandiae Nova Tabula, 1705.jpg|Duchies of Livonia and Courland on the map of Frederik de Witt (1616–1698), modified and published by Pieter Mortier in 1705.

Military

Coat of arms of Swedish Livonia (1660)

Swedish infantry and cavalry regiments

Main article: List of Swedish regiments

;Infantry regiments:

Garnisonsregementet i Riga (Garrison Regiment in Riga)
Guvenörsregementet i Riga (Governor's Regiment in Riga)
Livländsk infanteribataljon I (Livonian Infantry Battalion I)
Livländsk infanteribataljon II (Livonian Infantry Battalion II)
Livländsk infanteribataljon III (Livonian Infantry Battalion III)
Livländsk infanteribataljon IV (Livonian Infantry Battalion IV)
Livländskt infanteriregemente I (Livonian Infantry Regiment I)
Livländskt infanteriregemente II (Livonian Infantry Regiment II)
Livländskt infanteriregemente III (Livonian Infantry Regiment III)
Livländskt infanteriregemente IV (Livonian Infantry Regiment IV)
Livländskt infanteriregemente V (Livonian Infantry Regiment V)

;Cavalry regiments:

Laurentzens fridragoner (Wolter Wolfgang von Laurentzen's Free Dragoons)
Lewenhaupts frikompani (Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt's Free Company)
Adelsfanan i Livland och Ösel (Livonian and Öselian Banner of Nobles)
Livländsk dragonskvadron I (Livonian Dragoon Squadron I)
Livländsk dragonskvadron II (Livonian Dragoon Squadron II)
Livländskt dragonregemente I (Livonian Dragoon Regiment I)
Livländskt dragonregemente II (Livonian Dragoon Regiment II)
Öselska lantdragonskvadronen (Öselian County Dragoon Squadron)

Temporary cavalry regiments:

Livländska ståndsdragonbataljonen (Livonian Rank Dragoon Battalion)
Öselska ståndsdragonbataljonen (Ösel Rank Dragoon Battalion)

References

Andrejs Plakans, A Concise History of the Baltic States, Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 105ff

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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