Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Livonian Confederation
drawn on the map 1422–1563
A loose confederation in Livonia comprising the Livonian Order, the Archbishopric of Riga, and the bishoprics of Dorpat, Ösel-Wiek, and Courland, coordinated (imperfectly) through the Livonian Diet (Landtag). Perpetually riven by conflict between the Order and the archbishop.
- Shown on the map
- 1422–1563
- Peak area
- 116k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
A loose confederation in Livonia comprising the Livonian Order, the Archbishopric of Riga, and the bishoprics of Dorpat, Ösel-Wiek, and Courland, coordinated (imperfectly) through the Livonian Diet (Landtag). Perpetually riven by conflict between the Order and the archbishop. It was destroyed in the Livonian War (1558–1583) launched by Ivan IV of Russia; by the Treaty of Vilnius (28 November 1561) the confederation dissolved: the Order's last master, Gotthard Kettler, secularized his lands into the Duchy of Courland (under Polish-Lithuanian suzerainty), and Livonia was partitioned among Poland-Lithuania, Sweden, and Denmark.
Common questions
- What was the Livonian Confederation?
- A loose confederation in Livonia comprising the Livonian Order, the Archbishopric of Riga, and the bishoprics of Dorpat, Ösel-Wiek, and Courland, coordinated (imperfectly) through the Livonian Diet (Landtag). Perpetually riven by conflict between the Order and the archbishop.
- When is the Livonian Confederation shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Livonian Confederation 1422–1563. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Livonian Confederation?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Livonian Confederation covered about 116,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, academic works (John Fine on the Balkans, Halperin and Martin on Muscovy, Rady and Veszprémy on Hungary) and, for a few entries, the medieval Livonian Chronicle of Henry itself. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Terra Mariana en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Mariana
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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