Livonian War

The Livonian War of 1558–1582 was a lengthy military conflict between the Tsardom of Russia and variable coalition of Denmark, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), and Sweden for control of Greater Livonia (the territory of the present-day Estonia and Latvia).

Background

By the late 1550s, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation had caused internal conflicts in the Livonian Confederation, a loose alliance in what is now Estonia and Latvia led by the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights. Originally allied with the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheranism was now increasingly popular and some of the knights were "estranged from the Catholic bishops." Since the Confederacy was an alliance between some free cities, the bishops and the Knights, this seriously weakened its ability to respond to a military threat. This area of the Baltic had always attracted the ibnterest of other powers, anxious to benefit from sea trade and to develop naval capabilities. Meanwhile, the Confederacies Eastern neighbor Russia had grown stronger after defeating the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. The conflict between Russia and the Western powers was exacerbated by Russia's isolation from sea trade because of lack of access to the lucrative Baltic sea routes. Neither could the tsar easily hire qualified labor from Europe. Compared with the Khante, Livonia "appeared to be an easy target."

In 1547 Hans Schlitte, the agent of Tsar Ivan IV, employed craftsmenin Germany for work in Russia. However all these handicraftsmen were arrested in Lübeck at the request of Livonia. The German Hanseatic League ignored the new port built by tsar Ivan on the eastern shore of the Narva River in 1550 and still delivered the goods still into ports owned by Livonia.

Outbreak of Hostility

Tsar Ivan IV demanded that the Livonian Confederation pay 40,000 talers for the Bishopric of Dorpat, based on a claim that the territory had once been owned by the Russian Novgorod Republic. The dispute ended with a Russian invasion in 1558. Russian troops occupied Dorpat (Tartu) and Narwa (Narva), laying siege to Reval (Tallinn). The goal of Tsar Ivan was to gain vital access to the Baltic Sea.

Siege of Narva by the Russians in 1558, Boris Chorikov,1836.

Tsar Ivan's actions conflicted with the interests of other countries; they wanted both to block Russian expansion and to "obtain portions of Livonia for themselves." What began as a type of border dispute soon escalated into "a regional war." On August 2 1560 the Russians inflicted a defeat on the Knights, killing so many that the weakened was soon dissolved by the Vilnius Pact; its lands were assigned to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania united with Poland (Ducatus Ultradunensis), and the rest went to Sweden (Northern Estonia), and to Denmark (Ösel). The last Master of the Order of Livonia, Gotthard Kettler, became the first ruler of the Polish and Lithuanian (later Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) vassal state Duchy of Courland.

Erik XIV of Sweden and Frederick II of Denmark then sent troops to protect their newly-acquired territories. In 1561, the city council of Reval surrendered to Sweden, and became the outpost for further Swedish conquests in the area. By 1562, Russia found itself in wars with both Lithuania and Sweden. In the beginning, the Tsar's armies scored several successes, taking Polotsk (1563) and Pernau (Pärnu) (1575), and overrunning much of Lithuania up to Vilnius, which led him to reject peace proposals from his enemies.

However the Tsar (called The Terrible) found himself in a difficult position by 1597 as the tide of battle began to turn. The Crimean Tatars devastated Russian territories and burnt down Moscow (see Russo-Crimean Wars), the drought and epidemics have fatally affected the economy, and Oprichnina had thoroughly disrupted the government, while Lithuania had united with Poland (new union in 1569) and acquired an energetic leader, king Stefan Batory. Not only did Batory reconquer Polotsk (1579), but he also seized Russian fortresses at Sokol, Velizh, Usvzat, Velikie Luki (1580), where his soldiers massacred all Russian inhabitants, and laid siege to Pskov (1581–82). Polish-Lithuanian cavalry devastated the huge regions of Smolensk, Chernigov, Ryazan, southwest of the Novgorodian territory and even reached the Tsar's residences in Staritsa. Ivan prepared to fight, but Poles retreated.. In 1581, a mercenary army hired by Sweden and commanded by Pontus de la Gardie captured the strategic city of Narva and massacred its inhabitants, 7,000 people.

These developments led to the signing of the peace Treaty of Jam Zapolski in 1582 between Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in which Russia renounced its claims to Livonia. The Jesuit papal legate Antonio Possevino was involved in negotiating that treaty. The following year, the Tsar also made peace with Sweden. Under the Treaty of Plussa, Russia lost Narva and the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, being its only access to the Baltic Sea. The situation was partially reversed 12 years later, according to the Treaty of Tyavzino which concluded a new war between Sweden and Russia.

Legacy

The Baltic has seen many struggles between various powers to control the region, motivated by both commercial and strategic interest. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have historically either fallen to Scandinavian or to Russian domination. After the Great Northern War (1700-1721) the Baltic passed back into Russian hands as Swedish "aspiration to dominion of the Baltic proved unsustainable." Following World War I, the three states made a brief reappearance as sovereign nations but were invaded by the Soviet Union in World War II and did not gain independence again until 1991. In 2004, they joined the European Union and NATO.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Martin, Janet. 1995. Medieval Russia: 980-1584. Cambridge medieval textbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521362764.
• Longworth, Philip, and Philip Longworth. 2006. Russia: the once and future empire from pre-history to Putin. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312360412.
• Roberts, Michael. 1986. The early Vasas: a history of Sweden 1523-1611. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521311823.
• Smith, David J. 2002. The Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. London u.a: Routledge.

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