This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.(February 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Swedish Livonia
Svenska Livland
1629–1721
Flag
Coat of arms (18th century)
Baltic provinces of Swedish Empire in the 17th century.
Status
Dominion of the Swedish Empire
Capital
Riga
Common languages
Swedish, Estonian, Latvian, Livonian, Low German (Latin as lingua franca)
Religion
Lutheranism
King of Sweden
• 1611–1632
Gustav II Adolf
• 1720–1751
Frederick I
Governor-General
• 1622–1628
Jacob De la Gardie
• 1696–1702
Erik Dahlberg
Legislature
Diet
History
• Conquered by Sweden
1621
• Truce of Altmark
25 September 1629
• Treaty of Oliva
23 April 1660
• Great Northern War
1700–1721
• Conquered by Russia
1713
• Treaty of Nystad
30 August 1721
Preceded by
Duchy of Livonia
Today part of
Estonia Latvia
Part of a series on the
History of Latvia
Ancient Latvia
Kunda culture
Narva culture
Corded Ware culture
Amber Road / Aesti
Baltic Finns (Livonians, Vends)
Balts
Latgalians
Curonians
Selonians
Semigallians
Middle Ages
Principality of Jersika
Principality of Koknese
Tālava
Livonian Crusade
Livonian Brothers of the Sword
Livonian Order
Archbishopric of Riga
Bishopric of Courland
Terra Mariana
Baltic Germans
Early modern period
Livonian War
Kingdom of Livonia
Duchy of Livonia
Inflanty Voivodeship
Swedish Livonia
Polish–Swedish Wars (1600–1629)
Second Northern War
Great Northern War
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia
Couronian colonization
National Awakening
Governorate of Livonia
Courland Governorate
Vitebsk Governorate
The First Latvian National Awakening
New Current
Modern Latvia
Latvian Riflemen
German occupation
United Baltic Duchy
Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic
War of Independence
1934 Latvian coup d'état
1940 Soviet occupation
Nazi occupation
The Holocaust in Latvia
1944 Soviet re-occupation
Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
Popular Front of Latvia
Singing Revolution
Restoration of Independence
2008 Latvian financial crisis
Chronology
Latvia portal
v
t
e
Swedish Livonia (Swedish: Svenska Livland) 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.[citation needed]
SwedishLivonia (Swedish: Svenska Livland) was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1629 until 1721. The territory, which constituted the southern part...
usually known as SwedishLivonia, became a very important Swedish dominion, with Riga being the second largest Swedish city and Livonia paying for one third...
Livonia, where the dominion of SwedishLivonia was created. Swedish forces then advanced through Royal Prussia and Poland–Lithuania accepted Swedish gains...
The Duchy of Livonia (Polish: Księstwo Zadźwińskie or Księstwo Inflanckie; Lithuanian: Livonijos kunigaikštystė; Latin: Ducatus Ultradunensis; Estonian:...
uniformity policy was applied in SwedishLivonia under Karl XI of Sweden: serfdom was abolished in the estates owned by the Swedish crown, peasants were offered...
With the Capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710 the Swedish dominions Estonia and Livonia were integrated into the Russian Empire following their...
Swedish rule (1561–1710) signifies the period of time when large parts of the country, and after 1645, entire present-day Estonia, were under Swedish...
administrative units of the Russian Empire set up in the territories of Swedish Estonia, SwedishLivonia (1721) and, afterwards, of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia...
form from Latin Livonia, though it comprises only a small part of Medieval Livonia and about half (the Latvian part) of SwedishLivonia. Most of the region's...
his men as castle commanders and administrators of Livonia. In 1238, the Teutonic Knights of Livonia signed the Treaty of Stensby with the Kingdom of Denmark...
declared war on the Swedish Empire and launched a threefold attack on Swedish Holstein-Gottorp, SwedishLivonia, and Swedish Ingria. Sweden parried the Danish...
Petersburg in 1703), Swedish Estonia and SwedishLivonia (which had capitulated in 1710), and Finland. In Nystad, King Frederick I of Sweden formally recognized...
into Smolensk Governorate when it was reformed in 1726. Sweden formally ceded SwedishLivonia to Russia in 1721 with the Treaty of Nystad. In 1722 Dorpat...
1619–1622, Governor-General of Livonia in 1622–1628 (conquered by the Swedish Empire in 1621, and referred to as SwedishLivonia in 1629–1721), and Lord High...
was a Livonian man who was put on trial for heresy in Jürgensburg, SwedishLivonia, in 1692. At the time in his eighties, Thiess openly proclaimed himself...
crowned in Moscow as the king of Livonia. Magnus left Moscow with a Russian army with the intention of conquering Swedish-controlled Reval, but called off...
and northern Latvia, which became SwedishLivonia. The Commonwealth retained the eastern part of the Duchy of Livonia, thereafter called Inflanty Voivodeship...
(including Vidzeme) came under Swedish rule. Riga became the capital of SwedishLivonia and the largest city in the entire Swedish Empire. Fighting continued...
Dominions of Sweden or Svenska besittningar ("Swedish possessions") were territories that historically came under control of the Swedish Crown, but never...
(Medieval Latin for "Land of Mary") was the formal name for Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia. It was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade, and its...
Commonwealth, the Habsburgs and Brandenburg-Prussia. Sweden was accepted as sovereign in SwedishLivonia, Brandenburg was accepted as sovereign in Ducal Prussia...
Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Oeselians ravaging the area that is now southern Sweden, then belonging to...
threefold attack on the Swedish protectorate of Holstein-Gottorp and provinces of Livonia and Ingria, aiming to draw advantage as the Swedish Empire was unaligned...
national symbols, as well as elements of the coats of arms of Polish and SwedishLivonia and of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. Thus, the coat of arms...
of the Danish and Swedish kingdoms in the late medieval and early modern eras. Throughout the Northern Wars the Danish and Swedish navies played a secondary...
Global Information
Latvia portal