The coat of arms was granted to the
Duchy of Livonia on 26 December 1566 by king
Sigismund II Augustus of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The first version of the coat of arms included the king's initials S.A. on the griffin. Without the king's initials, the coat of arms was also used in
Swedish Livonia the part of the region that came under the control of the
Swedish Empire in the 1620s. Since 1677, the coat of arms of Polish Livonia (the
Inflanty Voivodeship, roughly corresponding to today's
Latgale) included a ducal crown. The
greater coat of arms of the Russian Empire also adopted the historical coat of arms of Livonia. After the establishment of the independent
Latvian state, the symbol of Livonia, representing the Latvian regions
Vidzeme and
Latgalia, became part of the newly created
Coat of arms of Latvia. The white griffin representing Livonia became an element of the shield and one of the supporters. The coat of arms was in official usage in Latvia until the
Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940. In 1990, shortly before the restoration of independence, the coat of arms was restored. The official current version of the coat of arms of Vidzeme as a historical and cultural region of Latvia was introduced in 1930, and confirmed again in 2012. ==Gallery==