Treaty of Vilnius (1561)

In 1513, the Grand Master of the Livonian Order bought his order out of the union with the Teutonic Knights. Thus, the secularization of the Teutonic Order State, which led to the establishment of the Protestant Duchy of Prussia under the Polish king in 1525, did not affect Livonia, where the Recess of Wolmar (Valmiera) forbade any future secularization in 1546. As the Livonian Confederation was in decline due to internal struggles, a faction of the order favored rapprochement with Poland–Lithuania, while another faction violently opposed it. In 1558, Ivan IV had conquered the Dorpat (Tartu) area, annihilating the Bishopric of Dorpat. With the Treaty of Vilnius of 31 August 1559, Gotthard von Kettler, Grand Master of the Livonian Order, had put the order's lands under protection of Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus. The alliance was intended to neutralize the imminent threat of annexation of the order's lands by Russia, yet despite earning military support from Polish-Lithuanian chancellor Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł, Kettler was defeated in Ērģeme (Ermes, 1560) and unable to prevent the occupation of most of Livonia by Russian forces. Hard-pressed by Ivan IV of Russia, the remnant of the Livonian Confederation concluded a treaty with Poland–Lithuania on 28 November 1561, subordinating themselves to the Sigismund II Augustus. ==Treaty==

The treaty comprised the Pacta subiectionis by which the Livonian estates accepted Polish-Lithuanian superiority. This document is also known as Provisio ducalis. Also included was the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti by which Sigismund II Augustus guaranteed the Livonian estates several privileges, including religious freedom with respect to the Augsburg Confession, the Indigenat (), and continuation of the traditional German jurisdiction and administration. The Livonian regions south of the Daugava River (Düna, Dvina), comprising Courland (Kurland) and Semigallia (Semgallen, Zemgale, Žiemgala), were established as the secular Duchy of Courland and Semigallia with Gotthard von Kettler as its duke. Shaped after the Prussian model, Courland and Semigallia was thus made a hereditary fief of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, later of the Polish Crown. In contrast, Livonia north of the Daugava was subordinated directly to Sigismund II Augustus as Duchy of Livonia, also referred to as Livonia transdunensis, with Kettler installed as Sigismund's "Royal administrator". These territories however excluded Riga, then a Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, part of Estonia with Reval (Tallinn), which was under Swedish protection, and the westernmost part of Estonia with Øsel (Ösel, Saaremaa), which was Danish. ==Consequences==

In the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a stable political system was established on the basis of the 1561 treaty, and only in 1617 this was modified by the Formula regiminis and Statuta Curlandiæ, which granted the indigenous nobles additional rights at the duke's expense. The situation north of the Daugava was quite different. On 25 December 1566, the Union of Grodno established a real union between the Duchy of Livonia the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Livonia's administrative division was re-organized with its castellans becoming members of the Lithuanian senate. When in 1569 the Union of Lublin transformed the Polish-Lithuanian personal union into a real union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Livonia became a Polish-Lithuanian condominium. Under Stephen Báthory, the Duchy of Livonia was subjected to Counter-Reformation led by bishop Otto von Schenking, who had converted to Catholicism, and the Jesuits of Riga and Dorpat (Tartu). These measures however proved to have only limited impact on the Estonian and Latvian population, while alienating the German gentry to a degree that they supported the Swedish take-over of Livonia (without Latgalia, Courland and Semigallia), formalized in the treaties of Altmark (1629) and Stuhmsdorf (1635). Charles IX expelled the Polish forces from Estonia, and his campaigns in the Duchy of Livonia were concluded in 1621 by his successor Gustavus Adolphus, who established the dominion of Swedish Livonia from the bulk of the Duchy of Livonia. When in 1710 Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Russia during the Great Northern War, the capitulations explicitly referred to the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti, with the respective references being confirmed in the Treaty of Nystad (1721). ==Sources==