Union of Vilnius
The Union of Wilna was a contract dated November 28, 1561 between the Landmeister of the Livonian Order in Livonia , Gotthard Kettler and Sigismund II. August , the King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who liquidated the Teutonic Order in Livonia and its dissolution in Polish-Lithuanian state resulted.
prehistory
In 1558 the Tsarist Russia under Ivan the Terrible started the Livonian War . The Livonian Confederation could do little to counter the onslaught of the Russians, parts of Livonia were conquered and kept long-term occupied. In order to protect against further attacks, the confederation subsequently submitted to the feudal sovereignty of various powers in the Baltic Sea region . Their ambitions, on the other hand, related to improving their strategic positions vis-à-vis Russia and expanding their bases in the Baltic Sea region. Livonia's material resources were also an incentive.
The Kingdom of Denmark in 1560 bought the field of dioceses Kurland in Pilten and Osel-Wiek in Arensburg by the Bishop Johann von Munchausen , which the teachings of Luther clung. The Kingdom of Sweden took over what is now northern Estonia with Reval in 1561 . The largest part fell with the Livonian heartland and the southern Wiek to Poland-Lithuania . Likewise, the order areas to the west and south of the Daugava joined the crown of Poland-Lithuania as a vassal state as the Duchy of Courland and the Zemgals .
The Union
The contract consisted of the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti and the Pacta Subiectionis . The "Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti" referred to the estates, especially the nobility, in Livonia. For the Duchy of Courland and Zemgale there was the "Pacta Subiectionis", which guaranteed these privileges and also regulated the relationship of the nobility to the duke and both of them to the King of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Diet .
Force of this agreement was the German Order and dissolved with him all the Livonian Confederation and secularized , while Kurland with Semgallen fused to the "Duchy of Courland and Semigallia" that Kettler as a Protestant Archduke by the Polish king to fiefs took. The Hanseatic city of Riga with the rest of Livonia were incorporated directly into the state of Poland-Lithuania as the " Duchy beyond the Daugava " (lat. Ducatus Ultradunensis ). Even under Sigismund August's successor, Stefan Bathory , efforts began to undermine the provisions of Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti . This did not recognize the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti and instead issued the Constitutiones Livoniae , which clearly restricted the rights of the Livonian estates. The country was administratively organized according to the Polish model in the form of three voivodships with headquarters in Pernau , Wenden and Dorpat , and the Counter-Reformation was promoted through the establishment of Jesuit colleges in Dorpat and Riga. The Union of Vilnius facilitated the outbreak of the Three Crowns War in 1563.