The constant military threat from outside Livonia and the internal upheavals in the wake of the Reformation caused the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order to decline as a power factor in the Livonian war against Tsar Ivan IV, which was declared in 1558. Cities and knighthoods sought new protective powers: Reval (today Tallinn) submitted to Sweden, the island of Ösel (today Saaremaa) became Danish. Livonia and Riga paid homage to the king of Catholic Poland-Lithuania, Sigismund II. Augustus. The last master of the Order of Livonia, Gotthard Kettler, swore an oath of allegiance to the Polish king and received the meanwhile Protestant Courland and Semigallia as a duchy. His successor Jakob Kettler led it to economic prosperity. The "Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti" granted by the king in 1561 secured special rights for the towns and knighthoods in Livonia and Courland such as the exercise of the Protestant faith, German as the official language, jurisdiction and self-administration of the country under German law.
Illustrations:
1.) The pilgrimage basilica in Aglohn (today Aglona), which is visited annually by 50,000 believers, is an indication of the long Catholic tradition of this region in southeast Latvia. From 1561 to 1772 it belonged as Polish Livonia to the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania. Today this part of Latvia is called Latgale, where unlike the rest of the country Catholics are in the majority.
Photo: Dainis Matisons
2.) The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, map by Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly from the atlas "Schauplatz der fünf Theile der Welt" (Scenes of the Five Parts of the World), Vienna 1791