Livonia

“ The first active interference of Lithuania in the affairs of Livonia took place immediately after the great outbreak of the peasants on Oesel; Olgierd then devastated all southern Livonia. The order, having purchased the Danish part of Esthonia, in 1347, began a war against the bishop of Riga, as well as against Lithuania, Poland and Russia. ”

“ This fight for Livonia was really a battle for the empire of the north-west, in which the hegemony of the Slav nations was to be lost or won.
Now for this enterprise, Poland could only reckon on her own efforts. Sweden had allied herself with her, but solely as far as Livonia was concerned, and within Livonian borders. All Sweden saw in Batory's new plan of campaign was an excuse for keeping herself free. She appealed to the letter of her treaty, and claimed to act independently. When Denmark was sounded, she declined; her relations with Ivan were growing pacific. ”

“ Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland were inhabited by peoples belonging to the Finnic stem. Yet even in early times people from the south and east belonging to the Lithuanian stem had settled in Livonia and Courland, Letts and Lettgalls in Livonia, and Semgalls and Wends in Courland. The first attempts to introduce Christianity into these regions were made by Swedes and Danes, and even under the Danish king Sweyn III., Eric’s son, about A.D. 1048 a church was erected in Courland by Christian merchants, and in Esthonia the Danes not long after built the fortress of Lindanissa. ”

“ They call themselves Mā mēs, or country people, and their land Rahwama or Wiroma (cf. Finnish, Virolaiset, Esthonians.) Though not superior to other tribes in general intelligence, they have become more civilized owing to their more intimate connexion with the Russian and German population around them.
Livs, Livlanders or Livonians is the name given to the old Finnish-speaking population of west Livland or Livonia and north Kurland. We hear of them as a warlike and predatory pagan tribe in the middle ages, and it is Livonians. ”

“ Augustus entertained a great ambition to be a conqueror, and the particular province which he wished to annex to Poland was Livonia, on the Baltic—a province which had originally belonged to the Teutonic Knights, for which the Swedes, Poles, and Russians had long contended ”

“ Possevino, being the Pope's emissary, seemed the natural ally of the Polish cause, the triumph of which, even in Livonia, involved the victory of Catholicism and of the Papacy. Yet the very essence of all mediation is that it should be used against the strongest, and the strongest in this case was most incontestably Poland. ”

“ Livonia was begging for help, but she was not quite open in her dealings yet. The Polish army, valiant but undisciplined, might not be equal to the task. To have Riga would be a good thing; but what wasthe use of Riga without ships, without a fighting and a merchant navy? Sigismund, a born diplomat, dreamt of a league which would unite the Scandinavian Powers and the Hanse towns under his own direction; a cunning politician, he sought to provide himself with the weapons he lacked—regular troops, ports, and a fleet. ”

“ Especially do the German autocrats hope to obtain the so-called Baltic provinces as a spoil of war. Of Courland, Livonia and Esthonia now largely occupied by the German invaders, Courland and Livonia were originally possessions of the Teutonic Knights, then became a part of Poland and finally passed to Russia. The three provinces were governed semi-independently, until 1876, when they became in all respects an integral part of the Russian Empire. The land in the provinces is held by great landowners, mostly of German blood—and the mass of the population belongs to the Lutheran Church. ”

“ In Livonia, or Lief-land, the oldest population was Lief; and the Liefs were Ugrians. A few only now remain. The first displacement was at the hands of the Lithuanian Letts, who are, at present, the chief population; themselves becoming, day by day, more and more Germanized—and, when not German, Slavonic.
Here, as in Finland, though in a less degree, there is a Swedish intermixture; indeed in one of the small islands of the Oesel Archipelago, the Isle of Worms, the population is Swede. In the Isle of Aaland it is Swedish, with a Ugrian basis. ”

“ She began by instigating the inhabitants of Livonia to insist upon the fulfilment of an ancient convention, by which the Courlanders were obliged to bring all their merchandises to Riga: certainly a very strange and hard condition, by which a nation, that had on its coasts excellent harbours happily situated, should be obliged to go, at a great expense, to embark the products of its soil in a foreign city. ”

“ That they belong to the Finnish family is unquestionable. Linguistically they belong to the Turkish-speaking peoples. Long-headedness prevails among them. [93] These are also the characteristics of the Livs or Livonians, a Finnish tribe formerly living in Esthonia and north Livonia, now nearly extinct, but still holding a narrow strip of forest land along the Baltic at the northern extremity of Kurland. These Livs are now classed with the Baltic Finns and probably number less than 2,000 individuals. Their language has been almost entirely replaced by a Lettish dialect. ”

“ But Livonia was so well defended that he was driven northward, toward Ingria. He moved thither grudgingly, sending, in the first instance, Apraxin, who turned the easily conquered province into a desert. It was not for some time, and gropingly, as it were, that the young sovereign began to see his way, and finally turned his attention and his longings to the mouth of the Neva. In former years Gustavus Adolphus had realized the strategical importance of a position which his successor, Charles XII, did not deem worthy of consideration, and had himself studied all its approaches. ”

“ To the north in Esthonia and in the northern part of Livonia live the Esthonians. In the South, the Livonians of the Lithuanian branch. Esthonians and Livonians are Lutherans and form the principal part of the population. There are 250,000 Germans. But the civilisation is German and gives to the whole country a German stamp. In the rural districts, the great landlords, the ministers of the Gospel and the school masters are German. In the cities the middle classes are Germans. But the workingmen are Esthonians or Livonians. The Russians are only represented in the large cities by officials. ”

“ The modern Russian divisions of Livonia and Esthonia, with the outlying regions, were peopled in the ninth century with the Tchud or Lett tribes, of the Finnish race,—the most ancient, it is believed, of living European peoples. ”

“ He saw the invasion of Poland by the Reformation, and the democratic upheaval which placed all political power in the hands of the szlachta; he saw the collapse of the ancient order of the Knights of the Sword in the north (which led to the acquisition of Livonia by the republic) and the consolidation of the Turkish power in the south. ”

“ This extensive empire is at present divided into 16 large governments, that may come to be sudivided, when the northern and eastern countries come to be more inhabited. These 16 Governments, which contain severalimmense Provinces are the following: Livonia, Revel, Petersburg, and Wyburg, Archangel, Russian Lapland, Moscow, Smolensko, Novogorod and Kiow or the Ukraine, Belgurod Woronits and Nnchgorod Astracan, Orembourg, Gafan, and Great Permia, Siberia, Samogedes, the Ustizaks, Kamscatska &c.
Livonia, the nearest province to France, is one of the most fruitful in the whole north. ”

“ DAHLSTJERNA, GUNNO (1661–1709) , Swedish poet, whose original surname was Eurelius, was born on the 7th of September 1661 in the parish of Öhr in Dalsland, where his father was rector. He entered the university of Upsala in 1677, and after gaining his degree entered the government office of land-surveying. He was sent in 1681 on professional business to Livonia, then under Swedish rule. ”

“ An intermittent and desultory war, with Sweden and Poland simultaneously, for the possession of Livonia and Esthonia, went on from 1560 to 1582. Ivan’s generals (he himself rarely took the field) were generally successful at first, and bore down their enemies by sheer numbers, capturing scores of fortresses and towns. But in the end the superior military efficiency of the Swedes and Poles invariably prevailed. Ivan was also unfortunate in having for his chief antagonist Stephen Báthory, one of the greatest captains of the age. ”

“ The soil is not very fertile. Forests cover about two-fifths of the surface. The climate is rather severe. The mean temperatures are 43° F. at Riga (winter 23°, summer 63°) and 40° at Yuriev. The winds are very variable; the average number of rainy and snowy days is 146 at Riga (rainfall 24.1 in.) . Fogs are not uncommon.
The population of Livonia, which was 621,600 in 1816, reached 1,000,876 in 1870, and 1,295,231 in 1897, of whom 43.4% were Letts, 39.9% Ehsts, 7.6% Germans, 5.4% Russians, 2% Jews and 1.2% Poles. ”

“ Courland, which joins to Livonia, is still in vassaloge to Poland, though it depends greatly upon Russia. These are the western limits of this great empire in Christendom. More northward is the government of Revel and Easthonia. Revel was built by the Danes in the 13 century. The Swedes were in possession of this province from the time that country put itself under the protection of that crown. This is another of the conquests of Peter the Great. ”

“ Not till the vials of wrath had been outpoured could the kingdom of heaven come. Hofmann, who had preached " the true gospel " in Livonia and then had combated Luther's magical doctrine of the Eucharist at Stockholm, Kiel, and Strassburg, had by his voice and his pen acquired great influence over the artisans of northern Germany; and here, where men's dreams had not been rudely dispelled by the ravages of peasants and reprisals of Princes, revolutionary ideas took their deepest root and revolutionary projects appeared most feasible. ”

“ After the king’s death, Christina attached him, as a kind of poet laureate, to her court in Stockholm. His property lay in Livonia, and when the Russians plundered that province in 1656 the poet, who was in temporary disgrace at court, was reduced to extreme poverty for two or three years. He subsequently became judge at Trondhjem, member of the council of war (1661) , and president (1667) of the College of Antiquities at Stockholm. He died at Stockholm on the 22nd of April 1672. ”

“ What the Spaniards, the Gauls, the Macedonians, the Carthaginians did not dare to do, this the Ligurian is doing today; he comes up to the Roman rampart and actually surrounds and attacks our camp. And yet, formerly, it was hard to discover him after a close search as he lurked in his trackless hiding-places!" His words were met by a unanimous shout of approval from the soldiers. It was no fault of theirs, they said; no one had given the signal for a sortie; let him give the signal now, he would soon learn that the Romans and the Ligurians were the same that they had always been. ”

“ The river Po around you, the Po larger and more impetuous than the Rhone, the Alps behind, scarcely passed by you when fresh and vigorous, hem you in. Here, soldiers, where you have first met the enemy, you must conquer or die; and the same fortune which has imposed the necessity of fighting, holds out to you, if victorious, rewards, than which men are not wont to desire greater, even from the immortal gods. If we were only about to recover by our valour Sicily and Sardinia, wrested from our fathers, the recompence would be sufficiently ample ”

“ Only the other day I had placed my camp between your city and the Anio and was advancing my standards against the walls of Rome - here you see me, bereaved of my two brothers, brave soldiers and brilliant generals as they were, in front of the walls of my native place which is all but invested, and begging on behalf of my city that it may be spared the fate with which I have threatened yours. The greater a man's good fortune the less ought he to count upon it. Success attends you and has deserted us, and this will make peace all the more splendid to you who grant it ”

“ Next day he also encamped on the other side of the river, about a mile from the enemy; and by slight skirmishes protected the lands of the allies from their depredations. He did not think it prudent to hazard a general engagement, because his troops were raw, composed of many different kinds of men, and not yet so well known among themselves that they could rely on one another. The Ligurians depended so much on their numbers, that they not only came out and offered battle, willing to risk every thing on the issue of it ”

“ So if the poor fragment which came to us recently from Mainz was justly welcomed by scholars with great rejoicing, [115] what acclamation should greet this large addition to Livy's History?
Would to God that this author could be restored to us complete and entire. There are rumours flying round that give some hope of this: men boast of unpublished Liviana existing, now in Denmark, now in Poland, now in Germany. At least now that fortune has given us these remnants against all men's expectations, I do not see why we should despair of the possibility of finding still more. ”

“ Leghorn, the gay, sun-blanched Tuscan watering-place known to Italians as Livorno, is at its brightest and best throughout the month of August. To the English, save those who reside permanently in Florence, Pisa, or Rome, its beauties are unknown. But those who know Italy—and to know Italy is to love it—are well aware that at “cara Livorno,” as the Tuscans call it, one can obtain perhaps the best sea-bathing in Europe, and enjoy a perfectly delightful summer beside the Mediterranean. ”

“ The wide expanse of the valley, its pervading greenness, the scanty fringe of forest, clothing only the lowest hillsides, the glimpses of snow close at hand suggested Norway rather than Italy. Yet nature, if no lavish, seems a kindly friend to the peasantry of Livigno. No rude torrent tears up their elastic turf, no avalanche-track scars the smooth hillsides, no overshadowing mountain raises its bulk between the Diogeneses of the valley and their sunshine. ”