Estonia and Livonia: two Baltic provinces within the Swedish empire in the 17th century

The Baltic provinces formed a vital part of the Swedish empire in the 17th century. It was by taking Estonia under its wing in 1561 that Sweden took its first step towards becoming a European superpower, and the loss of the Baltic provinces to Russia as a result of the Great Northern War in 1721 reduced the empire to a second-rate state within Europe. Power over the Baltic provinces had provided Sweden with great strategic advantages both defensively and offensively. It also gave them the opportunity to control trade between Western Europe and the vast Russian market, ensuring access to Livonian food stocks – it was not for nothing that Livonia was known as the «granary of Sweden». The loss of the Baltic provinces was therefore a particularly painful one, and one which Sweden refused to accept for a long time. Throughout the 18th century, and in fact right up until the outbreak of World War I, the Swedish authorities and different circles within the country continued to plot their revenge and scheme to win back the lost provinces.

One issue related to the Baltic provinces which has yet to be systematically examined, but which deserves attention, is the actual position of the provinces within the Swedish empire. This article identifies and examines, in brief, the differences between Estonia and Livonia during the Swedish era, primarily in the provincial policy of the central state government, in order to create a deeper understanding of local and regional disparity for an accurate broader picture.

Estonia and Livonia only became independent administrative units with clear borders – which is to say, provinces/governorates – during the Swedish era. In comparing the two, the first thing that stands out is the inequality in terms of territory, settlement, population and economic potential: Livonia was much bigger. In one way or another, this also led to imbalance in other areas. A second important factor was the different historical development of Estonia and Livonia prior to the Swedish era. Both provinces brought idiosyncrasies with them from the past which continued to obtain under Swedish rule. The driving force behind the provincial policy of the Swedish authorities was the integration and unification of the provinces. If this had succeeded, the disparity between Estonia
and Livonia would have lessened. But their attempts produced only middling results.

Estonia and Livonia formally enjoyed the same status within the Swedish empire: they were duchies, governorates and provinces. However, in reality, Estonia was ahead of Livonia in rank, largely due to the fact that it had willingly submitted to Swedish rule, whereas Livonia had been won in battle. Moreover, Estonia had been part of the Swedish empire for much longer than Livonia had been. As such, the nobles and knights of Livonia – who made up the governing body in the province – never secured themselves as strong a position under central Swedish authority as did the nobility of Estonia.

The administrative regime that had developed earlier was largely preserved in Estonia. The Polish rule and years of war in Livonia had erased these old ways, and in the Swedish era a new structure needed to be built. As a result, the administrative apparatus of the province was much more modern and functional, and was staffed with better trained officials. State bureaucracy in Livonia therefore stood in contrast to the «estate of the realm»-style of administration in Estonia. Significant differences also resulted from the fact that Estonia was administratively more harmonised than Livonia, which was divided into Estonian and Latvian economic districts. The balance of state revenue and expenditure in the Baltic provinces exhibited a clear tendency: until the reduktion, Estonia remained consistently in the black, while Livonia was always seriously in the red. This was related to Livonia’s position: it was a border province in which fortresses needed to be erected and a large number of garrisons maintained. As a consequence, any surplus from Estonia was often used to finance the military needs of Livonia.

It is especially interesting to compare the situations of the peasantry in Estonia and Livonia in the Swedish era. The stronger position of state authority in Livonia – particularly following the reduktion – guaranteed, in principle, an improvement in the situation of the peasantry. The agrarian reforms implemented in Estonia were not as fundamental as those in Livonia, particularly when it came to protection of the peasantry. Some historians conclude that the general situation of Estonian peasants was better in Livonia than it was in Estonia itself.

The organisation of the church in the two provinces was also somewhat different due to the divergences in their historical development. Ecclesiastical reform tended to be initiated and implemented in Estonia by the clergy, while in Livonia it was representatives of the state – typically governors-general – who launched such reforms. In the fields of culture and education, Livonia had a clear lead over its neighbour. It was home to two institutions of state importance: the University of Tartu, and the Court of Appeal (Hofgericht). Moreover, the number of intellectuals, university students, and schools for the peasantry was considerably larger in Livonia than Estonia.

This article focuses on the differences between Estonia and Livonia. In order to obtain a broader view it is also important to highlight their important similarities. However, this does not fall within the remit of this article. There are considerably more studies on topics in Livonian than Estonian history, which has something of a «poor cousin» status in terms of research in early modern Baltic history. Generalisations in historical overviews are also often based on Livonian data. This encourages caution: Estonia and Livonia should not be viewed merely as two administratively delineated parts of the current territory of the contemporary state of Estonia. Instead, they were two semi-autonomous societies which existed in parallel to one another.

Nils Assersson Mannersköld as the governor of Ingria (1626—1643)

The article focuses on the activities of Nils Assersson Mannersköld as the governor of Ingria in the years 1626 to 1643. Based on the correspondence between Nils Assersson and Swedish central powers, the Swedish ambassador to Moscow, the general-governor of Livonia, and the voivodes of Novgorod and Pskov the article attempts to point out the main problems facing the governor during his term of office.

Although Nils Assersson had been appointed owing to his prior military experience, the main issues during his term of office were related to the population and the economy. Ever since the imposition of the Swedish rule in Ingria the population had been flowing out of the province. Repeat attempts to stop people from leaving – the border was guarded and agreements on extradition of refugees were made with the voivode of Novgorod – remained ineffective. In addition to the outflow of the population, constant shortages and bad weather conditions posed problems. The geographical location of the province offered much better opportunities for development of trade.

Due to the border location of the province, the governor of Ingria had to establish contacts with the voivodes of Pskov and Novgorod, who conducted themselves rather provocatively, impeding correspondence passing through their dominion and often violating the border. Nils Assersson managed to avoid major conflicts during his rule. Also, the governor of Ingria had to provide central powers with information about embassies passing through the country and foreign policy developments in and around the province.

One aspect of the Swedish policy in Ingria was the conversion of the local Orthodox population to Lutheranism. The Orthodox church was not directly banned, but its normal operation was impeded in various ways. Also, during Nils Assersson’s term of office the development of the administrative side of the Lutheran church continued, and in 1641 the superintendancy of Ingria was established.

Ingria had been in Swedish possession officially only as of 1617, and in previous centuries the system of government and traditions had been entirely different in the region. Thus, it is a remarkable achievement that Nils Assersson was able to ensure the accrual of taxes, avoid major conflicts with the voivodes of Pskov and Novgorod, and take care of development of the Lutheran church in Ingria during his entire term of office.

Lutheran territorial church and political power:
structural changes of the church constitution in Estland, 1561—1766

In early modern Europe, all Lutheran church organisations were directly dependent on political power. Lutheran reformation and the process of the institutionalisation of Lutheranism could proceed only in those political units where the authorities supported Lutheranism as an established religion. Also the subsequent developments in Lutheran church constitution were directly influenced by political power.

This article studies the three major changes in the Lutheran church organisation and governance in the province of Estland during the Swedish supremacy and the initial period of Russian rule: firstly, the formation of a territorial church during the decades following the establishment of Protestant political supremacy (1561); secondly, the transformation of the church organisation under the influence of Swedish Absolutism; and thirdly, the transformation of the church organisation and governance during the initial period of Russian rule until the stabilisation of the new order (1766). The use of clearly defined concepts helps to shed new light on the institutional relations of Estland’s church and the church organisation in the other parts of the Swedish conglomerate state. Earlier prominent researchers of Baltic church history have concentrated their efforts on either the Swedish or the Russian period, following an older historiographical tradition to study church history in the time frame of political history. The problem-based approach, however, which covers both the period of Swedish as well as Russian supremacy, enables to study the structural changes in Estland’s church organisation and governance as one continuous process and to draw new conclusions regarding the post-1710 church governance reforms.

During the establishment of Swedish rule in North Estonian territory (1561), King Eric XIV endorsed comprehensive privileges of self-governance for local nobility, but these did not include the right of church governance. Swedish central power took the decisive steps to build up a Lutheran church organisation in the province of Estland, appointing leading authorities and providing them with appropriate instructions.

The basic texts of religion were confirmed and the institutional organisation of the church was founded only several decades after the establishment of the Swedish supremacy, due to various factors. The confirmation of privileges for Harju-Viru and Järva (Harrien-Wierland and Jerwen) nobility by Eric XIV (1561) required adherence to the evangelical doctrine in rather general terms, but it did not specify the issue of the basic confessional texts. In 1593 the Uppsala Assembly declared Lutheranism on the basis of the Augsburg Confession to be the established religion of the Swedish state; in 1594 the Swedish central government confirmed for the first time, that in Estland the Augsburg Confession had to be the basis of religion. Only the bishop Joachim Jhering (1638–1657) managed to found an efficient and sustainable church government and by the early 1640s the territorial church of Estland made its appearance (in this context the territorial church indicates a legally and institutionally complete church organisation that in terms of territory coincided with a certain political unit. The organisation of the territorial church was based on a network of pastors and a system of government institutions; both elements functioned according to dedicated acts of church law). The governance of Estland’s territorial church corresponded to the Swedish episcopal model, i.e. the church was governed by the bishop and the consistory comprising only clerical members. The bishop of Estland had no authority over the town of Tallinn, which had a separate territorial church.

An absolutist government reform, carried out in the beginning of the 1680s, gave Charles XI power to unify the church organisation and governance in the Swedish conglomerate state. A new church law (1686) was implemented both in Sweden proper (including Finland) and in the Baltic dominions, and according to this basis church governance was unified in all these territories in the early 1690s. The king had the highest authority over the church. As a result of these changes, the church organisations in Sweden and in the Baltic provinces were unified into a single organisation, that of the Swedish territorial church. In the autumn of 1691 the town consistory and the office of superintendent of Tallinn were both abolished; the church organisation of Tallinn was subordinated to the bishop of Estland. Henceforth the church organisation of Estland’s province and the town of Tallinn formed a single bishopric in the Swedish territorial church.

After the establishment of Russian rule in 1710, Peter I confirmed the self-government privileges for the nobility and towns of the Baltic provinces. Initially the Russian central government did not interfere in matters of Lutheran church. The town council of Tallinn immediately took advantage of these circumstances to restore the territorial church of the town. In 1713, on the initiative of Estland’s Landratskollegium, the church government of the province was restored, but in a significantly modified way. The consistory comprised still only clerical members, but the office of the bishop was missing. Thanks to the re-establishment of the consistory the territorial church of Estland re-appeared.

In 1715 the Landratskollegium appointed one of its members as the president of the consistory. For the first time the church government of Estland was led by a representative of the secular power. Hence a version of the German consistorial model of church governance was established in Estland. This meant a change of system in Estland’s church governance. Due to the opposition of the clergy the new system of church governance was finally consolidated only in 1766.

Strategies for raising piety in Estonia and Livonia, 1621—1710.
Confessionalisation and pietism

After the Swedes had established their rule in Estonia and Livonia, they not only tried to secure the area politically and militarily but also sought to stabilise it in cultural and religious terms. In this they had long-lasting success. They started to implement a programme which already had been pursued for some time in Sweden proper. Similar strategies were also applied in other Lutheran countries. We call this today Christianisation, social disciplining or confessionalisation. Not only the teaching should be orthodox, it should also be made sure that it was of high quality and that it was properly understood by the people it was aimed at. The methods employed were the teaching of Christian knowledge and the enforcement of moral standards.

Since the Reformation, some ecclesiastical literature in Estonian and Latvian had been produced, but most of this seems to have been out of print by 1621. A new wave of publications now set in. During the 1630s and 1640s the books most essential for a confessionalisation campaign were produced in both languages: Martin Luther’s Little (or Shorter) Catechism, the pericopes, the history of Christ’s passion, the hymnal and liturgical formulae. Furthermore sermon collections and grammars of the local languages were published. These books were – as can be deduced from their quarto format and
bilinguality – meant for use by the clergy, not for the hands of simple peasants or servants. At the beginning the confessionalisation campaign was only conducted orally. Its results were controlled in visitations and documented in visitation reports.

Confessionalisation efforts were intensified in the 1680s. An important actor was the superintendant-general for Livonia, Johann Fischer, who is known for his pietist leanings. He organised the translation of the Bible into both Latvian and Estonian and had the above mentioned basic books reissued from his printing-shop in Riga. Now, however, the parallel texts in German and the German title pages were omitted, suggesting that these books were also aimed directly at the Estonian and Latvian populations. Furthermore, a system of parish schools was set up. However, their aim was not the general enlightenment of the peasant population. Teaching to read printed text was seen as an aid for learning essential texts by heart, i.e. the old aim was now persued by other means. Bearing these aims in mind, it is not surprising that there was no teaching of arithmetics or writing.

As it turned out, Fischer now very energetically pursued Lutheran orthodox strategies. This does not mean, however, that he had given up on his pietist ambitions. He simply realised that pietism could only grow where basic knowledge about the Christian faith was to be found. Since it was not possible to start with step two, he made every effort for a proper step one. The spread of literacy or the extended use of Estonian and Latvian in print are only side-effects of Fischer’s christianising efforts.

Antiquarianism and its signs in early modern Baltic historiography

Antiquarianism has its roots in the classical period, and the movement gained wide popularity during the early modern period. Though its definitions vary and its borders with other developing fields or genres such as ethnology, archaeology, travel literature, chorography and linguistics are vague, it is generally understood that antiquarianism involves collecting, describing, and cataloguing archival documents, historical and ethnic items, and then using these to write descriptions of various institutions and peoples. In a very wide sense, any historical work that is not strictly a chronological narrative of political events could be called antiquarian or said to have antiquarian influences.

The purpose of the present article is first to introduce briefly this movement, which has had very little introduction in the Estonian literature concerning historiography, and second, to consider whether this movement had any influence on seventeenthcentury Baltic chroniclers. This may help to characterize the way Baltic historians of the period thought about and wrote history, and also help determine which historiographical movements reached the Baltic and with what delay, if any.

It appears that while none of the historical works written in the seventeenth century were antiquarian in the strictest sense, most works showed at least some of its characteristics. This was most prevalent in the introductory passages or first books of the chronicles where the authors described the land and people. These introductions could be quite long and detailed describing the cities, castles and nature of the land in addition to the language, religion, appearance, customs and living conditions of the indigenous peoples (Estonians and Latvians). Paul Einhorn’s Historia Lettica and Johann Wolfgang Boecler’s work were devoted mostly to the beliefs and customs of the Latvians and the Estonians, respectively. We could also find that the chroniclers used documents and inscriptions and sometimes quoted them extensively. Moritz Brandis and Thomas Hiärn (Hiärne) also collected documents into separate collections. All things considered, we can say that seventeenth-century Baltic chroniclers were familiar with elements of antiquarian movement and/or used antiquarian works as examples for their own work.

Did Kelch read newspapers?

At the end of the 17th century, journalism – the discussion of contemporary social problems – was expressed in very different forms of the printed media: in addition to books, also in brochures, various one-off publications, pamphlets, trade fair publications, newspapers, magazines, posters, etc. Now it was possible to exchange information much faster and more frequently than before, focusing primarily on describing the present situation. In spite of the diversity of form, the primary subject matter of journalism remained politics as expressed in war and conflicts. This article discusses links between various forms of printed media, focusing on the journalism of the late 17th century and early 18th century.

The phenomenon of newspapers which emerged in Europe in the beginning of the 17th century increased considerably the possibilities of journalistic publications, making public opinion an important factor increasingly taken into account upon implementation of policies. During the Great Northern War, fought mainly in the Baltic Sea countries in the beginning of the 18th century, both sides used extensive war propaganda aimed at the public in the broadest sense. Single publications such as flyers and pamphlets were used as propaganda tools, and newspapers were keen on quoting them.

The subject of the Great Northern War has also an important place in the writings of two historians active in northern Estonia at the beginning of the 18th century: clergyman Christian Kelch and nobleman Otto Fabian von Wrangell. The article analyses whether, and to what extent, the authors obtained information from periodicals and flyers and whether reading newspapers may have been a regular activity for people at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries.

The history of the press has been viewed from the position of the central power communicating the news as well as from that of publishers interpreting the news. Often we also come across references to correspondents of the events. However, the reader’s dimension and the possibilities of interpretation deriving from it are more difficult to grasp. Should we to this end refer to the so-called great narratives? This is the question that the article attempts to answer.

Johann Reinhold von Patkul’s polemical writings

This article is a case study of early modern political polemics that focuses on the figure of Johann Reinhold von Patkul (1660–1707), the leader of the Livonian nobility in their opposition to the land-recovery project of King Charles XI of Sweden. In 1694 Patkul was sentenced to death for his seditious writings, but managed to flee Sweden and served later as councillor, diplomat, and army general in the courts of August II of Poland-Saxony and Peter the Great of Russia, notably helping to form and uphold the alliance that fought Sweden in the Great Northern War. Patkul’s fame was enhanced posthumously by his remarkable fall: while serving as the Russian ambassador at Dresden court, he was imprisoned by the Saxons and delivered to the Swedes, who were finally able to carry out the death sentence.

This article is the first attempt at a systematic survey of polemical debates around Patkul during his lifetime. This is a less-known aspect of Patkul’s life, but by no means an unimportant one. It was typical of Patkul’s activities that they were almost constantly accompanied by flurries of polemical battles, in which he himself played a major role.
Patkul understood the value of skilful propaganda for making and breaking reputations and hence for achieving one’s political aims. Patkul was no scholar but he was sufficiently educated (having studied at the University of Kiel) and witty to put his pen into effective use for the Livonian nobility, for his royal masters, and, finally, for himself.

The article is divided into three major parts. First, it studies the writings (which were deemed seditious by the royal court) that Patkul presented in the name of the nobility in the early 1690s. In these writings, Patkul outlined his views on the constitutional relationship of Sweden and Livonia, presenting it as a personal union in which both parts preserved their inherited rights and privileges, so that any royal initiative could only be implemented in Livonia with the express consent of the local estates. Patkul’s language of «rights» offended the sensibilities of the royalists who envisioned the king as an absolute and benevolent ruler who held responsibility for the common good of the entire realm, including Livonia. In their view, the nobility’s privileges did not have any other foundation than the royal will, and the king could revoke them if he deemed it necessary for the security and welfare of the realm.

The second major part of the article deals with the period of Patkul’s employment at the courts of August II and Peter I during the early stages of the Great Northern War, focusing, in particular, on his role as the author of writings that justified to international audiences the aggression of Saxony and Russia against Sweden. Patkul compiled documents in the name of the Livonian nobility that enabled August II to present his invasion as a campaign to liberate Livonia from «Swedish slavery», and he was also the probable author of the official manifesto in which this argument was put forward. While still in the service of Saxony, Patkul also offered his helping hand to the Russians, who had trouble justifying their aggression against Sweden to European audiences. Patkul drafted an alternative explanation for Russian actions that was spread unofficially as «Baron Langen’s relation». As opposed to official Russian declarations which, in a rather old-fashioned manner, explained the aggression as a response to offences suffered by the Tsar’s embassy in Riga in 1697, Patkul offered a totally different set of reasons that were more in line with contemporary international law.

The third part looks at the writings that Patkul published in 1701 and 1702. They were aimed at European readers to refute Swedish polemical attacks against his personal reputation and prove his innocence and the injustice of the Stockholm trial. In these writings, Patkul also used the opportunity to put forward, in a more systematic manner, his views on the status of Livonia in the Swedish empire and on the rights and duties of kings and subjects in general. His argument drew heavily on the modern doctrine of natural law, particularly the ideas of Samuel Pufendorf, which he skilfully applied to justify the traditional Livonian political system based on medieval common law principles of reciprocal rights and duties. The article ends with a short survey of polemics around Patkul at the final stages of his life. A comprehensive bibliography of both published and unpublished writings by Patkul and his opponents is included.

Laurentius Ludenius’ De informatione Prudentiae ad Usum liber (1627): an example of repeated use of compilative literature in dissemination of humanism in Estonia and Livonia

Published in 1627, De Informatione Prudentiae ad Usum liber is a collection of 57 academic disputations about historical and political subjects written by the professor of ethics, mathematics and history at the University Greifswald, Laurentius Ludenius. It belongs to the genre of encyclopaedic handbooks about political wisdom (prudentia civilis), which was very popular in Germany in the first decades of the 17th century. The structure and sources of this compilation are typical representatives of this genre. Yet analyses of the
dissemination and reception of it demonstrate that in bibliographic research in the Early Modern era, the autopsy of all extant copies is not enough to evaluate the real impact of the book; one lost copy may have had a much stronger influence as all the extant ones. Thus, the personal but now lost copy of Ludenius had a remarkable impact on the academic literature at the Academia Gustaviana (Dorpatensis), the Swedish province university in Livonia, from 1637–1643.

The beginnings of fennougristics and Thomas Hiärne

Thomas Hiärne’s Estonian, Livonian and Latvian History (Ehst-, Lyf- und Lettlaendische Geschichte) was written in the third quarter of the 17th century, though first published only in 1794. The first book depicts amongst other issues the Balto-Finnic ethnic groups and their languages and debates over their heritage and relationships. Unlike many of his contemporary authors, Hiärne was a self-taught person – his education did not go beyond the trivial school of Nyen. All the more remarkable was the clarity and consistency of his empirical inquiries, and his independence from pansophy and mythology of his time. In his book we find an exhaustive list of Balto-Finnic languages and a variety of Livonian words, including possibly the first Livonian text ever printed.

Finnish as an autonomous language is also mentioned in Joseph Justus Scaliger’s Diatriba de Europaeorum linguis (1599) as one amongst other minor European languages. The relationship between Finnish and Sami was first detected by Sebastian Münster in his Cosmography (1544). In the 17th century there appear to be several Swedish (Bureus, Messenius, Stiernhielm) and Central European (Komenský, Fogel) scholars who described Balto-Finnic languages and their relationship to one another.

Most of Hiärne’s contemporaries tried, unlike him, to link linguistic issues to biblical mythology. Astonishingly, Thuisko the fourth (sic!), son of Noah, was considered the forefather of Finnish folk. Historical approaches to fennougristics mention all of the early modern authors however vaguely connected to the field except for Thomas Hiärne. His statements, which are relatively ahead of their time, went unpublishe and were left out of the scholarly tradition. Hiärne’s list of Balto-Finnic and Baltic languages (which will not be discussed in this article) correspond to contemporary classifications.

Rector and pastor Johannes Forselius: Notes on his biography, everyday life and pedagogy

Johannes Haquini Forselius (ca 1607–1684) has a place in Estonian cultural history for two reasons. First, until recently he was wrongly thought to have been the author of a book actually written by Johann Wolfgang Boecler that depicts the superstitious ways of the Estonians. Second, he is also connected to the country through his son, Bengt Gottfried Forselius, who was the founder of peasant schools for Estonians and played an important part in renewing the Estonian literary language. This study begins with the biography of Johannes Forselius and concludes with a discussion of circumstances with broad cultural significance. Forselius was from Umeå in Sweden, and he represents the connection between Estonia and the first school founded anywhere for Sami children, established in Lycksele in 1632. The article clarifies Forselius’s work and activities at the Helsinki (Gammelstaden) school and his role both at the Tallinn cathedral school and as a close assistant to bishop Joachim Jhering. During his time as rector (1634/5–1641) the cathedral school became a respected institution, opening the way for its students to university and and to esteemed positions, such as parsons. As early as 1638 Forselius was using Comenius’s textbook Janua linguarum reserata in his teaching of Latin, which is the earliest known instance of the use of this book in Estonia.

In 1630s Tallinn witnessed a pedagogical turning point primarily related to the establishment of a secondary school (Gymnasium zu Reval) in 1631 and its first rector, Sigismund Evenius. Evenius is likened to great 17th century teachers as Wolfgang Ratke and Comenius, but his activities in Tallinn have drawn very little attention to date. Evenius remained in Tallinn not until the autumn of 1631, as previously believed, but at least until spring 1632, and he attempted to carry out the same kind of arrangements here for which he had been previously recognised as a rector in Halle and Magdeburg. After leaving Tallinn, he became a Saxe-Gotha church and school adviser in Weimar. The activities
of Evenius and his students Timotheus Polus, Gebhard Himsel, and David Gallus at Tallinn’s secondary school require further research, but even now it is safe to say that the school was comparable to the best examples of German education. Innovative ideas influenced also Forselius and the Tallinn cathedral school.

Forselius’s court cases and his letters to the consistory give us a glimpse into the everyday life of the pastor and his family. He was an enterprising and headstrong man who kept a careful count of his money and searched for ways to make it grow, including through property transactions. As a clergyman he attained high status, fulfilling obligations as a colleague to the bishop, as a member of the consistory, and as a dean. He gave his sons the best possible education and found worthy suitors among the clergy for his daughters. As the rector of the cathedral school and as the leader of the Harju-Madise and Risti congregations (St Matthias and Kreuz) for many years, Johannes Forselius plays an important part in the cultural history of Estonia.

Universities that trained medical doctors for the Baltic countries in the 17th century and early 18th century

The article provides a framework for further study on the novelty of medical ideas that learned physicians in Estonia, Livonia and Courland received from universities in the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. To that end, the concepts that were supported by the university professors who contributed to the education of the Baltic physicians, are explained. In addition, the academic studies of those professors and their relation to different medical concepts are highlighted. It appears that most of the above-mentioned
professors had studied at either the University of Padua or Leiden University. But their attitudes towards innovative medical ideas (such as Harvey’s theory of circulatory system, the teachings of Paracelsus, and Cartesianism) are often undefined since there are no comprehensive studies on how those ideas were received. The way the new scientific ideas were perceived by the Swedish professors has been thoroughly studied, but the role of medical professors from German universities in the distribution of novel ideas has largely remained unstudied. The ideas that medical doctors working in Baltic countries brought along from universities are reflected in a remarkable collection of sources – doctoral dissertations and disputations. The article gives the dissertation topics of all the known active physicians in the Baltic provinces in the 17th century and the data on their location.

The number of physicians in the Baltic lands in the 17th century was small, no more than 50. The largest number was represented in Riga where they worked as town physicians, independent practitioners, or military doctors. In Courland the doctors with academic educational background were mainly personal physicians to dukes. In the 17th century a doctor’s degree was considered the main criteria for high qualifications. Therefore at least 60% of physicians in the Baltic held a doctor’s degree.

The given framework on universities clarifies the following issues about Baltic medical doctors. They had studied in at least 17 different universities. The most eminent places for studying were the Dutch universities, foremost Leiden, but also Utrecht and Franeker. Leiden and Utrecht Universities were the top choices for Baltic physicians to defend their doctoral thesis. About half of the Baltic physicians with a doctoral degree defended their dissertations there.

Riga town physician Nicolaus Witte (1618–1688) enjoyed a most interesting period of study during his eight years in the Netherlands, witnessing directly the collision between the old ideas and the reception of new ones. A number of Baltic medical doctors studied at universities in central Germany (Leipzig, Wittenberg, Jena) and at Königsberg University, but most of them frequently moved from one university to another, and only some of them defended their doctoral thesis there. Doctoral dissertations were defended also at Padua, Kiel, Erfurt and the newly established university at Halle. Many medical professors at Tartu University studied at Uppsala University, where they also defended their master’s thesis.

Some Baltic physicians were able to travel further to the west in Europe to continue their studies, most commonly to England, France and Italy. David Krieg’s and Nicolaus Martini’s trips to England at the end of the 17th century and in the early 18th century could provide some fascinating materials for research.

Surveyors in the Baltic provinces at the time of the great reduktion

It was decided in 1680 in Sweden that a great «reduktion» should take place – the recovery of feoffments, or crown land, from the landed gentry. Since there were no geometric maps of the provinces, the work of the reduktion commissions in many areas involved extensive mapping. The measuring and registering of the land was designed to provide an overview of the situation and resources of the holdings that had fallen into the state’s hands and to streamline the procedure for the accounting of taxable ploughing land on estates.

The Swedish empire’s cadastre of the province of Livonia was conducted in three stages: the first survey was conducted between 1681 and 1684 (1687), while a revision of ploughing land was carried out in 1688 and a second survey between 1688 and 1710. Estonia was surveyed between 1687 and 1709, with a revision (or «inquisition») carried out between 1686 and 1688. The island of Saaremaa was surveyed and mapped during the period of the Great Northern War, from 1702 to 1709. The great cadastre produced large-scale maps of estates (the majority on the scale 1:10,400) accompanied by descriptive books. So-called «one-fifth maps» using a smaller scale to take in larger areas were also produced on the basis of the estate maps.

This article examines the activities of surveyors in mapping Estonia, Livonia and Saaremaa between 1681 and 1710 against the backdrop of the organisation of surveying work in the Swedish empire as a whole. The retrospective reports and the journals and correspondence of the surveyors, which are preserved in the National Archives of Sweden, shed light over the course of surveying and the problems encountered during the work. The material preserved in the Estonian Historical Archives – primarily mapping material and account books, although also papers left behind by the surveyors – are extremely useful in adding to the existing picture of the activities of the surveyors, their working conditions and their salaries.

Of the mapping which took place in the Swedish provinces, it is the first survey of Livonia which stands out. Around 40 hastily trained surveyors were charged with the task and worked on it simultaneously, producing beautiful and highly detailed maps. In contrast, the second survey of Livonia, as with the surveys of Estonia and Saaremaa, was much less frenetic and involved far fewer surveyors. They did produce a large number of maps, but due to a shortage of time many were not drawn up to the same level of detail as those in the first Livonian survey, and those that were betray signs of the pressure under which the work was done.

«A surveyor is like a soldier, albeit one without any gunpowder or bullets,» was a saying used to describe 17th-century surveyors in Swedish surveying history. It underscored the fact that surveyors’ job was the hardest of all the civil positions, requiring them to be constantly outdoors, exposed to whatever conditions were prevailing at the time, enduring cold and hunger and carrying out exact drawing work in primitive accommodations. Working with arrogant estate owners proud of their status and apathetic commoners was also difficult. The peasantry took a dim view of the surveyors trampling paths across their fields and through their forests. The work was further complicated by the fact that it was being managed from two different centres – the main surveying office in Stockholm on the one hand and on the other, local governors and fief lords who often had different ideas about the way in which things should be done. And although the surveyors were fully supported by the state, they often encountered difficulties obtaining their wages.

Thanks to the large numbers of surveyors who worked on the territory of modern day Estonia, a wealth of beautiful map work is available for many areas dating back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The cadastral charts and descriptive books that have survived are important historical documents: alongside data relating to settlement, the economy and social history, they help to provide us with unique information about historical microtoponymy, the development of the cultural landscape, and the history of cartography.

Complaint visits of the peasants of Livland and Estland to Stockholm in 1681—1700

Visits of the peasants from Livland and Estland to Stockholm to hand in their letters of grievances to the king have been a rather well-known fact in the existing historiography. However, the complaint visits of Estonian coastal Swedes to Sweden in the second half of the 17th century have been more closely studied, whereas similar ventures of Estonian and Latvian peasants have been studied only occasionally. The existing historiography does not provide any overview of how many peasants from Livland and Estland actually went to complain to Stockholm, nor do we know what they achieved with their visits. These questions are the focus of this paper. It focuses on the period from 1681 to 1700, i.e. from the great reduktion of manors to the beginning of the Great Northern War. There is very little known about the complaint visits of peasants to Sweden from the period preceding the reduktion of the 1680s. But after the manors were declared the possessions of the king, the self-consciousness of peasants increased noticeably and there was a sharp rise in the number of visits of the peasants to Stockholm. As the written complaints taken to Sweden were, as a rule, followed by reactions from the government or court investigations, much more source material on these visits has been preserved. The enthusiasm of peasants decreased only during the Great Northern War. The appendix at the end of the paper is an attempt to list all known complaint visits of Livonian and Estonian peasants to Stockholm in the period between 1681 and 1700.

The thought of going to complain to the king himself in Stockholm was always instigated by a feeling of injustice. Peasants never asked for greater rights for themselves or even restriction of the rights of the manorial lords, but instead for the lords to treat them in the way prescribed by the norms as they saw them. Making a trip to Stockholm to complain to the king was undoubtedly the protest form requiring the most planning and organisation from the peasants of Livland and Estland. The two clearest peak periods of the visits of the peasants to Sweden came in 1684 and 1696. In 1684 a large delegation of peasants from Oberpahlen (Põltsamaa) went to Stockholm, opening the way for other Estonian peasants. But the flow of complaints by peasants clearly fell after 1696. This may have been caused by the consequences of the Great Famine of 1696–1697. In the period 1681 to 1700, the total number of the visits made by the peasants from Livland and Estland to Stockholm to complain was at least 50 to 60. It is not known, however, in each case whether the peasants who had signed the complaints went to Sweden themselves or whether they gave their letters to peasants from some other manor who were going to Sweden. One of the most difficult remaining questions is how close to the king the peasants actually got, and to whom they submitted their letters.

Certain regionalisation can be noticed with regard to peasants who took letters of complaint to the king. It was rather usual that when the peasants of a certain manor had already been to Stockholm once, more complaint visits from the same manor or the neighbouring ones were made. We can clearly distinguish the regions with the most active peasants: coastal Swedes from Dagö (Hiiumaa), Worms (Vormsi) and Ragö (Pakri) areas; peasants from Salis (Salaca), Ottenhof (Vecate), Bauenhof (Bauni) and Burtneck (Burtnieki) manors, who acted together; the neighbouring manors of Attel (Atla) and Kuimetz (Kuimetsa); Oberpahlen, Leal (Lihula), Trikaten (Trikate), Alt-Pebalg (Vecpiebalga) manors and the manors of their immediate surroundings. The peasants of the manors mentioned above made nearly two-thirds of the complaints found so far from the period studied. As for Ösel (Saaremaa) and Wierland (Virumaa), no complaint visits of the peasants are known from this period, which is hard to explain. One can also conclude that although the complaint visits of the coastal Swedes from Western Estonia are the best known in the existing historiography, it was actually Estonian peasants from Estland and Livland who most frequently went to Stockholm over the last two decades of the 17th century, and even Latvian peasants reached Sweden more often than the coastal Swedes. It must also be stressed, of course, that the complaints of the peasants were received by local rulers in even bigger numbers. It was often the case that peasants submitted their complaints first to the government of the province and then to the king. And local authorities often complained that peasants had travelled to Stockholm to see the king without waiting for a local decision. Generally, the attitude of state authorities towards the complaints of peasants presented to the king was based primarily on the principles of bureaucracy and the fiscal interests of the government. The authorities also tried to maintain correct official correspondence regarding the complaints of peasants.

The peasants did not achieve much with their complaints, but they managed to keep the subject concerning their situation on the agenda both in Stockholm and at the level of the province governments. Thus, although the right to complain accompanied by the relevant procedure was ensured to the peasantry of Livland and Estland (including the private peasants) during the last two decades of the 17th century, the peasants mostly only had the pleasure of exercising this right.

Early modern travelogues about Estonia

The article focuses on travelogues of the second half of the 16th century and the 17th century which were written on travels to Estonia and Livonia. There is an overview of the nature of the descriptions, the authors and what has become of these texts.

How much and in what way Estonian territory is discussed in a travelogue depends mostly on the choice of genre. The longest and most thorough descriptions of local conditions are included in classical travelogues. Diplomatic presentations usually briefly characterize the conditions of passenger traffic, virtually ignoring the country and its inhabitants. Also, political treatises do not discuss local conditions. Adventurous narrations, by contrast, are interesting to read. They are largely written for entertainment and often present many interesting views about history.

Most of the texts were not available to the public during the lifetime of the authors and eventually landed up in archives. Many of them were published decades or even centuries later, though entertaining adventures were published sooner. Published travelogues were usually widely distributed and were quickly translated into many languages. Four fifths of the authors of travelogues have been members of embassy staffs or travelled by order of the ruler. Travelogues were written by highly educated members of the middle and upper layers of society, and their authors generally had a good command of languages.

A list of 46 travelogues is attached to the article.

Seafaring and shipbuilding in Narva in the second half of the 17th century

In the final decades of the 17th century Narva became an important transit trade centre. On the one hand, this resulted from state-wide as well as local economic policy decisions by Swedish authorities, but on the other hand the constant waging of war in Western Europe had a positive impact on the economic activity of neutral warehousing sites. In the last quarter of the 17th century the need for Russian and northern European goods increased drastically in the Netherlands, England and southern European countries. The increased demand for Russian goods that passed through Narva strengthened the business contacts of local merchants, increased their wealth, and thus strengthened their financial positions in competition. The people of Narva, who previously had to focus on passive mediation, now looked for opportunities to become actively involved in trading, procuring raw materials from Russia, and processing these in Narva for export to the West. They needed ships for transporting the processed commodities, but the sea-going states that had traditionally supplied Narva with cargo services lacked them during the period of wars. Hence the need to acquire one’s own ships in order to send goods to the West without overly depending on external factors. First, they bought ships, but owing to the increased wealth during the period of high economic conjuncture they started building them on the spot.

The article focuses on the ships that sailed under the flag of Narva in the second half of the 17th century; the reasons why the people of Narva acquired ships; what goods they carried and to which West European destinations; what the technical details of the ships were (size and other measurements); who the captains of the ships were, etc. Also, attention is given to documentation related to seafaring (maritime passports, exemption letters, port logs, Öresund customs books, etc.).

The first oceangoing vessel from Narva that is mentioned in the archives is the merchant ship Fortuna, which sailed in 1654–1655 and could accommodate 65 cargo units. The people of Narva acquired the ship during the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654), when the hopes of becoming rich by pursuing active maritime trade were high. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667) the people of Narva had a few ships that sailed through Öresund to Western Europe. The same happened during the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–1674). In 1674 the people of Narva had five ships in total. Acquisition of ships became massive in the middle of the 1680s, and over the next 15 years the number of ships that partially or fully belonged to Narva’s merchants rose to more than 80 ships of different sizes. This explosive growth is related to the war of sea-going states of England and the Netherlands against France between 1689 and 1697. According to records, from 1684 to 1686 only one new ship was put into use in Narva each year, but in 1688 there were 2,
1689 – 5, 1690 – 3, 1691 – 2, 1692 – 12, 1693 – 7, 1694 – 6, 1695 – 6, 1696 – 6, 1697 – 5, 1698 – 4, 1699 – 3, and in 1700 – 1. The number of vessels that could accommodate 20–49 cargo units was 36; 11 could carry 50–79 cargo units; four could accommodate 80–109 cargo units; six could handle 110–139 cargo units; six could accommodate 140–169 cargo units; seven could handle 170–199 cargo units; and three could accommodate 200 cargo units. The place and/or time of building 33 ships that belonged to the merchants of Narva are known. Sixteen ships had been built in Narva; 6 in Sweden or Finland; 4 in the Netherlands; 3 in neighbouring city of Nyen; 2 in Hiiumaa; and 1 in Wismar. The data on the ships has been given in Appendix 1. Over time the people of Narva also operated with small ships (Schuten), which sailed between Narva, Stockholm and Tallinn. However, it appears from port logs that the share of the ships from Narva in the imports and exports of goods was modest (see Table 1 in the text). Only in 1694 was it slightly higher: 7.9% in imports and 9% in exports.

The main destinations of the ships from Narva were English ports which, on the one hand, can be attributed to a large English community in Narva and, on the other hand, the demand of the English market for the commodities of Northwest Russia and the desire to market tobacco and other English goods in return. In Western Europe, French, Spanish and Portuguese ports have been visited, while the farthest place reached by the vessels of Narva was Genoa. Amsterdam and other Dutch ports were not high on the list of destinations of the ships from Narva. Intensive timber trade en route from Narva to Amsterdam was primarily serviced by Dutch vessels at the time. It also appears from the customs books of Narva that Dutch vessels carried timber loaded by local merchants. Around the Baltic Sea the main partners of Narva were Stockholm, Tallinn and Lübeck. See also Appendix 4.

Shipbuilding in Narva began in 1689 when the first large vessel was constructed. From 1692 to 1694 one ship was constructed in Narva each year. In the mid-1690s, shipbuilding in Narva intensified. According to available information, two ships were completed in Narva’s shipyards in 1695, three ships in 1696 and 1697, and the construction of one more ship was in progress in 1698. These ships remained sailing under the flag of Narva. The archives do not indicate how many ships were sold.

Another matter is who underwrote such extensive shipping. It appears that in many cases the people of Narva were merely figureheads and the vessels that belonged to them by name were in fact business projects of West Europeans for whom it was expedient to associate themselves with some merchants from Narva. Thus, maritime passports issued by the Narva City Council contain only the names of the citizens of Narva and sometimes those of some Swedish cities, but never the names of any foreigners. This fraudulent system was supported by customs incentives made for Swedish ships and goods in Swedish cities and a customs exemption in Öresund. West Europeans did not have analogous rights and freedoms – they had to pay customs duties to the full extent. Also, merchants from states
that were at war found it expedient to show that their ships belonged to merchants of neutral states, in order to minimise the risk of confiscation and ensure the influx of goods.