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Curonian Kings
Curonian Kings ( gml, Cursken konyngh; german: Kurische Könige; lv, kuršu ķoniņi) are a Latvian cultural group, originally lesser vassals and free farmers that lived in seven villages between Goldingen (Kuldīga) and Hasenpoth (Aizpute) in Courland. History It is unclear how Curonian Kings gained their status, however, a popular assumption is that their ancestors were Curonian nobility prior to conquest by Livonian Order. They were first mentioned in a document of 1320 and lived in the villages of Ķoniņciems, Pliķu ciems, Kalējciems, Ziemeļciems, Viesalgciems, Sausgaļciems, and Dragūnciems (now in Kuldīga municipality). All of them possessed independent farms (did not belong to any lord), but they were not allowed to own their own serfs. They had only one landlord komtur of Kuldīga and they were related to him only by military service in case of war. Curonians usually served as a light cavalry in the Livonian Order army. Sources mention that Curonia ...
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Kuldīga Municipality
Kuldīga Municipality ( lv, Kuldīgas novads) is a municipality in Courland, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2009 by merging Ēdole parish, Gudenieki parish, Īvande parish, Kabile parish, Kurmāle parish, Laidi parish, Padure parish, Pelči parish, Renda parish, Rumba parish, Snēpele parish, Turlava parish, Vārme parish and Kuldīga town. The administrative centre is Kuldīga. As of 2020, the population was 22,028. During the 2021 Latvian administrative reform, the previous municipality was merged with Alsunga Municipality and Skrunda Municipality. The new municipality now fully corresponds with the area of the former Kuldīga District. History Kuldīga municipality was established on July 1, 2009. Before that, it was a part of Kuldīga District, which also included Alsunga and Skrunda districts. Kuldīga district was established in 1949. From 1952 to 1953, Kuldīga district was included in Liepāja District. From 1819 to 1949, most of Kuldīga parish be ...
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Livonian Crusade
The Livonian crusade refers to the various military Christianisation campaigns in medieval Livonia – in what is now Latvia and Estonia – during the Papal -sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 12–13th century. The Livonian crusade was conducted mostly by the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Denmark. It ended with the creation of Terra Mariana and the Danish duchy of Estonia. The lands on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea were one of the last parts of Europe to be Christianised. On 2 February 1207, in the territories conquered, an ecclesiastical state called ''Terra Mariana'' was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, and proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1215 as a subject of the Holy See. After the success of the crusade, the Teutonic- and Danish- occupied territory was divided into six feudal principalities by William of Modena. Wars against Livs and Latgalians (1198–1209) By the time German traders began to arrive in the second half of the 1 ...
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Livonian Confederation
Terra Mariana (Medieval Latin for "Land of Mary") was the official name for Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia ( nds, Oolt-Livland, liv, Jemā-Līvõmō, et, Vana-Liivimaa, lv, Livonija). It was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade, and its territories were composed of present-day Estonia and Latvia. It was established on 2 February 1207, as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, but lost this status in 1215 when Pope Innocent III proclaimed it as directly subject to the Holy See. The papal legate William of Modena divided Terra Mariana into feudal principalities: the Duchy of Estonia (dominum directum to the king of Denmark); the Archbishopric of Riga; the Bishopric of Courland; the Bishopric of Dorpat; the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek; and territories under the military administration of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. After the 1236 Battle of Saule, the surviving members of the Brothers merged in 1237 with the Teutonic Order of Prussia and became known as the Li ...
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Latvian Land Reform Of 1920
The Latvian Land Reform of 1920 ( lv, 1920. gada agrārā reforma Latvijā) was a land reform act expropriating land under the Republic of Latvia in 1920 (during the Latvian War of Independence shortly after independence). The agrarian reform law of 1920 sought to transfer most of the land from Baltic German nobles to Latvian farmers. On September 16, 1920 Constitutional Assembly of Latvia passed the law of the Land reform, which would break up large landholdings and redistribute land to those peasants who worked it and to the newly created Latvian State Land Fund. Similar land reforms were carried out in Estonia (1919), Lithuania (March 29, 1922) and Poland (December 28, 1925). Background Before World War I some 2% of landowners owned 53% of land in Kurzeme and Vidzeme, in Latgale it was 38%. The Agrarian reform Law of September 16, 1920 created State Land Fund which took over 61% of all land. Objective The main objectives of the reform were several - the creation of new ...
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Courland Governorate
The Courland Governorate, also known as the Province of Courland, Governorate of Kurland (german: Kurländisches Gouvernement; russian: Курля́ндская губерния, translit=Kurljándskaja gubernija; lv, Kurzemes guberņa; lt, Kuršo gubernija; et, Kuramaa kubermang) and known from 1795 to 1796 as the Viceroyalty of Courland was one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, that is now part of the Republic of Latvia. The governorate was created in 1795 out of the territory of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia that was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the province of Courland with its capital at Mitau (now Jelgava), following the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Courland and Livonia were united to form new state Republic of Latvia on 18 November 1918. Geography The governorate was bounded in the north by the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Riga and the Governorate of Livonia; west by the Baltic Sea; south by the Vilna Governor ...
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Socage
Socage () was one of the feudal duties and land tenure forms in the Feudalism, English feudal system. It eventually evolved into the freehold tenure called "free and common socage", which did not involve feudal duties. Farmers held land in exchange for clearly defined, fixed payments made at specified intervals to feudal lords. The lord was therefore obligated to provide certain services, such as protection, to the farmer and other duties to the Crown. Payments usually took the form of cash, but occasionally could be made with goods. Socage contrasted with other forms of tenure, including serjeanty, frankalmoin and knight-service. The England and Wales, English statute ''Quia Emptores'' of Edward I of England, Edward I (1290) established that socage tenure passed from one generation or nominee to the next would be subject to inquisitions post mortem, which would usually involve a feudal relief tax. This contrasts with the treatment of Leasehold estate, leases, which could be lif ...
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Serfs
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century. Unlike slaves, serfs could not be bought, sold, or traded individually though they could, depending on the area, be sold together with land. The kholops in Russia, by contrast, could be traded like regular slaves, could be abused with no rights over their own bodies, could not leave the land they were bound to, and could marry only with their lord's permission. Serfs who occupied a plot of land were required to work for the lord of the manor who owned that land. In return, they were entitled to protection, justice, and the right to cultivate certain fields within the manor to maintain their own subsistence. Serfs were often r ...
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Duchy Of Courland And Semigallia
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia ( la, Ducatus Curlandiæ et Semigalliæ; german: Herzogtum Kurland und Semgallen; lv, Kurzemes un Zemgales hercogiste; lt, Kuršo ir Žiemgalos kunigaikštystė; pl, Księstwo Kurlandii i Semigalii) was a duchy in the Baltic region, then known as Livonia, that existed from 1561 to 1569 as a nominally vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and subsequently made part of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom from 1569 to 1726 and incorporated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1726. On March 28, 1795, it was annexed by the Russian Empire in the Third Partition of Poland. There was also a short-lived wartime state existing from March 8 to September 22, 1918, with the same name. Plans for it to become part of the United Baltic Duchy, subject to the German Empire, were thwarted by Germany's surrender of the Baltic region at the end of the First World War. The area became a part of Latvia at the end of World War I. History In 1561 ...
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Coat Of Arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full achievement (heraldry), heraldic achievement, which in its whole consists of a shield, supporters, a crest (heraldry), crest, and a motto. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to an individual person, family, state, organization, school or corporation. The term itself of 'coat of arms' describing in modern times just the heraldic design, originates from the description of the entire medieval chainmail 'surcoat' garment used in combat or preparation for the latter. Roll of arms, Rolls of arms are collections of many coats of arms, and since the early Modern Age centuries, they have been a source of information for public showing and tracing the membership of a nobility, noble family, and therefore its genealogy across tim ...
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Muscovite Russia
The Grand Duchy of Moscow, Muscovite Russia, Muscovite Rus' or Grand Principality of Moscow (russian: Великое княжество Московское, Velikoye knyazhestvo Moskovskoye; also known in English simply as Muscovy from the Latin ) was a Rus' principality of the Late Middle Ages centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the Tsardom of Russia in the early modern period. It was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, who had ruled Rus' since the foundation of Novgorod in 862. Ivan III the Great titled himself as Sovereign and Grand Duke of All Rus' (russian: государь и великий князь всея Руси, gosudar' i velikiy knyaz' vseya Rusi). The state originated with the rule of Alexander Nevsky of the Rurik dynasty, when in 1263, his son, Daniel I, was appointed to rule the newly created Grand Principality of Moscow, which was a vassal state to the Mongol Empire (under the "Tatar Yoke"), and which eclipsed and eventually absorbed its parent duchy o ...
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Walter Von Plettenberg
Wolter (or Walter) von Plettenberg (c. 1450 – February 28, 1535) was the Master (''Landmeister'') of the Livonian Order from 1494 to 1535 and one of the greatest leaders of the Teutonic knights. He was an important early Baltic German. Biography Wolter von Plettenberg was born in Welver (in Meyerich Castle), Westphalia. Belonging to the House of Plettenberg, he was the first child of his father Berthold von Plettenberg and his mother Gosteke Lappe, but had at least seven siblings. He went to work at the Fort of Narva at the age of ten and joined the Teutonic Order when he was about 14. In 1489 he was elected to marshal of the Order (''Landmarschall''), in 1491 he fought successfully against the city of Riga and was elected master in 1494. That same year Moscow closed down the Hanseatic office in Novgorod and imprisoned Hanseatic merchants (most of them Livonians) there. Livonia was drifting into war with Muscovite Russia. After negotiations in 1498 failed, Plettenberg ...
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