Inflanty Voivodeship

Coordinates: 55°52′23″N 26°31′01″E / 55.873170°N 26.517017°E / 55.873170; 26.517017
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Inflanty Voivodeship
Livonian Voivodeship
Województwo inflanckie
Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
1621–1772

Inflanty in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1635.
CapitalDyneburg
Area 
• 
12,000 km2 (4,600 sq mi)
History 
1621
• Treaty of Oliva
23 April 1660
5 August 1772
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Duchy of Livonia
Vitebsk Governorate

The Inflanty Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo inflanckie),[1] or Livonian Voivodeship, also known as Polish Livonia, was an administrative division and local government in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since it was formed in the 1620s out of the Wenden Voivodeship and lasted until the First Partition of Poland in 1772. The Inflanty Voivodeship was one of the few territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to be ruled jointly by Poland and Lithuania.

Overview

The Inflanty Voivodeship, also called the Duchy of Inflanty, due to a 1667 bill of the Sejm, was the minority remainder of the Duchy of Livonia, which had been conquered by the Swedish Empire during the Polish–Swedish War of 1621–1625. The seat of the voivode was Dyneburg (Daugavpils).

The name Inflanty is derived through

Latgalia in the Republic of Latvia.[2]

Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland provides this description of Inflanty Voivodeship:

“The land, called by the Poles Inflanty, in Latin Livonia, in German Liefland, and in Latvian Widzzemme, had the area of 1,092 sq. miles (...) It was inhabited by the Latvians, whose language is similar to Lithuanian, but still differs from it, as the Latvians interacted and mixed with the Estonians in central and northern Inflanty. The province, together with

Zygmunt August confirmed the Union of Grodno, which created a union between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Duchy of Livonia
(...)

The union resulted in a long and bloody struggle over Livonia, which at first was fought by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovy, later also by Sweden. Due to military victories of King

Marienhaus, and Lucyn. Local sejmiks took place at Dyneburg, while starostas resided at Dyneburg, Lucyn, Rzezyca and Marienhaus. The voivodeship had six deputies to the Sejm
, but only two of them came from Inflanty, the other four were symbolically named by the king, to remember the lost part of Livonia. Two deputies were elected to the treasury committee at Grodno (...)

Inflanty had several noble families. Some of them were descendants of German knights, such as the families of Borch, Plater, Hilzen, Zyberg, Weissenhof, Tyzenhaus, Grotus, Mohl, Denhof, Rejtan, Manteufel, others were Polish or Lithuanian settlers, such as the families of Szadurscy, Karniccy, Benislawscy, Sokolowscy, Kubliccy, Wereszczynscy (...)"[3]

Voivodes

Lithuanian-Livonian double-Denar with monogram of Grand Duke Stephen Báthory, coat of arms of Gotthard Kettler and the coat of arms of Lithuania, minted in Mitau, 1578

This is a list of the voivodes for Inflanty:

References

  1. ^ Niesiecki, Kasper (1846). Herbarz polski Kaspra Niesieckiego (in Polish). Waif. p. 227.
  2. ^ Inflanty Voivodeship, description by Zygmunt Gloger

Bibliography

55°52′23″N 26°31′01″E / 55.873170°N 26.517017°E / 55.873170; 26.517017