ALBRECHT VON BRANDENBURG´S SPEECH AT THE CORONATION OF SIGISMUND II AUGUST AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE BALTIC IN THE XVI CENTURY

Abstract

The struggle for control over trade routes in the Baltic Sea, which began in the 16th century, has left a controversial mark in the history of the Baltic states. On the one hand, it launched the processes of the formation of new state models, and on the other hand, it led to an internal crisis and the decline of some Baltic states, one of which was the Old Livonia. This article presents a previously unpublished document reflecting an important stage in the actualization of the system of ties between the figure of the Polish-Lithuanian monarch and the archbishops of Riga. This political and legal concept was used by Sigismund II Augustus to expand political influence and substantiate the legitimacy of his actions in Livonia on the eve and at the initial stage of the Livonian War. The prerogative of patronage of the Jagiellons connected to the medieval tradition and had a seignorial-paternalistic basis, subsequently playing the role of a legal basis for the final registration of citizenship relations. The document can be used to reconstruct the features of political consciousness characteristic of the legal field in the 16th century, as well as to expand ideas about the dynamics of the development of state and legal systems in the earlier modern era.

Keywords

• poland
• livonia
• sigismund i