| Inflanty Voivodeship Livonian Voivodeship Województwo inflanckie | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voivodeship of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth | |||||||||
| 1621–1772 | |||||||||
 Inflanty in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1635. | |||||||||
| Capital | Dyneburg | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• | 12,000 km2 (4,600 sq mi) | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 1621 | |||||||||
• Treaty of Oliva | 23 April 1660 | ||||||||
| 5 August 1772 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
TheInflanty Voivodeship (Polish:Województwo inflanckie),[1] orLivonian Voivodeship (Lithuanian:Livonijos vaivadija),[2] also known asPolish Livonia, was an administrative division and local government in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since it was formed in the 1620s out of theWenden Voivodeship and lasted until theFirst Partition of Poland in 1772. The Inflanty Voivodeship was one of the few territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to be ruled jointly byPoland andLithuania.
The Inflanty Voivodeship, also called theDuchy of Inflanty, due to a 1667 bill of theSejm, was the minority remainder of theDuchy of Livonia, which had been conquered by theSwedish Empire during thePolish–Swedish War of 1621–1625. The seat of thevoivode was Dyneburg (Daugavpils).
The nameInflanty is derived throughPolonization ofLivland, the German name forLivonia. In modern times the region is known asLatgalia in the Republic ofLatvia.[3]
Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental bookHistorical 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 withCourland, was in the 13th century conquered by the Germans of theLivonian Brothers of the Sword. Later on, however, facing three powerful neighbours:Muscovy,Swedish Empire, and thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the monks found it difficult to keep their independence. AfterEstonia had been seized by Sweden, Great MasterGotthard Kettler voluntarily decided to seek for help from Polish king. With permission of Livonian towns and knights, on 28 November 1561 inVilnius, a document was signed, which turned Livonia into a Polish–Lithuanianfief (seeTreaty of Vilnius (1561)). On December 26 of the same year, KingSigismund Augustus confirmed theUnion of Grodno, which created a union between theGrand Duchy of Lithuania and theDuchy 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 the military victories of KingStephen Báthory, the Commonwealth's control of Livonia was confirmed in 1582, when the province was divided into three presidencies, with capitals at Dorpat, Wenden and Parnawa (...) In 1598, KingSigismund III Vasa renamed the presidencies intovoivodeships (...) Since Livonia was greatly desired by her neighbours, keeping control over it resulted in costly wars, which, despite efforts ofJan Zamoyski andJan Karol Chodkiewicz, were a lost cause (...) TheTreaty of Oliwa in 1660 returned to the Commonwealth only one-fifth of Livonia, which was named Inflanty Voivodeship (...) The WarsawSejm of 1677 settled the case of Inflanty, naming it a voivodeship and a duchy, with the right to name three senators: the Bishop, the Voivode and theCastellan of Inflanty (...) Since theUnion of Lublin named Livonia a joint Polish–Lithuanian possession, all royal bills for the province were stamped with both Polish and Lithuanian stamps. The post-1660 Inflanty Voivodeship was divided into four so-called tracts, named after seats of starostas. These wereDyneburg,Rzezyca,Piltyn,Marienhaus, andLucyn. Localsejmiks took place at Dyneburg, while starostas resided at Dyneburg, Lucyn, Rzezyca and Marienhaus. The voivodeship had six deputies to theSejm, 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 (...)"[4]
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This is a list of thevoivodes for Inflanty:
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