Courland now. How the Duchy of Courland became a Russian province

Courland- a duchy that existed in the western part of modern Latvia, on the territory of the historical regions of Kurzeme (Courland) and Zemgale (Semigallia), from 1562 to 1795. Throughout almost the entire history of the duchy, until 1791, the rulers of Courland from the Kettler (1562-1711) and Biron (1737-95) dynasties recognized themselves as vassals of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that replaced it. The capital of the duchy was Mitava (now Jelgava in Latvia). During the third partition of Poland (March 1795), Courland was annexed to Russian Empire, where on its territory it was formed Courland Governorate.

WITH detailed history Courland can be found in the section History of the Baltic States. For example, all the circumstances of the appearance of Courland are described in the chapter Courland in the 16th century. And the decline and entry into Russia are described in the chapter Courland in the 18th century, entry into Russia.

Until 1562, the history of Courland is closely connected with the history Livonian Order. In 1559 grand master Order of Gotthard Ketler recognized the protectorate Polish king Sigismund II Augustus over Livonia. Thanks to this, in 1561, with the collapse of the order's lands, the former master of the order, Gotthard Ketler, retained Courland and took the title of duke. Secularized Courland became feudally dependent, first on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and eight years later, after the Union of Lublin, on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but it protected itself from the expansion of Ivan the Terrible.

At the time of its formation, the duchy had only three cities: Hasenpot, Goldingen and Vindava. In 1566, the Poles ousted Ketler from Riga, after which he was forced to settle in the castles of Goldingen and Mitau, thereby spurring the development of both cities. Mitau received the status of capital; the Courland Landtag met there twice a year. Later Bausk and Libava became cities.

Having abandoned stadtholdership in Livonia in 1568, Ketler focused all his attention on internal reforms in the duchy: he took care of the widespread dissemination of reformation teachings, established general church visits, raised education, and contributed to the restoration of trade relations with Livonia and Poland. Aware of the fragility of the current situation, and in order to ensure hereditary succession, Ketler in 1570 issues the newly-minted landowners - former Livonian knights - the “Gotthard privilege”, according to which they become the owners of their possessions and universal serfdom. A third of the Courland lands remained at the disposal of Ketler himself.

After Ketler's death (1587), his sons divided the duchy - Frederick received Semigallia with its capital in Mitau, and Wilhelm remained the ruler of Courland with his residence in Goldingen. The brothers managed to increase their father’s possessions by buying out the bishopric of Pilten from the heirs of Magnus of Livonia and acquiring the order’s castle of Grobina and its neighborhood through a marriage (they were mortgaged by the knights to the Duke of Prussia). Wilhelm, however, quarreled with his brother and waged a fight against free spirits in his domains. The landowners were supported by the king and, after the murder of opposition leaders during a meeting of the Landtag, Duke William was deprived of the throne in 1616. Frederick ruled alone until his death in 1642, adopting his father's peaceful policies.

After Frederick's death, William's son, Jacob Kettler (1642-1682), became Duke. He received good education, traveled a lot, was fond of the ideas of mercantilism, patronized the development of ports (Vindava and Libau) and trade with other countries. Duke Jacob's initiative was also the development of metallurgical production in the territory of the duchy. The export of products (in particular, weapons) made a significant contribution to the development of the economy of the duchy.

Jacob Kettler even made a number of attempts to establish himself on James Island off the Guinea coast. A West Indian colony was founded on the island of Tobago on 20 May 1654, when Captain Willem Mollens declared the island "New Courland". It was also planned to expand the Mitavskaya harbor by lowering the Aa River into the sea.

With the outbreak of the First Northern War, the Swedes invaded Courland, suspecting him of having friendly relations with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The Duke was captured and taken to Riga (1658), his overseas possessions were captured by the Dutch. The appearance of Sapieha stopped the progress of the Swedes. According to the Peace of Oliwa (1660), the Swedes renounced all claims to Courland; At the same time, Jacob also returned from captivity.

Jacob's son, Friedrich Casimir (1682-1698), surrounded himself with luxury, lavished the entire treasury on court splendor; he had to mortgage several ducal estates and sell New Courland to the British. He received Peter the Great in Mitau. After his death, the throne passed to his young son, Frederick William, whose guardian was his uncle, Ferdinand.

With the outbreak of the Great Northern War, Courland again became a theater of military operations, passing from the hands of the Swedes to the hands of the Russians. The Swedes finally left Courland after the Battle of Poltava; Sheremetev took it. In 1710, Friedrich Wilhelm returned to Courland and married the niece of Peter the Great, Anna Ioannovna. On the way from St. Petersburg to Courland, the Duke fell ill and died in January 1711.

From now on Russian influence significantly intensifies in Courland. The Dowager Duchess Anna lived in Mitau before her accession to the Russian throne in 1730, but all the affairs of the duchy were actually run by the Russian resident Pyotr Mikhailovich Bestuzhev. Friedrich Wilhelm's uncle, Ferdinand (1711-1737), was declared Duke. last representative Kettlerov's house in the male line. Fearing the opposition of the nobility, Ferdinand did not come to Courland, but remained in Danzig, as a result of which at the congress in Mitau in 1717 it was decided to deprive Ferdinand of power and transfer government functions to the hands of the highest advisers of the duchy.

When the imminent suppression of the Kettler family became completely obvious, numerous contenders appeared for the Courland throne. On the Russian side, Menshikov sought the ducal title for himself. In 1726, Poland and France nominated Count Moritz of Saxony, the illegitimate son of the Polish King Augustus. During Blitz War for the Courland inheritance, Russia forced him the next year to leave Courland and renounce his claims to the throne.

When in 1733 the question arose about replacing the vacant Polish crown, Russia supported the candidacy of Augustus III, who agreed to recognize the favorite of the Russian Empress Anna Ioannovna, Ernst Johann Biron, as Duke of Courland. The latter was also recognized by the nobles of Courland. Biron ruled in Mitau from 1737 to 1741, leading at the expense of the Russian treasury, to which he had access unlimited access, extensive construction. In particular, he rebuilt the Mitau Palace of his predecessors.

With Biron's exile to Siberia, Anna Leopoldovna enlisted the support of Austria to make her brother-in-law Ludwig-Ernst of Brunswick a duke. Before the Landtag had time to legitimize the election of a new duke, Anna Leopoldovna herself lost power in Russia, as a result of which Courland was left without a duke; This continued until 1758. Augustus III again allowed the country's highest advisers to manage affairs.

In 1758, with the permission of Russia, Courland was ceded to Charles of Saxony, son of Augustus III. He ruled it from 1758 to 1763 more in words than in deeds, for a significant part of the nobility remained faithful to the oath given to Biron. In 1761 he returned from exile. Catherine II, dissatisfied with that that Duke Charles did not allow the Russian troops who participated in the Seven Years' War to return to Russia through Courland, insisted on his removal, and Biron, who ruled until 1769, was recognized as Duke for the second time. He undertook to let Russian troops pass through Courland and not enter into any relations with the enemies of Russia, provide religious tolerance to the Orthodox and allow the construction of an Orthodox church in Mitau.

In 1769 Biron, exhausted by the struggle between the pro-Polish and pro-Russian parties, abdicated the throne in favor of his son Peter Biron, against whom a movement of dissatisfied nobility immediately began; he remained on the throne only thanks to Russia. Having married Countess Anna von Medem, Peter spent several years abroad; returning to Courland in 1787, he again had to endure internal struggle with the dissatisfied nobility.

With the third partition of Poland (1795), Courland's fief dependence on Poland ceased, and at the Landtag in Mitau, in the same 1795, Courland was annexed to Russia. Peter laid down the insignia of ducal dignity (d. 1800). His daughters - Wilhelmina and Dorothea - led an extravagant lifestyle at the best courts of Europe; the first of them was Metternich's mistress, the second - Talleyrand.

You can read the text of the Petition of the Courland knighthood and zemstvo to accept Courland under the protection of the Russian Empire.

Courland Governorate

Courland Governorate(1796-1920) - a province that was part of the Russian Empire. And along with the Estland and Livonia provinces, it was an outpost of the empire in the Baltic states. It had borders with the Livonia, Vitebsk and Kovno provinces, and in the west with Baltic Sea. Provincial city - Mitava (Jelgava).

Formed on the territory of Courland after its annexation to Russia during the third partition of Poland (1795).

In the 19th century, the province was predominantly agricultural. In 1817, serfdom was abolished in the province, the peasants received personal freedom, but all the land remained the property of the landowners. In 1863, peasants received the right to buy land as personal property, and a layer of kulaks began to form. The kulaks, along with the German landowners, are the main suppliers of commercial agricultural products. The main crops grown in the province are rye, wheat, barley, peas, oats, and potatoes. Gardening and horticulture are developed.

The province's industry is predominantly manufacturing. In 1912, on the territory of the province there were about 200 factories and factories (flour mills, vodka mills, sawmills, leather, brick, flax spinning and others) and about 500 handicraft enterprises.

On the territory of the province it developed railway construction. In 1867 the Riga - Mitava railway was built, in 1871-76 the Libavo-Romenskaya section railway. The total length of the province's railway lines was over 560 miles.

Education in the province was better than the Russian average. In the 1910s, the province had 8 secondary educational institutions (over 3 thousand students), 13 special secondary schools (over 460 students), 790 lower educational institutions (36.9 thousand students). In the province in 1913 there were 33 hospitals with 1,300 beds

The Duchy of Courland and Semigalsk was proclaimed on March 8, 1918 on the territory of the Courland province, occupied by German troops, by the Landesrat, consisting of Baltic Germans, who offered the ducal crown to Kaiser Wilhelm II. Although the Reichstag supported self-determination of the Baltic peoples, the German general staff continued the policy of joining the Baltic states to German Empire, relying on the Baltic Germans.

During the First World War German armies by the autumn of 1915 they occupied the territory of the Courland province of the Russian Empire. The front has stabilized along the Riga-Dvinsk-Baranovichi line.

On November 16, 1917, the People's Council of Latvia was formed, which on November 30, 1917 proclaimed the creation of an autonomous Latvian province with borders drawn along ethnographic lines, and on January 15, 1918 - the creation of an independent Latvian Republic.

After the revolution in Russia German troops They launched an offensive from Courland, and by the end of February 1918 they occupied the territories of the Russian Livonia Governorate and the Estonian Autonomous Governorate, where the power of the German military administration was also established. March 3, 1918 Soviet Russia signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, recognizing the loss of the Courland province, and the agreements signed in Berlin on August 27, 1918 also deprived it of the Livonia province and the Estonian autonomous province.

In parallel with this, in September 1917, the Baltic Germans began to form political structures, taking advantage of the patronage of the occupation administration, and on March 8, 1918, the Landesrat, consisting of Baltic Germans, proclaimed the creation of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and offered the ducal crown to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Kaiser Wilhelm II recognized the creation of Courland as a vassal state of the German Empire in a message to the Courland Landesrat on March 8, 1918.

In the autumn of 1918, a united Baltic Duchy was created throughout the Baltic states, which was formally recognized by the Kaiser on September 22, 1918; the territory of the Duchy of Courland became part of it.

On January 30, 1918, the Latvian Provisional National Council decided to create a sovereign and democratic Latvia, which should include all regions populated by Latvians. After the November Revolution that began in Germany on November 9, 1918, the cause of which was the defeat Kaiser's Empire In the First World War, the Minister of Defense of the Weimar Republic proclaimed by the German revolutionaries gave the order to withdraw the divisions of the German Imperial Army from the Baltic states that supported the Baltic Duchy. The Baltic Duchy ceased to exist, and already on November 18, 1918. People's Council led by Karlis Ulmanis and Janis Čakste, representing a number of Latvian parties and public organizations The independence of the Republic of Latvia was proclaimed.

The most interesting part Latvia, in my subjective opinion, is Courland. IN in a broad sense it means the entire left bank of the Daugava, in 1561-1795 occupied by the Duchy of Courland, then turned into the Courland province and finally into historical region Kurzeme is one of. In present-day Latvia, however, it itself is divided into 3 parts - from west to east Courland proper (Kurzeme), Semigallia (Zemgale) and Selia. However, the point is that if historical map lay down a little differently, there would be two countries on the territory of Latvia: if Latgale as separate state It’s hard to imagine, but Courland (Curonia) was once not just independent state, but even the world's smallest colonial empire.
Apart from the merchant's, I never visited Selia. Therefore, I will begin the story about Greater Courland with Zemgale, where historically its capital Mitava (now Jelgava) was located. And for starters - oh complicated story and three palaces of the Dukes of Courland: Jelgava, Rundale and Zalenieki.

In 1525, the Prussian master Albrecht of Hohenzollern accepted Lutheranism, dissolved the knighthood, secularized church lands and created the Duchy of Prussia - the first Lutheran state. In 1561, his example was followed by the Livonian master Gotthard Ketler, who created the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia on the left bank of the Daugava, which was not occupied by Moscow troops. Against the backdrop of the same war, he renounced his claims to Riga, accepted the vassalage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, declared the former knights-landowners to be landowners, introduced serfdom (leaving personal property Duke 1/3 of the lands), bought from Denmark and, in general, by the end of his reign (1587) created a small but very strong state. Then the duchy was divided by his sons: the younger Wilhelm got Courland with its capital in Goldingen (Kuldiga), the eldest Friedrich got Semigallia with its capital in Mitava (now Jelgava). The younger decided to put pressure on his landowners, in 1615 he organized the murder of the opposition leaders, the Nolde brothers, for which he was deposed under the threat of a Polish invasion. Frederick became the sole ruler, and Mitava - the only capital. We're on it renatar and her husband Valery set a course early in the morning - that day we had to travel 16 points in Zemgale. From Riga to Jelgava it is about 60 kilometers through golden fields with copses, just like somewhere in the Oryol region: in our time Zemgale is the breadbasket of the Baltic states, and gave the Duchy of Courland food independence that was so important in those centuries.

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The Kettlers ruled the duchy until 1717, and the first decades of their reign were extremely successful. In general, you need to understand that in the 16th and 17th centuries capitalism was perceived completely differently than it is now - this system for the first time in European history created a universal " social elevator", which left any pawn a chance to become a queen, and the Kettlers were the same capitalists of the first wave, relying on the experience of the Netherlands. Jacob Kettler, the son of the deposed William, ruled especially successfully in 1642-82. Courland had manufactories, international ports, merchant fleet long voyage, and the culmination of this “economic miracle” was the attempts to colonize the New World. Of course, in the life of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, the following events occupied far from the main place - but remained the most impressive part of its past. In 1637-42, Courland unsuccessfully tried to take possession of the island of Tobago in the Caribbean Sea, for which Holland and Spain were then fighting, but Jacob temporarily abandoned this idea, and in 1651 the Courland ships "Whale" and "Crocodile" took possession of the mouth of the Gambia River in Africa , having built Fort Jacobstadt on the island of St. Andrew (aka James Island and Kunta Kiteh) - this was an extremely serious request, since the Gambia was the route deep into Africa through which the most valuable commodity of the Dark Continent - slaves - was exported "outside".

3. from Anglovika. Remains of a British fort on James Island, with the ruins of a slave "stall" on the left.

In 1653, the Courlanders finally captured Tobago, gave it the name New Courland and founded another fort Jacobstadt, at the same time the Bolshaya and Malaya Courlandskaya, Libavskaya and Jacoba bays appeared on the map of the island, one of the places was named New Mitava, where apparently a second colony was planned with with that name. However, in 1655-60, Courland was crippled by a war with Sweden (which suspected Ketler to be an ally of Moscow); during this time, Holland managed to seize both colonies (from which, a couple of years later, England took away Andrei Island, renaming it James Island). And although Tobago was returned to Courland in 1660, to recover from Swedish war the duchy could no longer do so. In 1666, the Caribbean Jacobstadt was destroyed by pirates; last time the Courlanders returned to Tobago in 1680-83, and in 1690 the island was finally sold... but in fact Tobago became a draw, until 1763 it belonged to pirates and finally the British took possession of it. After such metamorphoses, nothing remained of Jacobstadt-on-Tobago; its “successor” can be considered the town of Plymouth on the Great Courland Bay, where the ruins of the British Fort James are preserved - this is how the British transcribed the name Jacob in both Africa and America.

4. from panorama. guns of Fort James and Great Courland Bay in Tobago.

In general, a beautiful start turned out sad ending. In the distance, Courland was dominated by Holland, the economic leader of the world at that time, and nearby by Sweden, which then had the strongest army in the world. But most of all - the degradation of the Kettlers: Friedrich Casimir, Jacob's son, literally drank away his father's achievements and walked away, wallowing in luxury. The next Duke Friedrich Welhelm also did not show outstanding qualities, but he married the niece of Peter I, Anna Ioannovna, later the Russian Empress. The last duke of the Kettlers was Ferdinand, the uncle of Friedrich Welhelm, but he lived in Danzig, Anna Ioannovna's guardian Pyotr Bestuzhev remained the actual ruler, and finally in 1717 Ferdinand was removed from power and such a successful reign of the Kettlers ended ingloriously. Then Russia and Poland fought for protection over the duchy (including by military means), on our side Aleksashka Menshikov sought the throne on the Courland side, and on the Polish side, with the support of France, Moritz of Saxony. Finally, in 1737, the Russian protege Ernst Biron came to power, who started as a minor employee under Anna Ioannovna and became her favorite with enormous influence in the Russian Empire... however, in 1741, after the death of the empress, he was exiled to Siberia. The duchy managed without a duke until 1758, then the Polish protege Charles of Saxony came to power... however, this happened anyway with the consent of Russia, in 1763 his place was again taken by Ernst Biron, after whose death his son Peter ruled in 1768, until in 1795 the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia became the Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire.

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And there is little left of the Kettlers’ “economic miracle” here. But the Birons built palaces of luxury completely disproportionate to the scale of the duchy. The first of them is in Jelgava, on an island in the Lielupe riverbed (the view of the city from which is not in the frame above), where Mitau Castle has been known since 1265. Here in 1578 the residence of the Duke of Semigal was located, but the current palace, worthy of the size of the St. Petersburg suburbs, was built in 1738-67 by Biron, and as follows from the historical review, its construction spanned both periods of Ernst Johann’s reign and the struggle for power during his exile (or rather, construction was stopped in 1740-64), and the old Duke managed to live in the completely finished residence for about six months.

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The dimensions of the palace are very impressive - approximately 160x130 meters, and Bartolomeo Rastrelli is considered its author. This is one of his earliest buildings of this scale, and frankly speaking, unsuccessful. That is, the palace is certainly good - but the level is clearly not Rastrell’s.

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Peter Biron received Count Cagliostro here, and in 1798-1800 Louis XVIII, the French “king in exile” who actually took the throne after the fall of Napoleon, lived in the palace with his family and servants.

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I was in Jelgava twice - early in the morning of one day with Renata and in the afternoon of another day alone, so the lighting in the photographs is different.

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In 1918, the palace was burned by the retreating whites, so its interiors were not preserved. In 1936-39 it was restored as an agricultural academy (of course, the country was led by the old milkman Ulmanis), at the same time the “rear” Laboratory building was built on the site of the stables. There seem to be excursions inside the palace, but I don’t know if there is anything interesting there.

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Quite simple details of the palace:

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In general, the most interesting thing in the Mitau Palace is the ducal tomb, into which an inconspicuous door leads at one of the ends. It was built already in the 1820s, when the Duchy of Courland no longer existed, and the sarcophagi of its rulers and their wives were transported there. Entrance to the tomb is paid, but no one bothers you to take photographs. View outside - in the foreground are the magnificent baroque sarcophagi of the Birons (two dukes and their wives),

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There are a total of 21 sarcophagi, the oldest from the 16th century, and their appearance is knightly, stern, but expressive:

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The mercantilist Jacob's sarcophagus is modest but elegant:

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Behind the tomb is a small museum and sarcophagi of children in niches. Well, a separate impression was the company of American tourists who came here at the same time as me. No, of course I understand everything, that it probably seemed so to me due to the continuous brainwashing of Soviet and Putin propaganda, but in reality everything is completely different... but these Americans fit into the stereotype of “fat, stupid and ill-mannered” to the fullest. They were talking so loudly and vying with each other that along with the echo my ears were blocked, they flashed flashes, almost poked the coffins with their fingers. Coming out, I angrily told the Latvian caretaker: “What kind of people are these, nothing is sacred! Don’t they understand that there’s a grave here?!”, she just nodded embarrassedly... however, she herself was clearly a local student and was sitting with a player in the ears. But maybe I don’t understand something, and in America there is no taboo to make noise in cemeteries?

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Quiet palace park with the remains of the bastion:

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Student theater of the 1930s:

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But the estate occupies at most 1/10 of the long (5.5 km) winding Castle Island. Basically, there is something like a nature reserve here, and behind the nondescript grounds of the agricultural academy, a section of floodplain meadows begins.

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It’s not for nothing that so much attention is paid to horses at the entrance - a semi-wild herd lives here, the origin of which is not entirely clear to me. Looking ahead, I will say that I never found them close, but I saw them from afar from the Trinity Tower in the city:

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Looking back across the meadows. Above the Khrushchev Trinity Tower (1573, remnant of the church), Peter Academy And on (1773, oldest university Latvia) and the Church of the Virgin Mary (1908).

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Some kind of festival was taking place in the city (to which the Americans came), and funny-looking boats were scurrying back and forth across Lielupe:

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Jelgava itself is large by Latvian standards (64 thousand inhabitants) industrial city, 80% destroyed by the war and rebuilt in the Soviet spirit, losing the provincial “environment”. Nevertheless, it is very interesting even without the palace and I will write a separate post about it. In the meantime, with Renata and Valery, we are going to the next residence - Rundale, which is located in the small village of Pilsrundale (Rundale Castle) ten kilometers from Bauska.

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The medieval castle of Ruenthal, the history of which is told in articles by Renata Rimsha on the website and in LiveJournal, originated somewhere in the 15-16th centuries, under the Order and under the Ketlers it did not stand out in any way, remaining in the shadow of Bauska. In 1735, Ruenthal was bought only by Count Ernst Biron, who, having become Duke, started the construction of his summer residence, which was grandiose for those times.

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The Ruenthal Palace was built by the same Rastrelli in almost the same years (1736-1767) and with the same interruption. The oldest surviving of the executioner's palaces, Rundale is similar to the Mitau Palace, but made subtly thinner and more elegant. This is quite Rastrelli level:

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After the abolition of the duchy, the palace went to Catherine’s favorite Platon Zubov, who moved here with his wife and soon died. The latter married one of the Shuvalovs, who owned the palace until 1920. Rundale survived two wars more easily than the Mitava Palace; under the Soviets, at first a warehouse and a residential building were built here, but in 1972 they came to their senses and restoration began in the palace. Now for Latvia it is something like Peterhof or Tsarskoe Selo for us - one of the main attractions of the country:

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Let's look at the outbuildings:

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Coat of arms and monogram of the Shuvalovs:

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This palace is smaller than Mitavsky (about 100x90m), but seems larger. If there is a rectangle, here the plan is U-shaped. Back view

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The entrance is from the side facade (the right wall in the frame above), you can walk to the ticket office along a humpbacked bridge. They sell several types of tickets, giving the right to explore different premises and the park, but in general, going to Rundale Palace for the full program will cost 400 rubles with our money (I don’t remember in lats, and besides, lats have been abolished since this year).

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The interiors here are magnificent. I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that I was somewhere in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. Everything here, of course, is more modest than in Tsarskoe Selo... and yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that behind the next portal I would see the Amber Room.

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There are a lot of tourists in the palace; at the same time several groups were visiting it with me, including from somewhere from Asia with Buddhist monk with his red robe included. All rooms have their own names and their own nuances, but I will not undertake to retell all this. I don’t know exactly how many rooms there are, but I walked around the palace for two hours.

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No, I absolutely do not understand how one could live in such luxury! Why does a person need a palace at all?

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And how the Dutch ovens hum... Oddly enough, this was the first time I saw them working.

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In the basement of the palace there is a museum, there are all sorts of statues, tombstones, crosses, epitaphs - maybe fragments of palaces and temples destroyed in the 20th century? Alas, I still didn’t understand it from the signs.

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And from the windows you can clearly see the French park, where it was also pleasant to take a walk:

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And finally, the third palace of the Dukes of Courland, which, due to its modest size, has always remained in the shadow of these two. We're talking about Grünhof, now Zalenieki 30 km southwest of Jelgava. If the palace in Mitau was the main residence, and Ruenthal was a summer residence, then Grünhof was a hunting residence, and all the Dukes of Courland used it, starting with Gotthard Ketler, and the current one is a small elegant palace Built in 1766 by the same Ernst Biron. Whether Rastrelli participated in its construction is a controversial issue; there is no official data on this, but some see similarities with the Stroganov Palace in St. Petersburg.

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In 1795-1833, the palace was owned by Charles of Württemberg, a military leader and relative of Alexander I and Nicholas I, then by various Baltic nobles. Now there is something like a technical school here ( high school commerce and crafts).

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But the palace park is disproportionately huge, but we didn’t go deep there.

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And this, it seems, is already in the village...

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In the next part I’ll tell you about Jelgava outside the Castle Island.

Courland- an area that was part of the possessions of the Livonian Order; its borders almost coincided with the borders of the present Courland lips. This area was inhabited by Livs - along the Gulf of Riga, chickens - in the west. parts, salmon - in middle Kazakhstan; Lithuanian tribes lived in the south. Livs and chickens are of the Finnish tribe, salmon, lettas and others are of the Lithuanian tribe. With the appearance of German colonists in the Baltic region in the 12th century, the natives began to fight against them. At the end of the XII table. The first missionaries came with the merchant colonists. K. was subordinated to the Order of the Sword in 1230; V next year the inhabitants of K. accept Christianity and promise to fight against the pagans together with the Germans. Until 1662, the history of K. was closely connected with the history of the Livonian Order (see). In 1561, with the collapse of the order's lands, the former master of the order, Ketler (see), retained K., in fief dependence on Poland; he took the title of Duke. Having abandoned stadtholdership in Livonia in 1568, Ketler focused all his attention on internal reforms in his duchy: he took care of the widespread dissemination of reformation teachings, established common church visits, raised education, and contributed to the restoration of trade relations with Livonia and Poland. After Ketler's death (1587), discord began between his sons, Friedrich and Wilhelm. Wilhelm turned the entire nobility against himself; in 1618, the Polish government insisted on his removal from K. Frederick ruled alone until his death in 1642, having adopted his father’s peaceful policy. After him Duke was William's son, James (1642-82). He received a good education, traveled a lot, was interested in the colonization policies of large European countries, made a number of attempts to establish himself on the Guinea coast, acquired the West Indian island of Tabago from England (returned to England after his death), designed the expansion of the Mitau harbor by lowering the Aa River into the sea. Under Jacob, the Swedes invaded K., suspecting him of friendly relations with Tsar Alexei. The Duke was captured and taken to Riga (1658). The appearance of Sapieha stopped the progress of the Swedes. According to the Peace of Oliva (1660), the Swedes renounced all claims to K.; At the same time, Jacob also returned from captivity. His son, Friedrich Casimir (1682-98), surrounded himself with luxury and spent a lot of money on court splendor; he had to mortgage several ducal estates. He received Peter the Great in Mitau. After his death, the throne passed to his young son, Frederick William, whose guardian was his uncle, Ferdinand. With the beginning of the great northern war K. again became a theater of military operations, passing from the hands of the Swedes to the hands of the Russians. The Swedes finally left K. after the Battle of Poltava; Sheremetev took it. In 1710, Friedrich Wilhelm returned to K. and married the niece of Peter the Great, Anna Ioannovna. Since then, Russian influence has been significantly increasing in K. On the way from St. Petersburg to K., the Duke fell ill and died in January. 1711 His widow, before her accession to the Russian throne, lived in K. Frederick William's uncle, Ferdinand (1711-37), the last representative of the Kettler house in the male line, became Duke. Fearing the opposition of the nobility, Ferdinand did not come to K., but remained in Danzig. Internal unrest prompted Poland's participation. At the congress in Mitau in 1717, it was decided to deprive Ferdinand of power and transfer government functions to the hands of the highest advisers of the duchy. Count Moritz of Saxony, as the adopted son of Augustus II of Poland, became a contender for the Courland throne in 1726; but Russia forced him to renounce his claims the very next year. When in 1733 the question arose about replacing the vacant Polish crown, Russia supported the candidacy of Augustus III, who agreed to recognize the favorite of the Russian Empress Biron as Duke of Courland. The latter was also recognized by the nobles. Biron was duke from 1737 to 1741. With Biron's exile to Siberia, K. was left without a duke; This continued until 1758. Augustus III again allowed the country's highest advisers to manage affairs. In 1758, with the permission of Russia, K. was ceded to Charles of Saxony, son of Augustus III; he ruled it from 1758 to 1763. In 1761, Biron returned from exile. Catherine II, dissatisfied with the fact that Duke Charles did not allow Russian troops participating in seven years war, to return to Russia through Courland, insisted on his removal, and Biron, who ruled K. until 1769, was recognized as duke for the second time. He pledged to allow Russian troops through K., not to enter into any relations with the enemies of Russia, to show religious tolerance to the Orthodox and to allow the construction of an Orthodox church in Mitau. In 1769, Biron abdicated the throne in favor of his son Peter, against whom a movement of disgruntled nobility immediately began; he remained on the throne only thanks to Russia. Having married Countess Anna von Medem, Peter spent several years abroad; Having returned to K. in 1787, he again had to endure an internal struggle with the dissatisfied nobility. With the third partition of Poland (1795), the feudal dependence of Poland on Poland ceased, and at the Landtag in Mitau, in the same 1795, Poland was annexed to Russia. Peter laid down the insignia of ducal dignity (d. 1800). For the history of K. cf. general works Richter, Rutenberg and others on the history of the Baltic provinces, as well as a study by Ernst und August Seraphim, “Aus Kurlands herzoglicher Zeit, Gestalten und Bilder” (Mitava, 1892); theirs, “Aus der Kurländischen Vergangenheit” (1893); Theodor Schiemann, in Oncken's collection, "Russland, Polen und Livland bis ins XVII Jahrh." (Part P). In 1895, the 1st volume was published. popular history Estland, Livonia and Courland by Ernst Seraphim, reaching 1561.

Throughout almost the entire history of the duchy, until 1791, the rulers of Courland from the Kettler (1561-1711) and Biron (1737-1795) dynasties recognized themselves as vassals of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that replaced it. The capital of the duchy was Mitava (now Jelgava in Latvia). During the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (March 1795), Courland was annexed to the Russian Empire, where the Courland Governorate was formed on its territory. For the attempt to recreate the Duchy of Courland in 1918, see "Baltic Duchy".

Formation of the Duchy

Up until 1561, the history of Courland was closely connected with the history of the Livonian Order. In 1559, the order's Landmaster Gotthard Ketler recognized the protectorate of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund II Augustus over Livonia. Thanks to this, with the collapse of the order's lands, Gotthard Ketler retained Courland and took the title of duke. Secularized Courland found itself in fief dependence first on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and eight years later, after the Union of Lublin, on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but it protected itself from the expansion of Ivan the Terrible.

At the time of its formation, the duchy had only three cities: Hasenpot, Goldingen and Vindava. In 1566, the Poles and Lithuanians expelled Ketler from Riga, after which he was forced to settle in the castles of Goldingen and Mitau, thereby spurring the development of both cities. Mitau received the status of capital; the Courland Landtag met there twice a year. Later Bausk and Libava become cities.

Since then, Russian influence has increased significantly in Courland. The Dowager Duchess Anna lived in Mitau before her accession to the Russian throne in 1730, but all the affairs of the duchy were actually run by the Russian resident Pyotr Mikhailovich Bestuzhev. Friedrich Wilhelm's uncle, Ferdinand (-), the last representative of the Kettler family in the male line, was declared Duke. Fearing the opposition of the nobility, Ferdinand did not come to Courland, but remained in Danzig, as a result of which at the congress in Mitau in 1717 it was decided to deprive Ferdinand of power and transfer government functions to the hands of the highest advisers of the duchy.

Peter laid down the signs of ducal dignity and died five years later. His daughters - Wilhelmina and Dorothea - led an extravagant lifestyle at the best courts of Europe; the first of them was the mistress of Metternich, the second of Talleyrand.

Napoleon's invasion

In 1812, during Napoleon's invasion, the duchy, occupied French troops On August 1, it was restored under the name of the Duchy of Courland, Semigallia and Piltens, with Karl Johann Friedrich von Medem as its temporary head. However, in the same year, Napoleonic troops were forced to leave the territory of the duchy, and it was liquidated.

Dukes of Courland

• Gotthard (-)
• Friedrich (-) and Wilhelm (-)
• Jacob (-)
• Frederick (II) Casimir (-)
• Frederick (III) Wilhelm (-)
• (Anna Ioannovna (-) - regent)
• Ferdinand (-)

• Ernst Johann (-)
• (Council of the Duchy (-))
• Charles of Saxony (-)
• Ernst Johann (secondary) (-)
• Peter (-)

See also

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Excerpt characterizing Courland and Semigallia

Soon after Christmas, Nikolai announced to his mother his love for Sonya and his firm decision to marry her. The Countess, who had long noticed what was happening between Sonya and Nikolai and was expecting this explanation, silently listened to his words and told her son that he could marry whomever he wanted; but that neither she nor his father would give him his blessing for such a marriage. For the first time, Nikolai felt that his mother was unhappy with him, that despite all her love for him, she would not give in to him. She, coldly and without looking at her son, sent for her husband; and when he arrived, the countess wanted to briefly and coldly tell him what was the matter in the presence of Nikolai, but she could not resist: she cried tears of frustration and left the room. The old count began to hesitantly admonish Nicholas and ask him to abandon his intention. Nicholas replied that he could not change his word, and the father, sighing and obviously embarrassed, very soon interrupted his speech and went to the countess. In all his clashes with his son, the count was never left with the consciousness of his guilt towards him for the breakdown of affairs, and therefore he could not be angry with his son for refusing to marry a rich bride and for choosing the dowryless Sonya - only in this case did he more vividly remember what, if things were not upset, it would be impossible for Nikolai to wish best wife than Sonya; and that only he and his Mitenka and his irresistible habits are to blame for the disorder of affairs.
The father and mother no longer spoke about this matter with their son; but a few days after this, the countess called Sonya to her and with cruelty that neither one nor the other expected, the countess reproached her niece for luring her son and for ingratitude. Sonya, silently with downcast eyes, listened to the countess’s cruel words and did not understand what was required of her. She was ready to sacrifice everything for her benefactors. The thought of self-sacrifice was her favorite thought; but in this case she could not understand to whom and what she needed to sacrifice. She could not help but love the Countess and the entire Rostov family, but she also could not help but love Nikolai and not know that his happiness depended on this love. She was silent and sad and did not answer. Nikolai, as it seemed to him, could not bear this situation any longer and went to explain himself to his mother. Nikolai either begged his mother to forgive him and Sonya and agree to their marriage, or threatened his mother that if Sonya was persecuted, he would immediately marry her secretly.
The countess, with a coldness that her son had never seen, answered him that he was of age, that Prince Andrei was marrying without his father’s consent, and that he could do the same, but that she would never recognize this intriguer as her daughter.
Exploded by the word intriguer, Nikolai, raising his voice, told his mother that he never thought that she would force him to sell his feelings, and that if this was so, then this would be the last time he spoke... But he did not have time to say that decisive word, which, judging by the expression on his face, his mother was waiting with horror and which, perhaps, would forever remain a cruel memory between them. He did not have time to finish, because Natasha, with a pale and serious face, entered the room from the door where she had been eavesdropping.
- Nikolinka, you are talking nonsense, shut up, shut up! I’m telling you, shut up!.. – she almost shouted to drown out his voice.
“Mom, my dear, this is not at all because... my poor darling,” she turned to the mother, who, feeling on the verge of breaking, looked at her son with horror, but, due to stubbornness and enthusiasm for the struggle, did not want and could not give up.
“Nikolinka, I’ll explain it to you, you go away - listen, mother dear,” she said to her mother.
Her words were meaningless; but they achieved the result she was striving for.
The countess, sobbing heavily, hid her face in her daughter's chest, and Nikolai stood up, grabbed his head and left the room.
Natasha took up the matter of reconciliation and brought it to the point that Nikolai received a promise from his mother that Sonya would not be oppressed, and he himself made a promise that he would not do anything secretly from his parents.
With the firm intention, having settled his affairs in the regiment, to resign, come and marry Sonya, Nikolai, sad and serious, at odds with his family, but, as it seemed to him, passionately in love, left for the regiment in early January.
After Nikolai's departure, the Rostovs' house became sadder than ever. The Countess became ill from mental disorder.
Sonya was sad both from the separation from Nikolai and even more from the hostile tone with which the countess could not help but treat her. The Count was more than ever concerned about the bad state of affairs, which required some drastic measures. It was necessary to sell a Moscow house and a house near Moscow, and to sell the house it was necessary to go to Moscow. But the countess’s health forced her to postpone her departure from day to day.
Natasha, who had easily and even cheerfully endured the first time of separation from her fiancé, now became more excited and impatient every day. The thought that it is so, in vain, lost for no one best time, which she would have used to love him, tormented her relentlessly. His letters mostly made her angry. It was insulting to her to think that while she lived only in the thought of him, he lived real life, sees new places, new people who are interesting to him. The more entertaining his letters were, the more annoying she was. Her letters to him not only did not bring her any comfort, but seemed like a boring and false duty. She did not know how to write because she could not comprehend the possibility of truthfully expressing in writing even one thousandth part of what she was accustomed to express with her voice, smile and gaze. She wrote him classically monotonous, dry letters, to which she herself did not attribute any meaning and in which, according to Brouillons, the countess corrected her spelling errors.
The Countess's health was not improving; but it was no longer possible to postpone the trip to Moscow. It was necessary to make a dowry, it was necessary to sell the house, and, moreover, Prince Andrei was expected first in Moscow, where Prince Nikolai Andreich lived that winter, and Natasha was sure that he had already arrived.
The Countess remained in the village, and the Count, taking Sonya and Natasha with him, went to Moscow at the end of January.

Pierre after the matchmaking of Prince Andrei and Natasha, without any obvious reason, suddenly felt it was impossible to continue the same life. No matter how firmly he was convinced of the truths revealed to him by his benefactor, no matter how joyful he was during that first time of infatuation. internal work self-improvement, which he devoted himself to with such fervor, after Prince Andrei’s engagement to Natasha and after the death of Joseph Alekseevich, about which he received news almost at the same time, all the charm of this former life suddenly disappeared for him. Only one skeleton of life remained: his home with his brilliant wife, who now enjoyed the favors of one important person, acquaintance with all of St. Petersburg and service with boring formalities. And this one old life suddenly she introduced herself to Pierre with unexpected disgust. He stopped writing his diary, avoided the company of his brothers, began to go to the club again, began to drink a lot again, again became close to single companies and began to lead such a life that Countess Elena Vasilievna considered it necessary to give him a stern reprimand. Pierre, feeling that she was right, and in order not to compromise his wife, left for Moscow.
In Moscow, as soon as he entered his huge house with withered and withering princesses, with huge courtyards, as soon as he saw - driving through the city - this Iverskaya Chapel with countless candle lights in front of golden vestments, this Kremlin Square with untrodden snow, these cab drivers and the shacks of Sivtsev Vrazhka, saw old Moscow people who wanted nothing and were slowly living out their lives, saw old women, Moscow ladies, Moscow balls and the Moscow English Club - he felt at home, in a quiet refuge. In Moscow he felt calm, warm, familiar and dirty, like wearing an old robe.
Moscow society, everything from old women to children, accepted Pierre as their long-awaited guest, whose place was always ready and not occupied. For Moscow society, Pierre was the sweetest, kindest, smartest, cheerful, generous eccentric, absent-minded and sincere, Russian, old-fashioned gentleman. His wallet was always empty, because it was open to everyone.
Benefit performances, bad paintings, statues, charitable societies, gypsies, schools, subscription dinners, revelries, Freemasons, churches, books - no one and nothing was refused, and if not for his two friends, who borrowed a lot of money from him and took him under their custody, he would give everything away. There was no lunch or evening at the club without him. As soon as he slumped back in his place on the sofa after two bottles of Margot, he was surrounded, and talk, arguments, and jokes ensued. Wherever they quarreled, he made peace with one of his kind smiles and, by the way, a joke. Masonic lodges were boring and lethargic without him.
When, after a single dinner, he, with a kind and sweet smile, surrenders to requests fun company, got up to go with them, joyful, solemn cries were heard among the youth. At balls he danced if there was no gentleman available. Young ladies and young ladies loved him because, without courting anyone, he was equally kind to everyone, especially after dinner. “Il est charmant, il n"a pas de sehe,” [He is very cute, but has no gender], they said about him.
Pierre was that retired good-natured chamberlain living out his days in Moscow, of which there were hundreds.
How horrified he would have been if seven years ago, when he had just arrived from abroad, someone had told him that he didn’t need to look for or invent anything, that his path had long been broken, determined from eternity, and that, no matter how he turn around, he will be what everyone else in his position was. He couldn't believe it! Didn’t he want with all his soul to establish a republic in Russia, to be Napoleon himself, a philosopher, a tactician, the conqueror of Napoleon? Didn’t he see the opportunity and passionately desire to regenerate the vicious human race and bring himself to highest degree perfection? Didn't he establish schools and hospitals and set his peasants free?
And instead of all this, here he is, the rich husband of an unfaithful wife, a retired chamberlain who loves to eat, drink and, unbuttoned, easily scold the government, a member of the Moscow English club and a beloved member of Moscow society. For a long time he could not come to terms with the idea that he was the same retired Moscow chamberlain whose type he so deeply despised seven years ago.
Sometimes he consoled himself with thoughts that this was the only way he was leading this life; but then he was horrified by another thought, that so far, how many people had already entered, like him, with all their teeth and hair, into this life and into this club, and left without one tooth and hair.
In moments of pride, when he thought about his position, it seemed to him that he was completely different, special from those retired chamberlains whom he had despised before, that they were vulgar and stupid, happy and reassured by their position, “and even now I am still dissatisfied “I still want to do something for humanity,” he said to himself in moments of pride. “Or maybe all those comrades of mine, just like me, struggled, were looking for some new, their own path in life, and just like me, by the force of the situation, society, breed, that elemental force against which there is no a powerful man, they were brought to the same place as I,” he said to himself in moments of modesty, and after living in Moscow for some time, he no longer despised, but began to love, respect and pity, as well as himself, his comrades by fate .
Pierre was not, as before, in moments of despair, melancholy and disgust for life; but the same illness, which had previously expressed itself in sharp attacks, was driven inside and did not leave him for a moment. “Why? For what? What is going on in the world?” he asked himself in bewilderment several times a day, involuntarily beginning to ponder the meaning of the phenomena of life; but knowing from experience that there were no answers to these questions, he hastily tried to turn away from them, took up a book, or hurried to the club, or to Apollo Nikolaevich to chat about city gossip.