TarTu ÜlIkool ja Põhjasõda - Tartu Ülikooli Ajaloo Muuseum

Janet LaidLa
Impact of War on Early Modern Historiography
in Estonia, Livonia and Courland
38
MA JANET LAIDLA
doctoral candidate at the Institute of History and Archaeology
of the University of Tartu
In the middle of the 16 th century the medieval Old Livonia found itself
in war with the rising Tsardom of Russia with not enough military
strength to protect itself Divided into small states ruled by the German
Livonian order and bishops (archbishop of Riga and bishops of
Tartu and Ösel-Wiek) the different areas gave themselves under the
protection of the kingdoms of Sweden and Poland Denmark bought
the bishopric of Ösel-Wiek.
The Livonian War saw a significant rise in production of different
historical accounts and has been called by many historians the peak
of early modern chronicle writing in the region In addition to several
chronicles (the most famous being written by the Tallinn clergyman
Balthasar Russow) we have many shorter publications (documents,
pamphlets, letters and memories) The variety of chronicles includes
those written by defenders of different denominations, both Lutheran
(Russow but also a historical play by Timann Brakel) and Catholics
(such as Tilmann Bredenbach and Dionysius Fabricius). There
are chronicles written to protect the rights of Sweden (Russow again)
and Poland (such as Salomon Henning) Several works were printed
and many went through several editions before the 17 th century
One could suggest that a similar rise in local historiography coincided
with the Great Northern War at the beginning of the 18 th century,
which included the same actors, Russia under Peter the Great,
Poland under August II the Strong and Denmark under Frederick
IV, but this time all grouped against the kingdom of Sweden However,
the historiography from the first half of the 18 th century includes
the manuscript of the second half of the printed chronicle by Christian
Kelch as the most substantial and detailed work, a manuscript
of a chronicle by Otto Fabian von Wrangell (that is almost indistinguishable
in its content and style from several diaries from the same
period) and the memories (with historical introduction) of a former