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Article: Livonian War (1558–1583)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
- Author:
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LIVONIAN WAR (1558
–
1583)
LIVONIAN WAR (1558
–
1583).
In 1558 Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible began over twenty years of war for a Baltic foothold by invading eastern Estonia, an area made vulnerable by factional divisions within the Livonian Order (the Order of the Brothers of the Sword) and political conflict among the order, the archbishopric of Riga, and the increasingly Protestant population of the towns. Moscow's potential rivals
—
Sweden and Poland
—
were preoccupied with other concerns; Muscovy therefore enjoyed early success. By 1560 Narva and Dorpat and most of the Livonian interior as far as Courland was under Muscovite occupation. But this provoked the ...