page_title: Livonia
section_title: Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights 1237–1561
hierarchical_section_title: Livonia / History / Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights 1237–1561
caption_attribution_description: history map of Ordensstaat, 1250
context_page_description: Livonia is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia.
  By the end of the 13th century, the name was extended to most of present-day Estonia and Latvia that had been conquered during the Livonian Crusade by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. Medieval Livonia, or Terra Mariana, reached its greatest extent after Saint George's Night Uprising that in 1346 forced Denmark to sell the Duchy of Estonia to the State of the Teutonic Order. Livonia, as understood after the retreat of Denmark in 1346, bordered on the Gulf of Finland in the north, Lake Peipus and Russia to the east, and Lithuania to the south.
  As a consequence of the Livonian War in the 16th century, the territory of Livonia was reduced to the southern half of Estonia and the northern half of Latvia.
  The indigenous inhabitants of Livonia were various Finnic tribes in the north and Baltic tribes in the south. The descendants of the crusaders formed the nucleus of the new ruling class of Livonia after the Livonian Crusade, and eventually became known as Baltic Germans.
context_section_description: Livonia consisted of the following subdivisions: 
  a state ruled by the  Livonian Order (founded by Albert in 1202, assimilated into the Teutonic Knights in 1237);
  the  Bishopric of Riga (an archbishopric from 1255);
  the Bishoprics of  Courland,  Ösel-Wiek, and  Dorpat, where Albert's brother Hermann established himself as the prince-bishop (Terra Mariana).
  The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle describes the conquest of Livonia by the Germans.
caption: Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights.
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