Inflanty i Księstwo Kurlandii i Semigalii — inflanckie „Prusy” trochę inaczej. Kilka uwag o zapomnianej unii wileńskiej 1561 roku

The Treaty of Krakow signed in 1525 which ended definitively the existence of the Teutonic state in Prussia, became a challenge for its Livonian part. For over 30 years the Livonian province of The Order of Brothers of Saint Mary tried jointly with the Archbishopric of Riga and Livonian towns to boost development of civilization on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, seeking proper legal shape of the state. In view of the ever-increasing process of reformation, aspirations of the Livonian states, and external expansion of Moscow, Denmark and Sweden representatives of Livonia were forced to seek refuge in alliance with the king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Ultimately, these efforts were crowned with submission of the province to the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund Augustus in exchange for rights and privileges. Finally, the union was concluded on November 28th, 1561, in Vilnius and was signed by the king and the representatives of the Livonian estates, first of all, by Gotthard Kettler – the last Master of the Livonian Order and Wilhelm Hohenzollern – the last Catholic Archbishop of Riga. Terms of surrender in feudal dependence to the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were formulated in two very momentous acts: Pacta Subjectionis Livoniae – Provisio Ducalis that created the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia on the Prussian pattern, and granted to Gotthard Kettler the title of Duke and the general estate privilege for the nobles and burghers of Livonian towns, known as: Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti. The latter document, relatively unknown in Polish and Lithuanian historiography, deserves special attention. It was referred to by the representatives of the German nobility in the Russian Empire until 1914, as a major source of legal and cultural autonomy. It established indygenat – political rights for people from the province of Livonia, built around three core concepts of autonomy: religion (right to their own religion), law (legal autonomy), school (right to their own education). The vast majority of the rights granted to the Livonian nobility was linked to the republican and civic values proclaimed in Poland that were typical for the executionist movement of "enforcement of the laws" as well as with certain regulations of so-called second edition of the Statute of Lithuania (1566) that was developed in Vilnius at that time. The authors of that statute, especially Lithuanian Chancellor Mikołaj Radziwiłł The Black, Lithuanian Marshal Ostafii Wołłowicz or Piotr Roizjusz, took direct part in the negotiating Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti.