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In January–February 1560 a large army composed of troops from the central uyezds (districts) intruded into Livonia. The first attack targeted Marienburg (57° 25′ 45″ N, 27° 03′ 08″ E). After its conquest, the troops the troops set off on a devastating campaign over Livonian territories, passing from Fellin to Venden on an extensive front-line ("no war had been waged in those places before"). In February the Russian troops that had set off from Yuriev set Tarvastu (Tarwast) on fire (58° 14′ 59″ N, 25° 53′ 11″ E) and fought in the vicinity of Fellin.
Ruins of Marienburg
Tarwast, ruins
Tarwast, ruins
Fellin, ruins
In April 1560 the troop of Duke of Denmark Magnus landed on Ösel near Ahrensburg (58° 15′ 00″ N, 22° 29′ 00″ E) to proceed to implementation of Nyborg agreement of 1559. However, the Danes had to fight against the Livonian Order: Henrich Wolf von Lüdinghausen, the vogt of the Order at Soneburg (58° 33′ 51″ N, 23° 02′ 49″ E) on Ösel, attacked the troop of Magnus.
Ahrensburg, ruins
Soneburg, ruins
He received support from Kettler. The Master's anxiety could be understood: as the Order was unable to protect the country, the Danes were now perceived as miraculous liberators. According to the Livonian chronicler Balthasar Russow, "many Livonians strongly believed that the good times would return to Livonia". In this situation the Order and its Master were no longer needed as they had not met the expectations. But Magnus did not have sufficient forces to change the situation. He was able to occupy Ösel because the Baltic Sea separated him from the Russian forces. The Danish control extended over some parts of North-Western Estonia (Vick and Harrien territories). But in order to decide who would exercise actual control over these territories, an agreement with Moscovia had to be reached.
In July-August 1560 Russian forces took Fellin (58° 21′ 15″ N, 25° 35′ 45″ E) and Tarvastu. During the defeat of Fellin on 21 August the ex-Master Fürstenberg was captured. Voevode Aleksey Adashev dispatched from Fellin to Karksi (58° 06′ 17″ N, 25° 33′ 53″ E) and Helme (58° 1′ N, 25° 53′ E) charters with proposals to surrender.
The last battle of the knights in the history of Eastern Europe took place on 2 August 1560 near Ermes (57° 48′ 26″ N, 25° 49′ 19″ E). The Livonian army under command of landmarschall Philipp Schall von Bell was destroyed by the Muscovite forces. The Livonian commander-in-chief and virtually all senior officers of the Order (commanders Werner Schall von Bell, Heinrich von Galen, Christoph von Seeborg and Reinhold Sass) died in captivity.
Ermes, ruins
In August 1560 the Russian army headed for Wenden (57° 18′ 47″ N, 25° 16′ 29″ E) and Wolmar (57° 32′ 17″ N, 25° 25′ 23″ E), and its troops devastated the city and its suburbs and expropriated cattle herds. They besieged Weißenstein for five weeks, yet the castle did not give up. On 11 September a group of Revel citizens who attempted a sally was defeated. A cross dated the time of the Livonian war has survived in Marta street in Tallinn. It was erected in commemoration of those who perished in this battle (the Blasius Hochgrewe monument). In the museum of the Dominican monastery features some tombstones and crosses that were moved there from the 16th century urban tombs of the citizens who lost their lives in the battles of Revel during the Livonian war.
On 28 November 1561 the Second Treaty of Vilnius formalized the dissolution of the Livonian Order. All its possessions were formally succeeded by the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The last Master of the Order Gotthard Kettler acknowledged his dependence to Sigismund II Augustus and was enfeoffed with Courland and Semigallia with a residence in Bauska (56° 24′ 13″ N, 24° 10′ 25″ E). The once rich and mighty rulers of Livonia were allotted small estates for their maintenance — for example, the small Krimulda Castle (57° 10′ 15″ N 24° 49′ 55″ E) granted to the coadjutor of the Archbishop of Riga Duke of Mecklenburg Christopher.
Riga did not join the treaty, and after the dissolution of the Order and liquidation of the Riga Archdiocese it was able to retain its sovereignty until the conclusion of the agreement with King of Poland Stephen Báthory at the end of the Livonian War.
This was the end of the era of northern crusades. The Teutonic Order extinguished with its last Livonian branch.
Riga castle
We now the exact site where the end of the Teutonic Order took place. In 1562 the last Master of the Livonian Order Gotthard Kettler handed over the Master's regalia to Polish authorities in the Castle of the Order in Riga. Therefore, two "commemoration sites" can be considered in relation to the end of the Order: the Battle of Ērģeme and Riga Castle.
Alexander Filyushkin