Editing Livonia (section)

=== Livonian Confederation (1418–1561) ===
{{main|Livonian Confederation}}

In 1418, the [[Archbishopric of Riga|Archbishop of Riga]], [[Johannes Ambundii]], organised the five ecclesiastical states of the Holy Roman Empire in Medieval Livonia (Livonian Order, Courland, Ösel–Wiek, Dorpat and Riga) into the [[Livonian Confederation]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=b3b5nU4bnw4C&pg The History of the Baltic States] By Kevin O'Connor; {{ISBN|0-313-32355-0}}; p. 23</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Pihlajamäki
 | first1 = Heikki
 | chapter = The outset: The Livonian and Swedish Legal orders at the Time of the Swedish Conquest
 | title = Conquest and the Law in Swedish Livonia (ca. 1630–1710): A Case of Legal Pluralism in Early Modern Europe
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=s9fzDQAAQBAJ
 | series = The Northern World
 | location = Leiden
 | publisher = Brill
 | date = 2017
 | page = 24
 | isbn = 9789004331532
 | access-date = 19 June 2020
 | quote = A division into five rival small principalities thus developed during the thirteenth century: the State of the Teutonic Order, the Archbishopric of Riga, the bishoprics of Dorpat, Oesel–Wiek and Courland. The five principalities formed the Livonian Confederation, the Ordenstaat, until its dissolution in 1561.
}}
</ref>
A diet or ''[[Landtag]]'' was formed in 1419. The city of [[Walk, Livonia|Walk]] was chosen as the site of the diet.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

From the 14th to the 16th centuries, [[Middle Low German]] – as spoken in the towns of the [[Hanseatic League]] — functioned as the established language of the Livonian lands, but [[High German]] subsequently succeeded it as the official language in the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref name=Koch59>{{cite book|last= Koch|first= Kristine|title= Deutsch als Fremdsprache im Russland des 18. Jahrhunderts | trans-title = German as a foreign language in 18th-century Russia |publisher= Walter de Gruyter|location= Berlin/New York|year= 2002|series= Die Geschichte des Deutschen als Fremdsprache|volume= 1|isbn= 3-11-017503-7|language= de|page= 59}}</ref>