1968/03/01 by L. R. Lewitter · 7 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Cartography #Economic history #Economy #Fell #Geography #Historical Influence and Diplomacy #Historical and Cultural Studies of Poland #History #Latvian #Medieval European History and Architecture #Political science #Possession (linguistics)
paper · doi:10.1017/s0018246x00002338
published in The Historical Journal 11(1), 3-34 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1968/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
In order to understand why Tsar Peter and King Augustus II of Poland fell into one another's arms when they met at Rawa in August 1698, and why they parted such bosom friends, we must first of all briefly consider the relations between Russia, Poland, Lithuania and Sweden in the last three or four decades of the seventeenth century. After the peace of Oliva with Poland in 1661 and that of Kardis with Russia in 1669, Sweden's possession of Livonia, Estonia, Ingria and Karelia debarred both the Polish Republic and the tsar from the Baltic, thereby furnishing them with a common grievance and object of envy. Sweden's granary and her bulwark against Russia and Poland, Livonia with the port of Riga— ‘the most valuable jewel of the crown of Sweden’ — was a particularly invidious token of predominance in the Baltic and one whose lustre still outshone the growing importance of Narva in Estonia.