The Free Peasants of Koguva in the Context of Vassalage and the Wars in Sixteenth-Century Livonia
Koguva Maavabad Liivimaa Vasalliteenistuse ja 16. Sajandi Sődade Kontekstis

Summary/Abstract: Koguva is a coastal village on the Northwestern coast of Muhumaa, near the Väike (Small) Strait. The first mention of the village’s name is from 1532, when the Master of the Livonian branch of the German Order, Wolter von Plettenberg, gave a land of 2.5 plow-lands on the coast of the Väike Strait as a fiefdom to Hansken, the forefather of Schmuul-Smuul family. Regarding Hansken, there are 3 aspects of note. First, he wasn’t an ordinary peasant, but an elder (oldeste). Secondly, the land of 2.5 plow-lands (8–12 ha) was in Hansken’s possession before 1532. And thirdly, this document of fiefdom only gave fixed personal freedom and rights to the lands for Hansken and his heirs, but these were active already before that. Plettenberg’s document may have been only a confirmation of an earlier document dating from 1389, with the same content. So, we are tempted to consider Hansken as a typical minor vassal, a great number of whom were Estonians or at least of Estonian descent, mostly the descendants of Estonian elders or of the local elite. Degree by degree, Germans, and Germanized families of Estonian descent joined in later on. Mixed marriages contributed to Germanisation as well. In later times, the gap between squires – a large-number in Saaremaa – and richer peasants was small, and there were mixed marriages.

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