Analysis of the Importance of Religious Affiliation in the Distribution of the Highest Offices and Offices of Elders (Starosta) in the Duchy of Livonia (1582–1629)

The article, based on available biographies, analyses the denominational affiliation of the highest officials (commissioners, land court judges, voivodes, castellans) and elders or starosta (administrators of crown estates) under the Catholic counter-reformation conditions during the reign of Stephen Báthory and Sigismund III (1582–1629) in the Duchy of Livonia. The aim is to analyse the proportion of non-Roman Catholic Christians (Protestants and Orthodox) in the duchy’s power structures and the factors that influenced it.