Collection area

Royal Swedish Post

Most of Livonia became Swedish crown land in 1621, administered from Riga by a governor. Riga was at that time the second largest city in the Kingdom of Sweden.

  Map Baltic Countries 17th century

   (Source: Wikipedia)

Characteristic of the Swedish postal service in Livonia is the introduction of the Swedish state postal service, which was initiated by Queen Christine's decree in Sweden in 1636 and extended to Livonia in 1638, the opening of the state postal service into a postal service for the general public and the use of the first postmark in Riga (1708–1710), cf. also the explanations on the Royal Swedish Post in Estonia.

There are only a few letters from the Swedish postal period in collections, most of them are official letters from authorities.

1637: Service letter from the Swedish governor in Riga, Anders Erichsen to Claes Flemingh, "Deron Crohne Schweden Reichs Rath, Ammiralen und Landtrichteren in Süder Finlandt" (Swedish Crown's Council member, Admiral and Country Judge in South Finland).

Postal connections existed from Riga not only with the capital Stockholm, but also with Prussia (via Memel) and Warsaw.

The Northern War ended in 1721 with the Peace of Nystad. However, Sweden lost its Livonian and Estonian possessions to Russia as early as 1710 with the surrender of the states of the realm in Reval and Riga. Russia took over the position of power on the Baltic Sea.