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Frederick Casimir Kettler

1650–1698

Born
6 Jul 1650, Jelgava
Country of birth
Latvia
Died
22 Jan 1698, Jelgava
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Jelgava

    Birth, Jelgava

  2. Child born: Frederick William Kettler

    Birth, Jelgava

  3. Died · Jelgava

    Death, Jelgava

What was it like?

The world around Jelgava, 1650: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Men wore long coats called 'paltis' fastened with a belt and winter furs of the same style. Women wore long, wide skirts that dragged on the ground while walking.

Fashion

Everyday clothing styles for peasants

Men wore long coats called 'paltis' fastened with a belt and winter furs of the same style. Women wore long, wide skirts that dragged on the ground while walking.

Festive versus everyday footwear

Footwear for ordinary people primarily consisted of bark shoes (vīzes) or pastalas, while boots were generally reserved for festive occasions.

Music

Competitive singing at wedding celebrations

Communal singing was essential at weddings, where guests engaged in apdziedasanas, a competitive and humorous form of improvisational singing between two opposing groups.

Traditional musical instruments in villages

Traditional instruments during this era included bagpipes, which were widely known in villages, alongside shepherd instruments like whistles, horns, and trumpets.

Getting around

Cost of a winter sledge

In 1586, a villager could purchase a sledge for ten Lithuanian groši, a common, useful vehicle for winter transport.

Slow overland travel between towns

Traveling between towns was slow, and a trip from Vilnius to Kaunas, which now takes less than 1.5 hours, required a full day at the time.

Daily life

Cooking and Living Spaces

Traditional peasant dwelling houses featured a nams, a ceiling-less room for cooking with a hearth where smoke escaped through the roof, and an istaba, a living room with a ceiling and stove.

Peasant Threshing-Dwelling Houses

In the 17th century, Vidzeme peasant homes, known as threshing-dwelling houses, combined living space with a drying house and a threshing room under one roof.

Food

Beer as the common beverage

Beer was the most common everyday beverage and was often called liquid bread, sometimes being consumed more frequently than water.

Peas and beans as daily food

Field beans and grey peas were essential everyday foods, and people believed that eating all the peas served at a New Year's feast would prevent them from crying in the coming year.

Prices and wages
Around 1625–1649

Manors provided subsistence loans of grain

Manors provided subsistence loans to peasants, primarily in the form of grain like rye and barley, which peasants were expected to repay.

Around 1624–1649

Peasant farm prosperity grew in Livonia

Between 1624 and the 18th century, the number of cattle, horses, and workers on peasant farms in Livonia increased, indicating growth in prosperity and labor potential.

Work

Common Peasant Work and Manorial Obligations

Most ordinary people were peasants engaged in agriculture, performing mandatory labor on manor estates while tending to their own subsistence crops. Key duties included plowing, harvesting, and transporting goods for the manor, alongside mandatory labor service for construction, road maintenance, and forest work.

Grueling Daily Work Routine

A typical workday began before dawn and lasted until deep into the night, often continuing by moonlight due to a lack of lamps. Work was grueling, and laborers could be punished with 10 to 20 lashes for minor transgressions or failing to work fast enough.

News and letters
Around 1632–1649

Seven-day journey to Memel

Travel by horse post from Riga to Memel took seven days, using a system where peasants were required to transport travelers.

Letter delivery speed and duration

Couriers on major routes between Wenden and Reval typically traveled at an average speed of 31 kilometers per day, with letters taking around 10 days to arrive.

During their lifetime

  1. 1657

    Plague epidemic in Mitau

    In 1657, a devastating plague outbreak killed at least 901 people in the city of Mitau alone within 22 weeks.

  2. 1660

    Water supply system built in Jelgava

    In 1660, Jelgava introduced a water supply system that delivered water from the Svete River to private houses and public pumps via underground wooden pipes.

  3. 1685

    New postal service in Courland

    Duke Frederick Casimir organized a separate, independent postal service through Courland in 1685, sparking fierce competition with the existing Swedish-run mail service.

  4. 1686

    Church Law transforms regional literacy

    The Church Law of 1686, extended to Livonia in 1690, mandated that parish priests monitor households to ensure they could read the Bible and participate in catechism.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.