Curonian Kings

"Curonian Kings" (German: Kurische Könige; Latvian: Kuršu ķoniņi: Russian: Куриш-Кениге) was a social and ethnic group of Latvians that lived in seven villages between Goldingen (Kuldīga) and Hasenpoth (Aizpute) in Courland.

They were descendants of Curonian nobility, first mentioned in a document of 1320 and lived in the villages of Ķoniņciems, Pliķu ciems, Kalējciems, Ziemeļciems, Viesalgciems, Sausgaļciems, and Dragūnciems (now in Kuldīga municipality). To "Curonian Kings" belonged such families (in modern Latvian spelling): Peniķis, Tontegode, Vidiņš, Dragūns, Sirkants etc. They preserved special privileges during conquest by the Livonian Order (such as the right to hunt and exemption from taxes and military drafts), but lost these privileges in 1854. In the census of 1863 they were counted as a separate nation, with a total number of 405. While the Curonian tribe had long been assimilated by the Latvians, the "Curonian Kings" preserved a separate identity by not inter-marrying with other ethnic groups. It was not until the 1920s, that the "Curonian Kings" merged into the Latvians.

References

• [1] Free Latvians at 1800
• Алфавитный список народов, обитающих в Российской Империи. СПб., 1895 (Russian)
• Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4. Auflage von 1888–1890. (German)