Order for hegemony. A schism had existed within the Order since the Reformation had spread to Livonia in the 1520s, although the transformation of the country into a Lutheran region was a gradual process, resisted by part of the Order that to a varying degree remained sympathetic to Roman Catholicism. As war approached, Livonia had a weak administration subject to internal rivalries, lacked any powerful defences or outside support, and was surrounded by monarchies pursuing expansionist policies. Robert I. Frost notes of the volatile region: "Racked with internal bickering and threatened by the political machinations of its neighbours, Livonia was in no state to resist an attack." The Order's Landmeister and the Gebietigers, as well as the owners of Livonian estates, were all lesser nobles who guarded their privileges and influence by preventing the creation of a higher, more powerful noble class. Only the archbishopric of Riga successfully overcame resistance of the lesser nobles. Wilhelm von Brandenburg was appointed as Archbishop of Riga and Christoph von Mecklenburg as his Coadjutor, with the help of his brother Albert (Albrecht) of Brandenburg–Ansbach, the former Prussian Hochmeister who had secularised the southern Teutonic Order state and in 1525 established himself as duke in Prussia. Wilhelm and Christoph were to pursue Albert's interests in Livonia, among which was the establishment of a hereditary Livonian duchy styled after the Prussian model. At the same time the Order agitated for its re-establishment ("Rekuperation") in Prussia, opposed secularization, and creation of a hereditary duchy. Aspirations of Livonia's neighbours By the time the Livonian War broke out, the Hanseatic League had already lost its monopoly on the profitable and prosperous Baltic Sea trade. While still involved and with increasing sales, it now shared the market with European mercenary fleets, most notably from the Dutch Seventeen Provinces and France. The Hanseatic vessels were no match for contemporary warships, and since the league was unable to maintain a large navy because of a declining share of trade, its Livonian members Riga, Reval (Tallinn), and trading partner Narva were left without suitable protection. The Danish navy, the most powerful in the Baltic Sea, controlled the entrance to the Baltic Sea, collected requisite tolls, and held the strategically important Baltic Sea islands of Bornholm and Gotland. A long bar of Danish territories in the south and lack of sufficient year-round ice-free ports severely limited Sweden's access to Baltic trade. Nevertheless, the country