The campaign in Livonia in the early 13th century is rarely among the first things to come to one’s mind upon mention of the Crusades. Taking place along the frigid Baltic coast of northeastern Europe, this religious conflict was spearheaded by a small, disorderly band of knights called the Livonian Swordbrothers. Despite being characterized by their brutality and secular ambitions, the Swordbrothers’ activities resulted in the Christianization of the region and contributed significantly to the history of modern-day Latvia and Estonia.
Map of Baltic tribes prior to the crusade, by MapMaster on Wikimedia Commons. The Livonians (“Livs”) and Latgalians (“Letts”) are shown in the north.
“Livonia” in the context of the Middle Ages refers to the area along the Baltic coast, between Finland, Lithuania, and Russia, inhabited by three primary groups of people: the Livs, Letts, and Estonians. These were pagan peoples, and their ways of living were largely impacted by the harsh climate of their homeland. They organized themselves into small tribal groups, sometimes united by common language and culture, but still largely independent of one another. Regional nobles arose in some places, but their power over the commoners was often nominal. What was most important to these people was their religion; they practiced a form of organized paganism, complete with priests and temples, based around a belief in a world dominated by innumerable gods.
The pagans of Livonia only experienced limited contact with Christendom prior to the crusade, with some traders and missionaries establishing outposts along the Daugava River. In 1185, a monk named Meinhard was appointed Bishop of the region and settled at Üxküll to begin converting the Livs. His attempt was a failure, and he died in 1196. The second Bishop, Berthold, was chased out of Livonia by a number of angry pagans. He then convinced Pope Celestine III that force would be necessary to convert the Livs, and the Pope agreed. A crusade was called, and Berthold returned in 1198 with an army. He was killed in battle shortly thereafter. It would be the third Bishop, Albert von Buxhövden, who would finally gain a foothold in the region.
Many people in Germany were disappointed with the failed crusade to the Holy Land in 1197 and were eager to seek wealth, glory, and righteousness elsewhere. With this in mind, Albert was able to garner popular support for the campaign in Livonia, and arrived there in 1200 with a sizable fleet and an army. Despite having the advantage of numbers and knowledge of the terrain, the natives could not match the equipment, organization, or leadership that the crusaders brought against them. Their small villages and wooden forts were easy for the crusaders to pillage and burn, and the natives usually fled if there did not appear to be a clear path to victory in battle. Pagan tribes were converted one by one, and those that resisted were often brutally slaughtered.
Albert moved his headquarters up the Daugava River from Üxküll to the more accessible trading outpost of Riga. Fresh armies of crusaders arrived there each spring after the initial invasion, but these forces only campaigned during the summer months, then returned home before the harsh winter arrived. In order to maintain control over the newly conquered territory, Albert appointed some of his family members as vassals and tried to raise up the converted native nobles as a knightly class, though few had the money to equip themselves. Militias composed of natives proved unreliable, and Albert could not raise enough tax revenue from the land to afford his own army. He devised a solution in 1202: a military order named the Livonian Swordbrothers.
A Livonian Swordbrother, painting by Igor Dzis. The Swordbrothers wore the symbol of a red cross over a red sword on a white field.
The Swordbrothers were officially established by Albert, but in reality were probably organized by Theoderich, a monk who had been active in Livonia since 1191. They were patterned after the Knights Templar as a monastic order of warriors who were expected to renounce secular pleasures, live simple lives, and take up arms for their bishop. Albert intended for the Brothers to be Livonia’s permanent military presence. They would be an elite force which could organize native militias and crusaders from Germany during the summer, and defend their conquered territory during the long winter months. Unlike the Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights, the Swordbrothers were a small organization, never numbering more than 120 members, and they were only given direct control of one third of Albert’s territory at the start. They came from very mixed backgrounds, and some of them allegedly had criminal histories. This likely contributed to the notoriety they were soon to receive.
After gaining their foothold in Livonia, the Swordbrothers developed new tactics for fighting against the natives. The weather during the summer was more pleasant for fighting, but winter afforded certain advantages. Rivers and swamps could be used for travel after they froze over. Forests could not hide pagan ambushes in the winter, and the footprints of pagan raiding parties could be followed in the snow. A series of forts were built along the Livonian frontier to be used as gathering points for crusaders and converted native militias before venturing out against the pagans. The crusaders would often burn down villages and farms and slaughter large numbers of pagans to force the rest into submission. Those who remained pagan showed similar brutality to their converted countrymen.
The Livs adopted Christianity fairly quickly. This was due in part to their chief, Caupo of Turaida, who had been converted by Theoderich many years prior. Theoderich took Caupo on a trip to meet the Pope in 1203, but while he was gone, another Livonian chief named Ako began stirring up antagonism against the Christians, which led to a major uprising in 1206. The Livs slaughtered Christians and pillaged the countryside around Riga. After his return from Rome, Caupo helped the Swordbrothers to subdue his own people and besiege his own fortress at Turaida. The rebellion was put down, and Ako’s head was presented to Albert as a gift.
A Livonian Swordbrother fights with pagans. Still from Baltu Ciltis (“Baltic Tribes”) by Lauris Ābele, Raitis Ābele, and Toms Ķencisn.
By 1209, the Livs and Letts had been mostly Christianized and transformed into allies of the crusaders. Animosity arose between Albert and the Swordbrothers shortly thereafter. Though they cooperated in efforts to conquer and convert more of the native peoples, the Brothers were not interested in being the Bishop’s vassals. They wanted to become an independent power in the region and claimed that their allegiance was to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope, rather than their Bishop. They were also financially unstable and needed to conquer new lands to improve their fortunes. Disregarding Albert, they began plotting on their own to invade Estonia. This did not sit well with some of the Brothers. A knight named Wickbert was arrested after refusing to cooperate and stating his desire to remain obedient to Albert. In a private meeting, Wickbert killed Master Wenno, the leader of the Order, with an axe. Wickbert was promptly put to death, and a knight named Volkwin was appointed as the new Master.
Conquering Estonia quickly proved to be a difficult task. The Estonians were more organized and militarily powerful than the Livs and Letts had been, and they received support on some occasions from the Russian principalities to the east. At Ümera in 1210, the Estonians lured the Swordbrothers and their native auxiliaries into an ambush. The crusading forces were heavily defeated, and the battle unified more tribes against the Christians. The next year, Estonians besieged Caupo’s stronghold at Turaida but were repelled by a relief force from Riga. The Swordbrothers then went on to assault the fortress of Viljandi. Although the crusaders did not take the fortress, they inflicted enough damage to force the defenders to accept baptism. Lembitu, the leader of the Estonian resistance, then made a tentative peace agreement with the Swordbrothers.
War broke out again in 1215 when an Estonian army attempted to besiege Riga. They sank boats at the mouth of the Daugava in an attempt to block more Christian ships from arriving, but the effort was futile. Two cogs carrying reinforcements made it through, and the defenders of Riga sallied out to scatter the attackers. In the same year, crusaders successfully captured and plundered Lembitu’s fortress at Lehola and forcefully converted the defenders, including Lembitu himself. Lembitu was released from captivity in 1217 and secured a promise from Vladimir of Novgorod to send forces to aid Estonia against the crusaders. A pagan army gathered to await the Russians’ arrival. The Christians in Livonia heard of this, and Volkwin and Caupo took their men to destroy the Estonian forces before the reinforcements from the east could arrive. The ensuing battle, which took place on St. Matthew’s feast day, resulted in the deaths of both Caupo and Lembitu, and the Estonians were defeated.
Three Danish crusaders in Estonia, c. 1219. Painting by Angus McBride, published in The Scandanavian Baltic Crusades (Osprey).
Bishop Albert did not participate in much of the fighting in Estonia, since the Swordbrothers were pursuing their own ambitions there. Around 1218, Albert made contact with King Waldemar of Denmark and requested assistance conquering Estonia before the Swordbrothers could claim it for themselves. The Danes ignored Albert and, after taking the northern half of Estonia, they left the southern half to the Swordbrothers. Danish power began to collapse after Waldemar was captured by one of his enemies in 1223, and a massive uprising erupted in Estonia that same year. Many Christian strongholds in the region were taken, and one third of all of the Swordbrothers were killed. Albert was forced to help the Swordbrothers subdue the natives. The rebellion finally ended in 1224 after crusaders took the stronghold of Tartu and slaughtered everyone inside.
The Estonian uprising only exacerbated the conflict between Albert and the Swordbrothers. Seeing the need for a third party to settle their differences, the Bishop requested the mediation of a papal legate. William of Modena was appointed to handle these matters in 1225. Around 1227, a Livonian priest named Henry wrote a chronicle of events since 1180 as a report to William, which serves today as one of the main sources for the history of the Livonian Crusade and the Swordbrothers. After becoming familiarized with the situation and earning the trust of both parties, William decided to put Estonia under direct papal control, but the appointed governor immediately returned the region to the authority of the Swordbrothers. Albert died in 1229 with the conflict still unresolved.
Pope Gregory IX sent a monk, Baldwin of Alna, to choose a new Bishop. Instead, Baldwin began to exercise papal authority by reasserting control over Estonia. The Swordbrothers resisted vehemently, forcing the Pope to invest Baldwin with the authority to raise an army against them. Baldwin’s forces arrived at Riga in 1233 and went on to occupy part of Estonia, demanding the surrender of some of the Order’s fortresses. In retaliation, the Swordbrothers temporarily arrested their own Master, attacked and defeated the papal army, then arrested all of Baldwin’s supporters. Admitting defeat, the Pope sent William of Modena back to Livonia to restore peace.
The Swordbrothers, despite their victory over Baldwin, were in an untenable position. They needed more land from which to raise taxes, but their ruthless ambition to acquire that land had pushed away many potential allies. Volkwin decided to request admission into the Teutonic Knights, a much larger and wealthier organization that had been operating in Prussia, just south of Livonia along the Baltic coast, since 1226. A merge of the two orders might have seemed natural, but the emissaries sent by the Teutonic Knights had few positive things to say about the Swordbrothers upon their return. The Brothers’ standards were far below that of the Teutonic Order, and their history of demanding autonomy was concerning. Upon being refused, the Swordbrothers were left with only one option: the conquest of new lands.
The regions of southern Livonia had been fairly easy to conquer in the years prior, so the Swordbrothers assumed that the Lithuanians, farther south, would also be easy prey. What they did not realize was that Lithuania, under the leadership of Mindaugas, was more unified and powerful than even the Estonians had been. The Pope declared a crusade against Lithuania in 1236, and an army of crusaders from Holstein arrived in Livonia that summer. Volkwin insisted that they wait until winter to begin a campaign, but the newcomers were impatient and demanded to be led to battle immediately. The Swordbrothers conceded. Together with their Liv and Lett auxiliaries, they marched south. The army crossed the Saule River and entered Samogitia, where they proceeded to raid a number of settlements. On their way back north, the crusaders were stopped at the Saule by a small group of pagan warriors, and Volkwin, against his better judgement, acquiesced to the Holsteiners’ demand to wait until the next morning to fight their way across. By sunrise, a massive army of pagans had arrived, and the ensuing battle resulted in the complete destruction of the crusading army. The Swordbrothers were slaughtered, including Volkwin himself.
The Battle of the Saule, painting by Arturas Slapsys.
Map of the Livonian and Prussian Crusades c. 1260, by Stefan Bollmann on Wikimedia Commons.
Little remained of the Swordbrothers after their defeat at the Saule. Many of the conquered tribes in Livonia and Estonia realized the opportunity and rebelled. Pope Gregory IX recognized the desperate situation at that point, and in an impromptu ceremony involving Grandmaster Hermann von Salza of the Teutonic Knights and two representatives of the Swordbrothers, the orders were unified. The Teutonic Knights appointed a new Master in Livonia, Hermann Balk, who arrived in Riga with a fresh contingent of knights and men-at-arms. These reinforcements managed to regain dominance over the natives, but the former Swordbrothers resisted Balk’s leadership after he gave control of Estonia to the Kingdom of Denmark. Their protestations amounted to little, as the region of Livonia was not a priority for the Teutonic Order, which stretched from the Levant to the Baltic. With so few survivors, and now being under the supervision of the Teutonic Masters, the former Swordbrothers could no longer pursue their own territorial interests.
The Livonian Crusade was not yet over, but with the Swordbrothers’ demise, its nature had shifted dramatically. The Teutonic Knights practiced much more careful diplomacy, mediating conflicts between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, but they had their own ambitions. In the years immediately following the union, the Teutonic Knights focused on a joint campaign with Denmark and Sweden against Novgorod, which resulted in the defeat at Lake Peipus in 1242. The Knights then prioritized the conquest of Lithuania, even after Mindaugas converted to Christianity in hopes of halting the onslaught. The second main source for the history of the Swordbrothers, the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, was written by an anonymous Teutonic Knight in the 1290s, while the war against Lithuania was still ongoing. This chronicle is heavily propagandized and was likely meant to inspire new recruits for the Order, as it focuses largely on battles and does not attempt to present details about mundane affairs as found in the Chronicle of Henry.
In spite of their short existence as an independent organization, the Livonian Swordbrothers had a profound impact on the history of northeastern Europe. They established a firm foothold for Christianity in the region, albeit with selfish intentions and brutal methods, and their conquests set the stage for further conflicts against pagans and Orthodox Christians that would continue to embroil the region for centuries. Today, they are remembered much as they were known to their contemporaries, as an ambitious and ruthless organization, and as an example of how religious wars, and the people who participate in them, often become driven by secular interests.
Written May 24-26, 2019. Published May 27, 2019.
This piece was submitted to and won the Another Time & Place: Short-Form History Paper Competition at War of the Lilies XXXIII.
References
- Anonymous. The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle. Translated by Jerry C. Smith and William Urban. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University, 1977.
- Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades. London: Penguin Books, 1997.
- Hettler, Hans. Preussen Als Kreuzzugsregion: Untersuchungen Zu Peter Von Dusburgs “Chronica Terre Prussie” in Zeit Und Umfeld. Frankfurt Am Main: Peter Lang, 2014.
- Hirsch, Theodor, Max Toeppen, and Ernst Strehlke. Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum. Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1861.
- Lettus, Henricus. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Translated by James A. Brundage. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.
- Michell, Robert, and Nevill Forbes, trans. The Chronicle of Novgorod: 1016-1471. Introduced by C. Raymond Beazley and A. A. Shakhmatov. London: Camden Society, 1914.
- Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. London: Greenhill Books, 2005.
- Urban, William. The Livonian Crusade. Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 2004.
J.D. Smirl 