History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 197, the Baltic Crusades, the Livonian Crusade Part 3, Bishop Albert.

Hello again.

Last week we saw Brother Theodoric embark on a crusade in an attempt to assist Brother Meinhart to forcibly convert the Livonian people to Christianity.

However, the Crusade was a flop, with only a hand full of fighters actually making their way to Bishop Meinhart who died not long after

they arrived.

So Livonia is now without a bishop and needs a new one. The Archbishop of Bremen, a man called Hartwig,

decided to appoint a Cistercian Abbot, a man man called Bertold to the role. Now, unfortunately for Bertold, he won't have hardly

any military support. There won't be bunches of soldiers or armed men backing him up as

he ventures into pagan territory to take up his new role. Why? Well because Emperor Henry the 6th has decided to launch a

crusade to the Middle East. As we all know Emperor Henry Henry's father, Frederick Barbarossa, died in the Middle East before his

crusading venture really got off the ground.

And Emperor Henry wants to take up the crusading back. the the German Crusade to the Middle East.

As such, just about every Christian soldier in the Holy Roman Empire is headed towards the Holy

Land, and no one wants to miss out on this chance for glory by going to the

Baltic region with the newly appointed Bishop Bertold.

So determined to make the best of the situation, Bishop Bertold decided to approach the

Livonian people with gifts and ply them with food and drink to gain their trust instead of forcing them to accept

both Christianity and their new bishop at the point of a sword.

It did not go well. Bishop Berthold travelled to Lavonia through a

party in Ex-Qel or Ex-Chiller as it is now called which seemed to go okay but then he

travelled to the neighbouring town of Holm where things quickly started to unravel. It soon became clear that instead

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