History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 204 the Baltic Crusades, the Livonian Crusade Part 10, headaches for Bishop Albert.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the Sword Brothers exert their authority in Lovonia,

demanding and after intervention from Pope Innocent the third being granted

one third of the land conquered by the Christians in Livonia.

Now this ended up causing some headaches for Bishop

Albert. He effectively now had no control over the part of Lonia administered by the Sword Brothers and even when they

made decisions with which he thoroughly disagreed he was powerless to intervene. As we've discussed before, many of the Sword Brothers

were violent men of dubious character, and I guess it's not surprising that our chronicler Henry of Livonia

reports incidents of some Sword Brothers who were meant to be settling disputes between local people and collecting money

to assist in the administration of the region instead choosing to fill their own pockets.

In his book, the Baltic Crusade,

William Urban reports that the Rough Administration

carried out by the Sword Brothers over their domains, started to adversely affect Bishop Albert's

general policy towards the Livonian people.

He was keen to establish a sort of feudal state in Livonia, where the local people would play an active role in society, accepting Christian overlordship, and assisting in the defence of the region.

However, the Sword Brothers heavy-handed tactics were turning some of the more powerful Livonians within their domains against Christian

rule.

Ar chronicler Henry of Livonia provides this example. An elder within the region administered by the Sword Brothers

came into conflict with one of the Knights from the Order. The Knight warned the Elder to stop inconveniencing his men, but the

Livonian Elder didn't stop. So one night the Sword Brother assembled a group of men and took them to the fort

...