History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 214, the Baltic, the Baltic Crusades, the Livonian Crusade Part 20, 1221 to 1222.

Hello again.

Last week we saw things go pretty badly for Bishop Albert, who was forced to formally

seed Estonia and Livonia to the Danish crown.

He also had a new threat to keep his eye on in the form of the man he had nurtured and coaxed into a series of powerful

positions in Lavonia, the new Bishop of Samagalia. Bishop Bernard has powerful connections back in the Holy Roman

Empire and his son is the new Archbishop of Hamburg Bremen,

making Bishop Albert concerned that Bishop Bernard may adopt an expansionist

policy in his newly created Bishopric to rival Bishop Albert's own

conquests in Livonia. Now while Bishop Albert has been away in Central Europe, submitting to King Valdema of Denmark and trying in vain to resolve all his political headaches, something interesting has been happening back in Estonia.

The new King of Sweden, King John, had watched with interest the Danish King's moves in Estonia and had decided that Sweden should get in on the action before all of Estonia was securely under Danish control.

So he mustered an army, gathered a handful of bishops and a noble man, the Duke of East Gotland, and sailed to Estonia to do some conquering.

The Swedish king, his army, his bishops and his Duke, made landfall in Estonia at a place

called Lial, which today is called Lehula.

Now, the good news about Leal was that it was on the west coast of Estonia,

a good distance away from Danish territory to the north. And there was a castle on the site.

Wuho! The bad news about Leal was that it was just a cross from the island of Isal, home to the still

defiantly pagan Estonian pirates. The King of Sweden decided that Leal would be the ideal place to begin the Swedish

conquest of Estonia. He rebuilt much of the old castle which was on the site and once

he was sure that the stronghold would be adequate enough to protect Swedish

interests he installed the Duke of East Gotland in it,

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