History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 230, the Baltic Crusades, the Levonian Crusade Part 27, Trouble for the Sword Brothers.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the extraordinary rise and fall of Baldwin of Alna.

Determined to get his own back on the Sword Brothers,

Baldwin had travelled to Italy

to tell Pope Gregory the 9th of the terrible deeds committed by the religious order

established by the late Bishop Albert. As a result Pope Gregory sent Baldwin back to Livonia to deal with the issue, giving him the

sweeping powers of a full papal legate, as well as appointing him as the Bishop of Semagalia and the Bishop of

curland. Baldwin did travel back to Livonia to deal with the issue and ended up effectively at war with the Sword Brothers who overthrew their conciliatory master in order to take up arms against the papal legate.

The Sword Brothers came out victorious in the military conflict which followed, forcing Baldwin to flee to the castle at Dunamunda.

In the meanwhile, the Papal Legate, William of Moderner, had been made aware of the situation and had convinced Pope Gregory

to terminate Baldwin's appointment.

William of Moderner then requested to be sent back to Livonia to sort everything out and Pope Gregory granted his request.

As you can imagine, Baldwin did not go quietly back to his monastery and his former life as an

unimportant anonymous monk. Furious at being bested once again he declared

his enemies in Livonia to be heretics and attempted without success to get the Inquisition to inquire into their activities.

In the end though he was forced to admit defeat and left Livonia to return to the Holy Roman Empire.

In his book, the Baltic Crusade, William Urban reports that Baldwin's only lasting legacy in Livonia was the

downfall of the Cistercian Order.

The Cistercians had stood by Baldwin's side during all of his confrontations and had remained

steadfastly loyal to him during his tumultuous time in Livonia. As a consequence, their

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