History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 231, the Baltic Crusades, the Levonian Crusade Part 28, the end of the Sword Brothers.

Hello again.

Last week we saw trouble brewing for the Sword Brothers,

forced to travel to Rome to defend themselves against allegations

made by Baldwin of Alna, the Sword Brothers successfully defended the charges, but then faced a backlash from Pope Gregory the 9th, who decreed not only that Estonia be returned to the Danish crown, but that the Sword Brothers owed King

Valdermar the second of Denmark a significant sum of money in compensation for removing Estonia from Danish hands.

Pope Gregory also sent William of Moderner the Sword Brothers defender to Scandinavia, effectively

removing him from Estonia for the moment. So the Sword Brothers are in a bit of a pickle.

Estonia was a vital source of income for the order and now not only had that source been taken away by Rome the

stipulation that the already financially stretched order pay compensation to Denmark was a death blow.

Although it wasn't actually.

No, the death blow for the Sword Brothers is about to arrive not from Rome, but from the Lithuanians.

Now, remember we saw last week that Master Volkwin decided to invade Lithuania in an attempt to gain

more land and income for his order? Well, that turned out to be a really bad idea. Their first raid

against the Lithuanians had been successful, but their next one wouldn't be.

In the year 1236, a contingent of Crusaders arrived in Riga and their leaders, the Counts of Dunenburg and

Hustledorf, were intent on bringing Christianity to the pagan Lithuanians.

Master Volkwin raised a force to join them,

comprising around 100 knights,

1,200 fighting men, 1,500 local fighters, and 200 Russians from Skof.

They joined the 1,000 or so Crusaders and marched southwards through Semigalia into Lithuania. Unfortunately for the Crusaders and the Sword Brothers, the expedition was a total disaster.

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