History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 199, the Baltic Crusades, the Lovonian Crusade Part 5, the Christian pageant.

Hello again. Last week we saw the establishment of the Sword Brothers,

a motley bunch of fighters

who were members of a military order stationed permanently in Livonia with the

master of the order answerable directly to Bishop Albert.

We concluded last week's episode with the Sword Brothers combining forces with some

local pagans to defeat the much feared Lithuanians. Now before we move on to Bishop Albert's next recruitment drive in the

winter of 1204 to 1205 let's just take a moment to step back and take a look at what is happening at this

point in time in Lovonia and in Europe as a whole. The city of Riga is

really starting to make its presence felt in the region.

As we have mentioned previously, the Dalgova River snakes inland all the way to Russia, and Russian traders began to sail down the river

to sell wax and furs at Riga and German merchants from Riga were able to travel up river as far as the Russian town of Polotsk to sell cloth and iron to the Russians.

The population of the town of Riga waxed and waned with the seasons, with merchants and traders

from the Holy Roman Empire coming and going regularly during the warmer months while the permanent

citizens of the town bunkered down and did their best to survive the harsh winters.

In addition to its permanent population of men of the church and the various

Christian settlers needed to keep the town and its citizens operational, Riga had a diverse population of fighting men.

At the top of the heap of course were the Sword Brothers, German Knights fully equipped with

war horses, armor and European weaponry

who were becoming more and more familiar with the local terrain and the local people.

The town of Riga itself also had its own militia, as was common in all frontier

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