Livonian Crusade

The Livonian Crusade was the series of military Christianisation campaigns fought in medieval Livonia, in the area of modern Latvia and Estonia, during the papally sanctioned Northern Crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is usually dated from 1198 to about 1290. Crusading orders such as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Teutonic Order, together with the bishoprics of Riga and others and the Kingdom of Denmark, fought Baltic and Finnic peoples including the Livs, Latgalians, Estonians, Curonians and Semigallians, and sometimes Lithuanians and Russian principalities. The main narrative source is the Livonian Chronicle of Henry, written around 1229 by Henry of Latvia at the urging of Bishop Albert of Riga. The campaigns ended with the crusaders in control and the creation of the state known as Terra Mariana.