Rus’ and the Crusaders in the Baltic Region

Posted on September 26, 2015


Rus

Livonians


The Livonian Confederation in 1260.
From their inception, the Western crusades to the eastern Baltic region were detrimental to Russian interests. Initially Russian control over the Düna area was recognized in the West; thus in 1184 the canon Meinhard came to Polotsk in order to persuade its prince to permit his preaching of the Latin (Roman Catholic) faith to the Livs of the Düna region. Meinhard was accompanied by German merchants who were interested in establishing fortified trading stations on the lower reaches of the Düna. Their proposal to build stone fortresses in the lands of the Livs suited the prince of Polotsk. By the 1180s the Livish regions had become a target for Lithuanian raids, while Polotsk had become entangled in internal wars in Russia and the prince could not defend his subjects in the Baltic region. He therefore allowed Meinhard to preach in return for constructing fortresses that would protect the Livs against Lithuanian attacks. However, the Orthodox Church and Russian merchants were displeased by the growing influence of German merchants and by the establishment in 1186 of a Livonian bishopric with Meinhard as its first bishop, which was named in a bull of Pope Clement III of 1 October 1188 as “the bishopric of Üxküll in Ruthenia [i.e., Russia]” [Liv-, Esth- und Curländisches Urkundenbuch nebst Regesten, ed. Friedrich G. von Bunge et al., 15 vols. (Reval: Kluge und Ströhm, 1853–1914), 10:11].


Russian control of Livonia began to crumble with the appearance of a new bishop, Albert of Buxhövden (1198–1229), who had obtained papal permission for annual crusades to Livonia. In 1208–1209 the crusaders conquered the Orthodox Lettgallian principalities of Koknese (Ger. Kokenhusen) and Jersika (Ger. Gerzike), whose rulers were vassals of the prince of Polotsk. In 1212 Prince Vladimir of Polotsk was forced to give up his rights to tribute from the Livs. In 1216 the Russians of Polotsk were ready to invade Livonia, but the campaign was canceled because of the sudden death of Prince Vladimir. By the late 1230s the crusaders had extended their authority along the Düna as far as the lands inhabited by Russians.
It was only in 1210 that the Russians of Novgorod attempted to assert their authority over the lands of the Estonians and northern Letgallians, after the crusaders and the Order of the Sword Brethren (established in 1202) had invaded Estonia. The aim of the Novgorodian incursions into Estonia in 1210 and 1212 was to force the still pagan natives to accept conversion to the Orthodox form of Christianity and to concede the rights of Novgorod to take tribute. However, the Novgorodians failed to convert the Estonians, and there was also confrontation between Novgorod and Pskov: in 1210 a detachment from Pskov took part in the crusaders’ campaign against south-western Estonia.


In 1216–1221 the Novgorodians and Pskovians fought against the crusaders in Livonia, but met little success because of their uncoordinated actions. The long history of raiding between Estonians and Russians hampered any immediate military alliance between them; it was not until 1222, when the greater part of Estonia had been occupied, that the Estonians and Russians allied against the crusaders. Although the Novgorodians sent troops to help defend several fortresses of the Estonians, the allies were unable to withstand the crusaders and the large numbers of native inhabitants who were by now subject to the new rulers of Livonia. The last fortress to hold out was Dorpat (mod. Tartu, Estonia), defended by Estonians and a Russian detachment led by Prince Vetseke, the former ruler of Koknese. On 15 August 1224 Dorpat was captured by storm after a siege of two weeks. All but one of the Russian defenders were killed.


In 1224 the Russians concluded a peace treaty with the bishop of Riga and the Sword Brethren. The Novgorodians and Pskovians gave up political control of the territories of the Estonians and Lettgallians, but retained the right to take tribute from the natives; in the early 1280s the Pskovians were still known to come for tribute to the Lettgallian land of Adzele. The Livonian-Russian border was fixed along the line of the river Narova and lakes Peipus and Pskovskoye.


The Western powers in Livonia intended to extend their authority into the Russian lands, pressing in two directions: toward Pskov and along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland into the lands of the Finnic peoples subject to the Novgorodian state. The papacy planned to found a new bishopric in North-western Rus’ with Pskov as its center. The main role in the realization of these projects was to be taken by the Livonian church and the Sword Brethren, whose prospects were improved by a Lithuanian offensive against the principality of Polotsk and the rout of the Russian troops by the Mongols in the battle of Kalka. Letters of Pope Honorius III addressed to the Christians of Russia (16 November 1224) and the kings of Russia (17 January 1227) called on them to adopt the Latin faith in order to support the struggle against the pagans. In his second letter the pope had in mind the princes of Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, and Polotsk, but it went unheeded.


In the late 1220s the Livonians planned to take advantage of the confrontation between Pskov and Novgorod.