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Livonia
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Livonia
Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia.
By the end of the 13th century, the name was extended to most of present-day Estonia and Latvia, which the Livonian Brothers of the Sword had conquered during the Livonian Crusade (1193–1290). Medieval Livonia, or Terra Mariana, reached its greatest extent after the Saint George's Night Uprising (1343–1345), which forced Denmark to sell the Duchy of Estonia (northern Estonia conquered by Denmark in the 13th century) to the State of the Teutonic Order in 1346. Livonia, as understood after the retreat of Denmark in 1346, bordered on the Gulf of Finland in the north, Lake Peipus and Russia to the east, and Lithuania to the south.
As a consequence of the Livonian War (1558–1583), the territory of Livonia was reduced to the southern half of Estonia and the northern half of Latvia.
The indigenous inhabitants of Livonia were various Finnic tribes in the north and Baltic tribes in the south. The descendants of the crusaders formed the nucleus of the new ruling class of Livonia after the Livonian Crusade, and they eventually became known as Baltic Germans.
Beginning in the 12th century, Livonia became a target for economic and political expansion by Danes and Germans, particularly for the Hanseatic League and the Cistercian Order. Around 1160, Hanseatic traders from Lübeck established a trading post on the site of the future city of Riga, which Bishop Albrecht von Buxthoeven founded in 1201.
The Livonian Chronicle of Henry from the 1220s gives a firsthand account of the Christianization of Livonia, granted as a fief by the Hohenstaufen (de facto but not known as) the King of Germany, Philip of Swabia (r. 1198–1208), to Bishop Albert of Riga (Albert of Buxhoeveden), nephew of Hartwig II, the Archbishop of Bremen, who sailed (1200) with a convoy of ships filled with armed crusaders to carve out a Catholic territory in the east as part of the Livonian Crusade. Bishop Albert founded the military order of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (Latin: Fratres militiæ Christi Livoniae, German: Schwertbrüderorden) in 1202; Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204. Albert did so in order to aid the Bishopric of Riga in the conversion of the pagan Curonians, Livonians, Semigallians, and Latgalians living on the shores of the Gulf of Riga. The membership of the order comprised German "warrior monks". Alternative names of the order include the Christ Knights, Sword Brethren, and the Militia of Christ of Livonia. From its foundation, the undisciplined Order tended to ignore its supposed vassalage to the bishops. In 1215, Albert ordered the construction of a cathedral in Riga. In 1218, he asked King Valdemar II of Denmark for assistance, but Valdemar instead arranged a deal with the Brotherhood and conquered the north of Estonia for Denmark. The Brotherhood had its headquarters at Fellin (Viljandi) in present-day Estonia, where the walls of the Master's castle still[update] stand. Other strongholds included Wenden (Cēsis), Segewold (Sigulda) and Ascheraden (Aizkraukle). The commanders of Fellin, Goldingen (Kuldīga), Marienburg (Alūksne), Reval (Tallinn), and the bailiff of Weißenstein (Paide) belonged to the five-member entourage of the Order's Master.[citation needed]
Pope Gregory IX asked the Brothers to defend Finland from Novgorodian attacks in his letter of 24 November 1232; however, no known information regarding the knights' possible activities in Finland has survived. (Sweden eventually took over Finland after the Second Swedish Crusade in 1249.) In the Battle of Saule in 1236 the Lithuanians and Semigallians decimated the Order. This disaster led the surviving Brothers to become incorporated into the Order of Teutonic Knights in the following year, and from that point on they became known as the Livonian Order. They continued, however, to function in all respects (rule, clothing and policy) as an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, headed by their own Master (himself de jure subject to the Teutonic Order's Grand Master).[citation needed]
The January 1229 death of Albert of Riga caused a diocesan feud in the Archbishopric of Riga, as two rival candidates were elected. Pope Gregory IX, through cardinal Otto of Tonengo, tasked Baldwin of Alna as papal legate to resolve the dispute. After securing the submission of Courland, Baldwin soon found himself in conflict with various factions in Livonia, fleeing to Dünamünde and temporarily leaving Livonia in early 1232. The pope made him bishop of Semigallia and gave him papal legation throughout much of Livonia, and Baldwin returned by 1233. He tried to take the castle of Reval (modern Tallinn) from the Sword Brothers, but in c. August–September 1233 they defeated Baldwin, who excommunicated many Sword Brothers in retaliation.
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Livonia
Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia.
By the end of the 13th century, the name was extended to most of present-day Estonia and Latvia, which the Livonian Brothers of the Sword had conquered during the Livonian Crusade (1193–1290). Medieval Livonia, or Terra Mariana, reached its greatest extent after the Saint George's Night Uprising (1343–1345), which forced Denmark to sell the Duchy of Estonia (northern Estonia conquered by Denmark in the 13th century) to the State of the Teutonic Order in 1346. Livonia, as understood after the retreat of Denmark in 1346, bordered on the Gulf of Finland in the north, Lake Peipus and Russia to the east, and Lithuania to the south.
As a consequence of the Livonian War (1558–1583), the territory of Livonia was reduced to the southern half of Estonia and the northern half of Latvia.
The indigenous inhabitants of Livonia were various Finnic tribes in the north and Baltic tribes in the south. The descendants of the crusaders formed the nucleus of the new ruling class of Livonia after the Livonian Crusade, and they eventually became known as Baltic Germans.
Beginning in the 12th century, Livonia became a target for economic and political expansion by Danes and Germans, particularly for the Hanseatic League and the Cistercian Order. Around 1160, Hanseatic traders from Lübeck established a trading post on the site of the future city of Riga, which Bishop Albrecht von Buxthoeven founded in 1201.
The Livonian Chronicle of Henry from the 1220s gives a firsthand account of the Christianization of Livonia, granted as a fief by the Hohenstaufen (de facto but not known as) the King of Germany, Philip of Swabia (r. 1198–1208), to Bishop Albert of Riga (Albert of Buxhoeveden), nephew of Hartwig II, the Archbishop of Bremen, who sailed (1200) with a convoy of ships filled with armed crusaders to carve out a Catholic territory in the east as part of the Livonian Crusade. Bishop Albert founded the military order of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (Latin: Fratres militiæ Christi Livoniae, German: Schwertbrüderorden) in 1202; Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204. Albert did so in order to aid the Bishopric of Riga in the conversion of the pagan Curonians, Livonians, Semigallians, and Latgalians living on the shores of the Gulf of Riga. The membership of the order comprised German "warrior monks". Alternative names of the order include the Christ Knights, Sword Brethren, and the Militia of Christ of Livonia. From its foundation, the undisciplined Order tended to ignore its supposed vassalage to the bishops. In 1215, Albert ordered the construction of a cathedral in Riga. In 1218, he asked King Valdemar II of Denmark for assistance, but Valdemar instead arranged a deal with the Brotherhood and conquered the north of Estonia for Denmark. The Brotherhood had its headquarters at Fellin (Viljandi) in present-day Estonia, where the walls of the Master's castle still[update] stand. Other strongholds included Wenden (Cēsis), Segewold (Sigulda) and Ascheraden (Aizkraukle). The commanders of Fellin, Goldingen (Kuldīga), Marienburg (Alūksne), Reval (Tallinn), and the bailiff of Weißenstein (Paide) belonged to the five-member entourage of the Order's Master.[citation needed]
Pope Gregory IX asked the Brothers to defend Finland from Novgorodian attacks in his letter of 24 November 1232; however, no known information regarding the knights' possible activities in Finland has survived. (Sweden eventually took over Finland after the Second Swedish Crusade in 1249.) In the Battle of Saule in 1236 the Lithuanians and Semigallians decimated the Order. This disaster led the surviving Brothers to become incorporated into the Order of Teutonic Knights in the following year, and from that point on they became known as the Livonian Order. They continued, however, to function in all respects (rule, clothing and policy) as an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, headed by their own Master (himself de jure subject to the Teutonic Order's Grand Master).[citation needed]
The January 1229 death of Albert of Riga caused a diocesan feud in the Archbishopric of Riga, as two rival candidates were elected. Pope Gregory IX, through cardinal Otto of Tonengo, tasked Baldwin of Alna as papal legate to resolve the dispute. After securing the submission of Courland, Baldwin soon found himself in conflict with various factions in Livonia, fleeing to Dünamünde and temporarily leaving Livonia in early 1232. The pope made him bishop of Semigallia and gave him papal legation throughout much of Livonia, and Baldwin returned by 1233. He tried to take the castle of Reval (modern Tallinn) from the Sword Brothers, but in c. August–September 1233 they defeated Baldwin, who excommunicated many Sword Brothers in retaliation.
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