Everything about Livonian Brothers Of The Sword totally explained
Bishop
Albert of Riga (Albert of Buxhoeveden) founded the
military order of the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword () in 1202;
Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204. 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.
Following their defeat by
Lithuania in the
Battle of Schaulen (Saule) in
1236, the surviving Brothers merged into the
Teutonic Order as an autonomous branch and became known as the
Livonian Order
History
Albert, bishop of
Riga (or
Prince-Bishop of
Livonia), founded the Brotherhood 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. From its foundation the undisciplined Order tended to ignore its supposed
vassalage to the bishops. In 1218 Albert 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 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.
Pope Gregory IX asked the Brothers to defend
Finland from the
Novgorodian attacks in his letter of
November 24, 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 Schaulen (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).
Masters
Further Information
Get more info on 'Livonian Brothers Of The Sword'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://livonian_brothers_of_the_sword.totallyexplained.com">Livonian Brothers of the Sword Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
