Livonian Crusade | |||||||||
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Part of the Northern Crusades | |||||||||
![]() A Teutonic Knight on the left and a Swordbrother on the right. | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
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Baltic pagans (indigenous peoples) | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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History of Estonia |
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Chronology |
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History of Latvia |
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Chronology |
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The Livonian crusade[1][2] consists of the various military Christianisation campaigns in medieval Livonia – modern Latvia and Estonia – during the Papal-sanctioned Northern Crusades in the 12th–13th century. The Livonian crusade was conducted mostly by the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Denmark. It ended with the creation of Terra Mariana and the Danish duchy of Estonia. The lands on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea were one of the last parts of Europe to be Christianised. The available information is largely based on Livonian Chronicle of Henry.
On 2 February 1207,[3] in the territories conquered, an ecclesiastical state called Terra Mariana was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire,[4] and proclaimed by Pope Innocent III in 1215 as a subject of the Holy See.[5] After the completion of the crusade, the Teutonic- and Danish-occupied territory was divided into six feudal principalities by William of Modena.
1215 proclaimed it the Terra Mariana, subject directly.