Oselian Warrior - Muhu 1227

The Baltic Crusades are not as well-known as their Holy Land counterparts, but equally important in the construction of Christendom in Europe.

The official starting point for the Northern Crusades was Pope Celestine IIIs call in 1195, but the Catholic kingdoms of Scandinavia, Poland, and the Holy Roman Empire had begun moving to subjugate their pagan neighbors even earlier.

Some military orders participated in these crusades, the most famous one being the Teutonic Knights, but not the only one. The Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded by Albert, Bishop of Riga, in 1202. The aim was to have a strong dedicated force to battle against the pagan tribes that lived in the area comprising modern-days Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

One of the fiercest episodes of the Brothers of the Sword was the campaign for the island of Saaremaa, land of the Oeselians, an Estonian pagan tribe. They reunited a 20.000 strong force and conquered the main Oeselian fortresses, Muhu and Valjala. The pagans offered fierce resistance, but shortly after they had to convert to Christianism.

Nevertheless, the crusaders success was short-lived. After the disastrous defeat of the Livonian Order in the Battle of Saule, which led to its assimilation as a branch of the Teutonic Order, the Oeselian renounced their new religion and killed all the Germans in their lands.