Later this year, I plan to make a trip to Latvia. As I prepare to go, I am reminded that this corner of Europe, including what is now the Baltic states, was once a last outpost of European paganism. The last major European nation (leaving aside the Lapps of Scandinavia, and other peoples of the Balkans and elsewhere) to convert to Christianity was the Lithuanians, in 1386.
At the time of the better known crusades directed towards the Holy Land, there were also other crusades which constituted coerced evangelistic missions to unconverted peoples. For example, one crusade was directed at the Albigensians, a religous movement, quite similar to earlier gnosticism, which had a large following in southern France. And then there were the Northern Crusades (also known as Baltic Crusades), directed at subduing and converting the pagan peoples of the Baltic. These lasted from the 1100s through until the 1500s.
The area broadly corresponding to what are now the Baltic states and also north-eastern Germany and Poland was, until the 1100s and later, inhabited by various non-Christian tribes, including, for example, Wends, Prussians, Lithuanians, Livonians, Curonians and others.
From about 1100 there was a phenomenon called Ostsiedlung whereby the Holy Roman Empire expanded eastwards into an area known to history as Germania Slavica and far as what are now the Baltic states.
The first of the Northern Crusades began in 1147 and was directed towards the Wends, a non-Christian Slavic people then residing in what is now north-eastern Germany and Poland.
In the case of Livonia (what is now Latvia and Estonia), it is important to note that missionary work pre-dated the later Northern Crusades. Bishop Meinhard (1134-1196) arrived c. 1180 and initially worked peacefully in this part of the world, accompanying traders from Lubeck and settling on the bank of the Daugava river at Ikšķile, where an episcopal see was established in 1186 (German: Üxküll). The remains of the stone church he built are still to be seen to this day. Meinhard was attacked by Lithuanian pagans, and responded by having a fortress built. A castle was also built at Salapils. However, the locals rebelled and tried to drive Meinhard out of Livonia. His successor, Bishop Berthold, was martyred in 1198. In many cases, Livonians bathed themselves in the Daugava/Dvina river, attempting to wash off their Christian baptism.
It was in response to this and other cases of pagan opposition to Christianity and Christian converts that Popes Celestine III and Innocent III made arrangements for a fleet of crusaders, along with prospective German settlers, to descend on Livonia from approx. 1200. Berthold's successor, Albert of Riga, founded the city of Riga in 1201 and assisted in the creation of the military monastic order, Brothers of the Sword, which merged with the Teutonic order in 1237. This resulted in the people of Livonia being converted to Christianity somewhat under the cloud of coercion. The Livonian crusade was conducted by the Holy Roman Empire and the kingdom of Denmark. What is now Latvia came under German control, uniting several lands/regions Kurzeme/Courland, Zemgale, Latgale, Vidzeme, and Sēlija/Selonia). Meanwhile, Estonia came under Danish control and was known as the Duchy of Estonia.
Another crusade, lasting 1217–1274, targetted the Old Prussians, then still pagan in their religion, and settled in what is now north-eastern Poland/Kaliningrad enclave.
After many years of fruitless crusades to the Lithuanians, in 1386, King Jagello converted to Christianity in order to conclude a royal marriage to a Polish princess, thus uniting the two kingdoms (Lithuania and Poland) under a common Christian faith (western Catholic rite).
The Northern Crusades were part-war part-evangelism, they continued on and off until into the 1500s.
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