Henry of Livonia (Lat. Henricus de Lettis) was a priest and chronicler of the crusader conquest of Livonia. His Chroni-con Livoniae, written and twice reworked in the period 1225-1227, is in large parts based upon his own eyewitness accounts and is the main source for the Baltic Crusades in the period 1180-1227.
Biographical details for Henry must be largely deduced from his chronicle. He was born around 1188 into a family of the lower nobility, probably from Poppendorf near Magdeburg in northern Germany. He was educated in the Augustinian canonry of Segeberg, with a thorough knowledge of the Vulgate and of the missal and the liturgy of the Roman church. In 1205, Henry went to Livonia to support the mission of Bishop Albert of Riga and was employed as a translator for the Estonian, Lettish, and Livonian languages. In 1208 he was ordained and sent to Rubene on the river Ymera to preach and baptize.
Over the years in his parish, Henry participated in several battles against the surrounding pagans. His church was burnt on three occasions, and he and his followers had to flee several times. In 1213-1215, Henry worked as an assistant to Bishop Philip of Ratzeburg, himself a coadjutor to Albert of Riga, and may have joined Philip at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). In 1222-1224 Henry was possibly in Germany with Albert of Riga, and in 1225-1226 he acted as assistant to the papal legate William of Sabina, who may have urged him to write his chronicle.
The chronicle shows Henry as an ardent believer in the divine right of the Germans to conquer and convert the eastern Baltic region and manifests a staunch support for the young church of Riga against intrusions from other Christian powers. However, Henry was also critical of the Christian administration of the conquered lands. Among other things, Henry expresses his contempt for appointed judges more concerned with filling their purses than with furthering Christianity. The chronicle also displays Henry’s interest in the tactics and technology of warfare.
-Torben K. Nielsen
Bibliography
Arbusow, Leonid, “Das entlehnte Sprachgut in Heinrichs Chronicon Livoniae,” Deutsches Archiv fur Erforschung des Mittelalters 8 (1951), 100-153.
Brundage, James A., “The Thirteenth-Century Livonian Crusade: Henricus de Lettis and the First Legatine Mission of William of Modena,” Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, n. s., 20 (1972), 1-9.
The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia: Henricus Lettus, trans. James A. Brundage (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).
Gerber, Simon, “Heinrich von Lettland—ein Theologe des Friedens: ‘Nichts Bessers weifi ich mir an Sonn - und Feiertagen, als ein Gesprach von Krieg und Kriegsgeschrei’,” Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte 115 (2004), 1-18.
Henrici Chronicon Livoniae, ed. Leonid Arbusow and Albert Bauer (Hannover: Hahn, 1955).
Johansen, Paul, “Die Chronik als Biographie: Heinrich von Lettlands Lebensgang und Weltanschauung,” in Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, n. s., 1 (1953), 1-24.
Nielsen, Torben K., “Mission, omvendelse og
Samfundsomvsltning i Baltikum i 1200-tallet,” Den jyske Historiker 89 (2000), 89-111.
Tarvel, Enn, “Livlandische Chroniken des 13. Jahrhunderts als Quellen fur die Geschichte des Schwertbruderordens und Livlands,” in Werkstatt des Historikers der mittelalterlichen Ritterorden: Quellenkundliche Probleme und Forschungsmethoden, ed. Zenon Hubert Nowak (Torun: Colloquia Torunensia Historica, 1987), pp. 175-185.
World History
