Metsepole
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Metsepole [1] was an ancient Livonian county inhabited by a Finnic people Livonians, on the east coast of the Gulf of Riga, bordered by the ancient Estonian Sakala County, Latgale, and Zemgale at the territory what is now the Vidzeme region of Latvia. The center of Metsepole was Turaida. Caupo of Turaida was the most prominent leader of the Livonians in the turn of the 11th 12th century.
During the Livonian Crusade in the beginning of the 13th century Low Germans led by Albert of Riga and the crusading Livonian Brothers of the Sword began to occupy the shores of the Gulf of Riga. By 1206 Metsepole had been taken over by the Germans. The Livonian Brothers of the Sword later caled Livonian Order controlled the ancient Livonia until the authority was transferred to The Archbishopric of Riga in 1255. Since Metsepole controlled an important trade route, the river Daugava (Livonian: Väina), their culture was highly developed through trade with the Gotlanders, Ruthenians, and Finns, and, from the end of the first millennium A.D. onwards, with the Germans, Swedes, and Danes. However, along with the traders came missionaries from Western Europe who wanted to convert the pagan Livonians to Christianity.
In 1201, the Bishop Albert von Buxhövden founded the City of Riga as a Christian settlement at the mouth of the river Daugava. When this did not immediately induce the Livonians, Estonians, and Baltic peoples in its hinterland to convert, a knightly order was formed, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, primarily consisting of Low Germans, to bring salvation to the pagans by force. In a campaign which was a part of the wars known as the Northern Crusades, these knights defeated, subdued and converted the Livonians in 1206 and 1207. During the Livonian Crusade, once prosperous Metsepole was devastated, and the whole country was almost completely depopulated. This vacuum was filled by Latgallians, and Semigallians - which started to move into the area around 1220.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Archbishopric of Riga
- Eldership of Samogitia
- Lembitu
- Livonian Crusade
- Principality of Kukenois
- Sackalia
