Watering the Nations: Riga and the Northern Crusades

This chapter explores the notion of Riga as a “city of God” to which thousands of monk-knights and other warriors arrived to do battle with the pagans in Livonia, which the crusaders called the “Land of Mary.” Here, the chapter considers the city's role in the Baltic crusade as both a regional trading center and as a gathering point for military expeditions against pagans and Rus'. Riga was virtually surrounded by native tribes, and both pagans and newly baptized converts. And within the city was a military order dedicated to holy war. Riga was also, in every respect, a colonial city, dominated by strangers to the region who arrived in shiploads to make a comfortable living, conquer territory, and spread the faith.