Heinrich's Livonian Chronicle

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Page from a copy of the Chronicle

Heinrich's Livonian Chronicle ( Latin Heinrici Cronicon Lyvoniae ) is a text written in Latin that recorded historical events in Livonia between 1180 and 1227. The author of the work was the priest Henry of Latvia ( Latin Henricus de Lettis ). If one disregards some passages of the Kiev Chronicle of the twelfth century, which is ascribed to Nestor , it is the oldest known written source for this region. For many episodes in the early phase of the Christianization of the Eastern BalticHeinrich's Chronicle is the most important surviving evidence alongside the Livonian rhyming chronicle and the Novgorod chronicle .

background

The call of Pope Innocent III. New crusades led not only to the fateful Fourth Crusade, in the course of which Constantinople was captured and plundered in 1204 , but also to a series of crusades in northeastern Europe ( Nordic Crusades ), which, although they found less expression in Western historical consciousness, were more successful in the long run . Before these campaigns, Livonia was an area populated by pagan peasants, where Hanseatic traders met with those from Novgorod , and where trade, culture and religious influences of German, Russian and Scandinavian provenance mingled. Scandinavian rulers and German knightly orders submitted the country with the participation of the clergy to their rule and the Christian faith.

content

Heinrich's Livonian Chronicle provides a contemporary eyewitness account of the events and does so in an impressively human way. It not only records the military undertakings of these turbulent times, but also conveys the conflicting attitude of the chronicler in view of the complicated mixture of interests of religious motives and political goals. In this it surpasses the value of the Livonian rhyming chronicle, which was written mainly as a patriotic song of glory and for entertainment at Christian courts.

The chronicle consists of four parts.

  • I. Liber primus. De Lyvonia describes events between 1186 and 1196: the arrival of the first bishop of Uexküll , Meinhard von Segeberg , and the baptism of the Livonians
  • II. Liber secundus. De episcopo Bertoldo describes events between 1196 and 1198: the arrival of the second bishop of Uexküll, Berthold , and his death in a battle with the Livonians near present-day Riga
  • III. Liber tertius. De episcopo Alberto describes events between 1198 and 1208: the arrival of the third bishop of Uexküll, Albert von Buxthoeven , the founding of the Christian knightly order of the Brothers of the Sword , the conquest and division of Livonia between the diocese and the order, the wars with the princes of Polotsk and the Lithuanians , the conquest of the Principality of Koknese and the Selonian territories .
  • IV. Liber quartus. De Estonia describes events between 1208 and 1226: the campaigns of conquest against the Estonian landscapes, the conquest of the principality of Jersika , wars with Kurlanders , Zemgallians , Lithuanians and the princes of Pskov and Novgorod.

The original manuscript of the chronicle has not survived. There are sixteen copies made between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries. The oldest copy, the Codex Zamoscianus , was made on parchment at the end of the thirteenth century . The Codex Zamoscianus is incomplete and breaks off after the 23rd chapter. It is named after the Zamoyski family, in whose library the codex was found. Today it is kept in the Narodowa Biblioteka in Warsaw .

purpose

Henry of Livonia wrote his chronicle from the spiritual point of view, according to which the history of the Church is the defining history of Livonia. Possibly it was originally intended as a report to the papal legate Wilhelm von Modena , whom he served as translator from 1225 to 1227. The Legate, one of the most capable diplomats of the Holy See , was in Livonia to mediate in an internal church dispute over territorial claims between the Brothers of the Sword and the Catholic bishops.

literature

  • Leonid Arbusow , Albert Bauer : Heinrichs Livländische Chronik = Henrici chronicon Livoniae . Hanover 1955.
  • Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen: Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier: A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Ashgate Publishing, 2013.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Carl Schirren : The Codex Zamoscianus containing Chapters I - XXIII, 8th of the Origines Livoniae . EJ Karow, Dorpat 1865, p. VI.
  2. ^ Carl Schirren: The Codex Zamoscianus containing Chapters I - XXIII, 8th of the Origines Livoniae . EJ Karow, Dorpat 1865, SV