Albert of Riga

Albert was born in Bexhövede, a part of Loxstedt, Lower Saxony, Germany. He and his brother Hermann were members of the powerful Buxhoeveden family from Bexhövede. Because of this he has also been known as Albert of Buxhoeveden (or Bexhövede, Buxhövden, Buxhöwde, Buxthoeven, Appeldern).

Albert was a canon in Bremen when his uncle Hartwig, Archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg, named him Bishop of Livonia, provided that he could conquer and hold it, and convince the pagan inhabitants to become Christians. The patent was granted on 28 March 1199, and in the beginning of spring 1200 he embarked for Livonia with a fleet of 23 vessels and more than 1,500 armed crusaders. He had the support of the Hohenstaufen German king, Philip of Swabia, as well as an implicit blessing of Pope Innocent III.

In 1200, Bishop Albert led a crusade in Livonia, providing the starting point to create an ecclesiastical State. Albert arrived in his diocese in Ikšķile (Üxküll) with a sizeable army. He was able to send reinforcements without asking permission from the Pope. These rights led him to create an annual summer expedition from Lübeck to Livonia called the "perpetual crusade".{{Cite book|last=Turnbull, Stephen R.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56426711|title=Crusader castles of the Teutonic Knights. 2, The stone castles of Latvia and Estonia 1185-1560|date=2004|publisher=Osprey|others=Dennis, Peter, 1950-|isbn=1-84176-712-3|location=Oxford|oclc=56426711}}

When Albert realized that the diocese of Uexküll was located far away from the Daugava river to be effective, he founded a castle nearer the sea, where a small stream joined the Daugava creating a natural harbor. This castle would be the start of the foundation of Riga.

Together with merchants from the Baltic Sea island of Gotland, Albert founded Riga in 1201,{{Cite web|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Albert (Albrecht), Bishop of Riga|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01260b.htm|access-date=2020-09-06|website=newadvent.org}} where a small community of Hanseatic traders from Lübeck held a tentative trading encampment.{{Cite book|last=Dollinger, Philippe.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/906842818|title=The German Hansa|date=1999|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-19073-8|oclc=906842818}} In 1204, he received a papal bull to sign up crusaders.

He successfully converted many Livs under their leader Caupo, offering them protection against neighboring Lithuanian and Estonian tribes; Albert also subjugated Latvian principalities of Koknese, Jersika and Tālava later on. The conquest of Livonia in full occupied almost three decades of his life.

In the 1217 Battle of Otepää, the Russians of Pskov, along with an Estonian force, laid siege to the fortress of Otepää.{{sfn|Murray|2016|pp=244–245}} The Russians were outraged that some of the Estonians accepted Latin Christianity instead of Orthodoxy.{{sfn|Murray|2016|pp=244–245}} Albert's brother Theodoricus was taken to Novgorod, according to the Livonian Chronicle of Henry, and Albert's emissaries went there to confirm the peace treaty, leading to a German withdrawal from the fortress.{{sfn|Murray|2016|p=245}}

Albert created a military order, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword,{{Cite book|last=Tyerman|first=Christopher|title=God's War: A New History of the Crusades|publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|year=2006|isbn=0674023870|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=689–691}} and began to build his cathedral in 1215.{{Cite web|last=Woodgate|first=Mik|date=2017-12-29|title=History of the Crusades heads north with the first Northern Crusade silver coin|url=https://agaunews.com/history-crusades-heads-north-first-northern-crusade-silver-coin/|access-date=2020-09-06|website=AgAuNEWS|language=en-GB}} King Philip made him a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, with Livonia for a fief, and thus Albert became a "Prince-Bishop". In 1225, King Henry (VII) of Germany confirmed the title of Prince for Albert and his brother, Hermann. Albert declared his diocese independent of Bremen, and later Riga was raised to an archbishopric.

A first-hand account of Albert is in the contemporary Livonian Chronicle of Henry by Henry of Latvia.

Albert died in Riga in 1229. As a Catholic bishop, he left no descendants. He was venerated as a Catholic saint until the Protestant Reformation. The present-day von Buxhoeveden are descendants of his cousin Johannes von Buxhoeveden. Albert's brother Theodoricus married a niece of the prince of Novgorod, Mstislav Mstislavich,{{cite book|author=Хрусталёв, Денис Григорьевич|title=Северные крестоносцы. Русь в борьбе за сферы влияния в восточной Прибалтике XII-XIII вв|publisher=Евразия|year=2017|pages=68–1382|isbn=978-5-91852-183-0|language=ru}} and is the progenitor of the family de Raupena (de Ropa, known today as "von der Ropp") that founded manors in Livonia and Courland.

Albert Street in Riga is named after Bishop Albert.

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{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Alan V. |title=The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier |date=5 December 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-89260-5 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Clash_of_Cultures_on_the_Medieval_Ba/IKOoDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |language=en}}

• [http://www.buxhoeveden.net/index.php?link=2 Albert von Buxhoeveden] {{in lang|de}}
• [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023112/0231128886.HTM James A. Brundage, The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040617220102/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023112/0231128886.HTM |date=17 June 2004 }}: edited and translated, 2003
• [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01260b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]

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{{succession box | before=Berthold | title=Bishop of Livonia | years=1199–1229 | after=Nicolaus}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Albert of Riga}}

Category:1160s births

Category:1229 deaths

Category:Livonian Brothers of the Sword

Category:People from Cuxhaven (district)

Category:Bishops of Riga

Category:12th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Livonia

Category:13th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Livonia

Category:Christians of the Livonian Crusade

Category:Buxhoeveden family