1.
Riga Cathedral
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This article is about the Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of Riga. See other articles for the Roman Catholic cathedral and the Orthodox cathedral, Riga Cathedral is the Evangelical Lutheran cathedral in Riga, Latvia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Riga, the cathedral is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Latvia, and is featured in or the subject of paintings, photographs and television travelogues. Like all of the ancient churches of the city, it is known for its weathercock, the church is commonly called the Dome Cathedral, a tautology as the word Dome comes from the German Dom meaning cathedral. Built near the River Daugava in 1211 by Livonian Bishop Albert of Riga and it has undergone many modifications in the course of its history. David Caspari was rector of the school in the late 17th century. His son Georg Caspari also served at the cathedral, religious services were prohibited during the Soviet occupation from 1959 to 1989, and the cathedral was used as a concert hall. In 2011 the copper roofing above the nave was replaced, in 2015 the tower exterior was also re-plated and its wooden support structure renewed. The organ of the Riga Cathedral was built by E. F. Walcker & Sons of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in 1882–83 and it has four manuals and one pedalboard. It plays 116 voices,124 stops,144 ranks, and 6718 pipes and it includes 18 combinations and General Crescendo. A tape of Latvian composer Lūcija Garūta playing the organ for a cantata during World War II captured the sound of battle nearby, the Riga Dom Cathedral Boys Choir has performed internationally, recording the Riga Mass by Uģis Prauliņš and other works. List of cathedrals in Latvia Riga Cathedral official website Riga Cathedral official website in English Photographs of the Riga Cathedral
2.
Latvian language
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Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It was previously known in English as Lettish which remains the standard today in various forms in most other Germanic languages, there are about 1.3 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100,000 abroad. Altogether,2 million, or 80% of the population of Latvia, of those,1.16 million or 56% use it as their primary language at home. The use of the Latvian language in areas of social life in Latvia is increasing. Latvian is a Baltic language and is most closely related to Lithuanian, in addition there is some disagreement whether Latgalian and New Curonian, which are mutually intelligible with Latvian, should be considered varieties or separate languages. Latvian first appeared in Western print in the century with the reproduction of the Lords Prayer in Latvian in Sebastian Münsters Cosmographia Universalis. Latvian belongs to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family and it is one of two living Baltic languages with an official status. The Baltic languages are of particular interest to linguists because they retain many archaic features believed to have present in the early stages of the Proto-Indo-European language. There is some evidence to suggest the existence of a Balto-Slavic language group after the break-up of Proto-Indo-European, there exist a number of Baltic words that are similar to Sanskrit or Latin and which lack counterparts in Slavic languages. Latvian, Lithuanian, Armenian, Albanian, Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages are grouped as satem languages, while the possession of many archaic features is undeniable, the exact manner by which the Baltic languages have developed from the Proto-Indo-European language is not clear. According to some speculations, the Eastern Baltic languages split from Western Baltic between 400 and 600. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after 800, with a period of being one language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th century or 15th century and this process of consolidation started in the 13th century after the Livonian Crusade and forced christianization. These tribes came under Livonian rule thus forming a political, economic. The oldest known examples of written Latvian are from a 1530 translation of a made by Nikolaus Ramm. Until the 19th century, the Latvian language was influenced by the German language. In the middle of the 19th century the First Latvian National Awakening was started, led by “Young Latvians” who popularized the use of Latvian language, participants to this movement laid the foundations for standard Latvian and also popularized the Latvianization of loan words. However, in the 1880s, when Czar Alexander III came into power, during this period, some Latvian scholars even suggested adopting Cyrillic for use in Latvian
3.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
4.
Archbishopric of Riga
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The Archbishopric of Riga was an archbishopric in Medieval Livonia, a subject to the Holy See. It was established in 1186 as the bishopric of Livonia at Üxküll, the see was restored as a diocese of the Catholic Church in 1918 and raised into an archdiocese in 1923. A new Bishopric of Livonia was established in Latgalia in 1621 during the Inflanty Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Archbishops of Riga were innovators in the field of minting currency, reviving techniques abandoned since the collapse of Rome. The names of individual archbishops after 1418, as well as the years of their reigns, are stamped on Livonian pennies excavated at archaeological sites. In many cases, this is the biographical data available. No Livonian pennies before 1418 have been found
5.
Livonia
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Livonia, a historic region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida. The most prominent ruler of ancient Livonia, Caupo of Turaida, during the Livonian Crusade the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, known as the Livonian Order from 1237, colonized ancient Livonia. The name Livonia came to designate a much broader territory, Terra Mariana on the coasts of the Baltic Sea. It bordered on the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Finland in the north-west, Lake Peipus and Russia to the east, Livonia was inhabited by various Baltic and Finnic peoples, ruled from the 12th century by an upper class of Baltic Germans. Beginning in the 12th century, Livonia was an area of economic and political expansion by Danes and Germans, particularly by the Hanseatic League and the Cistercian Order. Around 1160, Hanseatic traders from Lübeck established a trading post on the site of the city of Riga. He ordered the construction of a cathedral and became the first Prince-Bishop of Livonia, bishop Albert of Riga founded the military order of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1202, Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204. The membership of the order comprised German warrior monks, alternative names of the order include the Christ Knights, Sword Brethren, and The Militia of Christ of Livonia. Following their defeat by Lithuania in the Battle of Saule in 1236, from its foundation, the undisciplined Order tended to ignore its supposed vassalage to the bishops. In 1218, Albert asked King Valdemar II of Denmark for assistance, the Brotherhood had its headquarters at Fellin in present-day Estonia, where the walls of the Masters castle still stand. Other strongholds included Wenden, Segewold and Ascheraden, the commanders of Fellin, Goldingen, Marienburg, Reval, and the bailiff of Weißenstein belonged to the five-member entourage of the Orders Master. In the Battle of Saule in 1236 the Lithuanians and Semigallians decimated the Order and this disaster led the surviving Brothers to become incorporated into the Order of Teutonic Knights in the following year, and from that point on they became known as the Livonian Order. They continued, however, to function in all respects as a branch of the Teutonic Order. The conquest of Livonia by the Germans is described in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, the Livonian Order was a largely autonomous branch of the Teutonic Knights and a member of the Livonian Confederation from 1418–1561. After being defeated by Lithuania in the 1236 Battle of Saule, between 1237 and 1290, the Livonian Order conquered all of Courland, Livonia, and Semigallia, but their attack on northern Russia was repelled in the Battle of Rakvere. In 1346, after St. Georges Night Uprising the Order bought the rest of Estonia from King Valdemar IV of Denmark, life within the Orders territory is described in the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia and the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle. During many years of Livonian War, however, they suffered a defeat by troops of Muscovite Russia in the Battle of Ergeme in 1560. Letters to the Emperor arrived from many European countries, warning, the East Sea (Ostsee-Baltic Sea and the West Sea are equally in danger
6.
Riga
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Riga is the capital and the largest city of Latvia. With 696,593 inhabitants, Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states, the city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the Daugava. Rigas territory covers 307.17 square kilometres and lies one and ten metres above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member, Rigas historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture during 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden, Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, and the 2006 IIHF Mens World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Unions office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states. Riga is a member of Eurocities, the Union of the Baltic Cities, another theory could be that Riga was named after Riege, the German name for the River Rīdzene, a tributary of the Daugava. The river Daugava has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Vikings Dvina-Dnieper navigation route to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbour 15 km upriver from the mouth of the Daugava — the site of todays Riga — has been recorded, as Duna Urbs and it was settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe. Riga began to develop as a centre of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages, Rigas inhabitants occupied themselves mainly with fishing, animal husbandry, and trading, later developing crafts. German traders began visiting Riga, establishing a nearby outpost in 1158, along with German traders also arrived the monk Meinhard of Segeberg to convert the Livonian pagans to Christianity. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity had already arrived in Latvia more than a century earlier, Meinhard settled among the Livs, building a castle and church at Ikšķile, upstream from Riga, and established his bishopric there. The Livs, however, continued to practice paganism and Meinhard died in Ikšķile in 1196, in 1198, the Bishop Berthold arrived with a contingent of crusaders and commenced a campaign of forced Christianization. Berthold was killed soon afterwards and his forces defeated, pope Innocent III issued a bull declaring a crusade against the Livonians. Bishop Albert was proclaimed Bishop of Livonia by his uncle Hartwig of Uthlede, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, Albert landed in Riga in 1200 with 23 ships and 500 Westphalian crusaders. In 1201, he transferred the seat of the Livonian bishopric from Ikšķile to Riga, the year 1201 also marked the first arrival of German merchants in Novgorod, via the Dvina. To defend territory and trade, Albert established the Order of Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1202, open to nobles, in 1207, Albert started on fortification of the town. Emperor Philip invested Albert with Livonia as a fief and principality of the Holy Roman Empire, until then, it had been customary for crusaders to serve for a year and then return home
7.
Latvia
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Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2. The country has a seasonal climate. Latvia is a parliamentary republic established in 1918. The capital city is Riga, the European Capital of Culture 2014, Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 119 administrative divisions, of which 110 are municipalities and 9 are cities. Latvians and Livs are the people of Latvia. Latvian and Lithuanian are the two surviving Baltic languages. Despite foreign rule from the 13th to 20th centuries, the Latvian nation maintained its identity throughout the generations via the language, Latvia and Estonia share a long common history. Until World War II, Latvia also had significant minorities of ethnic Germans, Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant Lutheran, except for the Latgale region in the southeast, which has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic. The Russian population has brought a significant portion of Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Republic of Latvia was founded on 18 November 1918, however, its de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II. The peaceful Singing Revolution, starting in 1987, called for Baltic emancipation of Soviet rule and it ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990, and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and it used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014. The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes, henry of Latvia coined the Latinisations of the countrys name, Lettigallia and Lethia, both derived from the Latgalians. The terms inspired the variations on the name in Romance languages from Letonia. Around 3000 BC, the ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals, by 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia, Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians, as well as the Livonians speaking a Finnic language
8.
Baltic region
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The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea. The first to name it the Baltic Sea was eleventh century German chronicler Adam of Bremen. Depending on the context the Baltic region might stand for, The countries that have shorelines along the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. The group of countries presently referred to by the shorthand Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, exclaved from the remainder of Russia. Historic East Prussia and the lands of Livonia, Courland. The former Baltic governorates of Imperial Russia, Todays Estonia and Latvia, the countries on the historical British trade route through the Baltic Sea, i. e. including the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Council of the Baltic Sea States, comprised by the countries with shorelines along the Baltic Sea, in addition to Norway, Iceland and the rest of European Union. The islands of the Euroregion B7 Baltic Islands Network, which includes the islands and archipelagos Åland, Bornholm, Gotland, Hiiumaa, Öland, Rügen, and Saaremaa
9.
Northern Crusades
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The crusades took place mostly in the 12th and 13th centuries and resulted in the conversion and baptism of indigenous peoples. Most notable campaigns were Livonian and Prussian crusades, some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th-century romantic nationalist historians. And 1293, Livonians, Latgallians, Selonians, and Estonians, Semigallians and Curonians, the campaigns started with the 1147 Wendish Crusade against the Polabian Slavs of what is now northern and eastern Germany. The crusade occurred parallel to the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, the Swedish crusades were campaigns by Sweden against Finns, Tavastians, and Karelians during period from 1150 to 1293. The Danes are known to have made two crusades to Finland in 1191 and in 1202, the latter one was led by the Bishop of Lund Anders Sunesen with his brother. The difference in creeds was one of the reasons they had not yet been effectively converted. During a period of more than 150 years leading up to the arrival of German crusaders in the region, Estonia was attacked thirteen times by Russian principalities, Estonians for their part made raids upon Denmark and Sweden. There were peaceful attempts by some Catholics to convert the Estonians, starting with missions dispatched by Adalbert, however, these peaceful efforts seem to have had only limited success. Although the crusaders won their first battle, Bishop Berthold was mortally wounded, in 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop Hartwig II of Bremen to Christianise the Baltic countries. By the time Albert died 30 years later, the conquest and formal Christianisation of present-day Estonia, although he landed in the mouth of the Daugava in 1200 with only 23 ships and 500 soldiers, the bishops efforts ensured that a constant flow of recruits followed. The first crusaders usually arrived to fight during the spring and returned to their homes in the autumn, to ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. The founding by Bishop Albert of the market at Riga in 1201 attracted citizens from the Empire, at Alberts request, Pope Innocent III dedicated the Baltic countries to the Virgin Mary to popularize recruitment to his army and the name Marys Land has survived up to modern times. This is noticeable in one of the given to Livonia at the time. In 1206, the crusaders subdued the Livonian stronghold in Turaida on the bank of Gauja River. In order to control over the left bank of Gauja. By 1211, the Livonian province of Metsepole and the mixed Livonian-Latgallian inhabited county of Idumea was converted to the Roman Catholic faith, the last battle against the Livonians was the siege of Satezele hillfort near to Sigulda in 1212. The Livonians, who had been paying tribute to the East Slavic Principality of Polotsk, had at first considered the Germans as useful allies, the first prominent Livonian to be christened was their leader Caupo of Turaida. As the German grip tightened, the Livonians rebelled against the crusaders and the christened chief, Caupo of Turaida remained an ally of the crusaders until his death in the Battle of St. Matthews Day in 1217
10.
Fourth Crusade
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The Fourth Crusade was a Western European armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III, originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the intention of the crusaders was then to continue to the Holy Land with promised Byzantine financial and military assistance. On 23 June 1203 the main fleet reached Constantinople. In August 1203, following clashes outside Constantinople, Alexios Angelos was crowned co-Emperor with crusader support, however, in January 1204, he was deposed by a popular uprising in Constantinople. In April 1204, they captured and brutally sacked the city, Byzantine resistance based in unconquered sections of the empire such as Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus ultimately recovered Constantinople in 1261. Ayyubid Sultan Saladin had conquered most of the Frankish, Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the ancient city itself, the Kingdom had been established 88 years before, after the capture and sack of Jerusalem in the First Crusade. The city was sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, Saladin led a Muslim dynasty, and his incorporation of Jerusalem into his domains shocked and dismayed the Catholic countries of Western Europe. Legend has it that Pope Urban III literally died of the shock, the crusader states had been reduced to three cities along the sea coast, Tyre, Tripoli, and Antioch. The Third Crusade reclaimed an extensive amount of territory for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, including the key towns of Acre and Jaffa, but had failed to retake Jerusalem. The crusade had also marked by a significant escalation in long standing tensions between the feudal states of western Europe and the Byzantine Empire, centred in Constantinople. The experiences of the first two crusades had thrown into relief the vast cultural differences between the two Christian civilisations. For their part, the educated and wealthy Byzantines maintained a sense of cultural, organizational. Constantinople had been in existence for 874 years at the time of the Fourth Crusade and was the largest and most sophisticated city in Christendom. Almost alone amongst major medieval urban centres, it had retained the civic structures, public baths, forums, monuments, at its height, the city held an estimated population of about half a million people behind thirteen miles of triple walls. As a result, it was both a rival and a target for the aggressive new states of the west, notably the Republic of Venice. Crusaders also seized the breakaway Byzantine province of Cyprus, rather than return it to the Empire, barbarossa died on crusade, and his army quickly disintegrated, leaving the English and French, who had come by sea, to fight Saladin. There they captured Sidon and Beirut, but at the news of Henrys death in Messina along the way, many of the nobles, deserted by much of their leadership, the rank and file crusaders panicked before an Egyptian army and fled to their ships in Tyre. Also in 1195, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos was deposed in favour of his brother by a palace coup, ascending as Alexios III Angelos, the new emperor had his brother blinded and exiled
11.
Constantinople
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Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Latin, and the later Ottoman empires. It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. The first wall of the city was erected by Constantine I, Constantinople never truly recovered from the devastation of the Fourth Crusade and the decades of misrule by the Latins. The origins of the name of Byzantion, more known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear. The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was likely just a play on the word Byzantion. During this time, the city was also called Second Rome, Eastern Rome, and Roma Constantinopolitana. As the city became the remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently, the medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe used the Old Norse name Miklagarðr, and later Miklagard and Miklagarth. In Arabic, the city was sometimes called Rūmiyyat al-kubra and in Persian as Takht-e Rum, in East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia, Constantinople was referred to as Tsargrad or Carigrad, City of the Caesar, from the Slavonic words tsar and grad. This was presumably a calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις, the modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin, meaning into the city or to the city. In 1928, the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script, in time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages. In Greece today, the city is still called Konstantinoúpolis/Konstantinoúpoli or simply just the City, apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement, except that it was abandoned by the time the Megarian colonists settled the site anew. A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in c.150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed. The site lay astride the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an excellent and spacious harbour. He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, Constantine had altogether more colourful plans. Rome was too far from the frontiers, and hence from the armies and the imperial courts, yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it might have seemed unthinkable to suggest that the capital be moved to a different location. Constantinople was built over 6 years, and consecrated on 11 May 330, Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis
12.
Loxstedt
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Loxstedt is a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated south of Bremerhaven, lacstidi, first mentioned in 1059, belonged to the Duchy of Saxony. At the carve-up of Saxony it became a part of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, in the mid-16th century the inhabitants adopted Lutheranism. During the Leaguist occupation under Tilly, they suffered from attempts at re-Catholicisation, in 1807 the ephemeric Kingdom of Westphalia annexed the duchy, before France annexed it in 1810. The municipality consists of 21 villages, of which several smaller settlements. The Bundesstraße 437, connecting the Stotel A27 exit to the Weser tunnel, has been constructed so that it can be upgraded to an autobahn. The Bundesautobahn 22, the so-called Küstenautobahn, which currently is in planning stage, the Bundesstraße 71 runs through Bexhövede and Stinstedt, connecting the municipality to Bremerhaven and Beverstedt. Public transport is carried by buses within the public transport association Bremen/Lower Saxony. Loxstedts twin towns include, – Schwaan, since 1989 Official site Local merchantmen organisation
13.
Hermann of Dorpat
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For the later von Buxhövden who was bishop of Ösel-Wiek, see Hermann of Buxhoeveden, Bishop of Ösel-Wiek. Hermann of Dorpat was the first Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Dorpat within the Livonian Confederation, Hermann hailed from Bexhövede in the Duchy of Saxony, and was also known as Hermann of Buxhoeveden and other variations, such as Buxhöwden and Buxthoeven. He was the brother of Bishop Albert of Riga, who used his influence against King Valdemar II of Denmark to place the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in medieval Estonia. From 10 April 1220 –21 July 1224, Hermann was the Bishop of Leal, Hermann founded the cathedral of Tartu and led the Roman Catholic crusading army in the 1242 Battle of the Ice, which was won by the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod. Hermann was the progenitor of the House of Buxhoeveden, a Baltic German family whose members entered Prussian, Swedish and their descendants live in Germany, Finland, and Russia today. Hermann at the website of the family Buxhöwde
14.
Lower Saxony
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Lower Saxony is a German state situated in northwestern Germany and is second in area, with 47,624 square kilometres, and fourth in population among the sixteen Länder of Germany. In rural areas Northern Low Saxon, a dialect of Low German, and Saterland Frisian, a variety of Frisian, are still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining. Lower Saxony borders on the North Sea, the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, the state of Bremen forms two enclaves within Lower Saxony, one being the city of Bremen, the other, its city of Bremerhaven. In fact, Lower Saxony borders more neighbours than any other single Bundesland, the states principal cities include the state capital Hanover, Braunschweig, Lüneburg, Osnabrück, Oldenburg, Hildesheim, Wolfenbüttel, Wolfsburg and Göttingen. The northwestern area of Lower Saxony, which lies on the coast of the North Sea, is called East Frisia, in the extreme west of Lower Saxony is the Emsland, a traditionally poor and sparsely populated area, once dominated by inaccessible swamps. The northern half of Lower Saxony, also known as the North German Plains, is almost invariably flat except for the hills around the Bremen geestland. Towards the south and southwest lie the northern parts of the German Central Uplands, the Weser Uplands, between these two lie the Lower Saxon Hills, a range of low ridges. Thus, Lower Saxony is the only Bundesland that encompasses both maritime and mountainous areas, Lower Saxonys major cities and economic centres are mainly situated in its central and southern parts, namely Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabrück, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Hildesheim and Göttingen. Oldenburg, near the coastline, is another economic centre. To the north, the Elbe river separates Lower Saxony from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the banks just south of the Elbe are known as Altes Land. Due to its local climate and fertile soil, it is the states largest area of fruit farming. Most of the territory was part of the historic Kingdom of Hanover. It was created by the merger of the State of Hanover with several states in 1946. Lower Saxony has a boundary in the north in the North Sea. The state and city of Bremen is an enclave surrounded by Lower Saxony. The Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region is a body for the enclave area. To the southeast the state border runs through the Harz, low mountains that are part of the German Central Uplands, in northeast Lower Saxony is Lüneburg Heath
15.
Canon (priest)
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A canon is a member of certain bodies subject to an ecclesiastical rule. This way of life grew common in the eighth century, in the eleventh century, some churches required clergy thus living together to adopt the rule first proposed by Saint Augustine that they renounce private wealth. Those who embraced this change were known as Augustinians or Canons Regular, in the Roman Catholic Church, the members of the chapter of a cathedral or of a collegiate church are canons. Depending on the title of the church, several languages use specific titles, e. g. in German Domherr or Domkapitular in a Dom, Stiftsherr in a prelature that has the status of a Stift. One of the functions of the chapter in the Roman Catholic Church was to elect a Vicar Capitular to serve during a sede vacante period of the diocese. All canons of the Church of England have been secular since the Reformation, mostly, however, they are ordained, that is, priests or members of the clergy. Today, the system of canons is retained almost exclusively in connection with cathedral churches, a canon is a member of the chapter of priests, headed by a dean, which is responsible for administering a cathedral or certain other churches that are styled collegiate churches. The dean and chapter are the body which has legal responsibility for the cathedral. The title of Canon is not a permanent title and when no longer in a position entitling preferment, however, it is still given in many dioceses to senior parish priests as a largely honorary title. It is usually awarded in recognition of long and dedicated service to the diocese, honorary canons are members of the chapter in name but are non-residential and receive no emoluments. They are entitled to call themselves canon and may have a role in the administration of the cathedral, in some Church of England dioceses, the title Prebendary is used instead of canon when the cleric is involved administratively with a cathedral. Honorary canons within the Roman Catholic Church may still be nominated after the Second Vatican Council, on the demise of the Kingdom of France this honour became transferred to the Presidents of the Republic, and hence is currently held by François Hollande. This applies even when the French President is not Catholic, as is the case with the atheist Hollande, the proto-canon of the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major is the King of Spain, currently Felipe VI. The rank of lay canon is especially conferred upon diocesan chancellors and it has traditionally been said that the King of England is a canon or prebendary of St David’s Cathedral, Wales. However, this is based on a misconception, the canonry of St Mary’s College, St David’s became the property of the Crown on the dissolution of the monasteries. The Sovereign was never a canon of St David’s, even as a layman, though he or she may occupy the first prebendal stall, a canon professor is a canon at an Anglican cathedral who also holds a university professorship. Section 2 of the Church of England Measure 1995 was passed for the purpose of enabling Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Historically, the chair in Greek at the university was also a canon professorship and this canonry was transferred to the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in 1940
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Bremen
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The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany, which belongs to the state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. As a commercial and industrial city with a port on the River Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region. Bremen is the second most populous city in Northern Germany and eleventh in Germany, Bremen is a major cultural and economic hub in the northern regions of Germany. Bremen is home to dozens of galleries and museums, ranging from historical sculptures to major art museums. Bremen has a reputation as a working class city, along with this, Bremen is home to a large number of multinational companies and manufacturing centers. Companies headquartered in Bremen include the Hachez chocolate company and Vector Foiltec, four-time German football champions Werder Bremen are also based in the city. Bremen is some 60 km south from the Weser mouth on the North Sea, with Bremerhaven right on the mouth the two comprise the state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The marshes and moraines near Bremen have been settled since about 12,000 BC, burial places and settlements in Bremen-Mahndorf and Bremen-Osterholz date back to the 7th century AD. Since The Renaissance, some scientists have believed that the entry Fabiranum or Phabiranon in Ptolemys Fourth Map of Europe, written in 150 AD, but Ptolemy gives geographic coordinates, and by these dates Phabiranon is situated northeast of the mouth of river Visurgis. At that time the Chauci lived in the now called north-western Germany or Lower Saxony. By the end of the 3rd century, they had merged with the Saxons, during the Saxon Wars the Saxons, led by Widukind, fought against the West Germanic Franks, the founders of the Carolingian Empire, and lost the war. Charlemagne, the King of the Franks, made a new law, the Lex Saxonum which stated that Saxons were not allowed to worship Odin, in 787 Willehad of Bremen became the first Bishop of Bremen. The citys first stone walls were built in 1032, around this time trade with Norway, England and the northern Netherlands began to grow, thus increasing the importance of the city. The city was recognised as an entity with its own laws. Property was to be inherited without feudal claims for reversion to its original owner. This privilege laid the foundation for Bremens later status of imperial immediacy, since the city was the major taxpayer, its consent was generally sought. In this way the city wielded fiscal and political power within the Prince-Archbishopric, in 1260 Bremen joined the Hanseatic League. In 1350, the number of inhabitants reached 20,000, around this time the Hansekogge became a unique product of Bremen
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Archbishopric of Bremen
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The Archdiocese of Bremen is a historical Roman Catholic diocese and formed from 1180 to 1648 an ecclesiastical state, named Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen within the Holy Roman Empire. The prince-archbishopric consisted of about a third of the diocesan territory, the city of Bremen was de facto and de jure not part of the prince-archbishopric but belonged to the archdiocese. Most of the prince-archbishopric lay rather in the area to the north of the city of Bremen, between the Weser and Elbe rivers, even more confusingly, parts of the prince-archbishopric belonged in religious respect to the neighbouring diocese of Verden, making up 10% of its diocesan territory. Verden itself had a double identity too—as the diocese of Verden, each prince-bishopric had the status of an Imperial Estate, each of which were represented in the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1500 on the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen belonged to the Saxon Circle, the Prince-Bishopric of Verden, on the other hand, belonged to the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle and sent its own representative to the Diet. Even when the two prince-bishoprics were ruled in union, in order to maintain the two seats in the Diet they were never formally united in a real union. The same is true for the collectively governed Duchies of Bremen and Verden which emerged in 1648 from the secularised two prince-bishoprics and these forgeries have drawn a veil before the early history of the Hamburg-Bremen. The foundation of the diocese belongs to the period of the activity of Willehad on the lower Weser. The diocese was conceivably at that time a suffragan of the archbishops of Cologne, when, after the death of Bishop Leuderich, the see was given to Ansgar, it lost its independence, and from that time on was permanently united with the Archdiocese of Hamburg. The new combined see was regarded as the headquarters for work in the Nordic countries. Ansgars successor, Rimbert, the apostle of the north, was troubled by onslaughts first by Normans and then by Wends. Sergius prohibited the chapter at Hamburgs Concathedral to found suffragan dioceses of its own, after the Obodrite destruction of Hamburg in 983 the Hamburg chapter was dispersed. So Archbishop Unwan appointed a new chapter with twelve canons, with three taken from Bremen Cathedral chapter, and the three colleges of Bücken, Harsefeld and Ramelsloh. The see of Hamburg-Bremen attained its greatest prosperity and later had its deepest troubles under Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg and he was after Hamburg-Bremens upgrade to the rank of a Patriarchate of the North and failed completely. Hamburg stopped being used as part of the diocese’s name, the next two archbishops, Liemar and Humbert, were determined opponents of Pope Gregory VII. At the stripping of the Duchy of Saxony in 1180 all of these suffragan bishops achieved for parts of their territories the status of imperially immediate prince-bishoprics. The Bishopric of Livonia was a suffragan of Bremen in the years 1186-1255, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and his allies, many of them vassals and former supporters of his paternal cousin Duke Henry III, the Lion, had defeated the Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. In 1180 Frederick I Barbarossa stripped Henry the Lion of his duchies, in 1168 the Saxon clan of the Ascanians, allies of Frederick I Barbarossa, had failed to install their family member Count Siegfried of Anhalt, on the see of Bremen
18.
Hamburg
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Hamburg, officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is the second smallest German state by area and its population is over 1.7 million people, and the wider Hamburg Metropolitan Region covers more than 5.1 million inhabitants. The city is situated on the river Elbe, the official long name reflects Hamburgs history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a sovereign state. Prior to the changes in 1919, the civic republic was ruled by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten. Though repeatedly destroyed by the Great Fire of Hamburg, the floods and military conflicts including WW2 bombing raids, the city managed to recover and emerge wealthier after each catastrophe. On the river Elbe, Hamburg is a port and a global service, media, logistics and industrial hub, with headquarters and facilities of Airbus, Blohm + Voss, Aurubis, Beiersdorf. The radio and television broadcaster NDR, Europes largest printing and publishing firm Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg has been an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of Germanys oldest stock exchange and the worlds second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank. The city is a fast expanding tourist destination for domestic and international visitors. It ranked 16th in the world for livability in 2015, the ensemble Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg is a major European science, research and education hub with several universities and institutes and its creative industries and major cultural venues include the renowned Elbphilharmonie and Laeisz concert halls, various art venues, music producers and artists. It is regarded as a haven for artists, gave birth to movements like Hamburger Schule. Hamburg is also known for theatres and a variety of musical shows. St. Paulis Reeperbahn is among the best known European entertainment districts, Hamburg is on the southern point of the Jutland Peninsula, between Continental Europe to the south and Scandinavia to the north, with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the north-east. It is on the River Elbe at its confluence with the Alster, the city centre is around the Binnenalster and Außenalster, both formed by damming the River Alster to create lakes. The island of Neuwerk and two neighbouring islands Scharhörn and Nigehörn, in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park, are also part of Hamburg. The neighbourhoods of Neuenfelde, Cranz, Francop and Finkenwerder are part of the Altes Land region, neugraben-Fischbek has Hamburgs highest elevation, the Hasselbrack at 116.2 metres AMSL. Hamburg has a climate, influenced by its proximity to the coast
19.
Hohenstaufen
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The Hohenstaufen, also called the Staufer or Staufen, were a dynasty of German kings during the Middle Ages. Besides Germany, they ruled the Kingdom of Sicily. In Italian historiography, they are known as the Svevi, since they were dukes of Swabia from 1079, three members of the dynasty—Frederick I, Henry VI and Frederick II—were crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The name Staufen derives from Stauf, meaning chalice, and was applied to conical hills in Swabia in the Middle Ages. The family derives its name from the castle which the first Swabian duke of the lineage built there in the half of the 11th century. Staufen castle was finally called Hohenstaufen by historians in the 19th century. The name of the dynasty followed, but in recent decades the trend in German historiography has been to prefer the name Staufer, the noble family first appeared in the late 10th century in the Swabian Riesgau region around the former Carolingian court of Nördlingen. A local count Frederick is mentioned as progenitor in a pedigree drawn up by Abbot Wibald of Stavelot at the behest of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1153. He held the office of a Swabian count palatine, his son Frederick of Buren married Hildegard of Egisheim-Dagsburg and their son Frederick I was appointed Duke of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle by the Salian king Henry IV of Germany in 1079. At the same time, Duke Frederick I was engaged to the kings approximately seventeen-year-old daughter, Fredericks brother Otto was elevated to the Strasbourg bishopric in 1082. Upon Fredericks death, he was succeeded by his son, Duke Frederick II, Frederick II remained a close ally of the Salians, he and his younger brother Conrad were named the kings representatives in Germany when the king was in Italy. Around 1120, Frederick II married Judith of Bavaria from the rival House of Welf, when the last male member of the Salian dynasty, Emperor Henry V, died without heirs in 1125, a controversy arose about the succession. A civil war between Fredericks dynasty and Lothairs ended with Fredericks submission in 1134, after Lothairs death in 1137, Fredericks brother Conrad was elected King as Conrad III. In 1147, Conrad heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach the Second Crusade at Speyer, conrads brother Duke Frederick II died in 1147, and was succeeded in Swabia by his son, Duke Frederick III. When King Conrad III died without heir in 1152, Frederick also succeeded him. As royal access to the resources of the church in Germany was much reduced and he was soon crowned emperor in Italy, but decades of warfare on the peninsula yielded scant results. The Papacy and the prosperous city-states of the Lombard League in northern Italy were traditional enemies, under the skilled leadership of Pope Alexander III, the alliance suffered many defeats but ultimately was able to deny the emperor a complete victory in Italy. During Fredericks long stays in Italy, the German princes became stronger, offers of reduced taxes and manorial duties enticed many Germans to settle in the east in the course of the Ostsiedlung
20.
Philip of Swabia
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Philip of Swabia was a prince of the House of Hohenstaufen and King of Germany from 1198 to 1208. In the long-time struggle for the German throne upon the death of Emperor Henry VI between the Hohenstaufen and Welf dynasties, he was the first German king to be assassinated. Philips great uncle Conrad III was the first scion of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty to be elected King of the Romans in 1138, the newborn was probably named after Fredericks valued ally and confidant Archbishop Philip of Cologne. In 1190 or 1191 Philip was elected Prince-bishop of Würzburg, though without being consecrated and his brother Henry had expanded the Hohenstaufen domains by marrying Queen Constance of Sicily in 1186, suspiciously eyed by the Roman Curia. In his retinue in Italy was the Minnesinger Bernger von Horheim, on 26 December 1194, Queen Constance finally gave birth to a son, the later Emperor Frederick II. To secure his succession, his father Henry had the two-year-old elected King of the Romans before he prepared for the Crusade of 1197, in early 1195, Philip was made Duke of Tuscany and received the disputed Matildine lands. His rule there earned him the enmity of Pope Celestine III, in 1196 his brother Conrad died and he succeeded him as Duke of Swabia. His marriage to Irene took place in 1197 near Augsburg, Philip enjoyed his brothers confidence to a very great extent, and appears to have been designated as guardian of Henrys minor son Frederick II, in case of his fathers early death. In September 1197 he had set out to fetch Frederick from Apulia for his coronation as German king, while staying in Montefiascone, he heard of the emperors sudden death in Messina and returned at once to Germany. He appears to have desired to protect the interests of his nephew and to quell the disorder which arose on Henrys death, but was overtaken by events. The hostility to the kingship of a child was growing, nevertheless, he knew that he had to settle the conflict with Otto and his supporters. A first attempt to mediate by the Mainz archbishop Conrad of Wittelsbach in 1199 was rejected by the Welf, both sides strived for the coronation as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III. The pope himself acted tactically, trying to wrest the affirmation of the sovereignty of his Papal States, the pope began to work energetically in favour of Otto, who beforehand had solemnly renounced any intentions to affiliate the Sicilian kingdom with the Holy Roman Empire. The festival was rendered in a poem by Walther von der Vogelweide in order to spread the reputation of King Philip as a capable ruler. Again in Magdeburg Cathedral, Philip celebrated the elevation of Saint Cunigunde of Luxembourg on 9 September 1201, also in 1201, Philip was visited by his cousin Boniface of Montferrat, the leader of the Fourth Crusade. Although Bonifaces exact reasons for meeting with Philip are unknown, while at Philips court he also met Alexius Angelus, the two succeeding years were still more unfavourable to Philip. The Přemyslid ruler Ottokar I, though he had received the hereditary Bohemian regality, another former ally, Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia, drove him from northern Germany, thus compelling him to seek by abject concessions, but without success, reconciliation with Innocent. Philip was soon joined by Archbishop Adolph of Cologne, though against the will of the Cologne citizens, by Duke Henry of Brabant and even by Ottos brother Count Palatine Henry V
21.
Pope Innocent III
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Pope Innocent III reigned from 8 January 1198 to his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni, Pope Innocent was one of the most powerful and influential popes. He exerted an influence over the Christian states of Europe. Pope Innocent was central in supporting the Catholic Churchs reforms of ecclesiastical affairs through his decretals and this resulted in a considerable refinement of Western canon law. Pope Innocent is notable for using interdict and other censures to compel princes to obey his decisions, Innocent called for Christian crusades against Muslim Spain and the Holy Land, as well as the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France. One of Pope Innocents critical decisions was organizing the Fourth Crusade, originally intended to attack Jerusalem through Egypt, a series of unforeseen circumstances led the crusaders to Constantinople, where they ultimately sacked the city in 1204. Lotario de Conti was born in Gavignano, near Anagni and his father was Count Trasimund of Segni and was a member of a famous house, Conti, which produced nine Popes, including Gregory IX, Alexander IV and Innocent XIII. Lotario was the nephew of Pope Clement III, his mother, as Pope, Lotario was to play a major role in the shaping of canon law through conciliar canons and decretal letters. He subscribed the papal bulls between 7 December 1190 and 4 November 1197, as a cardinal, Lotario wrote De miseria humanae conditionis. The work was popular for centuries, surviving in more than 700 manuscripts. Although he never returned to the work he intended to write, On the Dignity of Human Nature. Celestine III died on 8 January 1198 and he was only thirty-seven years old at the time. He took the name Innocent III, maybe as a reference to his predecessor Innocent II, as pope, Innocent III began with a very wide sense of his responsibility and of his authority. The Muslim recapture of Jerusalem in 1187 was to him a divine judgment on the moral lapses of Christian princes and he was also determined to protect what he called the liberty of the Church from inroads by secular princes. The patrimonium was routinely threatened by Hohenstaufen German kings who, as Roman emperors, the early death of Henry VI left his 4-year-old son Frederick II as king. Henry VI’s widow Constance of Sicily ruled over Sicily for her son before he reached the age of majority. She was as eager to remove German power from the kingdom of Sicily as was Innocent III, before her death in 1198, she named Innocent as guardian of the young Frederick until he reached his maturity. In exchange, Innocent was also able to recover papal rights in Sicily that had been surrendered decades earlier to King William I of Sicily by Pope Adrian IV, the Pope invested the young Frederick II as King of Sicily in November 1198
22.
Baltic Sea
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The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. Traffic history Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea and they were collected in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør, in the Great Belt at Nyborg. In the Little Belt, the site of intake was moved to Fredericia, the narrowest part of Little Belt is the Middelfart Sund near Middelfart. Oceanography Geographers widely agree that the physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö, it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg, another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. Its also the border between the shallow southern Øresund and notably deeper water, hydrography and biology Drogden Sill sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill, and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm. The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology, the remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. While Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people called the Suebi, the origin of the latter name is speculative. Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt and he might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia with reference to accounts of Pytheas and it is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean near belt of sea, meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This root and its meaning were retained in both Lithuanian and Latvian. On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian, yet another explanation is that the name originally meant enclosed sea, bay as opposed to open sea. Some Swedish historians believe the name derives from the god Balder of Nordic mythology, in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names
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Gotland
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Gotland, Gutland in the local dialect Gutnish, is a province, county, municipality, and diocese of Sweden. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north. The population is 57,221, of which about 23,600 live in Visby, the island of Gotland and the other areas of the province of Gotland make up less than one percent of Swedens total land area. From a military viewpoint, it occupies a location in the Baltic sea. The island is the home of the Gutes, and sites such as the Ajvide Settlement show that it has occupied since prehistory. This is consistent with the spread of peoples from the Middle East at about that time. Early on, Gotland became a center, with the town of Visby the most important Hanseatic city in the Baltic Sea. In late medieval times, the island had twenty district courts, each represented by its elected judge at the island-ting, new laws were decided at the landsting, which also took other decisions regarding the island as a whole. Gutasaga contains legends of how the island was settled by Þieluar, according to some historians, it is therefore an effort not only to write down the history of Gotland, but also to assert Gotlands independence from Sweden. In 1361, Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark invaded the island, the Victual Brothers occupied the island in 1394 to set up a stronghold as a headquarters of their own in Visby. At last, Gotland became a fief of the Teutonic Knights, an invading army of Teutonic Knights conquered the island in 1398, destroying Visby and driving the Victual Brothers from Gotland. The number of Arab dirhams discovered on the island of Gotland alone is astoundingly high, in the various hoards located around the island, there are more of these silver coins than at any other site in Western Eurasia. The total sum is almost as great as the number that has been unearthed in the entire Muslim world, the Berezan Runestone, discovered in 1905 in Ukraine, was made by a Varangian trader named Grani in memory of his business partner Karl. It is assumed that they were from Gotland, the Mästermyr chest, an important artefact from the Viking Age, was found in Gotland. The authority of the landsting was successively eroded after the island was occupied by the Teutonic Order, then sold to Eric of Pomerania, in late medieval times, the ting consisted of twelve representatives for the farmers, free-holders or tenants. Since the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, the island has remained under Swedish rule, the Order never regained its territory, and eventually it reestablished itself in Rome as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. On 22 April 1808, during the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, a Russian army landed on the shores of Gotland near Grötlingbo. Under command of Nikolaus Andrejevich Bodisco 1,800 Russians took the city of Visby without any combat or engagement, and occupied the island
24.
Hanseatic League
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The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s and it stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. Hanse, later spelled as Hansa, was the Middle Low German word for a convoy, the League was created to protect the guilds economic interests and diplomatic privileges in their affiliated cities and countries, as well as along the trade routes the merchants visited. The Hanseatic cities had their own system and furnished their own armies for mutual protection. The hegemony of Lübeck peaked during the 15th century, Lübeck became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and northward. This area was a source of timber, wax, amber, resins, the towns raised their own armies, with each guild required to provide levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities came to the aid of one another, and commercial ships often had to be used to carry soldiers, Visby functioned as the leading centre in the Baltic before the Hansa. Sailing east, Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod called Gutagard in 1080, Merchants from northern Germany also stayed in the early period of the Gotlander settlement. Later they established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges that made their position more secure. Hansa societies worked to remove restrictions to trade for their members, before the official foundation of the League in 1356, the word Hanse did not occur in the Baltic language. The earliest remaining documentary mention, although without a name, of a specific German commercial federation is from London 1157. That year, the merchants of the Hansa in Cologne convinced Henry II, King of England, to them from all tolls in London. The allied cities gained control over most of the trade, especially the Scania Market. In 1266, Henry III of England granted the Lübeck and Hamburg Hansa a charter for operations in England, much of the drive for this co-operation came from the fragmented nature of existing territorial government, which failed to provide security for trade. Over the next 50 years the Hansa itself emerged with formal agreements for confederation and co-operation covering the west and east trade routes. The principal city and linchpin remained Lübeck, with the first general Diet of the Hansa held there in 1356, other such alliances formed throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Yet the League never became a closely managed formal organisation, over the period, a network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities. The league succeeded in establishing additional Kontors in Bruges, Bergen and these trading posts became significant enclaves
25.
Livonians
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The Livonians or Livs are the indigenous inhabitants of Northern Latvia and Southwestern Estonia. They spoke the Uralic Livonian language, a language which was related to Estonian. The last person to have learned Livonian as a tongue, Grizelda Kristiņa. As of 2010, there were approximately 30 people who had learned it as a second language, in 2011, there were 250 people who claimed Livonian ethnicity in Latvia. The exact date of the Uralic migration to the region has been disputed, linguistic estimations place the arrival of ancestors of modern Livonians on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea around the Gulf of Riga as early as 1800 B. C. Historically, the Livonians lived in two areas of Latvia, one group in Livonia and another on the northern coast of Courland. The latter were referred as Curonians, together with the Balts living there, the Livonians referred to themselves as rāndalist and supported themselves mainly by fishing, but also by agriculture and animal husbandry. However, with the traders came missionaries from Western Europe who wanted to convert the pagan Livonians to Christianity. It has been suggested that the first person to convert some Livonians to Christianity was the Danish archbishop Absalon, in the 12th century, Germans invaded Livonia and established a base in Ykskyle, known today as Ikšķile. Archbishop Hartvig II converted some Livonians in the area, including the local chieftain Caupo of Turaida. After Meinhard died in 1196, his place was taken by Berthold, Berthold tried to convert the Livonians by force, launching two raids on Livonia. The first took place in 1196, but he was forced to retreat to Germany after being ambushed near Salaspils and he tried again in 1198, but this time he was killed by the Livonian soldier Ymaut. Berthold was followed by Albert von Buxhövden, who forced the Livonian leaders at the mouth of the Daugava River to give him land to build a Christian settlement, from this settlement, the city of Riga grew. In a campaign that was part of the known as the Livonian Crusade. In 1208, Pope Innocent III declared that all Livonians had been converted to Christianity, afterwards they were obliged to join the Knights of the Sword as infantry during the wars against the Estonians and the Latvian tribes, which continued until 1217. Before the German Conquests Livonian inhabited territory was divided in lands of Daugava Livonians, Satezele, Turaida, Idumeja, during the Livonian Crusade, once prosperous Livonia was devastated, and whole regions were almost completely depopulated. This vacuum was filled by Latvian tribes – Curonians, Semigallians, Latgallians and Selonians – who started to move into the area around 1220, and continued to do so for at least thirty years. They settled mostly in the Daugava Valley, so that the Livonians of Livonia in the east were cut off from those living on the peninsula of Curonia in the west
26.
Caupo of Turaida
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Caupo of Turaida, or Kaupo was a leader of the Finnic-speaking Livonian people in the beginning of the 13th century, in what is now part of Latvia and Estonia. He is sometimes called King of Livonia, Chronicle of Henry of Livonia calls him quasi rex and he was the first prominent Livonian to be christened. He was probably baptized around 1191 by a priest called Theoderic and he became an ardent Christian and friend of Albert of Buxhoeveden, Bishop of Riga, who took him 1203-1204 all the way to Rome and introduced him to Pope Innocent III. The Pope was impressed by the pagan chief and presented him a Bible. When he returned from travel, his tribe rebelled against him and Caupo helped to conquer, the castle was rebuilt two years later as a stone castle that is well preserved even today. Caupo participated in a raid against the still pagan Estonians and was killed in the Battle of St. Matthews Day in 1217 against the troops of the Estonian leader Lembitu of Lehola. He did not have any male heirs as his son Bertold had been killed 1210 in the Battle of Ümera against Estonians and he left his inheritance to the church, but the Lieven family later claimed female-line descent from him. Modern Estonians, Latvians, and the remaining few Livonians do not have consensus view about the role of Caupo. Some consider him traitor and enemy agent, others consider him a visionary leader who wanted his people to be part of Christian and European culture. Both these judgments attribute 19th-century views about nationality to a medieval chieftain, latvian legends, however, are unequivocal, there he is named Kaupo the accursed, the scourge of the Livs. Kaupo who has sold his soul to the foreign bishops
27.
Lithuanians
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Lithuanians are a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,561,300 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in such as the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom. Their native language is Lithuanian, one of two surviving members of the Baltic language family. Most Lithuanians belong to the Roman Catholic Church, while the Lietuvininkai who lived in the part of East Prussia prior to World War II, were mostly Evangelical Lutherans. The territory of the Balts, including modern Lithuania, was inhabited by several Baltic tribal entities, as attested by ancient sources. The last Pagan peoples in Europe, they were converted to Christianity in 1387. The subsequent imperial Russian occupation accelerated this process, it pursued a policy of Russification and it was believed by some at the time that the nation as such, along with its language, would become extinct within a few generations. At the end of the 19th century a Lithuanian cultural and linguistic revival occurred, Lithuania declared independence after World War I, which helped its national consolidation. A standardised Lithuanian language was approved, however, the eastern parts of Lithuania, including the Vilnius Region, were annexed by Poland, while the Klaipėda Region was taken over by Nazi Germany in 1939. In 1940, Lithuania was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union, the Germans and their allies attacked the USSR in June 1941, and from 1941—1944, Lithuania was occupied by Germany. The Germans retreated in 1944, and Lithuania fell under Soviet rule once again, the long-standing communities of Lithuanians in the Kaliningrad Oblast were almost destroyed as a result. The Lithuanian nation as such remained primarily in Lithuania, few villages in northeastern Poland, southern Latvia, some indigenous Lithuanians still remain in Belarus and the Kaliningrad Oblast, but their number is small compared to what they used to be. Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, and was recognized by most countries in 1991 and it became a member of the European Union on May 1,2004. Among the Baltic states, Lithuania has the most homogeneous population, Poles are mostly concentrated in the Vilnius Region. Especially large Polish communities are located in the Vilnius District Municipality and this concentration allows Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, an ethnic minority-based political party, to exert political influence. Due to the excessive pro-Pole political agenda, the party is known to cause friction between Lithuanians and Poles, however, it has only held 1 or 2 seats in the parliament of Lithuania for the past decade. Thus, it is active in local politics by having a majority in a few minor municipality councils. Russians, even though they are almost as numerous as Poles, are more evenly scattered
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Estonians
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Estonians are a Finnic ethnic group related to the Finns that mainly inhabit Estonia, a country located south of Finland and the Finnish Gulf. Their national language belongs to Finnic branch and is known as Estonian, Estonia was first inhabited about 10,000 years ago, just after the Baltic ice lake had retreated from Estonia. Living in the area for more than 5,000 years would put the ancestors of Estonians among the oldest permanent inhabitants in Europe. On the other hand, some recent linguistic estimations suggest that Fenno-Ugrian language arrived around the Baltic Sea considerably later, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians is Maarahvas. Eesti, the endonym of Estonia, is thought to be derived from the word Aestii. The Roman historian Tacitus in 98 AD was the first to mention the Aestii people, and early Scandinavians called the south of the Gulf of Finland Eistland. Proto-Estonians were also called Chuds in Old East Slavic chronicles, the Estonian language belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic family of languages, as does the Finnish language. The first known book in Estonian was printed in 1525, while the oldest known examples of written Estonian originate in 13th-century chronicles, Estonians are genetically closest to their neighbouring Tver region Russians and Latvians. However, Estonians are still the nearest genetic relatives of Finns, although Estonian national consciousness spread in the course of the 19th century during the Estonian national awakening, some degree of ethnic awareness preceded this development. By the 18th century the self-denomination eestlane spread among Estonians along with the older maarahvas, anton thor Helles translation of the Bible into Estonian appeared in 1739, and the number of books and brochures published in Estonian increased from 18 in the 1750s to 54 in the 1790s. By the end of the more than a half of adult peasants could read. The first university-educated intellectuals identifying themselves as Estonians, including Friedrich Robert Faehlmann, Kristjan Jaak Peterson and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, the ruling elites had remained predominantly German in language and culture since the conquest of the early 13th century. By the end of 1860 the Estonians became unwilling to reconcile with German cultural and political hegemony, before the attempts at Russification in the 1880s, their view of Imperial Russia remained positive. Estonians have strong ties to the Nordic countries stemming from important cultural and religious influences gained over centuries during Scandinavian and German rule, indeed, Estonians consider themselves Nordic rather than Baltic, in particular because of close ethnic and linguistic affinities with the Finns. An estimated 40,000 Estonians lived in Russia in 1920, in sum,37,578 people moved from Soviet Russia to Estonia. During World War II, when Estonia was invaded by the Soviet Army in 1944, many refugees who survived the risky sea voyage to Sweden or Germany later moved from there to Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia. Some of these refugees and their descendants returned to Estonia after the nation regained its independence in 1991 and this is at least partly due to the easy access to oscillating migration to Finland. Recognising the problems arising from low birth rate and high emigration, the country has launched various measures to both increase the birth rate and to lure migrant Estonians back to Estonia
29.
Latvians
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Latvians are a Baltic ethnic group, native to what is modern-day Latvia and the immediate geographical region. They are occasionally referred to as Letts, although this term is obsolescent. The Latvian people share a common Latvian language, the Germanic settlers referred to the natives as Letts and the nation to Lettland, naming their colony Livonia or Livland. The Latin form, Livonia, gradually referred to the territory of the modern-day Latvia as well as southern Estonia. Latvians and Lithuanians are the surviving members of the Baltic branch of the Indo-European family. Paternal haplogroups N1c-Tat and R1a are the two most frequent, reaching 39. 9% each among ethnic Latvians, balts, however, differ from Finno-Ugrics by the predominance of the N1c-L550 branch of N1c-Tat. Haplogroup R1a is associated with the spread of Indo-European languages, a recent autosomal study has shown that among other European populations, Latvians are genetically related to Lithuanians, followed distantly by Estonians. Latvians share a language and have a unique culture with traditions, holidays, customs. The culture and religious traditions have been influenced by Germanic, Scandinavian. Latvians have an ancient culture that has been dated back to 3,000 B. C. Latvians maintained a connection and trade with their neighbors, and near ethnic cousins the Finno-Ugrians, otherwise known contemporarily as Estonians. Colonizers from the south arrived quickly, driving many of the hunters northward as polar ice caps melted further, or east, into modern-day Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. The Roman author Tacitus remarked upon the Aestii peoples, thought to be inhabitants of the modern Baltic lands, suggesting that they were abound with formidable, yet peaceful and hospitable people. The Latvian peoples remained relatively undisturbed until Papal intervention via the Germanic, Teutonic Order colonized Kurzeme, Papal decrees ordered the Teutonic Order to spread the Word of the Lord and the Gospel of Christianity throughout uncivilized, Pagan lands. Though these attempts to Christianize the population failed, and the Teutonic Order eventually redeployed southward, south-Eastern Latvia, due to having a relatively large ethnic Russian population, has maintained a large Russian influence. The national language of the Latvian people is Latvian, Latvian is part of a unique linguistic branch of Indo-European languages, the Baltic languages. List of Latvians Demographics of Latvia Latvian American Latvian Australian Latvian Brazilian Latvian Canadian Baltic people in the United Kingdom
30.
Koknese
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Koknese is a historic town in Latvia, the administrative centre of Koknese municipality on the right bank of the Daugava River. It has a population of nearly 3,000, the site of Koknese was originally a Latgalian and Selonian settlement named Kukenois. By the late 12th century, the settlement of Koknese had fallen under the sovereignty of Principality of Polotsk as a tributary sub-principality. At the beginning of the 13th century, the crusading Livonian Brothers of the Sword led by Bishop Albert of Buxhoeveden of Riga began to occupy the shores of the Gulf of Riga. By 1205 in return for protection against Lithuanians and Polotsk, the Orthodox Church prince Vyachko of Koknese gave half of his land to Albert, the formal sovereignty of Polotsk was finally revoked in 1215. The Order then controlled the town until its transference in 1238 to the bishops of Riga, the town became the summer residence of the Archbishop of Riga in 1420 and the primary residence in the 16th century. The castle was frequently a source of dispute between the bishops and the von Tiesenhausen family, which it had granted to as a fief in 1269. They were supported by the Teutonic Order, as noble possession of the castle weakened the power of their rivals in the bishopric, the town, known in German as Kokenhusen, received its town privileges in 1277. During the 14th century, Koknese flourished as part of the mercantile Hanseatic League, Archbishop John V of Wallenrodt was able to resolve the conflict with the Teutonic Order and restore the territory to the church in 1397. During the Livonian War, Koknese was taken by Poland in 1561, although Russian forces captured the town, it was recovered by Polish forces. During the 17th century Polish–Swedish wars, the town was repeatedly contested and it was the site of the Battle of Kokenhausen in 1601, in which the hussars of the Polish cavalry defeated their numerically greater Swedish adversaries. However, the became part of the Dominions of Sweden in 1629 and was refortified by the Swedes. During the Russo-Swedish War the main Russian forces marched along the bank of the Daugava towards Riga, taking Koknese on their way and renaming it to Tsarevich-Dmitriev. All vessels constructed in a shipyard of Koknese founded by the voivode Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin) were used for the siege of Riga, during the Great Northern War the castle was conquered by Saxony in 1700 and destroyed by the Saxons when they were forced to retreat before the Swedes in 1701. By wars end Kokenhusen was incorporated into Russian Empire with the rest of Livonia, although the Russians had been calling it Kukeinos from the 13th century, they chose to keep the German name. A railway line running through Koknese was completed by 1861, allowing the town to become a recreational site, the Baltic German von Löwenstern family constructed a Neo-Renaissance manor castle which was completed in 1894, however, it burned down during the 1905 Russian Revolution. After Latvian independence from Russia and Germany was declared after World War I, by then the town was known by the Latvian name Koknese. The Plavinas Hydro Power Plant was commissioned near the town in 1966 and its construction left the foundation of the castle ruins underwater
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Principality of Jersika
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The principality of Jersika was an early medieval Latgalian principality in eastern modern-day Latvia and one of the largest early states in Latvia before the German conquests. The capital of Jersika was located on a hill fort 165 km southeast of Riga, Jersika was established in the 10th century as an outpost of the principality of Polotsk on the old trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. It was ruled by Orthodox Christian princes from the Latgalian-Polotsk branch of the Rurik Dynasty, in 1209 Visvaldis, the prince of Jersika, was defeated by bishop Albert of Riga and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, and his Lithuanian wife taken prisoner. He was forced to submit his kingdom to Albert as a grant to the Bishopric of Riga and he lost lands of Autīne and Cesvaine, but retained Jersika, Mākoņkalns and Naujiene. Visvaldis feudal charter is the oldest such document surviving in Latvia, in 1211 the part of Jersika controlled by Albert which was known as Lettia was divided between the bishopric of Riga and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. In 1212 Polotsk gave up its rights over Jersika in favor of Bishop Albert. In 1214 Germans attacked the Castle of Jersika and sacked it, baltic German Uexküll family claimed that Conrad Uexküll had married the daughter of Visvaldis
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Military order (monastic society)
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As such, it was in the military orders that the Medieval concept of chivalry reached its apogee in an exceptionate fusion under Just war theory of military discipline and Christian virtues. Prominent examples include the Knights Hospitaller, and the Knights Templar in Outremer, many military orders were suppressed by the Holy See in Rome around the end of the Middle Ages, with few new recognised establishments afterwards. Notably, the Teutonic Order became exclusively monastic except a limited associated confraternity of honorary Knights, moreover, it inspired many subsequent modern era secular Western cultural phenonomens, such as fraternities, or brotherhoods, such as the Freemasonry. Already in 1053, for the Battle of Civitate the Knights of Saint Peter was founded as a militia by Pope Leo IX to counter the Normans, the larger threat that would definitively establish the tradition, however, came from the east. In response to the Islamic conquests of the former Byzantine Empire and Christianity in the Holy Land, the founding of such orders suited the Catholic churchs plan of channelising the devotion of the European nobility, and also complemented the Peace and Truce of God. The first secularised military order was the Order of Saint George, founded in 1326 by the King Charles I of Hungary, on which he made all the Hungarian nobility swear loyalty to him. The next secular order which is known to appear was the Order of the Knights of the Band, both orders existed only for about a century. The original features of the orders were the combination of religious. Some of them, like the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights of Saint Thomas, also had charitable purposes and cared for the sick, however, they were not purely male institutions, as nuns could attach themselves as convents of the orders. One significant feature of the orders is that clerical brothers could be. In 1818, the orientalist Joseph von Hammer compared the Catholic military orders, in particular the Knights Templar, with certain Islamic models such as the Shia Islamic sect of Assassins. In 1820, José Antonio Conde suggested they were modeled on the ribat, however popular such views may have become, others have criticised this view, suggesting there were no such ribats around the Outremer until after the military orders had been founded. Yet, the innovation of the role and function of the military orders has sometimes been obscured by the concentration on their exploits in the Holy Land, Prussia. In fact, they had holdings and staff throughout Western Europe. They provided a conduit for cultural and technical innovation, for example the introduction of fulling into England by the Knights Hospitaller, because of the necessity to have a standing army, the military orders were founded, being adopted as the fourth monastic religious vows. Their militarisation may vary from case to case, the foundation of an order, its ecclesiastical approval, presently active institutions are listed in consideration with their legitimacy according to the International Commission on Orders of Chivalry. Chivalric and/or military orders that could qualify depending on definition, awarded to both Spanish and Moroccan military officers and soldiers, the single-class order was abolished in 1956. In contrast, inspired by the legacy of the military orders, besides legitimate chivalric orders, in addition, vast modern imitations flourish
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Livonian Brothers of the Sword
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The Livonian Brothers of the Sword was a military order established by the third bishop of Riga, Bishop Albert of Riga, in 1202. Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204 for the second time, the membership of the order comprised German warrior monks who fought Baltic pagans in the area of modern-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Alternative names of the Order include Christ Knights, Sword Brethren, from its foundation, the undisciplined Order tended to ignore its supposed vassalage to the bishops. In 1218, Albert asked King Valdemar II of Denmark for assistance, the Brotherhood had its headquarters at Fellin in present-day Estonia, where the walls of the Masters castle still stand. Other strongholds included Wenden, Segewold and Ascheraden, the commanders of Fellin, Goldingen, Marienburg, Reval, and the bailiff of Weißenstein belonged to the five-member entourage of the Orders Master. Pope Gregory IX asked the Brothers to defend Finland from the Novgorodian attacks in his letter of November 24,1232, however, no known information regarding the knights possible activities in Finland has survived. The Order was decimated in the Battle of Schaulen in 1236 against Lithuanians and Semigallians and this disaster led the surviving Brothers to become incorporated into the Order of Teutonic Knights in the following year, and from that point on they became known as the Livonian Order. They continued, however, to function in all respects as a branch of the Teutonic Order. It also appears prominently in The Mongoliad, where they appear as one of the antagonists of the fictional order to which the main characters belong. The Sword Brothers by Peter Darman is an account of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword set in the 13th century. The order is featured in Medieval II, Total War, available as an unit of the Teutonic Order. Teutonic Order Battle of Saule Livonian Crusade Northern Crusades Order of Dobrin
34.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
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Fief
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The fees were often lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure, these are typically known as fiefs or fiefdoms. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing, monopolies in trade. In ancient Rome a benefice was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered, originally, in medieval Latin European documents, a land grant in exchange for service continued to be called a beneficium. Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents, the first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, but there are multiple theories, described below. The most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch that it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which means cattle and -ôd means goods. When land replaced currency as the store of value, the Germanic word *fehu-ôd replaced the Latin word beneficium. This Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the nineteenth century, a theory put forward by Archibald R. Lewis that the origin of fief is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomuss Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious which says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, a theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrais theory is that early forms of fief include feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others, Samarrai, however, also advises medieval and early modern Muslim scribes often used etymologically fanciful roots in order to claim the most outlandish things to be of Arabian or Muslim origin. It lacked a precise meaning until the middle of the 12th century, in English usage, the word fee is first attested around 1250–1300, the word fief from around 1605–15. In French, the fief is found from the middle of the 13th century. In French, one also finds seigneurie, which rise to the expression seigneurial system to describe feudalism. Originally, vassalage did not imply the giving or receiving of landholdings, by the middle of the 10th century, fee had largely become hereditary. The eldest son of a deceased vassal would inherit, but first he had to do homage and fealty to the lord, historically, the fees of the 11th and the 12th century derived from two separate sources. The first was land carved out of the estates of the upper nobility, the second source was allodial land transformed into dependent tenures. The process occurred later in Germany, and was going on in the 13th century. In England, Henry II transformed them into important sources of royal income, the discontent of barons with royal claims to arbitrarily assessed reliefs and other feudal payments under Henrys son King John resulted in Magna Carta of 1215
36.
Prince-bishop
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A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty. If the episcopal see is an archbishopric, the term is prince-archbishop. A prince-bishop is usually considered an elected monarch, later relations between a prince-bishop and the burghers were invariably not cordial. As cities demanded charters from emperors, kings, or their prince-bishops and declared independent of the secular territorial magnates. The stem duchies of the German kingdom inside the Empire had strong and powerful dukes, unlike dukes they could not pass hereditary titles and lands to any descendants. This met with increasing opposition by the Popes, culminating in the fierce Investiture Controversy of 1076, nevertheless, the Emperors continued to grant major territories to the most important bishops. The immediate territory attached to the episcopal see then became a prince-diocese or bishopric, the German term Hochstift was often used to denote the form of secular authority held by bishops ruling a prince-bishopric with Erzstift being used for prince-archbishoprics. Emperor Charles IV by the Golden Bull of 1356 confirmed the status of the Prince-Archbishoprics of Mainz, Cologne. At the eve of the Protestant Reformation, the Imperial states comprised 53 ecclesiastical principalities, with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the title finally became defunct. The bishops of Vienna and Wiener Neustadt didnt control any territory, upon the incorporation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1237, the territory of the Orders State largely corresponded with the Diocese of Riga. Bishop Albert of Riga in 1207 had received the lands of Livonia as an Imperial fief from the hands of German king Philip of Swabia, he however had to come to terms with the Brothers of the Sword. At the behest of Pope Innocent III the Terra Mariana confederation was established, by the 1234 Bull of Rieti, Pope Gregory IX stated that all lands acquired by the Teutonic Knights were no subject of any conveyancing by the Emperor. Within this larger conflict, the dualism of the autonomous Riga prince-bishop. The bishops pursued the conferment of the title by the Holy Roman Emperor to stress their sovereignty. In the original Prussian lands of the Teutonic Order, Willam of Modena established the suffragan bishoprics of Culm, Pomesania, Samland and Warmia. The bishops of Cetinje, Montenegro, who took the place of the earlier secular Voivodes in 1516 had a position of Slavonic. The title survived the union of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 until 1836, apart from territories formerly within the Holy Roman Empire, no French diocese had a principality of political significance linked to its see. However, a number of French bishops did hold a title, with a tiny territory usually about their seat, it was often a princely title
37.
Henry (VII) of Germany
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Henry, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Sicily from 1212 until 1217 and King of Germany from 1220 until 1235, as son and co-ruler of Emperor Frederick II. He was the seventh Henry to rule Germany, but in order to avoid confusion with the Luxembourg emperor Henry VII, Henry was born in Sicily, the only son of King Frederick II and his first wife, Constance of Aragon. His maternal grandparents were Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile and he was the elder brother of Conrad IV, who eventually succeeded him as king. For this, the regency of the Sicilian kingdom went to his mother Constance and not to his father. However, after the death of the Pope in 1216, Frederick called his son to Germany, entrusted him with the Duchy of Swabia, Henrys mother remained as regent in Sicily, now on behalf of her husband, until 1220. After the extinction of the Swabian Zähringen line in 1219 Henry also received their title of a Rector of Burgundy, though that title disappeared when Henry was elected king. The election had been a condition to Frederick II redeeming his Crusade promises of 1215, because the succession question, in case of the emperors death on the crusade, was clarified by them. However, Pope Honorius III did not recognize the election and also deprived Henry of his rights over the Sicilian kingdom, also, numerous German princes had rejected the election in the first moment. After Frederick II returned to Italy in 1220, Henry was placed under the tutelage of Archbishop Engelbert I of Cologne, after Engelberts death in 1225, Duke Louis I of Bavaria took over the guardianship. The young King was mostly in the care of imperial ministeriales and they also acted as administrators over his Swabian duchy. In the meanwhile, the betrothal between Henry and the Bohemian princess was cancelled, in Nürnberg on 29 November 1225, by order of his father, Henry married Margaret of Babenberg, daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria, a woman seven years older than he was. Sixteen months later, on 23 March 1227, she was crowned German queen in Aachen, the marriage produced two sons, Henry and Frederick, who both died at a young age. Henry seems to have been a lively, cultured ruler and kept many Minnesänger at his court and it is possible he wrote some Minnelieder himself. He was physically robust, although lame, and about 1.66 m tall, in 1228, he had a falling-out with Duke Louis of Bavaria, who was suspected of plotting with Pope Gregory IX against Emperor Frederick II. Around Christmas of that year, Henry took over the rule for himself, forced Louis to submit, the emperor was dependent on the support of the princes for his Italian policies against the Pope. In 1232, Frederick came to terms with Pope Gregory, confirmed the Statutum, in the same year, Henry renewed the league between the Hohenstaufen and the French royal Capetian dynasty. In the following year he entered into a conflict with the House of Wittelsbach and subdued Otto II of the Palatinate, Frederick, fearing the discontent of the German princes, demanded the release of all hostages. In 1233/34, however, Henry made his father angry again, Pope Gregory IX, who had authorised the crusade, excommunicated Henry
38.
Archbishopric
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The word diocese is derived from the Greek term διοίκησις meaning administration. When now used in a sense, it refers to a territorial unit of administration. This structure of governance is known as episcopal polity. The word diocesan means relating or pertaining to a diocese and it can also be used as a noun meaning the bishop who has the principal supervision of a diocese. An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese, an archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or have had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have authority over any other suffragan bishops. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the bishopric is used to describe the bishop himself. Especially in the Middle Ages, some bishops held political as well as religious authority within their dioceses, in the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. With the adoption of Christianity as the Empires official religion in the 4th century, a formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, a similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division, modern usage of diocese tends to refer to the sphere of a bishops jurisdiction. As of January 2015, in the Catholic Church there are 2,851 regular dioceses,1 papal see,641 archdioceses and 2,209 dioceses in the world, in the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy. Eastern Orthodoxy calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition, after the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as provinces and this usage is relatively common in the Anglican Communion. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics and these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory. The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure and its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes. The Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States, in the COGIC, each state is divided up into at least three dioceses that are all led by a bishop, but some states as many as seven dioceses
39.
Livonian Chronicle of Henry
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The Livonian Chronicle of Henry or Henrys chronicle of Livonia is a document in Latin describing historic events in Livonia and surrounding areas from 1180 to 1227. It was written by a priest Henry of Latvia, apart from the few references in the Primary Chronicle compiled in Kievan Rus in the twelfth century, it is the oldest known written document about the history of these countries. Scandinavian rulers and German military knightly orders led by the German Prince-Bishops conquered and resettled the Baltic world, the Livonian Chronicle of Henry provides eyewitness accounts of the events, with an invaluable and deeply human history. The other famous early Livonian text, the Rhymed Chronicle has less value, as it was essentially intended as a patriotic. The chronicles consist of four books, the first book, On Livonia describes events between 1186 and 1196, the arrival of the first bishop of Ikšķile Meinhard and baptizing of Livonians. The original manuscript of the chronicles has not been preserved, there are sixteen different copies, dating from 14th to 19th century, the oldest of which is the Codex Zamoscianus, written on parchment and dating from the end of the 13th century. The Codex Zamoscianus is incomplete, as the text of the Chronicle ends in the 23rd chapter, the Codex Zamoscianus is presently kept in the Polish National Library in Warsaw. English online material on the chronicle is rather scarce, though there are some excerpts, the Latin copy in the Polish National Library is available online. The author of the chronicles is Henry of Latvia, the chronicles say that he was a Catholic priest who witnessed most of events described. Henry is thought to have been born between 1180 and 1188, Henry was probably German, bearing a German forename and consistently referring to Germans in the first person plural, but it is also possible he came from Livonia. His Chronicles are written from the point of view, that the history of the Church was the essential history of Livonia. The Chronicles may have originated as a report to the papal legate William of Modena, a modern translation was published in 1961, by James A Brundage, and is available through Columbia University Press. Ruth Williamson, Primary Source Analysis of the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia Indriķa hronika - Full translation into Latvian with comments
40.
Reformation
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The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenbergs printing press provided the means for the dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists, Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, there were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War, which left it devastated. The oldest Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum and Moravian Church, the later Protestant Churches generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They especially objected to the teaching and the sale of indulgences, and the abuses thereof, and to simony, the reformers saw these practices as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Churchs hierarchy, which included the pope. Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at the Charles University in Prague. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance by condemning Hus, who was executed by burning despite a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428, the Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. The council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the century and could not prevent schism. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, Pope Alexander VI was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes. He was the father of seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, in response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses. The Reformation was born of Luthers dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone, the Protestant reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable
41.
Manorialism
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Manorialism was an essential element of feudal society. It was the principle of rural economy that originated in the Roman villa system of the Late Roman Empire. It was slowly replaced by the advent of a market economy. These obligations could be payable in several ways, in labor, in kind, or, on rare occasions, in examining the origins of the monastic cloister, Walter Horn found that as a manorial entity the Carolingian monastery. Manorialism died slowly and piecemeal, along with its most vivid feature in the landscape and it outlasted serfdom as it outlasted feudalism, primarily an economic organization, it could maintain a warrior, but it could equally well maintain a capitalist landlord. It could be self-sufficient, yield produce for the market, or it could yield a money rent, the last feudal dues in France were abolished at the French Revolution. In parts of eastern Germany, the Rittergut manors of Junkers remained until World War II, in Quebec, the last feudal rents were paid in 1970 under the modified provisions of the Seigniorial Dues Abolition Act of 1935. The term is most often used with reference to medieval Western Europe, antecedents of the system can be traced to the rural economy of the later Roman Empire. With a declining birthrate and population, labor was the key factor of production, the workers of the land were on their way to becoming serfs. The legal status of adscripti, bound to the soil, contrasted with barbarian foederati, the process of rural self-sufficiency was given an abrupt boost in the eighth century, when normal trade in the Mediterranean Sea was disrupted. The lord held a court, governed by public law. Not all territorial seigneurs were secular, bishops and abbots also held lands that entailed similar obligations, by extension, the word manor is sometimes used in England to mean any home area or territory in which authority is held, often in a police or criminal context. In the generic plan of a manor from Shepherds Historical Atlas. As concerns for privacy increased in the 18th century, manor houses were located a farther distance from the village. In an agrarian society, the conditions of land tenure underlie all social or economic factors, there were two legal systems of pre-manorial landholding. One, the most common, was the system of holding land allodially in full outright ownership, the other was a use of precaria or benefices, in which land was held conditionally. To these two systems, the Carolingian monarchs added a third, the aprisio, which linked manorialism with feudalism and he solved this problem by allotting desert tracts of uncultivated land belonging to the royal fisc under direct control of the emperor. These holdings aprisio entailed specific conditions, the earliest specific aprisio grant that has been identified was at Fontjoncouse, near Narbonne
