The Sword Brothers (19 page)

The two hundred German
crusader knights formed the core of the bishop’s army. Each knight
brought with him two lesser-armoured horsemen recruited from his
retainers, plus his squire. The knight and his two retainer
horsemen, termed ‘lesser knights’, were termed a ‘gleve’ and fought
as such on the battlefield. Occasionally a knight was accompanied
by two or three mercenary horsemen instead of retainers, who would
often dismount to fight on foot in battle.

The Sword Brothers
made up a small part of the force encamped around Wenden, the
brother knights from the castles of Kremon and Segewold being added
to those at Wenden to give a total of thirty-six heavy horsemen.
Supporting them were fifty sergeants of the order. Small garrisons
of sergeants had been left behind at Kremon and Segewold to ensure
a line of continuous communications with Riga. In addition, the
garrisons of those strongholds along the Dvina – at Holm, Uexkull,
Lennewarden and Kokenhusen – had been untouched to ensure the
security of Livonia’s southern border.

Finally there were the
support personnel, without whom the army could not function. These
included farriers, carpenters, cobblers, armourers, fletchers,
surgeons, engineers, porters and chaplains. Conrad did not
understand why the bishop had brought fifteen minstrels with him
but was informed that their music brought him closer to God at the
end of a long day.

The day of the army’s
arrival was exciting enough, but as the hours passed and Conrad and
his companions watched the encampment take shape from the
compound’s earth and timber rampart they were struck by the great
number of horses and wagons that accompanied the soldiers. There
were hundreds of warhorses and hundreds more palfreys and
packhorses. The carts and wagons were loaded with supplies for
three months’ campaigning – grain, wine, beer, dried fish and meat
– plus tools. These included axes, planes, augers, boards, spades
and iron shovels. Other wagons were loaded with armour, weapons,
tents, saddles, crossbow bolts, shields and lances. The carts and
wagons were brought inside the compound for security, as were the
siege engines that had been broken down into their constituent
parts and loaded onto wagons by the engineers. Everyone else save
the bishop, his knights and the most senior crusaders were kept
outside Wenden’s perimeter.

The bishop’s
companions were quartered in the castle’s dormitory, Conrad and the
other boys being evicted to sleep in a tent they erected in the
compound below the castle. Master Berthold gave up his room so the
bishop could sleep in it during his residence at Wenden.

‘Our stay will be
brief,’ announced Bishop Albert as he wiped his mouth with a cloth,
Conrad taking his empty bowl from the table in front of him.

The candles in the
dining room cast a poor light, making the building’s austere
interior even more dismal.

Conrad’s companions
cleared the empty dishes of the others sitting in the company of
the bishop: Master Berthold, Brother Rudolf, Grand Master Volquin,
the masters of the castles of Kremon and Segewold and two German
knights whom the bishop had designated as commander and
deputy-commander of the crusader contingent.

‘We wait until Caupo
arrives and then we will march north into Estonia,’ continued the
bishop. He looked at Master Berthold. ‘What news do you have of
Lembit?’

‘He sits in his
stronghold at Lehola, bishop,’ answered Berthold.

‘Where is this place?’
asked the crusader commander, a swarthy individual with a deep
voice and huge hands.

‘Around eighty miles
to the north,’ replied Berthold.

‘Six days’ march,’
said the crusader.

‘More like ten,’
Rudolf corrected him, ‘given the state of the tracks and the number
of waterways we will have to go around.’

Conrad filled the
crusader’s cup with wine and then moved behind him to refill the
Master of Kremon’s cup.

‘Who is this Caupo?’
asked the crusader commander’s deputy.

‘The King of the
Livs,’ replied Bishop Albert.

The crusader commander
looked alarmed. ‘A pagan?’

The bishop smiled. ‘A
former
pagan. Now a convert to the church and a servant of
Christ. Seven years ago he accompanied me on a visit to Rome to see
the Holy Father himself. I count him among my most loyal
subjects.’

The two crusaders
looked at each other in confusion but asked no more questions about
Caupo, the former pagan who now provided soldiers to fight beside
the crusaders and the Sword Brothers. He resided at the hill fort
of Treiden, around twelve miles southwest of Wenden. He may have
had the trust of the bishop but those Livonians who were in exile
and still in arms against the crusaders regarded him as a traitor.
Lembit for his part had promised to kill him and mount his head on
a pole on Treiden’s highest rampart. The Sword Brothers also did
not trust him, less for the fact that he was a former pagan but
more because he was a king who could summon several hundred men to
his banner at a moment’s notice. And in a land where Christian
castles were few, widely separated and had small garrisons, a man
who commanded such power was dangerous indeed.

He arrived the next
day with a retinue of four hundred warriors on foot and a score of
men on ponies. Caupo himself led them on a pony and was dressed in
a simple grey tunic, mail armour vest, brown leggings and boots. He
carried a sword in a red scabbard and a round shield painted red
with a huge metal boss in the centre. His simple helmet with its
large nasal guard partly obscured his large face but not his beard.
Only a few of his men – his mounted bodyguard – wore mail armour
and carried swords. The rest were dressed in tunics in varying
shades of red, brown and black and grey leggings fastened round the
calves with gaiters. All carried spears, round wooden shields and
had knives in sheaths hanging from their leather belts. Some also
carried axes tucked into their belts. There were at most fifty
archers among Caupo’s soldiers.

Bishop Albert received
the Liv king warmly outside the chapel in the castle courtyard, the
crusader leaders and Sword Brother commanders looking on with blank
faces. The bishop then put an arm around Caupo’s shoulders and led
him away while his men were shown to their allocated camping spot,
which was well away from the rest of the army. The latter was
spread over a few square miles around the castle and its horses had
to be taken further out so they could graze on the lush summer
grass. On average each acre of grassland could provide enough
grazing for twenty-five horses, though the longer the army stayed
at Wenden the more the ground would be stripped bare. In addition,
every horse required at least ten gallons of water a day and so the
squires, porters and Conrad and his associates were detailed to
ferry the beasts to the Gauja so they could drink.

Conrad may have been
greatly impressed by the army upon its arrival, but his enthusiasm
soon diminished when he and the others found that they were given
additional daily duties that involved shovelling horse dung into
wheelbarrows to keep the camp clean.

The day after Caupo’s
arrival came ill tidings from Riga.

A courier pigeon
brought news that a great fleet carrying Kurs had appeared in the
Dvina and had disgorged hundreds of warriors who had attempted to
storm Riga. Fortunately they had been spotted in time and the town
gates had been closed. But the Kurs had then turned their attention
to the surrounding countryside, burning and pillaging defenceless
villages and farms in their path. Archdeacon Stefan wrote that it
had been a miracle that Riga had not fallen and he implored the
bishop to return with his army.

After reading the
missive Bishop Albert handed it to Grand Master Volquin and sighed.
‘I must return to Riga.’

Volquin read Stefan’s
note and then ordered the bishop’s guards to go and fetch the
senior Sword Brothers and crusaders.

The bishop sat in
Berthold’s chair in the Hall of the Master and held his head in his
hands. This was a grievous blow indeed. If Riga fell then ten
years’ work would be undone and the crusade in Livonia might
collapse altogether. He felt the weight of responsibility bear
heavily upon his shoulders.

‘If Riga’s gates are
closed then it will not fall,’ said Volquin, trying to reassure the
bishop.

Albert looked up at
him. ‘That might be. But what about the villagers, farmers and
landowners who live beyond its walls? No doubt they have already
been killed or forced to flee into the forests. And what of the
women and children? Captured, no doubt, and carried off into
slavery. Monstrous.’

Half an hour later the
hall was filled with mail-clad men as the bishop relayed the news
to them.

‘We must return to
Riga immediately,’ he said. ‘Give the order to your soldiers.’

The crusader leaders
looked most surprised at this and looked at each other in
confusion.

‘Who are these Kurs?’
asked their commander.

‘Pirates and robbers
who live beyond the southern shore of the Gulf of Riga,’ replied
Volquin. ‘Raiders who plunder and pillage the godly.’

‘They have siege
engines?’ asked the swarthy crusader.

Volquin shook his
head. ‘Siege warfare is unknown to them.’

The crusader spread
his arms. ‘Then they will be gone before we reach Riga. Its walls
are strong and it has a garrison. It is safe enough, surely.’

‘No,’ said Bishop
Albert firmly. ‘It is an insult against me and against God that
these Kurs attack Riga and the surrounding area. If we do nothing
we will appear weak and helpless in the face of a pagan attack. We
must return to rid the land of the Kurs to show that the armies of
Christ cannot be defeated.’

‘We came here to kill
pagans, not to chase bandits,’ said the crusader commander, his
fellow knights murmuring their agreement.

The bishop glowered at
him. ‘I hope you came here to serve God rather than your own
vanity.’

The crusader commander
held the bishop’s icy stare for a few seconds and then shrugged
disinterestedly. ‘We are happy to kill whoever you want dead, lord
bishop.’

The other crusaders
smiled and slapped him on the back.

‘We are fifty miles
from Riga,’ said Volquin as the bishop retook his seat and
continued to study the crusader commander. ‘The quickest way to get
there is by river but with the amount of wagons and horses that are
here that is clearly impossible. Therefore I propose that the
crusaders, the bishop’s knights and sergeants, together with my own
Sword Brothers and their sergeants, will form a mounted column to
get to Riga as quickly as possible. The bishop’s spearmen and
crossbowmen, together with King Caupo’s warriors, can accompany the
more slow-moving wagons back to Riga in the wake of the mounted
column.’

The crusaders looked
at Caupo and his four lieutenants behind him and then at each
other. Their commander spoke once more.

‘You would entrust the
wagons and supplies to barbarians?’

Caupo’s men bristled
at this slight but the king had heard it all before. He knew that
he had once been a pagan who had fought the bishop, and would
forever have to bear the insults and disdain of the arrogant young
men on their big horses who arrived every year to wage war against
the unconverted.

He merely smiled at
the crusaders as the bishop spoke slowly and purposely.

‘King Caupo has my
full trust. No more will be said on the matter.’

The crusader camp was
dismantled that afternoon, Conrad and the others assisting the
porters and young squires who had come from Germany to pack the
tents and supplies into wagons. After the meeting in the chapel the
bishop and Grand Master Volquin decided that there was little point
in hauling the siege engines to Riga, only for them to be
transported back north once the Kurs had been defeated. The wagons
carrying them and their ammunition would therefore remain at Wenden
along with the engineers who operated them. The long summer days
meant that the mounted knights and sergeants could depart for Riga
that very afternoon, each man carrying sacks of food and fodder
behind him on his horse. The squires also rode south with their
masters, each one holding the reins of their knight’s warhorse as
they departed Wenden. The bishop led the way surrounded by his
bodyguard, followed by Volquin and his Sword Brothers and Caupo,
who left behind his foot soldiers to escort the wagons.

The wagons left the
following morning, escorted by Caupo’s warriors and the bishop’s
spearmen and crossbowmen. It had not rained for many days and so
the tracks they would traverse would at least be dry, but they were
still rutted, full of holes and their surfaces damaged by water
erosion caused by downpours and flooding. This meant the rate of
advance was tortuous – no more than five miles a day – but at least
there was no shortage of fresh water with the Gauja always nearby
on the column’s right flank. The crusaders might have been
disparaging about Caupo’s warriors but the bishop’s foot soldiers
were glad to have them guarding the column of wagons and carts that
stretched over several miles.

At Wenden the only
indication that an army had been camped around its ramparts was a
vast area of flattened grass and great piles of horse dung. The
inhabitants of the local villages, who had made themselves scarce
during the army’s presence, especially the attractive young wives
and daughters, returned to tending to their animals, fields,
beehives and apple orchards. Master Berthold had issued strict
instructions, backed up by the bishop himself, that the crusaders
and their attendants were to have no contact with the locals, were
to keep their horses away from the fields full of ripening crops
and on no account were to slaughter cows and pigs. To enforce this
edict Rudolf organised joint patrols with Thalibald’s men while the
army was around Wenden. But now the army was gone and life returned
to normal. Conrad and his companions returned to their dormitory
and continued with their weapons practice while the bishop hurried
south to slay the Kurs.