Livonian Brothers of the Sword

The order of Livonian Brothers of the Sword or Sword Brethren (German: Schwertbrüderorden), formally known as The Militia of Christ of Livonia (Latin: Fratres militiæ Christi Livoniae) was a Catholic military order of German crusading knights established in 1202 in Livonia by Albert, the third bishop of Riga. Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204 for the second time. The membership of the crusading order comprised warrior monks mostly from northern Germany, who fought Baltic and Finnic pagans in the area of modern-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Following their defeat by the Samogitians and Semigallians in the Battle of Saule in 1236, the remnants of the order were disbanded by the Pope in 1237 when some of the surviving.