ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some aspects of urban life in the cities and towns along the coasts of the Baltic Sea in the early parts of the thirteenth century, a life that in many aspects was as influenced by the ongoing crusades as that in urban settlements in other crusader regions. It concentrates on the special papal privileges given to important coastal towns essential to the crusading armies when travelling to their destinations. The chapter discusses the actual engagement of the townspeople in the Baltic crusades. Henry of Livonia describes how Bishop Albert visited several places including Gotland, Denmark and north-western Germany even before he had visited his bishopric for the first time in 1199. In 1236 Pope Gregory IX told William of Modena, the papal legate for Prussia, Estonia, Livonia, Kurland and Finland, to preach the crusades in the northern provinces of Germany including Gotland.
