The Chronicler and the Modern World: Henry of Livonia and the Baltic Crusades in the Enlightenment and National Traditions

When the author of the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia ended his text in 1227, rejoicing: ‘return with joy, O Rigans! Brilliantly triumphal victory always follows you’, ² he had completed a founding narrative for the new Christian colony in Livonia. Considering its strong legitimizing agenda, the chronicle could have provided a magnificent example of the functionality of historiography in the construction of regional identities. ³ However, Henry’s role in making memory for the elite communities in medieval Livonia was soon minimized due to the rivalry of the archbishopric of Riga and the Teutonic Order. ⁴ The chronicle excited little curiosity until the late Enlightenment. ⁵ In the nineteenth century, it was, nevertheless, rediscovered as the Ur-text of the Baltic communities, progressively overshadowing all other medieval and early modern chronicles. Yet, as in the medieval period, the modern adoption of Henry’s narrative of things past has not meant merely embracing it with joy.