"The conquest of Saaremaa forms the final chapter of the Livonian Chronicle of Henry, which is why it is often seen as the closing act of the Livonian Crusade. But if we look at the periods before and after, we see that turbulent relations in fact continued very strongly," says Piia Sandra Palm, a junior research fellow in history at Tallinn University.

Although the period before the conquest is known for the islanders' warfare and raids, sources indicate that they were also skilled in the European art of international diplomacy.

In a recent conference presentation, Palm examined the fate of Saaremaa's inhabitants in the 13th century. She drew on charters and archaeological finds preserved from both before and after 1227. Based on these, she described the islanders' diplomatic reputation at the time, as well as their power relations with the new feudal lords.

"We can see that the locals were not simply supporting characters in the grand sweep of history, but active makers of history," the junior research fellow said.

Christianity no stranger

In his chronicle, Henry of Livonia depicts Saaremaa as the most pagan and dangerous region, describing the islanders in the same spirit. Yet according to Piia Sandra Palm, there is an example from 1222 showing that King Valdemar II of Denmark built his stone fortress on Saaremaa and held a meeting there with the Order of the Sword Brothers and Bishop Albert's brother, Theoderich.

"If the Danish king was able to hold a high-level political meeting there with the Christian elite, that suggests to me that he must have enjoyed at least some support from the local elite," Palm said.

According to Palm, another telling example comes from 1225. That year, the islanders sent representatives to William of Modena, the pope's legate. They asked him for help and protection against the Danish king, promising in return to accept Christianity. The legate agreed, promising the islanders peace and complete freedom.

"In my interpretation, this means that the islanders genuinely wanted to integrate themselves into the broader legal sphere of Latin Christendom. From the perspective of trade, that would also have been very beneficial for them," the junior research fellow noted.

The examples cited, along with archaeological excavations, show that even if the islanders were not yet explicitly Christian, they were at least well acquainted with Christianity. It is therefore not especially surprising that by 1225 they were already interested in adopting canon law.

According to Palm, an increasingly heated research question is whether accepting Christianity in this way necessarily also meant accepting a new secular lord.

"The events of 1225 are fascinating precisely because if they had accepted secular authority together with Christian law, there would have been no need to conquer Saaremaa militarily. Yet war still came in 1227," she said.

The Battle of Muhu as a grand misunderstanding

The events of 1227 provide further evidence of the islanders' possible ties to the Christian world of Europe. In Estonian history textbooks, the year is known as the end of the ancient struggle for freedom when Saaremaa became the last county of pre-Christian Estonia to fall under foreign rule. According to Piia Sandra Palm, however, the sources give reason to believe that the picture of paganism and Christianity before the war was far more complex.

"It is entirely possible that Saaremaa, especially Valjala, had more ambitious noble families who had already integrated into this system," she said.

In 1227, the crusading force first headed for the Muhu stronghold.

"If we read Henry's account more closely, it mentions that the local elite of Muhu met the force in town, not at the stronghold," Palm emphasized.

The existence of such a town is suggested by two large coin hoards discovered on Muhu last summer.

According to Henry, some sort of clash took place between the crusaders and the locals. Only afterward did the islanders retreat into the stronghold and hostilities begin.

"Henry's description suggests that the military conflict was somewhat accidental and may not initially have been the main objective. As we know, after that misunderstanding, the Muhu stronghold was razed to the ground," Palm said.

The crusaders then moved on to Valjala where Henry also separately describes a town and a stronghold. According to Palm, Valjala was not conquered militarily. Instead, the locals ritually welcomed the new feudal lords and symbolically allowed themselves to be baptized. Only after agreeing to accept the new rulers did the islanders let them into the town and stronghold.

"The fact is that Valjala was never conquered. So the subjugation of Saaremaa, which is presented very dramatically as the final scene of the crusade, was in reality highly multilayered," Palm said.

A call for aid in Latin

Sources continue to contain signs of Saaremaa's international ties and independent activity. For example, there is also a record from 1227 of the city of Lübeck asking the islanders for help in its war against the Danish king.

"The request for aid has not survived. What we do have is the reply sent to the people of Lübeck by Bishop Albert, acting as the new feudal lord, on behalf of the islanders. They agreed to help Lübeck and that could probably only have been done with a fleet," Piia Sandra Palm said.

On July 22 of that same year, the Battle of Bornhöved took place, in which Lübeck emerged victorious and the Danish king was defeated. According to Palm, it is not known whether the islanders took part. It is known, however, that a correspondence in Latin was conducted regarding the request for aid.

"That means Saaremaa must have had the capacity to conduct diplomatic correspondence with the outside world in Latin. Their neighbors must have known that they could turn specifically to Saaremaa," the junior research fellow said.

Several charters concerning the division of land are also known from the postwar period. Saaremaa was initially divided among the citizens of Riga, the bishop of Riga and the Order of the Sword Brothers who were later replaced by the Teutonic Order and the Bishop of Saaremaa.

"The land was divided up in considerable detail. For me, the two most interesting charters are from 1254 and divide northern Saaremaa, the Soela Strait and southern Hiiumaa," Palm said.

If the first charter was issued in haste, the second explicitly states that it was issued in cooperation with the people of Pöide and Karja.

"That suggests the first charter may have caused confusion and that the landowners therefore had to involve the locals," Palm said.

Saaremaa residents keep their autonomy

The two agreements concluded in 1241 and 1255 between the islanders and representatives of the Teutonic Order are among the best-known sources shedding light on life in Saaremaa after the war. They laid down social and legal norms. The social norms referred to practices considered contrary to Christianity, such as infanticide, pagan sacrifice and violating fast days.

"In legal matters, the recurring issue was the right to own land. These charters clearly show that the locals fought to preserve their rights over the land," Piia Sandra Palm said.

In other words, the locals continued to follow older customary-law principles characteristic of the Nordic cultural sphere, according to which land belonged to an entire kin group rather than to an individual.

"If an individual did something, the entire kin group was held responsible. That protected the land from being confiscated by the feudal lords as punishment for crimes and removed from the family," Palm explained.

Moreover, the modern concept of morality did not apply at the time and crimes could be compensated financially: the family would pool its money, pay a fine to the feudal lord and the land would remain in the family's possession.

Palm said another telling aspect of the 1241 and 1255 charters is that the right to administer justice was assigned to the Teutonic Order's representative, the bailiff, but according to the advice of the locals.

"At the same time, the 1255 charter stipulated that if the bailiff was unable to hold court at the appointed time, that right passed to the local elite," she said.

The local elite in the 13th century meant the islanders themselves. This is also reflected in the fact that the new feudal lords did not build fortifications on Saaremaa until the end of the century — before that, they preferred to reside in Lihula and Haapsalu.

"The practical side — collecting tribute or taxes — was also left to the locals. They had to gather it onto ships and transport it to Haapsalu or Riga. The autonomy is obvious and throughout the 13th century everyday life functioned through the locals," the junior research fellow said.

A single chapter in the history

According to Piia Sandra Palm, Saaremaa is fascinating to study because, compared with many other regions of Estonia, sources from the 13th century have survived relatively well. At the same time, the image of the islanders as an exceptionally pagan and warlike people comes specifically from the writings of Henry of Livonia.

Palm does not deny that the islanders were indeed more capable than mainland Estonians at the time thanks to their trade connections.

"It is true that the islanders acted very ambitiously throughout mainland Estonia as well, but their capabilities probably stemmed from purely practical reasons, since most transportation at the time took place by water," she said.

With her presentation, she also sought to dispel a similar myth: the notion of 1227 as the beginning of a blessed era of peace and the end of the crusades. On the contrary, the entire 13th century remained equally turbulent. According to Palm, for example, there were likely uprisings on the island in the late 1230s. Rebellions also followed after the Teutonic Order was defeated by the Lithuanians at the Battle of Durbe in 1260.

"That shows that power was not secure and that the islanders constantly tested the limits, which meant that the bishop and the order continually had to reinforce their authority," Palm said.

A dramatic example of the islanders' self-confidence can still be found at the end of the century. In 1297, the Teutonic Order locked 80 islanders in the tower at Pöide.

"The remaining free leaders and clergy of Saaremaa then sent representatives to Lihula to see the bishop. They asked for help against the Teutonic Order and said that if the bishop could not help them, they would seek a new lord," the junior research fellow said.

It is only from the 14th and 15th centuries onward that it makes sense to speak of serfdom and restrictions on movement in Saaremaa. According to Palm, however, people were still complaining about the islanders as late as the 19th century because they had a habit of escaping by boat if the burden placed on them became too harsh.

"It is important to understand that the Livonian Crusades did not necessarily put an end to our earlier freedom. They are only one chapter in a long history in which we see that the consolidation of power took place in constant dialogue with the locals," she said.

Piia Sandra Palm delivered the presentation, "The Art of Adaptation: 13th-Century Saaremaa Inhabitants Navigating New Rules," at the international conference "The Baltic Sea Region in the 12th-14th Centuries: Local Societies, Cultures and Traditions in an Age of Change" on April 16 in Tartu. More about life in 13th-century Estonia can be found in the book "Oma või võõras."

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