References to Children in Henry’s Livonian Chronicle

In his Chronicon Livoniae, Henry of Livonia frequently mentions the presence of Estonian and Latvian children defeated by the crusaders. Typical of crusader chronicles, his references to children are brief and sporadic, often appearing as part of lists of non-combatant victims of atrocities. The examples can be roughly divided into three groups: children baptized with their parents, peasant children slaughtered or enslaved with their mothers either by crusaders or pagans, and highborn children who were taken hostage into German-speaking areas to restrain their relatives from attacking the crusaders. The last two groups in particular reflect the conventional associations with the roles of children in the histories of the crusades.