Career

He is sometimes called "King of Livonia", Chronicle of Henry of Livonia calls him quasi rex, "like a king". He was the first prominent Livonian to be christened. He was probably baptized around 1191 by a priest called Theoderic.

When he returned from travel, his tribe rebelled against him and Caupo helped to conquer and destroy his own former Castle of Turaida in 1212.

The castle was rebuilt two years later as a stone castle that is well preserved even today. He left his inheritance to the church, but the Lieven family later claimed female-line descent from him.

Modern Estonians, Latvians, and the remaining few Livonians do not have consensus view about the historical role of Caupo. Some consider him traitor and enemy agent.

Others consider him a visionary leader who wanted his people to be part of Christian and European culture.

Both these judgments attribute 19th-century views about nationality to a medieval chieftain. Latvian legends, however, are unequivocal: there he is named "Kaupo the accursed, the scourge of the Livs. Kaupo who has sold his soul to the foreign bishops.".