Mõtsa Pūol or Metsepole[1] was a medieval Livonian county inhabited by the Finnic-speaking Livonians, situated on the east coast of the Gulf of Riga, in most part at the northwest of the Vidzeme region of what is now Latvia, and including some adjacent areas in the present-day Pärnu County of Estonia.

In 1201, the Bishop Albert von Buxhövden founded the City of Riga as a Christian settlement at the mouth of the river Daugava.

When this did not immediately induce the Livonians, Estonians, and Baltic peoples in its hinterland to convert, a knightly order was formed, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, primarily consisting of Low Germans, to bring salvation to the pagans by force.

In a campaign which was a part of the wars known as the Northern Crusades, these knights defeated, subdued and converted the Livonians in 1206 and 1207.

In the winter 1210, a crusader army from Riga went through Metsepole to attack Estonian county of Soontagana.