he Baltic Crusade Ruth Williamson Maps: Black,J.,
Atlas of World History, Putzgers,
F.W., Historischer Schul-Atlas, |
Introduction The Baltic Crusades of the 11th to
the early 15th century formed the fulcrum of the transformation of the Baltic
region from rural pagan farming peasants paying tribute to whatever lord
prevailed over the others to rule them, to the Christianized,
market-oriented, urban foundation of modern Baltic society. |
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The
rise and fall of the knighthood during this period is indicative of the
changes that occurred. The institution
of knighthood represented the values of medieval The Baltic Crusades are a branch of the
Catholic crusading movement that comprised five main Crusades that occurred
between 1096 and 1221. The Crusades
were “armed pilgrimages” (Haverkamp, p. 12) called and blessed by the Pope,
originally to reclaim Jerusalem and its surrounding territory in the Middle
East, both considered “holy land,” for the Catholic Church. The enemies in these Crusades were supposed
to be non-Christian, primarily followers of Islam. As the balances of power shifted in the 12th
century, the Eastern Orthodox Church, based in |
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Expanding European Frontiers Turmoil prevailed among 12th century
north central Europe’s (present-day East of north central Meinhard, an Augustinian monk from Holstein,
accompanied some merchants up the The next bishop, Albert, established the knightly crusading order
known as the Swordbrothers
in 1202, obtained papal blessing of an official crusade in 1204, and by 1208
had forcibly converted the Kur and Lett peoples to Christianity. Concurrently, after Bishop Albert
established the city of |
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The Crusading Orders The Christian military orders emerged around
1120, after the First Crusade to the Holy Land,
evolving from the early form of charitable religious orders doing good in the
Hermann von Salza, the fourth Grand
Master of the Teutonic Knights (1209 -1239) While the missionary monks and bishops
introduced Catholicism into the Baltics, it was the ascendency of the
knightly crusading orders, first the Swordbrothers and then the Livonian
Order of the Teutonic Knights, that defined the Baltic Crusades. As with the other orders, the Swordbrothers
were an order of professional military men who also took vows of devotion to
Christ to live a monastic life and fight against the unbelievers. Their ranks were recruited for the most
part from the non-landed, administrative class of the lower nobility who also
composed the ministerial staff of medieval German princes. The Order itself was broken into classes of
knight, priests and several classes of servants who performed a wide range of
essential duties. The Swordbrothers
were led by their master, who was elected from the ranks and held the
position for life. While Bishop Albert
and the other missionaries in the Baltic benefited from the presence of the
Order in its formative years, because the Swordbrothers owed allegiance
solely to the Pope in |
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Military Strategy and Gradual Conquest As the Swordbrothers gained experience in
warfare against the Baltic natives they also learned how to effectively fight
in the foreign climate of The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia is a primary source
from this period, written by a priest named Henry
who lived in the region from 1205 to 1259 and recorded its history in
1225-6 for his superiors. His account begins, “Divine Providence, by
the fire of His love….aroused in our modern times the idolatrous Livonians
from the sleep of idolatry and of sin in the following way.” (Brundage, p. 25). Henry’s biases reflect the prevailing Catholic view of the time that the
indigenous pagan people were deceitful and untrustworthy because they were inclined
to go through cycles of adopting and then renouncing Christian beliefs,
according to the dictates of political expediency. “The most treacherous man…was baptized, as
were all the others….They promised that they would always keep the Christian
law faithfully. This promise, however,
they later violated with their treacherous devices.” (Brundage, p. 140). For instance, if they were about to be
killed they agreed to be baptized, but once peace returned they washed their baptism
off again in the river. In the ten years after 1217 |
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The Struggle for In 1252 the Teutonic Order captured the
Lithuanian city of |
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When Mindaugas was assassinated in 1263 by an
insider, Lithuanian reverted to pagan faith and a chaotic time followed
. In 1284 the Teutonic Order succeeded
in defeating The Crusaders in the 14th century
continued the consolidation of their hold on the Baltic lands, strengthening
their power in |
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Sources City Paper. “The Baltic Crusades: A Chronology,” n.d,. http://www.balticsww.com/Crusaders.htm (9 April 2002) This site is sponsored by a
Baltic regional newspaper called City Paper and is a graphically attractive
timeline of the Baltic Crusades combined with a narrative of excerpts from
The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia and William Urban’s book The Baltic
Crusade. Brundage, James A. The
Chronicle of Henry of This is the
current classic translation of this important primary source of the early
period of the Baltic Crusades into English. Christiansen, Eric.
The Northern Crusades: The Baltic and the Catholic Frontier,
1100-1525. As its title indicates, this book
covers over three hundred years of crusades in the Baltic region of
northeastern Forey, Alan. The
Military Orders: From the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries. The title says it all—this book
is an exhaustive study of the military orders from the 12th to the
14th centuries. Haverkamp, Alfred. Medieval The first three chapters of this
book provide dense but useful background information on the political
landscape in the rest of Europepreceeding and concurrent with the Baltic
Crusades, especially the role of the Catholic Church in the context of the
Crusades. Ots, Loone. “Estonian Literature,”1998, http://www.ibs.ee/ibs/culture/estonian%5Fliterature/
(6 April 2002) This site has excerpts and
summaries of the Chronicles, among many other resources on the Baltic world,
from an Estonian point of view. The section on Henry of Livonia has
several interesting links to depictions of the crusaders, Vikings, and other
images. Urban, William. “An Historical Overview of
the Crusade to Urban is a prolific writer on
Baltic history subjects and a professor at Urban, William. The
Baltic Crusade. DeKalb: Northern This book covers the history of
the Baltic crusades for the period 1175-1300 A.D. It is the most definitive, one-stop source
of information on the Baltic Crusades.
It has good maps, genealogical charts for important royal houses and
influential families of the period, and provides comparative chronologies for
the period of both events in Urban, William. “The Sense of Humor Among the Teutonic
Knights of the Thirteenth Century” 1979, http://department.monm.edu/history/urban/articles/humor_of_Teutonic_Knights.htm (12 April 2002) This is another Urban article, focusing
on humor in the society of the Teutonic Knights, the knightly order that was
most prevalent in northern Urban, William. “Victims of the Baltic Crusade,” 1998, http://department.monm.edu/history/urban/articles/VictimsBalticCrusade.htm (12 April 2002) This article explores the
application of the modern concept of victimization to the events of the
Baltic Crusade. Because of the expertise of the author, this article
contains more relevant historical detail than it might appear and has a good
bibliography. |
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Originally published at http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/crusades.htm
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