Northern Crusades

The Northern Crusades, or Baltic Crusades, were undertaken by Christian leaders of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and their allies against the "still heathen" (i.e., non-Christian) people of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.

The official starting point for the Northern Crusades was Pope Celestine III's call in 1193, but the already Christian kingdoms of Germany and Scandinavia had started to move to subjugate their pagan neighbors earlier. The non-Christian peoples who were objects of the campaigns at various dates included:

the Wends and Rugians, of Rügen, Pomerania and Mecklenburg (in 1147 by the Danes, later also by Saxons and Poles),
the peoples of (present-day) Finland in 1154 (Finland Proper; disputed), 1249? (Tavastia) and 1293 (Karelia) (by the Swedes, although christianization from Novgorod had started earlier),
Estonians, Latgalians and Livonians (by the Germans and Danes, 1193–1227),
Lithuanians (by the Germans, unsuccessfully), early 13th century-1316),
Curonians and Semigallians,
Old Prussians,
Polabian Wends and Abotrites (between Elbe and Oder).

Armed conflict between the Balts and Slavs who dwelt by the Baltic shores and their Saxon and Danish neighbors to the west and south had been common for several centuries prior to the Crusade. The previous battles had largely been caused by attempts to control land and sea trade routes and gain economic advantage in the region, and the Crusade basically continued this pattern of conflict, albeit now inspired and prescribed by the pope and undertaken by papal knights and armed monks. The first campaigns were launched in parallel with the Second Crusade to the Holy Land in the mid-1100s, and continued irregularly right up until the 16th century.

1 Subjugation of Livonians, Latgalians and Estonians
2 Teutonic Order
3 See also
4 Selected bibliography

[edit]

Subjugation of Livonians, Latgalians and Estonians

By the 12th Century the peoples inhabiting the lands now known as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed a pagan wedge between increasingly powerful Christian states. During a period of more than 150 years leading up to the arrival of German crusaders in the region, Estonia was attacked thirteen times by Russian Principalities and by Denmark and Sweden as well. Estonians for their part made viking raids on Denmark and Sweden. There were peaceful attempts by the western Christians to convert the Estonians, starting with missions dispatched by Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen from 1045-72. However these peaceful efforts seem to have had very limited success. Moving in the wake of German merchants who were now following the old trading routes of the Vikings, a monk named Meinhard landed at the mouth of the Daugava river in present-day Latvia in 1180 and was made bishop in 1186.

The Pope proclaimed a crusade against the Baltic heathens in 1193 and a crusading expedition led by Meinhard's successor, Bishop Berthold, landed in Livonia (part of present-day Latvia, surrounding the Gulf of Riga) in 1198. Although the crusaders won their first battle Bishop Berthold was mortally wounded and the crusaders were repulsed.

In 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop of Bremen to christianise the Baltic countries. By the time Bishop Albert died thirty years later, the conquest and formal christianisation of present-day Estonia and northern Latvia was complete. Albert began his task by touring Germany preaching a Crusade against the Baltic countries and was assisted in this by a Papal Bull which declared that fighting against the Baltic heathens was of the same rank as participating in the Crusade to the Holy Land. Though he landed in the mouth of the Daugava in 1200 with only 23 ships and 500 soldiers, the Bishop's efforts ensured that a constant flow of recruits followed. The first Crusaders usually arrived to fight during the spring and returned to their homes in the autumn. To ensure a permanent military presence the Fratres Militae Christi or Order of the Brethren of the Sword (see: Livonian Brothers of the Sword) were founded in 1202. The founding by Bishop Albert of the market at Riga in 1201 attracted citizens from Germany and economic prosperity ensued. At Albert's request Pope Innocent III dedicated the Baltic countries to the Virgin Mary to popularise recruitment to his army and the name "Mary's Land" has survived up to modern times.

The Livonians, who had been paying tribute to the East Slavic Principality of Polotsk, at first considered the Germans as useful allies but as the German grip tightened the Livonians under their quasi rex Caupo of Turaida took up arms against them. The Livonians were defeated and their Rurikid leader Vyachko was taken prisoner in 1206. Then the Germans turned their attention to the Latvian tribes to the East in Latgalia. By 1208 the Germans were strong enough to begin operations against the Estonians, who were at that time divided into eight major and several smaller counties led by elders with limited co-operation between counties. Between 1208 and 1227 war parties of the different sides rampaged through Livonia, Latgalia and different Estonian counties, with Livonians and Latgalians normally as allies of the Crusaders and East Slavic Principalities appearing as allies of different sides at different times. Hill forts which were the key centres of Estonian counties were besieged and captured a number of times. A truce between the war-weary sides agreed for three years from 1213 to 1215 proved generally more favourable to the Germans, who consolidated their political position while the Estonians were unable to develop their system of loose alliances into a centralised state. The Livonian leader Caupo was killed in battle near Viljandi (Fellin) on 21st September 1217 but the battle was a crushing defeat for the Estonians, whose leader Lembitu was also killed. Since 1211 his name had come to the attention of the German chroniclers as a notable Estonian elder and he became the central figure of the Estonian resistance.

The Christian kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden were also greedy for conquests on the Eastern shores of the Baltic. The Swedes made only one failed foray into Western Estonia in 1220 but Danish King Valdemar II landed near present-day Tallinn in 1219. He established a fortress which was besieged by Estonians in 1220 and 1223 but held out. Eventually the whole of northern Estonia was in Danish hands.

The last Estonian county to hold out against the invaders was the island county of Saaremaa, whose war fleets had raided Denmark and Sweden even during the years of fighting against the German Crusaders. A 20,000 strong army under Papal legate William of Modena crossed the frozen sea while the Saaremaa fleet was icebound in January 1227. Following the defeat of the Estonians the crusade moved against Latvian tribes living to the south and west of the river Daugava, the Curonians and the Semigallians.

[edit]

Teutonic Order

The Northern Crusades provided a rationale for the growth and expansion of the Teutonic Order of German crusading knights which had been founded in Palestine at the end of the 12th Century. Due to Muslim successes in the Holy Land the Order sought new missions in Europe and in (1226) Konrad I, duke of Masovia in west-central Poland, appealed to the Knights to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic Prussians. The Teutonic Order came to exercise political control over large territories in the Baltic region, inheriting the territories and remaining members of the Order of the Brethren of the Sword in 1237 following the latter's crushing defeat by the Lithuanians in 1236 coinciding with a series of revolts in Estonia. The Teutonic Knights failed to subdue pagan Lithuania, which officially converted to Christianity in 1385 on the marriage of Grand Duke Jogaila to the 11-year-old Queen Jadwiga of Poland. Polish-Lithuanian forces defeated the Teutonic Knights thoroughly at the Battle of Grunwald (also called Tannenberg or Źalgiris) in 1410.

The Teutonic attempts to conquer Orthodox Russia (particularly Pskov and Novgorod), an enterprise ordered by the Pope Template:Fact, can also be considered as a part of the Northern Crusades. Christians of other denominations who were not subordinated to Rome were put on the same level as heathens by the conquerors Template:Fact. One of the major blows for the idea of the conquest of Russia was the Battle on Lake Peipus in 1242.

[edit]