Baltic Crusade

The first military order in Livonia, founded in 1202 in order to supply the Christian mission with a stable and local military force in addition to the coming and going of seasonal crusaders. In its short history, it was defeated in Lithuania in 1236 and forced to merge with the Teutonic Order, the Sword Brethren played a major role in Livonia often in opposition to other Christian powers in Livonia, the Bishop of Riga, the city of Riga and the Danish king.

The paper takes a critical look at the suggestion by a Finnish historian, Jouko Vahtola, that the Order of the Sword Brothers or Brethren on the initiative of the Finnish bishop Thomas (Tuomas) was present in Finland for a period in the 1230s. The evidence for this is weak bordering on non-existent. Related articles available on academia.edu are Lind, Bishop Thomas in recent Historiography; Lind, Early Russian-Swedish Rivalry; and Lind, Sword Brethren
https://www.academia.edu/32540122/Bishop_Thomas_in_Recent_Historiography_Views_and_Sources_In_Suomen_varhaishistoria_ed_Ky%C3%B6sti_Julku_pp_304_16_Studia_historica_septentrionalia_21_Oulu_1992_Finnish_summary_
https://www.academia.edu/14546779/Early_Russian_Swedish_Rivalry_The_Battle_on_the_Neva_in_1240_and_Birger_Magnusson_s_Second_Crusade_to_Tavastia_Scandinavian_Journal_of_History_16_4_1991_269_95
https://www.academia.edu/19497169/Sword_Brethren_in_The_Crusades_an_Encyclopedia_ed_Alan_V_Murray_2006_1130_36

In the 15th century the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order was internally divided by a long-lasting con ict between two groups of knight brethren, the Westphalians and the Rhinelanders, who were united according to regional origin. They each strived to control the most important offces, though their discord indirectly also concerned the
political course of the Order state. The central question in this paper is how the brethren from the Netherlands – not clearly being tied to Westphalia or the Rhineland – fared in this strife for predominance within Livonia. It is shown that the brethren from the Low Countries got access to central positions by joining the Rhineland group, who – with support of Grand Master Paul von Rusdorf in Prussia – gained the upper hand for some time, especially after one of them, Cisse van den Rutenberg, was appointed Livonian Master in 1424 The result was that the ‘Dutch’ could increase their number, counting for about one sixth of the Livonian knights around 1435. Looking more closely at the background of the Rhinelanders we have to conclude that these, originating from regions at relatively great distance from each other, did not constitute a cohesive party but must have made up a broad non-Westphalian rest category. The members might have tended to seek each other’s help against exclusion by a Westphalian core group. When the Westphalians succeeded in regaining the leading position in 1438, they reinforced their grip on the recruitment and advancement of the knight brethren. For the ‘Dutch’, this meant that they lost all career
perspectives, with the result that their number decreased greatly after 1450.

The conquest and colonisation of the northeastern Baltic Rim in the 13th century durably shaped religious and ethnic identities of and relations between the native population and the arriving crusaders. This article explores the codes and displays of hospitality in the anonymous ‘Livonian Rhymed Chronicle’, which are seen here as ways of conceptualising the relationship and conflicts between the Teutonic Knights and the pagan or apostate people in Livonia. It asks which consequences the framing of the host-guest relations might have had for the self-comprehension of the chronicle’s author and his audience. The analysis of the chronicle is pursued along three lines: the first focuses on the questions of chivalry, courtesy, and conversion; the second explores different renditions of a miracle story of inhospitality from the 1220s; the third focuses on the conceptual metaphors of hospitality as a way in which the Teutonic Knights accommodated their adversaries’ viewpoints. In its conclusions, the article argues how a broad focus on the institutions, concepts, and discourses of hospitality can help account for both confrontational and amicable attitudes between the colonisers and the colonised both on the Baltic frontier and among other European frontier societies.

Discusses the uses of the figure of the Virgin Mary in the Chronicon Livoniae by Henry of Livonia (completed c. 1227) and asks how Henry's appropriations of the Virgin may have been received in Rome during the pontificate of Innocent III (1198-1216)

"Crusade or Christianization? The polemic against the Teutonic Knights in light of French travelers’ accounts of the late Middle Ages"

As a continuation of the political unrest opposing the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania to the Order of the Teutonic Knights, the conversion of the last Baltic pagans was among the cases debated by the council of Constance (1414–1418). While the Teutonic Knights used to storm Lithuania twice a year, with the help of knights coming from all over Europe, Polish spokesmen intended to prove that no baptism could be achieved this way. The aim of this paper is to use narratives relating the experiences of some French travelers (crusaders or diplomats) who had the opportunity to encounter the Baltic reality. A comparative study of the texts read during the council of Constance
with the writings of Guillaume de Machaut, Philippe de Mézières or Guillebert de Lannoy enable the researcher to see this quarrel in a new light. Looking at these foreign sources leads us to understand that some of the facts used by the Polish and Lithuanian spokesmen in Constance to darken the Teutonic Order’s image were already known by a few people in Western Europe. In particular, Cracovian rector Paulus Vladimiri (Paweł Włodkowic)'s characterization of the Teutonic raids as worldly and disconnected from Christian ideals match the critics formulated by Philippe de Mézières on the noblemen’s crusades. Vladimiri’s questioning of the effectiveness of the Order’s methods to bring baptism to Baltic pagans was also raised in at least two French travelers’ testimonies. However, if the remnant of paganism within the territory held by the Teutonic brothers was noted by some visitors, it was not explicitly disapproved of; for these Frenchmen mostly interested
in chivalric activities and honorable deeds, the conversion of unbelievers was far less important than it was for the Polish and Lithuanian diplomats at Constance. Whilst the same facts were observed by both, their interpretation differed heavily.

Download here:
http://apcz.pl/czasopisma//index.php/OM/issue/view/679

This chapter presents the first analysis and comparison of the arengae from a wide range of papal crusade calls in order to assess how Pope Gregory IX (1227– 41) used biblical imagery to justify and promote crusading in a variety of different theatres and against a number of different targets. It is contended that, while Gregory carefully tailored his use of the Bible in the arengae of his crusade letters, picking out the most relevant and powerful analogies for each of the crusade targets, so as to maximize the chances of winning recruits for the campaigns, there were also a number of common themes that transcended the theatre and target of the crusades. Through these shared references, Gregory linked different crusades together as part of a coherent theology of crusading on diverse fronts.

'This is a superb ancient Viking braided silver bracelet / Oath-ring, dating to the 9th-10th century A.D. It is formed from rods of silver, twisted about each other in a ropework formation, the terminals welded, forming a double spiral decorative element. This type of double spiral can be found on other Viking silver bracelets from Gotland in Sweden see here. This example recovered during dredging work is intact, though parts of the original weld has failed due to the conditions of sediment and machinery, this has been repaired but sadly it is no longer suitable to be worn. This bracelet is a very rare museum grade example, classic Viking workmanship and presence. Such an item would have been a prize piece of jewellery, worn as an 'Oath-Ring', given by a Jarl to brave and worthy subject. The silver likely taken at some stage as booty in raids, used as form of currency in a barter system of exchange. The weight of this bracelet alone would have been the monetary equivalent of at least 42 silver pennies, when 1 penny would have bought you 15 chickens! A wonderful piece of iconic Viking jewellery for the serious collector.' So far for the salesman advertisement ! So.. it got in hands of the serious collector .. A bracelet / arm ring of this braided type I think was a one off chance to aquire for my collection.

This text was inspired by the three entries I wrote for ‘The Crusades: An Encyclopedia’, ed. by Alan V. Murray (2006) on Finland, Sweden and the Wendish Crusade (1147), respectively (now uploaded on academia.edu). This made me wonder whether the first Swedish crusade to Finland (tentatively dated to 1155/57) should not be seen in context with the general call for the Second Crusade, which allowed to crusades to target pagans in the periphery of western Christianity. To that end I compared the Wendish crusade of 1147 with the Swedish crusade suggesting that in the wording in Pope Alexander III’s Gravis admodum bull of 1171/72 to the Swedish archbishop of Uppsala and his suffragans and Duke Guthorm we find the same frame of mind, which was expressed by Bernard of Clairvaux in his famous dictum, "either the religion or the nation [the Wends] be wiped out (Lat. aut ritus ipse, aut natio deleatur)". The Gravis admodum is published with an English translation and diplomatic comments in the appendix.

A first result of this was a paper given to a section on the Second Crusade at the IMC Leeds 2006. The paper was completed for publication in 2008 together with other papers of the section. Nevertheless it took the publishers until 2015 for the book to appear, partly, it seems, due to the delaying and often inexpert process of peer reviewing.

This is a short presentation of chapter 5 in the anthology "Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia",
ed. R. Kotecki, C.S. Jensen & S. Bennett (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2021), 97-115.

The entire book can be purchased here: https://arc-humanities.org/products/c-67104-10597-68-8253/

This is the cumulative doctoral thesis of Dr. Daniel Zwick based on five peer-reviewed articles and a main part, which is monographic in character (although this thesis is not officially a monographic thesis). The doctoral project was based at the University of Kiel and took place in cooperation with the University of Southern Denmark (Syddansk Universitet) and the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde (Vikingeskibsmuseet).

It examines the maritime organisation of predominantly Danes and Germans in the period of the Northern Crusades, which includes navigation and orientation, fleet organisation, but also shipbuilding and the establishment of a maritime trade network and other maritime-related infrastructure. While the chronological framework of this study is defined by a historical period - of the Northern Crusades - spanning four centuries, a great variety of historical and archaeological sources are addressed in the course of the investigation. This study starts with an examination of the natural physical landscape of the Baltic Sea in chapter 1 and how its populations adapted to geographical and climatic factors in the maritime sphere.

Chapter 2 examines the logistical links from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea, bypassing the Jutland peninsula, which opened up to a large-scale colonization and urbanisation movement and long-distance trade networks from western European, particularly from Danish and German places of origin in the wake of the Wendish, Baltic and Prussian crusades, starting in 1147. The foundation of Schleswig and Lübeck and the growing importance of the Ummelandfahrt are identified as paradigm shifts, which can be both corroborated by privileges on the one hand and ship-finds on the other hand. Early Bremen-type vessels seem to have played a particularly important role, and presently the overwhelming evidence points for a southern Jutlandic origin of this type. The great variances observed in the constructional characteristics strongly suggest a maritime organisation that was not bound to a singular local tradition, but can be most likely linked to long-distance trade networks of this time, which bounded merchants of different denominations together, such as the Gotlandic-Lübeckian gilda communis or the fraternities danicum in Cologne.

While the previous chapter was most focussed on the legal and environmental precondition as well as the driving forces – i.e. actors – behind the opening up of the Baltic Sea, chapter 3 also investigates maritime organisation, but its practical aspects, i.e. navigation, orientation and fleet organisation. A major focus of this chapter lies on the re-evaluation of a 13th-century itinerary – colloquially known as King Valdemar's Iitnerary – describing the sea route between the then Danish territories of Blekinge and Estonia, along the Swedish and Finnish coastline. By drawing analogies to similar sources which served the orientation and army and fleet logistics, a new interpretation can be suggested according to which the itinerary was meant as basis for calculating travel time and organising leding fleets. This chapter is first and foremost focussed on Danish maritime logistics to its Estonian enclaves.

This is compared and contrasted to an evaluation of actual 13th-century ship-finds in chapter 4 in the wider region associated with the Baltic Crusades, i.e. Riga (historical province of Livonia, today Latvia), the Matsalu Bay (Estonia), Kuggmaren (Sweden) and Egelskär (Finland), all of which – except the Riga 3 ship – are Bremen-type vessels too. In the concluding section, the question is raised whether Bremen-type vessels corrospond to the historical cog type, which was frequently mentioned in contemporary chronicles and source in connection with the crusades in general (as was deduced in paper E) and this region in particular.

In contrast to the preceding parts, chapter 5, is first and foremost focused on trade – i.e. Baltic timber trade – and examines the probable impact of the availability of high quality Baltic oak on western European shipbuilding. The Beluga Ship (paper C) is introduced as exemplary case study, from which contextual study (paper D) further research questions are derived, assessing the use of timber imports in the light of possible cost-benefit decisions.

Chapter 6 examines the local transport geography of a castle where lime was cut and distributed via ship. A nearby wreck's role within this context is analysed. In its conclusion, Chapter 6 takes a longue durée approach to make a hypothesis for Saaremaa's strategical importance, reaching back in time to the very beginning of the chronological framework of this study, i.e. the early attempts of the Danes to gain a foothold on Saaremaa in the Valdemarian period in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Im Preußenland, dem Gebiet zwischen Weichsel und Memel, existierte vom 13. bis zum frühen 16. Jh. der Staat der Deutschordensritter. In der
Zeit der Ordensherrschaft entstand eine reiche Architekturlandschaft,
die vor allem durch ihre Burgen, eine Synthese aus Kloster und Befestigung, berühmt geworden ist. Daneben wurden fast 100 Städte gegründet, in denen rasch Kirchen, Stadtbefestigungen und Kommunalbauten aus Backstein heranwuchsen. Auch in den etwa 1000 neugegründeten Dörfern errichtete man zahlreiche Pfarrkirchen. Die Architektur im Ordensland zeigt ausgeprägte Merkmale einer eigenständigen Bautradition, die Gegenstand des Buches ist.
Der Verfasser, Professor für Kunstgeschichte an der Universität in Danzig, hat in seiner Arbeit alle mittelalterlichen Burgen, Kirchen und Rathäuser der Region erfasst und den Architekturbestand unter verschiedenen Fragestellungen ausgewertet. Im analytischen Teil wird die preußische Architekturlandschaft auf empirischer Basis untersucht. Der Katalog enthält eine vollständige Dokumentation aller Bauten (425 Objekte) mit einem umfangreichen Abbildungsteil.

The paper focuses on the withrawal of the Lithuanians  by examinig previous battles and contemporary Latin and German sources also.  My goal was to prove that the feigned withdrawal was a common and efficient maneuvre of the Lithuanians and thus offer an insight into the Baltic warfare

Everyone has seen them, from figurines and gaming, to artistic renditions, and it’s a given that it will come up in a conversation involving the Teutonic Order and its affiliates, or medieval helmets. It’s the winged helmet. The question is, did it (they) exist, and where might it have come from? Can we so readily discount the images of movies and more modern artwork and game covers?

  The following is by no means a definitive “yes” regarding the topic, but it will go to show that this “myth” may actually have been more of a possibility, than people have given thought to.

Der vorliegende Band will in die faszinierende Geschichte der Burgenarchitektur im Preußenland einführen und ist auch als Reisehandbuch bestens geeignet. Den Schwerpunkt der Darstellung bildet die Zeit des Mittelalters. Die Erläuterungen und Beschreibungen konzentrieren sich auf die wesentlichen historischen und baugeschichtlichen Informationen. Zum Autor: Prof. Dr. Christofer Herrmann studierte Kunstgeschichte, deutsche Volkskunde, Slawistik und Politikwissenschaft an der Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz. Er promovierte 1993 mit einer Arbeit über spätmittelalterliche Wohntürme im Rhein-Mosel-Gebiet und arbeitete danach als freiberuflicher Kunsthistoriker und Bauforscher. 1995 erhielt er einen Ruf als außerordent-licher Professor an die Universität in Allenstein/Olsztyn (Polen). Er habilitierte sich 2005 in Greifswald mit einer Arbeit über die mittelalterliche Architektur in den preußischen Bistümern (Kulm, Pomesanien, Ermland, Samland). Seit 2005 ist er als außerordentlicher Professor am Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Danzig/Gdańsk tätig. Zurzeit leitet er ein Forschungsprojekt zum Hochmeisterpalast auf der Marienburg an der TU Berlin, Fachgebiet Bau-und Stadtbau-geschichte. Seit vielen Jahren beschäftigt sich der Autor intensiv mit der Architektur des Mittel-alters im Ostseeraum – insbesondere im Preußenland und im Baltikum – und zählt zu den besten Kennern dieser Region.

The people and countries on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea were among the last in Europe to become part of the Catholic Church. In Estonia, Latvia, and Finland, this occurred during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries— in close connection to the Northern Crusades. In the case of Estonia and Latvia— medieval Livonia— historical writing has traditionally emphasized the violent nature of this Christianization: in the
1190s, a war of Christianization broke out there that lasted an entire century. Although writers on Finnish national history are more reticent when it comes to accentuating violence, the older tradition still underlined the coercive nature of the Catholic conversion of the country. On the other hand, Lithuania, unlike its northern neighbours, consolidated into a medieval state in the first half of the thirteenth century and successfully resisted the military pressure of the crusaders and the Teutonic Order. However, the religious and the secular, the Church and worldly powers, were very closely intertwined in all these wars and conflicts, and the boundaries between the various camps were not always clear or well-defined. https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9781641891332/christianity-and-war-in-medieval-east-central-europe-and-scandinavia

The text was the result of an international colloquy held in Vordingborg from 23 to 25 of October 2006, marking the opening of the EU-Intereg IIIa project: "Kulturlandskaber under Lup/ Kulturlanschaften unter die Luppe", with the overall theme "Expansion - Integration? Danish - Baltic contacts 1147-1410 AD.

In connection with the 800-anniversary celebration of the alleged descent from heaven of the Danish flag, Dannebrog, at Lyndanise [Tallinn] during the Danish conquest of Estonia in 1219 a number of books and articles were written, some more scholarly than others. In the present text the relevant sources of the Danish involvement in the Baltic crusades leading up to the conquest are discussed afresh. That involves first of all the only source to mention the descent of Dannebrog from Heaven accompanied by a voice promising Danish victory, not at Lyndanise, though, and not in 1219, but during a battle in 1208 at Viljandi in central Estonia!

In the article the validity of this source, only known in a copy from the 1520s, is positively evaluated as far as the date, place and context are concerned. This is done on the basis of contemporary sources, mainly letters to and from the popes Innocent III and Honorius III, showing a much more active Danish involvement in Livonia and Estonia from 1206 onwards than Henry of Livonia want us to believe in his Chronicle. Furthermore, it is argued, based on the evidence in Henry’s Chronicle, that, while the German missionaries and crusaders operated in the sign of the Virgin Mary, the Danes did so in the sign of the Cross. Also the continued use of the Cross symbol in Estonian and especially Tallinnian context, long after Danish rule had ceased, is seen as confirming the strong link between the Cross symbol and the Danish mission and conquest. This supports the idea of Estonia as the Land of the Cross, where Bishop Albert of Riga in an address to Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council, according to Henry, claimed Livonia to be the Land of the Mother, where the Holy Land was the Land of the Son.


Postscriptum
Among the many writings, resulting from the anniversary celebration, only a few focuses on the Danish crusades and their immediate aftermath. Since it will probably take at least 25 years, hopefully more, before another anniversary will be celebrated and scholars once more will be asked to comment on the legend of the descending Dannebrog, I should like to draw attention to two text which are of immediate interest with regard to the conquest and the legend of the descending Dannebrog.

Most important is a Danish-Estonian collaborative work, published in both Danish and Estonian versions. Two Danish historians, Carsten Selch Jensen and Janus Møller Jensen focus on the written sources while archaeologist Marika Mägi and art historian Kersti Markus pictures the local environments in which the Danish conquest took place. From a Danish perspective the Estonian contribution to the book is especially interesting. See ‘Da Danskerne fik Dannebrog. Historien om de dansk-estiske relationer omkring år 1200’ / ‘Taanlaste ristisõda Eestis’, Tallinn (Argo) 2019.

A much smaller and rather puzzling text is presented by the Danish historian Johnny Grandjean Gøgsig Jakobsen, available here, https://www.academia.edu/39788011/Tallinn_-_eller_hvor_det_nu_var_henne_at_Dannebrog_faldt_ned,
The main theme of the paper turns out to be a toponymic analysis of the surroundings of the battle in 1219, which in itself is indeed interesting. However, for some reason Jakobsen decided to embed this analysis within some rather lighthearted comments on the where and when of Dannebrog’s fall from Heaven. This leads him to the conclusion that it is for each and anyone to decide whether to believe the event happened in 1219 at Lyndanise or in 1208 at Viljandi. Jakobsen is well aware that it is the Franciscan Peder Olsen, who in the 1520s both copied the source about the battle in 1208 at Viljandi with the descending Dannebrog and at the same time expressed doubts with regard to the dating. Jakobsen assumes Peder Olsen must have had corrective knowledge. This knowledge, Jakobsen thinks, Olsen may have had from Henry of Livonia’s Chronicle, which, however, forces Jakobsen to admit that Henry has no mention of a descending Dannebrog!

We are, in other words, back to the fact that only one source mentions Dannebrog’s descent and without that one source, we would never have had reason to celebrate a legend of Dannebrog descending over Lyndanise in 1219. The reason for Peder Olsen to doubt the dating was quite rightly that he did indeed have ‘corrective knowledge’ in the sense that, while he had no further evidence of Danish activity in Estonia in 1208, he did know from some of the Danish annals, he was acquainted with, that the Danes led a large fleet to Estonia in 1219 ending in its conquest. It is also quite clear from his text that that was what made him doubt the date 1208. This he almost spelled out in both places he quoted the 1208 source. Thus there was no need for his knowledge of Henry’s chronicle, which he certainly did not have.

This article addresses the issue of how it was possible to justify a crusade to a region, such as the eastern shore of the Baltic, where there were no sacred shrines to protect or Christian lands to reconquer. Adopting a pluralist perspective of crusades, it argues that the Livonian crusade of the early thirteenth century offers some interesting clues to the new developments of crusading ideology. Conceiving of the conquest and conversion of Livonia as a crusade, albeit not quite equal to the liberation of Jerusalem, its initiators and apologists employed legal and rhetorical devices to justify the occupation of a region under the auspices of a crusade. This article examines these strategies through the medium of contemporary chronicles and papal letters.

This article defines 'sacred landscape' as a combination of factors that the two authoritative chroniclers of the crusades in Prussia, Peter of Dusburg and Nicolaus of Jeroschin, present in their texts. These are the intersection of hierophanies (manifestations of the sacred), martyrdom, relic veneration and pilgrimage activities at specific locations over time: connecting them can account for the Teutonic Order's role in the sacralisation of Prussia. To map the growth of this concept, the article uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in combination with textual analysis, providing a visual and spatial representation of the landscape propagated by the Order. The succeeding period of crusades in the Baltic, namely those against Lithuania in the fourteenth century, shows how the places founded during the thirteenth century functioned as pilgrimage centres for knights going toward the frontier. This article considers to what extent the Teutonic Order's crusades to Prussia in the thirteenth century created a sacred landscape.

Ernesfs Vasilausks K a i p 6 d a s u n i v e rs itdtes V6sfures k ate d ra s d o kto ra nts. ZEMGALU ZEMES 12.-13. cS. levads. PEt-rjumu v6sture. Avoti Historiogrdfijd pastdv viedoklis, ka Zemgal6 13. gs. pastdv6ja 7 zemes-Silene, Zagare, Dobene, Spdrnene, T6rvete, Dobele un Upmale'(1. att.). V6sturnieki par 12.-13. gs. zemgalu apdz-tvoto teritoriju, zemju robeZas (Tpa5i rakst-rtu avotu tr0kuma d6! par Zemgales dienvidu robeZu) diemZ6l vardja noteikt tikai aptuveni, tdpdc bieZi Zemgale att6lota kd viengabalaina teritorija'. Tomer, p6tot zemgalu apdzlvoto teritoriju un tds izmai4qs, kd arT etniskos procesus, svaiigi ir lokaliz6t starpcil5u teritorijas un atsevi5(as zemedl' lnterese par zemgalu apdz-rvotds teritorijas v6sturisko geogrdfiju v6rojama no 19. gs. sdkuma. Baltvdcu p6tnieks K.F.Vatsons savd darbd pirmais m6gindja lokaliz6t Livonijas teritorijd dzlvojo5o cil5u centrus un zemes'Yzindtnisku p6Ujumu ir veicis A.Bllen5teins, kur5 izmantojot 13.-14. gs. rakst-ttos avotus sam6ra precTzi noteica zemgalu apdz-rvoto teritoriju, zemju un pilsnovadu robeZas, politiskds un ekonomiskds varas centruso (2. att.). V6ldk, lldz pat 20. gs. beigdm vi4a uzskati brja populSri vairdku Latvijas v6sturnieku vid[ (E.Mugur6vi6ss, l.Sternsu un citi). P6tot zemgalu apdzlvotds teritorijas v6sturisk6s geogrdfijas problemdtiku, ne mazdk svarlgi ir arT citu vdsturnieku (V.Bill5ins', E.Gudavidius') darbi. P6tdmajd problEmd svar-rgu informdciju sniedz rakst-rtie v6stures avoti. No rakst-rtajiem v6stures avotiem zin6tniskajd literatUrd tiek min6tas lndrilla un Atskaqu hronikas, 1254. gada Zemgales, 1260. gada un 1272. gada Sp5rnenes un Dobenes zemju dall5anas un mai4u dokumenti. RakstTto vEstures avotu nav daudz, bet par Dienvidzemgales teritorijas v6sturi 12.-13. gs. to irv6l mazdk. Pirmkdrttd atradds tdldk no Rlgas, otrkdrt 12.gs. beigu un 1 3. gs. sdkumi 5o zemgalu apdzTvoto teritoriju vairdk, vai mazdk ietekm6ja lietuvie5i. Svarigdkais avots, kas sniedz informdciju par zemgalu zemdm $ 1254. gada aprTla Upmales (Opemele) un Zemgales (Semigalliae) dali5anas llgums starp Rlgas arhibTskapu, domkapitulu un Livonijas ordeni. Tajd aptuveni noteiktas Upmales robeZas, piemin6ta viena Upmalei pieder6ju5a zeme-Pldne (adferram, que Plane dictur). Sajd llgumd ir minetas arT se5as Rietumzemgales zemes-Silene (S//ene), Zagare (Sagara),Tdrvete (Thervethene), Dobele (Dubelone), Spdrnene (Sparnene) un Dobene (Dubene)'. Hronists lndri(is zemgalu apdzTvoto teritoriju d6v6ja par Zemgalu zemi (terram Semigallorum). lespdjams, ka viq5 ar 5o terminu apzlm6ja visu zemgalu apdzlvotu teritoriju. lndri(is hronikd rakstot par 1219.-1220. g. notikumiem MeZotnE (Mesyote, Mesiote, Mesiothe)-Zemgal6 izdala divus pilsnovadus-T6rveti (provincia, que Thervetene vocatur) un MeZotni. VEstures avotos nav saglabdjuSds hronista zipas par pdr6jo Zemgales dalu'o. 13. gs. beigds sarakstTtajd Atskapu hronikd, kurd aprakstTta zemgalu iekaro5anas v6sture, bija piemin6ti zemgalu centri ar nocietindtdm pillm un senpilsdtdm TErvete (Terweten, Terwetein), MeZotne (Mezoten), Dobene (Doben), Dobele (Doblen), Rakte (Ratten, Racken, Racketen, Rakel) un Sidabrene (Sydobre, Sydobren, Sidobren).Zemgalu apdzlvotajd teritorij6 iesp6jams, ka bijaAtskapu hronikd piemin6ta Babotes (Babofen) pils11. 1259. gada dokumentd piemin6tas Surpes un Gostagales pilsnovadi", kuros var lokalizet bijuSds Pldnes zemes konkr6tajds vietds tagadEjd Lietuvas teritorijd. 1260. gada 13. janvdra un 1272. gada7. oktobra lTgumi starp Rlgas domkapitulu un-18

The crusades and the crusading movement was an invention of the Catholic Church. This does not mean that Orthodox Russia was unaffected by the crusades. During the Middle Ages Russia at least one chronicle writer early on endorsed the cause, twice various Russian principalities and princes, including Aleksandr Nevskii, joined the crusading movement, but more often, again including Aleksandr Nevskii, they were targeted by crusades. Towards the 14th and 15th centuries Russians even applied crusading ideology and rhetoric in their internal conflicts.
Text referred to in the notes as forthcoming have since been published, that applies to the monograph mentioned in note 1 was published in two Danish editions in 2004 and 2006, in an Estonian translation in 2007 and finally in English as Bysted, Jensen, Jensen and Lind, Jerusalem in the North: Denmark and the Baltic Crusades 1100-1522  (Brepols 2012); the text referred to in note 11 “Collaboration and confrontation …”, was published in Der Ostseeraum und Kontinentaleuropa 1100-1600, Schwerin 2004, 123-26; the text in note 22 "Mobilisation of the European Periphery …", was published in Acta Visbyensia 12 but is also uploaded on Academia.edu.

L e idin į r ėm ė : Čes lovas Karbauskis, UAB .A grokoncemas" vadovas Lietuvos Respublikos Ku ltūros ministerija Tel šių rajono savi va l dy bės Administracija ISBN 9955-445-99-8 © Žemai čių vyskupystės muziejus, 2004 © "A idai", 2004 . I T U RI N YS Sudarytojo žodis 7 TOMA S BARAN AUSKAS . G INTAUT AS ZAB IELA . Ceklis 1253 metais : istorin ė-arch eologinė analizė 9 ANTAN A S IV INSK IS. JO NAS KA RE N IA USKAS . Pirm asis Medininkųpaminėjimas ir loka lizacija 56 P ri ed a s Nr. I: 1253 M. KUR ŠO ŽE MĖ S P I ETI N I Ų S R iČ iŲ DALYBO S 94 P r i e d a s N r. 2 : 1253 M. KURŠO ŽE M Ė S Ž IEMI N I Ų SR I Č I Ų DA LYBOS 98 P r i e d a s N r. 3: 129 1 M . KURŠO ŽEM ĖS PI ETI N I Ų SR I Č i Ų DALY BO S 102 M E ČI S L O VA S J U Č A S . Dėl žemaičių krikšto 107 LI UDAS JOVA IŠA . Religinis gyvenimas Viduramžių Žema itijoj e 115 ANTANAS IVIN SK IS. JO NAS KARENI A USK AS . Varnia i-Medininkų vyskup ijos centras 128 P ri ed a s : MED I N I N K Ų VY SKU PIJ OS IR KAT EDRO S BA Ž NY Č iOS Į ST E lG IMAS . 14 17 M . SPALIO 24 D.• NAU JI EJI TRAKA I 14 6 RIMV YDA S PETR AU S KA S . Žemaičiu diduomenė ir politinė padėtis Žemaitijoje XlV a. p aba igoj e -XV a. pradžioj e 151 Pr i eda s N r. I : 140 5 M . RUGSĖ JO 7 D. ŽE M A IČ iŲ ĮK A IT Ų SĄ RA ŠAS 16 3 Pr i ed a s N r. 2: ŽE M AIT IJ OS BAJ ORA I 139 0-141 3 M . 163 EUGEN IJU S S AVI Š Č E VA S . XVI a. pirmos pusės Žemaičių valdžios elitas: kilm ė ir tapatumas 173 PA ULI US SU B AČ IUS. Antanas Baran auskas apie žemaitišką ir lietu višką tapatybę 183 Summ ary / Zusammenfassung 190 Info rma cija apie autorius 199 R odyklės 200 I Benninghoven, F.,Der Orden der Schwertbrūder. Fratres Milicie Christi de Livonia, Koln-Graz, 1965, p. 26.

Paper given to a congress, Saint Henry and the Christianization of Finland, marking the 850 anniversary of the Finnish Church, published in Suomen Museo – Finskt Museum 2006, Helsinki 2007, pp. 39-54.
The wider context of the Danish involvement in the crusades to Finland is now explained in English in Ane L. Bysted, Carsten Selch Jensen, Kurt Villads Jensen and John H. Lind, Jerusalem in the North: Denmark and the Baltic Crusades, 1100–1522, (Outremer: Studies in the Crusades and the Latin East, 1). Turnhout: Brepols, 2012. Pp. xiv, 393 (rev. in Crusades vol. 12, 2013, pp. 251-51, Jonathan Riley-Smith).

Everyone has seen them, from figurines and gaming, to artistic renditions, and it’s a given that it will come up in a conversation involving the Teutonic Order and its affiliates, or medieval helmets. It’s the winged helmet. The question is, did it (they) exist, and where might it have come from? Can we so readily discount the images of movies and more modern artwork and game covers?

  The following is by no means a definitive “yes” regarding the topic, but it will go to show that this “myth” may actually have been more of a possibility, than people have given thought to.

The crusades in the Baltic region had consequences both for the crusader states and for the communities which the crusaders targeted. This paper focuses on the Swedish (and Finnish) crusades into Karelia, loosely linked to the city state of Novgorod. Initially the Swedes managed to conquer parts of Karelia and convert the inhabitants from paganism to the Catholic faith. The danger of losing Karelian territory to the Swedes forced the Novgorodians to react by organising virtual counter-crusades introducing an element of ethnic cleansing of Karelians.

The following is a draft in progress set for publication in 'After the Crusade - Ending the Fight, Reorganizing Society', the second volume of proceedings from the 9th Quadrennial Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, Odense, 2016. It discusses the 're-organization' and spiritual foundation of the Teutonic Order's 'Ordensstaat' in Prussia, alongside the real need for re-organization within the Order in light of its criticisms in the 14th century.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, written by a missionary priest in the early thirteenth century to record the history of the crusades to Livonia and Estonia in around 1186-1227, offers one of the most vivid examples of the early thirteenth century crusading ideology in practice. Step by step, it has become one of the most widely read and acknowledged frontier crusading and missionary chronicles. Henry's chronicle offers many opportunities to test and broaden the new approaches and key concepts brought along by recent developments in medieval studies, including the new pluralist definition of crusading and the relationship between the peripheries and core areas of Europe.

While recent years have produced a significant amount of new research into Henry of Livonia, much of it has been limited to particular historical traditions and languages. A key objective of this book, therefore, is to synthesise the current state of research for the international scholarly audience. The volume provides a multi-sided and multi-disciplinary companion to the chronicle, and is divided into three parts. The first part, 'Representations,' brings into focus the imaginary sphere of the chronicle - the various images brought into existence by the amalgamation of crusading and missionary ideology and the frontier experience. This is followed by studies on 'Practices,' which examines the chronicle's reflections of the diplomatic, religious, and military practices of the christianisation and colonisation processes in medieval Livonia. The volume concludes with a section on the 'Appropriations,' which maps the reception history of the chronicle: the dynamics of the medieval, early modern and modern national uses and abuses of the text."

The text traces the changes the Scandinavian participation in the Baltic crusades made in the relationship between Scandinavians and Russians. From sharing a sentiment of being part of one common, universal Christian Church up to the middle of the 12th century, the two over timespan of about a century experienced a complete change in their respective views of one another. While the Russians in the eyes of Scandinavians were transformed from being fellow Christians into pagans that deserved to be targeted by crusades, the Scandinavians became in the minds of the Russians submerged into the amorphous group of Nemtsy  (lit. the mute ones), a derogative term that arose in Cyrillo-Methodian times to denounce the enemies of the Church Slavonic rite of the Orthodox Church. The mutual alienation and animosity that arose as a result of the crusades outlasted the period of the crusades and laid the foundation of an East—West conflict that may outlast the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Highly Commended in the British Records Association Janette Harley Prize 2018.

The pontificate of Honorius III (1216–27) ranks among the most important papal reigns of the thirteenth century: the pope organised two large-scale crusades to recover the Holy Land, the second of which recovered Jerusalem for the first time since 1187; he presided over a ‘golden summer’ of papal-imperial relations with the medieval stupor mundi, Frederick II, emperor of the Romans and king of Sicily; he developed an original theological conception of his office; and he laid the foundations for a centralised papal financial machine. Yet, despite his significant impact on early thirteenth-century Christendom, Honorius has often languished in the shadow of his famous predecessor, Innocent III – a balance that the present book redresses.

Grounded in extensive original research into the manuscripts of Honorius’s letter registers, this study develops a revisionist interpretation of how the curia marshalled the crusading movement to recover the Holy Land. Questioning the utility of the historiographical construct of ‘papal policy’, this book provides new insights into crusade diplomacy, papal theology, the roles of legates, and the effectiveness of crusade taxation. It also includes a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the papal chancery and its documents, which will be of particular use to students and those approaching the medieval papacy for the first time.

In the article the author examines the question of the legitimisation of military activities of the Piasts by Polish bishops in the period preceding the intensification of the autonomisation of the Polish episcopate vis-à-vis the monarch. The question emerges from the recent research into the links between the Church of the Piast era and warfare, which demonstrate that warrelated military activity of prelates was shaped until the 1200s by the rules of public service in line with the model of a state (monarchical) Church. At the same time scholars conducting that research argue that the military duties of the clergy should no longer be viewed as stemming only from being rooted in the political system of the day and the rules of feudal service. The present article provides additional arguments in favour of such a view, with the author also suggesting that the religious dimension of bishops’ wartime service — highlighted in the sources — should not be treated as dictated only by the Church’s pastoral mission or inspired by the crusading ideology. Instead, the author proposes that the bishops’ warfare-related religious activities, especially their efforts to present the monarchs’ military endeavours as having a religious nature, be regarded as an integral part of public service. Such a perspective makes it possible to define the activities of Polish bishops as a phenomenon drawing on models of Carolingian origin and requiring the clergy to place the wars waged by monarchs in a unique context of religious ideas and to build an ideological integrity of the body politic in the face of military actions.

Ce mémoire vise à étudier l’expansion des frontières de la Chrétienté sur les rives de la mer Baltique aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles en prenant comme point de départ la Chronique de la terre de Prusse, rédigée vers 1330 par le prêtre de l’Ordre teutonique Pierre de Dusbourg.

En confrontant son propos à un ensemble de sources narratives et normatives, nous tâcherons de saisir le rythme et le mode d’appropriation de l’espace prussien par l’Ordre teutonique et par ses alliés qui menèrent à la christianisation de cet espace et à la conversion de ses habitants, en un mot à l’intégration de la Prusse à la Chrétienté occidentale comprise comme un grand ensemble territorialisé placé sous l’égide de la papauté.

Nous étudierons ainsi divers aspects de l’appropriation du territoire Prussien par l’Ordre teutonique à travers la chronique : rythmes de la conquête et de la conversion des populations païennes, constructions de villes et de villages de colons, édifications d’églises et destructions de lieux de culte païens, purification du sol par le feu et par le sang des martyrs, importances des miracles et des reliques, création d’une nouvelle identité chrétienne en Prusse, etc. Pour ce faire, nous recenserons les différents termes employés par Pierre de Dusbourg pour exprimer ces réalités dans sa chronique.

Notre hypothèse est qu’au moment de la rédaction de la chronique de Pierre de Dusbourg, la Prusse est engagée de plein pied dans le processus de christianisation. Il ressort de nos analyses que les églises et les établissements religieux parsèment alors le territoire qui a été efficacement découpé en régions administratives (commanderies). À cette organisation territoriale séculière se superpose celle diocésaine et paroissiale commune à l’ensemble de la Chrétienté. Enfin, les reliques des saints disséminées en Prusse engendrent la création d’un troisième réseau, celui des pèlerinages qui unit centre et périphérie.

MOTS CLÉS : Ordre teutonique, Prusse, Christianisation, Chrétienté, Croisades baltes.

KEY WORDS : Teutonic Order, Prussia, Christianization, Christiendom, Baltic Crusades.

The Second Crusade (1145-49) is thought to have encompassed near simultaneous Christian attacks on Muslim towns and cities in Syria and Iberia and pagan Wend strongholds around the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. The motivations underpinning the attacks on Damascus, Lisbon and – taken collectively – the Wendish strongholds have come in for particular attention. The doomed decision to assault Damascus in 1148 rather than recover Edessa, the capital of the first so-called crusader state, was once thought to be ill-conceived. Historians now believe the city was attacked because Damascus posed a significant threat to the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem when the Second Crusaders arrived in the East. The assault on Lisbon and the Wendish strongholds fell into a long-established pattern of regional, worldly aggression and expansion; therefore, historians tend not to ascribe any spiritual impulses behind the native Christians' decisions to attack their enemies. Indeed, the siege of Lisbon by an allied force of international crusaders and those of the Portuguese ruler, Afonso Henriques, is perceived primarily as a politico-strategic episode in the ongoing Christian-Muslim conflict in Iberia – commonly referred to as the reconquista. The native warrior and commercial elite undoubtedly had various temporal reasons for engaging in warfare in Iberia and the Baltic region between 1147 and 1149, although the article concludes with some notes of caution before clinically construing motivation from behaviour in such instances.

Contrary to a historiographical tradition that arose with a Life composed soon after his death in 1263 and lived on to include the present author, Aleksandr Nevskii was not in his lifetime the staunch defender of Russian Orthodoxy against the Catholic Church’s crusades in the Baltic region, as he was depicted in the Life. By contrast, in the late 1240s Aleksandr joined the alliance Pope Innocent IV forged in an attempt to counter the Mongol onslaught on Europe.