Wielding their swords in the name of their faith, the crusaders originally set out to reclaim Jerusalem and its surrounding territory in the Middle East. Increasingly, however, Eastern Europe and the last remaining bastions of pagan Europe became the targets of their religious zeal. The era officially began in 1147, when the Saxons, Danes, and Poles, responding to Pope Eugene III's call, initiated a crusade against the Wends of the Southern Baltic. This was followed by crusades against the Livonians, Estonians, Finns, Prussians, and Lithuanians. By the 13th century much of the responsibility for sustaining these crusades fell to the Teutonic Knights, a military order formed in the Holy Land in 1190. They were aided by the constant support of the Roman pontiff and by a steady flow of mercenaries from throughout Christendom. The subsequent Scandinavian campaigns laid the foundations of modern Baltic society by destroying pagan rural farming settlements, and establishing fortified Christian towns and major castles. As with the majority of crusades, the prospective acquisition of land and power was the one of the key driving forces behind these bloody military expeditions. This book reveals the colorful history of these Crusades when the soldiers of the Pope fought their way across Eastern Europe and inexorably changed the future of the continent.

'God wills it, God wills it ' - this was the response to the sermon of Pope Urban II at Clermont in 1095, in which he exhorted his audience to take the cross and liberate Jerusalem. And his words spread, even to the remotest islands in the north of Christendom. For the first time since the mid-nineteenth century, historians have investigated Latin, Danish, German, and Russian source materials about the Danish Crusades in the Baltic region. This team of four Danish medievalists describe how the idea of crusading reached the North and how Scandinavia became involved in the Western European crusading movement. Crusading ideology inspired Danish wars for hundreds of years against the Wends, Prussians, Lithuanians, Estonians and other pagan peoples along the coasts of the Baltic Sea so that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Denmark became the dominant crusading power in the region: a Jerusalem in the North. Indeed, crusading remained an important political reality in Denmark until the Lutheran Reformation in the early seventeenth century. Ane L. Bysted holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Denmark with a dissertation on the development of the crusade indulgence, and has written on crusade theology and preaching. Carsten Selch Jensen is Associate Professor in Church History at the University of Copenhagen. Has written on crusading history, especially in the Baltic Region as well as on holy and just war in the Middle Ages. Kurt Villads Jensen is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the University of Southern Denmark and chair of the Medieval Centre. He has written on Christian mission and crusades, especially in the Baltic region and Iberia.John H. Lind has written extensively on the Baltic crusades and on relations between Scandinavia, Finland and Russia from the Viking Age up to modern times.

This volume represents a major contribution to the history of the Northern Crusades and the Christianization of the Baltic lands in the Middle Ages, from the beginnings of the Catholic mission to the time of the Reformation. The subjects treated range from discussions of the ideology and practice of crusade and conversion, through studies of the motivation of the crusading countries (Denmark, Sweden and Germany) and the effects of the crusades on the countries of the eastern Baltic coast (Finland, Estonia, Livonia, Prussia and Lithuania), to analyses of the literature and historiography of the crusade. It brings together essays from both established and younger scholars from the western tradition with those from the modern Baltic countries and Russia, and presents in English some of the fruits of the first decade of historical scholarship and dialogue after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. The depth of treatment, diversity of approaches, and accompanying bibliography of publications make this collection a major resource for the teaching of the Baltic Crusades.

While Scandinavia's 'Viking Age' is one of the most studied aspects of early medieval history, much less has been published about the centuries that followed. Yet the armies of Sweden, Norway and Denmark offer fascinating differences from the rest of medieval Western Europe, both in their organisation and their war gear - due partly to their remoteness, climate and terrain, but partly to their long freedom from the feudal system of other kingdoms. This book explains the special nature of Scandinavian armies, shaped by the relative weakness of kings and aristocrats, and the contrasts between the separate nations of the North.

Osprey's study of Teutonic Knights from 1190 to 1561. The Military Order of Teutonic Knights was one of the three most famous Crusading Orders; the others being the Templars and the Hospitallers. Like these two, the Teutonic Knights initially focused upon the preservation of the Crusader States in the Middle East. Wielding their swords in the name of their faith, the crusading knights set out to reclaim Jerusalem. Unlike the Templars they survived the crises of identity and purpose which followed the loss of the last Crusader mainland enclaves in the late thirteenth century and, like the Hospitallers, they managed to create a new purpose - and a new field of combat - for themselves. Whereas the Hospitallers focused their energies in the eastern Mediterranean battling against Muslim armies, the Teutonic Knights shifted their efforts to the Baltic, to the so-called Northern Crusades against pagan Prussians and Lithuanians and, to a lesser extent, against Orthodox Christian Russia. As a result the Order of Teutonic Knights became a significant power, not only in the Baltic but in north-central Europe as a whole. Paradoxically, however, it was their fellow Catholic Christian Polish neighbours who became their most dangerous foes, breaking the Order's power in the mid-fifteenth century. The Teutonic Knights lingered on in what are now Estonia and Latvia for another century, but this was little more than a feeble afterglow. This title will examine this fascinating military and religious order in detail, revealing the colourful history of the crusades within Europe itself which inexorably changed the future of the continent.

A Chronology of the Crusades provides a day-by-day development of the Crusading movement, the Crusades and the states created by them through the medieval period. Beginning in the run-up to the First Crusade in 1095, to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and ending with the Turkish attack on Belgrade in 1456, this reference is a comprehensive guide to the events of each Crusade, concentrating on the Near East, but also those Christian expeditions sanctioned by the Papacy as ‘Crusades’ in the medieval era. As well as clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Latin States, Timothy Venning also chronicles the Albigensian Crusade, clashes in Anatolia and the Balkans and the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula. Both detailed and accessible, this chronology draws together material from contemporary Latin/Frankish, Byzantine and Arab/Muslim sources with assessment and explanation to produce a readable narrative which gives students an in-depth overview of one of the most enduringly fascinating periods in medieval history. Including an introduction by Peter Frankopan which summarises and contextualises the period, this book is an essential resource for students and academics alike.

"This volume brings together contributions from fifteen historians and art historians working on the history of the crusades, focusing on Iberia and the Baltic region. The subjects treated include the historiography of the Iberian and Baltic crusades; the transfer of crusading ideas from the Holy Land to Iberia and the Baltic region and the use of such ideas in local rhetoric and propaganda; the papal attitudes towards the Iberian and Baltic campaigns; the papal attitudes towards Muslims living in Christian Spain; the interaction between conquered and conquerors as reflected in art and architecture; and the exchange of information about the crusades in Iberia and the wider Baltic Region. The collection thus throws further light not only onto events in the Iberian Peninsula and the Baltic region but also onto the development of the crusade movement in general. It constitutes a valuable resource for both undergraduates and postgraduates studying the crusade movement in the Middle Ages."--