298 Crusades Lecture 21 April 18 Flashcards
- Background on Eastern European Tribes
Between Kiel and teh Vistula: western Slavs (Wends)
Tribal and political groups sustained by an organized polytheist religion
Ordered and powerful priesthood
Regional cult network
System of rich local temples
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- Tribal background info
Vistula to the Dvina, up to Gulf of Riga: Balts
divided into 4 separate peoples
Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Curonians
Political and religious authority operated on a smaller, less centralized scale than the Wends
Fertility cults
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- Tribal Info
Gulf of Riga and Estonia into Gulf of Finland and beyond
Range of Finno-Urgian-speaking communities
religious cults focused on nature worship
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- 1108 Magdeburg appeal
for an attack on the Wends
urged as a liberation of “our Jerusalem” – reference to vulnerable Christian lands along hte Elbe frontier and lost eccls provinces beyond
(these had been briefly est in 10th c. by Ottonian kings)
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- The Jerusalem holy war campaigns being extended to the idea of:
need to defend all Christian frontiers and recover all Christian lands
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- Magdeburg appeal:
“These gentiles are most wicked, but their land is the best, rich in meat, honey, corn and birds…And so, most renowned Saxons, French, Lorrainers and Flemings and conquerors of the world, this is an occasion for you to save your souls and, if you wish it, acquire the best land in which to live.”
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- The 1108 Magdeburg appeal went nowhere
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- 1147 Wendish crusade
emerged from an indigenous German context
Growing interest in fusing political, eccls, and religious aggression
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- On German-Slav borderlands, early 12th c. saw escalation in conflict
Religious observance defined communal identity and political authority
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- Campaigns of religious conquest: imperialism and colonialism
New God a German God, accompanied by German settlers
To reject political subjection expressed through religious opposition
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- Long before 1147 crusade, political confrontation had been articulated in relgious terms
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- The Baltic crusades, officially begun in 1147, set tone for radical and effective association of holy war and territorial expansion.
They were also the most successful of the crusades in achieving their objectives.
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- Religious gloss for:
ethnic cleansing
commercial exploitation
political aggrandizement
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- In 1147 crusade indulgences extended for a campaign against the pagan Slavs (Wends), between the Elbe and the Oder.
Bernard of Clairvaux: “They shall either be converted or wiped out.”
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- Bernard of Clarivaux’s call: baptism or death
implicitly acknowledges the religious component of competing perceptions of ethnicity
cultural identity
political autonomy
racial awareness
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- 1147 Wendish Crusade
Missionary war
Glorifying and legitimizing material aggrandizement
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- Distant memory of conquests in 10th and 11th centuries
joined to recent history of back-and-forth conversion
lent retrospective justification to idea of reconquest of Christian lands
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1147 was regional warfare under a new flag of convenience
It achieved nothing
“It didn’t work.” – Abbot Wibald
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Baltic crusades contributed to 12th-c. German expansion between Elbe and Oder and western Pomerania
13th-c. German penetration into southern Baltic lands
Colonization of Livonia in 13th c.
Expansion of Danish crown
Advance of Swedes into Finland
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Theaters of war expanded to Greek Orthodox Russian Novgorod
Lithuania
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Next formal crusade bull in Baltic after 1147: 1171
Popular feature after 1190s
Local observers though invoked the language of Holy War whether or not there was an official crusade proclaimed
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Uses of Baltic Crusades
Served political, economic, eccls ambitions
extension of German and Danish rule
est. of new towns, trading posts, privileged immigrant communities
new bishoprics
monasteries
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CF Spain, Middle East:
Conversion a corollary and recognition of conquest in Baltic
Insistence on conversion as price of constructive coexistence
ironically allowed for greater long-term cultural accomodation
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As pagans could become Christians, so Slavs, Letts, Balts, and Livs could become Germans
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However unpleasant and brutal,
Forced conversion allied with material advantage worked
By 1400, Baltic a Latin Christian lake
Beneath the surface, pagan culture remaind
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In late 12th c., shift in focus to the heathen tribes in the east: Livonia (modern Latvia), Estonia, Prussia, Finland, and finally Lithuania
this is when crusade really become tied to the enterprise of conquest
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In each theater, different ways of defending the religious warfare
Livonia and Estonia c. 1200: defense of missionary churches
Wends and parts of Pomerania: previous Christian missionizing and conversion
Prussia to Finland: apostasy and restoration of lost Christian territory
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Kings adopted the religious rhetoric as a form of legitimizing their political conquests
Danish kings “active knights of Christ”
By making their conquered territories part of Christendom, they were assigning a new holy status to the lands
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Development of military crusading orders
Militia of Christ (Swordborthers) in Livonia c. 1202
Militia of Christ in Livonia against the Prussians, aka Knights of Dobrin (Dobrzyn) 1228
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Model of a permanent garrison of Christian warriors sustaining the frontiers and colonies between crusades
ruled over conquests they secured – most distinctive aspect
Dominated Christian aggression for rest of M.A. in Baltic, in form of Teutonic Knights
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TK founded as a German hospitaller order in Acre during Third Crusade
By 1220s a landowner across all western Christendom
..
1212 Innocent III declared Livonia subjugated for St. Peter
his successors attempt to make good on this claim for next 25 years
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1234 Prussia became a papal fief
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1215 Bishop of Riga declared Livonia to be the land of the Virgin Mary
Jerusalem land of Jesus
Livonia her dowry
Crusaders thus pilgrims
Teutonic K. had Mary as patroness
Image on war banner
Mary became a war goddess
.
The Crusade in Livonia
German colonization
Spread of Christinaity indistinguishable from creation
trading depots
commercial cartels
military estates
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Swordborthers of Livonia
plundered monasteries
seized Danish lands
massacred 100 men of papal legate in 1234. piling up the bodies
Best Liv or Lett a slave, not a co-religionist
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Swordbrothers absorbed into T.K. in 1237
Livonia had been on the brink of collapse
TK prevented that
Masters of Livonia
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Crusades of Denmark and Sweden
Scandinavian kings eager to enter orbit of Latin Christendom
extend their power eastwards
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By 1200
any Latin Christian war against non-Christians could expect to find religious backing
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Swedish conquests in Finland
for fame and profit, not faith
Veneer of religiousity: dimly remembered martyrs in Finland revived
Easier to raise funds this way
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Crusade in Prussia
Truly a crusader state by 13th c., created by TK
Its institutions and identity forged out of continuous holy war and rule by a military order
by 1240s TK supreme domestically; could declare crusades of its own initiative
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Prussia became a new heartland of Germany and Germanness
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1245 Innocent IV allowed TK to recruit crusades at will without express papal authority each time
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TK acted as sovereign rulers
Rejected the interference of bishops or the pope
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By 1300, TK secure in Prussia, Livonia and southern Estonia
Looking to expand
HRE Louis IV authorized conquest of whole of Eastern Europe: Lithuania, Poland,
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Yet Poland Christian
Poles recruited as crusaders against the Mongols.
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Lithuanian Crusade
14th c.
Provided TK with necessary reinforcements on the ground and political capital abroad
Legitimized struggle with Lithuania, which helped TK maintain a tighter grip on its own territories
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These campaigns offered adventurous nobles the chance to show off
Glamorous in repute, but difficult in practice
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The raids across the border run as package tours:
special feasts
displays of heraldry
souvenirs
prizes
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Festivals of knighthood become de rigueur for chivalric classes of western Europe in second half of 14th c. (Chaucer’s Knight)
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1375
12 prize winners dined at Table of Honor
Received badge with motto: “Honor conquers all.”
Jerusalem decree from Clermont: “Whoever for devotion alone, not for honor or money goes to Jerusalem…”
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1386 Lithuania converted to Christianity
Ideological purpose of the crusade collapsed
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Yet fighting and crusade continued
No lasting advantage for either side
15 July 1410 Tannenberg/Grunwald
Did not end the Baltic crusade
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But foreign recruitment dries up within the next 5 years
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1414-1418 Council of Constance
TK tried to get papal approval for a crusade against Poland
Fails, but escapes censure
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Second half of 15th c. TK on decline and Baltic crusades winding to a close (Ottoman Turks, Russians)
1466 west Prussia relinquished
Grand Masters become Polish clients
1525 Prussian order secularized
1562 Livonian ordered secularized
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Decline a consequence of success
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Baltic Crusades
For the crusaders: a vocabulary at once practical and inspirational
For the conquered: a pedigree and legitimacy to compensate for a lack of recognizable “history” to medieval Latin Christians
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