Swedish historian, born 1935, professor, from 1979 to 1999 scientific archivist at the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin, Germany. Author of publications on the history of the Teutonic Order, Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea Region in the Middle Ages, especially the Battle of Tannenberg (Grunwald) 1410.
From the moment in the thirteenth century when the Knights of the Teu tonic Order established the... more From the moment in the thirteenth century when the Knights of the Teu tonic Order established themselves along the Baltic littoral, there was both po tential and actual conflict with Poland. After the Polish-Lithuanian union of 1385/1386, tensions increased, with control of Zmud2 (Samaiten, Samogitia) one of the chief issues. When propaganda, diplomacy, the nearly annual Reisen of the Knights, and brief campaigns by the Poles and/or the Lithuani ans failed to achieve a resolution, open war broke out in 1409. This great war (the Wielka Wojna of Polish historiography) led inexorably to a confrontation between the two sides, both of whom were resolved to break the power of the other. On 15 July 1415, near the three villages of Grunwald/Grunfelde, Stebark/Tannenberg, and Lodwigowo/Ludwigsdorf (the first two of which in their Polish and German forms respectively have traditionally been used to designate the battle), the Polish army of King Wladyslaw Jagiello and the Lithuanian-Russian troops of his cousin Grand Duke Witold inflicted a disas trous defeat upon the Teutonic Knights. Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen fell in battle, as did his Marshal, many of the Order's political and military leaders, and several thousand soldiers. In addition, numerous field banners (banderid) of the Knights fell into Polish and Lithuanian hands. In terms both of the numbers of troops involved and its general signifi cance, it was one of the greatest battles of the middle ages, and from it the Teutonic Knights received what one historian has called "an incurable wound." If the battle of Grunwald1 did not lead to the effective destruction of
The term ‘crusade’ has traditionally been used primarily to refer to the martial enterprises that... more The term ‘crusade’ has traditionally been used primarily to refer to the martial enterprises that went out from Christian Europe during the high Middle Ages with the goal of reconquering Muslim Palestine (1096–1291). Yet then and later there were other enterprises that have been likewise designated as crusades. They included the Christianizing and subjection of heathen Slav, Finnish-Ugric and Baltic tribes south of the Baltic Sea, in Finland and in Livonia — the modern states of Estonia and Latvia — enterprises that the pope legitimized and accomplished by peaceful means or by force. Parallel to these enterprises, or as result, occurred the colonization and incorporation of these territories into Latin Europe. In all cases the most important carriers of the expansion were the Roman Catholic Church, the European aristocracy up to kings and emperors and the merchants of the expanding cities. Except in Livonia, farmers came in as settlers. This was a complex, important and often cruel chapter of European history, which Pope John Paul II once appropriately described as a hard road of suffering, of both light and darkness: ‘Fu un cammino duro e sofferto, con le sue luci e le sue ombre’.3
From the moment in the thirteenth century when the Knights of the Teu tonic Order established the... more From the moment in the thirteenth century when the Knights of the Teu tonic Order established themselves along the Baltic littoral, there was both po tential and actual conflict with Poland. After the Polish-Lithuanian union of 1385/1386, tensions increased, with control of Zmud2 (Samaiten, Samogitia) one of the chief issues. When propaganda, diplomacy, the nearly annual Reisen of the Knights, and brief campaigns by the Poles and/or the Lithuani ans failed to achieve a resolution, open war broke out in 1409. This great war (the Wielka Wojna of Polish historiography) led inexorably to a confrontation between the two sides, both of whom were resolved to break the power of the other. On 15 July 1415, near the three villages of Grunwald/Grunfelde, Stebark/Tannenberg, and Lodwigowo/Ludwigsdorf (the first two of which in their Polish and German forms respectively have traditionally been used to designate the battle), the Polish army of King Wladyslaw Jagiello and the Lithuanian-Russian troops of his cousin Grand Duke Witold inflicted a disas trous defeat upon the Teutonic Knights. Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen fell in battle, as did his Marshal, many of the Order's political and military leaders, and several thousand soldiers. In addition, numerous field banners (banderid) of the Knights fell into Polish and Lithuanian hands. In terms both of the numbers of troops involved and its general signifi cance, it was one of the greatest battles of the middle ages, and from it the Teutonic Knights received what one historian has called "an incurable wound." If the battle of Grunwald1 did not lead to the effective destruction of
The term ‘crusade’ has traditionally been used primarily to refer to the martial enterprises that... more The term ‘crusade’ has traditionally been used primarily to refer to the martial enterprises that went out from Christian Europe during the high Middle Ages with the goal of reconquering Muslim Palestine (1096–1291). Yet then and later there were other enterprises that have been likewise designated as crusades. They included the Christianizing and subjection of heathen Slav, Finnish-Ugric and Baltic tribes south of the Baltic Sea, in Finland and in Livonia — the modern states of Estonia and Latvia — enterprises that the pope legitimized and accomplished by peaceful means or by force. Parallel to these enterprises, or as result, occurred the colonization and incorporation of these territories into Latin Europe. In all cases the most important carriers of the expansion were the Roman Catholic Church, the European aristocracy up to kings and emperors and the merchants of the expanding cities. Except in Livonia, farmers came in as settlers. This was a complex, important and often cruel chapter of European history, which Pope John Paul II once appropriately described as a hard road of suffering, of both light and darkness: ‘Fu un cammino duro e sofferto, con le sue luci e le sue ombre’.3
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