Baltic Crusades

In numerous Russian Chronicles we find under the year 1352 (6860 AM) a curious text entitled “The Testament of the Swedish King Magnus” (Рукописания короля свейского Магнуша). The king in question is Magnus Eriksson, who became king of Norway and Sweden in 1319 at the tender age of three. He drowned as a result of a shipwreck off the coast of Norway in 1374. Not so, however, according to the this Russian text. Instead the king survived, was brought by the wind to a Russian monastery (Valamo/Валаамский?), where in the course of three days he converted to Orthodoxy, became a schema monk, composed the Testament before dying.
Although an invention by some Russian monk soon after 1400, it is clear that the author had a now lost source at his disposal, from which we learn that the Swedish commander at the Battle on the Neva in 1240 was Birger Magnusson, the future jarl and founder of a new dynasty. The paper analyses the Testament as a source of Russian Orthodox mentality of the period and suggests that on the basis of the Testament this ghost of a king figure became venerated as a kind regional patron saint of Russian Orthodoxy in defence against encroachments by the Swedes and the Latin Church.

“Crusading as an act of vengeance” is a new paradigm proposed by Susanna A. Throop. In this study I will focus on the question of whether the Wendish Crusade supports an “act of vengeance” paradigm. The study shows us a new understanding of how crusading was conceived as an act of vengeance in the context of the twelfth century. Through textual analysis of medieval sources it has been possible to clarify the course of the concept of divine vengeance, which often used human agents in its execution, as well as the idea of crusading as an act of vengeance. In primary sources which emphasize the necessity of a Holy War against the Wends, the concept of vengeance was intimately connected with the ideas of human justice and divine punishment. Most of these sources are clerical writings which contain biblical allusions in order to justify their aims. This paper shows how the concept of divine vengeance was perceived as an expression of both secular and religious authority, embedded in a series of commonly understood emotional responses in medieval society, and also as a value system compatible with Christianity.

În cazul venzilor, ideea cruciadei ca răzbunare divină a apărut pentru prima oară în așa-zisa Scrisoare din Magdeburg redactată în 1107/1108. Planul unei cruciade împotriva venzilor s-a concretizat abia în 1147. Refuzul ducilor saxoni de a participa la eliberarea comitatului Edessa este pus pe seama faptului că nobilimea saxonă a fost interesată în recucerirea teritoriilor venzilor. Acest context l-a forțat pe Bernard de Clairvaux să definească expediția împotriva venzilor ca o luptă împotriva dușmanilor creștinismului. Astfel, papa Eugeniu al III-lea a fost nevoit să le acorde saxonilor aceleași privilegii pe care le-au avut cruciații în Țara Sfântă.

Vocabularul răzbunării poate fi întâlnit într-un spațiu geografic larg, ce cuprinde o mare parte a creștinătății latine. Treptat, alături de păgâni, în categoria celor care trebuie pedepsiți au intrat și apostații, ereticii și schismaticii. Astfel, „răzbunarea divină” a constituit elementul central al retoricii cruciadei împotriva venzilor din 1147. Atât pentu nobilimea saxonă, cât și pentru clerici, pedepsirea venzilor a fost un act de „justiție umană”.

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.

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

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 13th-century route description from Utlängan to Tallinn - colloquially known as King Valdemar's Itinerary - is one of the oldest and most exiting written sources on navigation in the Baltic Sea. While the Latin transcription was certainly not meant as a practical navigation guide, its content has been undoubtedly provided by seafarers and pilots drawn from the local coastal population. This article puts the itinerary into the context of medieval cosmology and the "orbis terrarum" scheme in particular, the Roman tradition of "itineraria adnotata", which was still prevalent in medieval times, and the "Liber Census Daniae", in which this route description was originally compiled. By revisiting the contextual evidence, its use as calculation basis for travel time has has been identified as foremost raison d'être for its recording.

This popular scientific article picks up on the route description within its archaeological context, amended by some picturesque impressions of a sailing expedition in the Stockholm Archipelago, where the author followed an itinerary's leg in his Danish-built smakke. An English version will be published as part of the author's forthcoming doctoral thesis on "Maritime Logistics in the Age of the Northern Crusades".

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.

The paper sheds light to life of Anna of Cilli (* 1380–1388; † 1416), second wife of Władisław Jagiełło and Queen of Poland, as outlined by the preserved sources. In the first part, it points to her firm embeddedness in the Celje family and follows her journey to Poland, highlighting that upon her arrival in Krakow she was received as a legitimate heiress to the Polish throne.

Presumably between 1310 and 1313, scribes produced a manuscript for Bolesław II of Mazovia, which contained a prayer for the ruler. The intercession was formulated as "una cum papa, et episcopo, et duce," which suggested that ducal power and ecclesiastical authority, while not explicitly equal, shared a similar importance. In a world dominated by rituals, this had quite an important meaning, especially in light of the fact that the chant was performed during the most solemn liturgy of the year, the Easter Vigil, which is meant to represent the deeds of Redemption. The text itself suggested that those who participated in the solemnities were a part of the history of salvation. The invocation of the political and ecclesiastical elite marked the path from Adam to the heavenly Jerusalem, where bishop John, duke Bolesław and his sons Siemowit and Wańko should be present. The insertion of their names in gold was meant to grant them eternal presence with God. However, the name of the duke was written in gold majuscule script with the use of red ink, suggesting that the prayer was meant to reinforce political majesty of Bolesław II even after the restoration of the Polish kingdom by other rulers. The prayer was also a part of the phenomenon of sacrality of ducal power in Mazovia which had a longer tradition. This phenomenon was modeled on the approaches used by Piast dynasty after the loss of their royal title in the second half of the eleventh century. The sacrality of ducal power in Mazovia, however, is not very different from that of other contemporary European duchies. Mazovia may have been located on the edge of the Christian world, but the course of its history in the Middle Ages – marked by crusades against Baltic pagans, preparations for campaigns against the Mongols, attempts at the unification of the kingdom of Ruthenia with Rome, and diplomatic relations with both the papacy and the most important rulers of Central Europe – demonstrates that it should not be marginalised in scholarship, especially in regard to the phenomenon of sacralised political power.

Warfare was cruel along the religious borders in the Baltic in the twelfth and thirteenth century and oscillated between mass killing and mass enslavement.
Prisoners of war were often problematic to control and guard, but they were
also of huge economic importance. Some were used in production, some were ransomed, some held as hostages, all depending upon status of the prisoners and needs of the slave owners.

The Wendish Crusade of 1147, one of the Northern Crusades and a part of the Second Crusade, took place at a critical phase in the evolution of crusading rhetoric. The initiators and apologists of the campaign employed rhetorical devices to justify the occupation of a region and conversion of a population under the auspices of a crusade. A detailed examination of the primary sources shows that the justification of a crusade against apostates was not only a German endeavour, or the pope’s will, but a political reality of the twelfth century. Therefore, the attitude of the papacy is shown to be reactive rather than proactive. https://www.routledge.com/The-Wendish-Crusade-1147-The-Development-of-Crusading-Ideology-in-the/Dragnea/p/book/9780367366964

Medieval research in Estonia before the 1990s concentrated mainly on the history of peasants and agriculture. The new generation of historians who generally studied at the University of Tartu in the 1980s and 1990s substantially changed this situation. The amount of medieval research increased significantly, and the scope of research topics became much wider. Over the last two decades, medieval research in Estonia has discovered several new ways of history writing, such as microhistory, gender studies, oral history, the history of animals, etc., which have undoubtedly brought richer and more diverse knowledge about medieval history. This also enabled historians to provide a more comprehensive picture of society and the social, cultural, etc., development of Livonia in the Middle Ages.
Due to the active international cooperation, supported by the political changes in Europe at the end of the twentieth century, medieval Livonia increasingly became a topic of interest for scholars outside Estonia and Latvia. Over the last two decades the publication activity (including publications in foreign languages) of Estonian medievalists increased several times and certainly represents one of the most active and deeply internationally networked fields of the Estonian humanities. The central areas of medieval research in the 2000s and 2010s have been the Baltic Crusades, the history of the Teutonic Order, social history dominantly in the urban context, and the history of everyday culture. The outcome of interdisciplinary cooperation between historians, archaeologists and art historians has become important. A remarkable general tendency that can be observed is the more integrative presentation of medieval Livonian society compared to the traditional understanding. Research tends to stress interaction and mutual cultural impact between social and ethnic groups instead of conflict and isolation. The political history of medieval Livonia is dominated by examination of the activities of the Livonian Teutonic Order, and here it is remarkable that scholars have detailed account of the personal and political connections of individual actors outside Livonia, with the papal curia or emperor, for example. As the Tallinn City Archives are one of the bestpreserved medieval archives in the Hanse area, urban history and the history of Tallinn deserve closer attention. Scanty written sources make research into small towns a convoluted and sometimes even impossible task. Luckily, the absence of written records is sometimes compensated for by archaeological findings, which makes cooperation between historians and archaeologists in this research field necessary. Medieval research in Estonia has also focused on important ecclesiastical and religious processes, especially on the spread of the Lutheran Reformation in Livonia. Regarding both urban and rural populations, the themes of everyday life, such as food or festivals, became more important than traditional interest in international trade or agricultural productivity. The lack of personal and material resources has limited the work on medieval source publications. In this regard the digital age is without doubt a major new challenge to Estonian medievalists, and, furthermore, leads to innovative approaches to medieval history.

Finds of Final Iron Age jewelry and cremated bones show that many medieval parish churches of southern Estonia were founded on Iron Age cemeteries. This shows the active participation of the natives in choosing places for churches during the period of Baltic crusades , as well as high evaluation of the new religion, at least in terms of its afterlife concepts.

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; ther 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 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.

This article analyzes crusading in Prussia (present-day Poland, Lithuania, and parts of
Russia) as a specific form of experience, specifically by examining two elements of that
experience: the use and function of relics, and the perception of crusading in Prussia as a
pilgrimage.It also analyzes the role of other objects, namely banners and images, to assess the religious elements of the crusade experience in Prussia. It then proceeds to the veneration of relics at shrines throughout Prussia by crusaders, demonstrating the role of these shrines in reinforcing the religious experience of crusading in Prussia. What emerges is a more complete picture of how people in the Middle Ages perceived crusading and holy war on the last pagan frontier of Europe.

Jagten på Lyø: det danske korstogsimperiums sammenbrud. – Et kapitel i det danske Rigsarkivs historie (The Hunting Party on Lyø (1223): The Collapse of the Danish Baltic Empire – a Chapter in the History of the Danish State Archives. Paper given to the seminar 'Land og By i Middelalderen 2002', Horne, Fyn, 25-27 October 2002.

My topic for this Seminar was chosen on the basis of two accidental circumstances and one scholarly observation. 1) the seminar took place on Funen with the small island Lyø just off the coast, where in May 1223 King Valdemar II the Victorious, during a hunt on the island, was kidnapped by his vassal Henry Count of Schwerin. Subsequently he was kept prisoner in Germany for more than two years while his captors, orchestrated by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Hermann v Salza, dismantled his crusading empire in the Baltic; 2) that the the seminar took place amid a heated debate in Denmark on the relocation of the Danish State Archives, Rigsarkivet, from Copenhagen to Funen.
The scholarly observation was that historians have somehow missed the fact that the seven oldest extant original documents, which according to their provenance must have belonged to the royal archive and therefore, in due course, should have ended up in the Rigsarkiv, can today be found in the Landeshauptarchiv, Schwerin. These documents, six of which are papal bullas, date from 1216-21 and formed the basis of King Valdemar’s empire.

Hvad er den historiske virkelighed bag legenden om Dannebrog? Historien siger jo, at banneret faldt fra himlen under et voldsomt slag mellem danske korsfarere og estiske krigere i den nordlige del af Estland i 1219 – men er det nu også helt sandt?
Det forsøger nærværende bog at give et svar på gennem en skildring af de ideer, forestillinger og konkrete samfundsstrukturer der herskede blandt danskerne og esterne på det tidspunkt, hvor de tørnede sammen på slagmarken, men også kom til at præge hinanden i al den tid, hvor Estland forblev en del af den danske konges besiddelser.
Bogens fire forfattere – to fra Estland og to fra Danmark – er hver især eksperter inden for deres respektive fagområder (arkæologien, kunsthistorien, kirke- og middelalderhistorien) og præsenterer her et nyt bud på, hvordan vi skal forstå et vigtigt kapitel i de to landes fælles historie.

ERNESTAS VASILIAUSKAS Straipsnyje nagrinėjama Žagarės II (Žvelgaičio) piliakalnio, kapinyno (?), dvaro sodybos archeo­ loginė medžiaga, sukaupta ir atsitiktinai, ir 1956 m. tyrinėjimų metu. Datuojant ir išskiriant radinius bei jų komplektus siekiama pakoreguoti istoriografijoje pasikartojančius netikslumus, nustatyti radinių patekimo į Šiaulių "Aušros" muziejų kilmę. Sprendžiami kai kurie XII-XIIIa. vieno Vakarų Žiemga­ los-Žagarės mikroregiono klausimai: žemės ribos ir jos struktūra, vykę tam tikri istoriniai procesai. Reikšminiai žodžiai: gyvenvietė, kapinynas, keramika, ginklai, papuošalai, piliakalnis, pilis, že­ mė, žiemgaliai. The article studies archaeological material of the hillfort, cemetery and manor of Žagarė II (Žvclgaitis); this material has been collected both occasionally and during archaeological excavations in 1956. By dating and distinguishing the finds and their complexes, it is intended to correct iterant historiographic inaccuracies and set the ways of the findings' appearance in Šiauliai Aušra Museum. There are solved the following issues of Žagarė micro-region of West Semigallia in the 12th-13th centuries: the boundaries of the land and its structure, as well as certain historical processes. ĮVADAS Dėliojant mozaiką iš fragmentiškų archeolo­ ginių duomenų bei istorinių šaltinių nagrinėjama kai kurių archeologijos mokslui vertingų dirbinių kilmė, taip pat ir tam tikroje vietovėje vykę istori­ niai procesai. Vienas tokių pavyzdžių-istorinės Žiemgalos vakarinėje dalyje esantis Žagarės II (Žvelgaičio) (Joniškio r.) piliakalnis ir dvarvietė, kurie nuo seno domino istorijos tyrinėtojus. Žagarės II piliakalnis (Žvelgaičio, kitaip dar vadintas Aukštadvariu (1647 m. inventoriuje), Pli­ kuoju, Kosciuškos kalnu) įrengtas kairiajame Švė-tės krante, kelio Žagarė-Naujoji Akmenė kairėje pusėje, šiaurės rytų-pietvakarių kryptimi besidrie­ kiančioje aukščiausioje ozo dalyje. Pietrytinio šlai­ to, besileidžiančio į Švėtės upės slėnį, aukštis siekia 18 m. Pietvakariuose piliakalnio aukštis siekia tik 1,5 m ir skiria aikštelę nuo į pietvakarius besitę­ siančio ozo dalies. Status šiaurės vakarinis šlaitas leidžiasi į šalia kelio esančią daubą. Šiaurės ry­ tuose šlaito aukštis yra apie 9 m. Šioje pusėje, 4 m žemiau pylimo, yra 3 m pločio terasa. 5 m žemiau terasos, pašlaitėje, iškastas 12 m pločio, 2 m gylio griovys, kurio išorinėje pusėje supiltas 0,4 m aukš­ čio, 3 m pločio pylimas. Piliakalnio aikštelė-tra­ pecijos formos, pailga šiaurės rytų-pietvakarių kryptimi, 3300 m 2 dydžio, su vos pastebimu 1 m aukščio ir 10 m pločio pylimu pakraščiuose. Aikš­ telės pietrytinis ir šiaurės vakarinis kraštai yra po 55 m, vakarinis-50 m, šiaurės rytinis-68 m ilgio (1-3 pav.) (Jarockis, 1998b, 66-67; Lietuvos, 2005, 212-213). Į šiaurės rytus ir pietvakarius yra 3 ha dydžio papėdės gyvenvietė (?) ir XVII a. kaimavietė (2007 m. žvalgymų metu (ŠAM, vad. E. Vasiliaus­ kas) nustatyta, kad ji tęsiasi iki Kalno g. 25 ir Pa-švėčio g. 30).

The baptism of the natives in Estonia and Latvia in the thirteenth century did not result in compulsory name change. The native population accepted the “Christian” names by the mid-sixteenth century as a result of general cultural adaption of elements of the “German” culture of socially higher classes, but this process does not directly reflect the process of acceptance of the Christian religion. The few examples of receiving a new name in the crusading period indicate the re-arrangement of political relations, which were related to creating patronage ties and godparenthood relations.

The process of conversion and Christianisation of the Eastern Baltic Region and medieval Livonia was highly violent. An initially peaceful Christian mission very soon turned into violent crusades with the city of Riga as its centre. Mounted warriors from Northern Germany would come to serve a year of penance under the command of the bishop of Riga. Early in the thirteenth century a permanent military force was established with the founding of a new military order, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. Crusades were launched to force pagan tribes between the rivers Dvina and Aa to convert to Christianity. From 1208 the crusades targeted Estonia.
This article discusses the strategic use of violence during the Christianisation of Livonia and Estonia, by crusading armies and their local auxiliary armies of converted Livs and Letts. Obviously, war is a bloody and violent affair by nature, but the article argues that the crusades to the Baltic were special in this respect.
The article discusses the specific raiding warfare deployed in the Baltic during the crusades with a focus on the level of violence and the systemic character of the violence wrought upon the local population. The warfare involved massacres to bring about the submission of the pagan tribes. In this sense, the applied warfare was terroristic. The massacres were indiscriminately yet strategically deployed.
The article discusses further how this violence was encompassed by Christian rituals to alleviate the perpetrators of sin and guilt. It is argued that rituals were not only focused on the perpetrators but also on the victims, who were forcedly baptised. By this ritual, the Baltic tribes not only formally accepted a new faith. The baptism also signalled an adherence to a new kind of Christian rulership. In this sense, the Christian sacrament of Baptism was brought in close relationship with carnage and downright murder.

In this article I focus on one particular aspect in the lives and writings of two of the most important female saints of the fourteenth century: the crusade thinking of Birgitta of Sweden (1303-1373) and Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). I first set the scene by looking at the climate in which each woman thought about crusading, their “crusading moments.” They supported two quite different types of crusades, Birgitta in Sweden in the 1340s was concerned with the Baltic crusades of King Magnus IV (r. 1316-1364) against Christian Orthodox Novgorod in 1348-1351, while Catherine urged the retaking of the Holy Land in the later 14th century after the fall of Acre in 1291. Though they were not “crusade theorists” they offered their divinely inspired advice in the form of visions (Birgitta) and letters (Catherine) to the rulers of their time. Birgitta’s extremely dramatic visions needed to be interpreted in order to provide a playbook for a crusade; by contrast, Catherine’s divinely inspired crusade letters to popes, kings, dukes, king Joanna of Naples, even the mercenary John Hawkwood were precise in their exhortations what needed to be done to retake the Holy Land. I analyze how in each letter Catherine uses a different approach, different lines of argumentation in order to urge the recipients to support the Holy Passage. Neither saint succeeded: King Magnus’ campaigns against Novgorod ultimately failed, and the Holy Land remained in the hands of Muslim rulers. And both saints’ interest shifted away from the crusade: Birgitta had no further crusading visions after her permanent departure for Rome in 1349, and Catherine turned her attention to the crisis of the Great Schism (1378-1417) that she tried in vain to prevent.

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Cancelled due to Covid-19. Rescheduled to 2022. Part of session entitled, The Northern and Iberian Crusades: Visual Propaganda in the Borderlands. Two other presenters in this session were: Kersti Markus, School of Humanities, Tallinn University  and Eileen McKiernan González, Department of Art & Art History, Berea College, Kentucky.

By the early thirteenth century, the word 'crucesignatus' (‘[person] signed with the cross’) was well on its way to becoming the standard Latin term for a crusader. In the nascent Christian territories settled by German-speaking merchants and missionaries in Livonia and Estonia, however, the idea of the crusader as a 'peregrinus' (‘pilgrim’) continued to hold sway. Using Henry of Livonia’s Chronicon Livoniae, the anonymous Middle High German Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, and numerous contemporary letters and documents, this paper analyses the preeminence of pilgrimage terminology in this region of anti-pagan crusading warfare. The highly artificial ideological framework of Livonia as the Virgin Mary’s special territory, the presence of a unique local military order, the Sword Brethren, the influence of spoken German, and bitter political disputes between the Livonian Church and Denmark in the 1220s all elucidate how and why the vocabulary of pilgrimage eclipsed that of the cross in accounts of the early Baltic crusades.

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; ther 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 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.