Baltic Crusades Research Articles

Medieval Sonic Violence on the Baltic Frontier

This article explores the sounds of cultural encounter and colonial violence dramatically rendered in the 13th-century Chronicle of Henry of Livonia during the Baltic Crusades. In his chronicle, Henry claims to provide an eyewitness account of the sonic weapons the Germans deployed in their colonial project to dominate the Baltic landscape and its inhabitants: priests proselytized and preached sermons, dramatic performances instructed new converts in Christian stories, and soldiers and clerics played musical instruments and rang bells to Christianize soundscapes and terrify the pagans. Here, these episodes are recognized as a previously overlooked aspect of medieval Christian expansion and warfare: sonic violence. In part, this article intervenes against the persistent assumption that sonic violence is a distinctly modern phenomenon, aided by modern technologies and ideologies. Henry’s chronicle reveals a medieval man’s belief that sound could tangibly dominate others and his comfort in wielding that power against the Indigenous pagans. To show this, the examples of instrumental music in the chronicle are read alongside violent speech, drama, and silence. In his representation of these elements, Henry understands sound to be capable of enacting behavioral change and cultural domination over his enemies and of constructing a self-image of Christian authority. Ultimately, this article argues that Henry crafts an acoustic environment in which the German crusaders intentionally deployed unfamiliar musical instruments and aggressively dramatic missionary tactics against Indigenous peoples whose exotic, pagan sounds they countered with violent projections of their own sonic otherness.

The Lost Kingdom of St. Vladimir: Crusading Mentality, Medieval Memory, and the Russia-Ukraine War

Abstract: Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has reawakened interest in the long-running historical, political, and cultural sources of the conflict, and produced a vast discourse from Russian, Ukrainian, Western, and other regional, national, and international actors. While such analyses often focus on Vladimir Putin’s perceived desire to rebuild the Soviet Union as it existed from 1922 to 1991, this article argues that his chief motivations, and the ultimate sources of his rhetoric, are drawn from much deeper medieval roots. It explores the premodern ancestries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, Prince Vladimir the Great’s conversion to Orthodox Christianity in circa 988, and Russia’s deeply complicated relationship with the medieval crusades, especially in regard to the thirteenth-century Baltic expeditions and the heroic depiction of Prince Aleksandr Nevsky (1221–63) as a crusading defender against aggressive Western invaders. By demonstrating how the conflict between Russia and the West has long been perceived or cast in metaphors, rhetoric, and symbolism with explicit crusading origins, from the Baltic crusades to the Crimean War (1853–56) to the present-day struggle, the article offers a comparative perspective on medieval and modern historiography, illuminates the medieval origins of an ongoing modern global and geopolitical issue, and urges scholars to consider more complex frames of reference for both this war and the memory and usage of the crusades more generally.

Anu Mänd and Marek Tamm. Making Livonia: Actors and Networks in the Medieval and Early Modern Baltic Sea Region

Anu Mänd and Marek Tamm. <i>Making Livonia: Actors and Networks in the Medieval and Early Modern Baltic Sea Region</i>

Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia

<i>Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia</i>

Bird exploitation in Viljandi (Estonia) from the Late Iron Age to the early modern period (c. 950–1700)

This paper examines archaeological bird bones from Viljandi – one of the strongest centres in prehistoric and medieval Estonia – and covers material from the Late Iron Age to Early Modern Period, c. 950–1700. Over 5000 bird bones were analysed in this study. Our main aim was to explore the role of birds in people's diet and its relevance to social status, but also to explore the birds' habitats and environmental background, including commensalism and seasonal occurrence. This study highlighted differences between the four areas of Viljandi – the prehistoric rural settlement, historic castle, town, and suburb. We discuss diachronic trends in the utilisation of birds in these areas, largely determined by the 13th century Baltic Crusades and the transition from the Prehistoric to the Middle Ages, but also by population expansion and the social divergence that followed. In Prehistory, we witnessed more chicken exploitation, while wild birds seem to have played a smaller role. In the Historic Period, on the contrary, the utilised species are more diverse – probably to manifest social status. The main use of birds was for meat, eggs, and other products. Some species might have been used for hawking.

Gathering and using information at the fifteenth-century Church councils: the example of crusade

ABSTRACTThe discussion of crusade at the councils of Constance (1414–18) and Basel (1431–49) is used to test the hypothesis that in the fifteenth century increasing importance was attached to the gathering of information. At Constance the chief crusading topic was the past and future of the Baltic crusade; at Basel attention was given to the negotiation of peace with the Hussites and union with the Orthodox Greeks. The paper considers the origin and character of the information that reached the councils; how it was used in the discourse at Constance and Basel; and it then assesses the effect of information on collective decision-making at the councils. While it is only possible to see information exerting an impact in the case of peace with the Hussites, the overall value placed on it by the conciliar delegates was high, corroborating recent arguments that the fifteenth century was an ‘information age’.

What Type of Cavalry Did Lithuanians Use to Counter the Crusaders in the 13th Century?

This article is dedicated to investigating the problems regarding the existence of Lithuanian cavalry in the 13th century as well as the identification of its type and its ability to counter the heavy cavalry of the West. Firstly, we analyze the validity of different opinions about the date when Lithuanians began to fight on horseback that are revealed in our historiography – that this had happened on the junction of the 13th and 14th centuries, on the second half of the 13th century, or long before the beginning of the Baltic crusade. We come to a conclusion that there is enough evidence to support the third opinion, oriented at pre-crusader times. Furthermore, we agree with the idea, soundly based in the description of the source, that these forces were light cavalry. In the second part of our article, we address attention to the peculiarity of the tactics employed by the previously mention cavalry forces: even being able to fight on horseback, these units would get out of their saddles and because of that were often mistaken for infantry. Even more, they would intentionally seek out areas unfavorable for cavalry forces (forests, for example), fighting on foot in these environments, because in those places the enemy was not capable of using anything to their advantage: big war horses, better armor, a close battle order, or lances. The article suggests that this battle method lets us determine, with more precision, the type of Lithuanian light cavalry, equating it to the better-known Irish hobelars who had served in England’s army. In the Teutonic Order’s state in Prussia, the equivalent of hobelars were the native “free” Prussians. Both these types of units rode small horses, fought equally well on horseback as well as on foot, and used javelins. In the last part, we argue on the possibilities of such light cavalry overcoming its heavier counterparts. According to the author of this paper, such possibilities would arise only occasionally – when knights were trapped in swamps in the forests or did some sort of tactical mistake. Eliminating this backwardness, the Lithua­nian state had begun using heavy cavalry forces by the early 15th century.

The Baltic Crusades and ecological transformation: The zooarchaeology of conquest and cultural change in the Eastern Baltic in the second millennium AD

From the end of the 12th century, crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the indigenous pagan societies in the Eastern Baltic region. Native territories were reorganised as new Christian states (Livonia and Prussia) largely run by a militarised theocracy, dominated by the Teutonic Order. The new regime constructed castles, encouraged colonists, developed towns and introduced Christianity, incorporating the conquered territories into Latin Europe. At the same time, the theocracy sought to maximise the exploitation of natural resources to sustain its political and military assets, as well as provision its subjects. Arguably the most important resource was represented by animals, which were exploited for a range of primary and secondary products. Excavations across the eastern Baltic have uncovered tens of thousands of faunal remains from archaeological contexts on either side of the crusading period. Traditionally studied in isolation, the zooarchaeological data is here for the first time compared across the conquered territories, supported with isotopic analyses and integrated with other paleoenvironmental and historical sources, revealing how the new regime appropriated and intensified existing livestock husbandry practices, whilst accentuating earlier trends in declining biodiversity. At the same time, agricultural changes led to improved feeding regimes, resulting in noticeable changes in the size of stock in some regions.

The Prehistory of the Crusades: Missionary War and the Baltic Crusades. By Burnam W. Reynolds . London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. xii + 271 pp. $108.00 cloth; $29.95 paper; $21.99 e-book.

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The Prehistory of the Crusades. Missionary War and the Baltic Crusades, written by Burnam W. Reynolds

The Prehistory of the Crusades. Missionary War and the Baltic Crusades, written by Burnam W. Reynolds

The Lives of Hostages and their Influence on the Conversion and Acculturation of Livonia and Prussia during the Baltic Crusades in the 13th Century

Chronicles of the 13th-century Crusades in Livonia and Prussia are full of descriptions of the Catholic conquerors demanding hostages from local elites, but the fate of these hostages and the influence they may have had on the processes of religious conversion and societal change in the East Baltic has attracted little attention. This paper explores the lives of Livonian and Prussian hostages, and argues that they may have functioned as vessels of acculturation, who furthered the Christianisation and ‘Europeanisation’ of their homelands, and cemented new power relations and world-views. Key words: hostages, Medieval history, Baltic history, Crusades, Northern Crusades, Christianisation, Europeanisation, intercultural relations.

Livonia, Rus' and the Baltic Crusades in the thirteenth century

Livonia, Rus' and the Baltic Crusades in the thirteenth century

Franks and Saracens

Avner Falk’s Franks and Saracens: Reality and Fantasy in the Crusades ispresented in the opening pages as the first psychoanalytic study of the Crusades.The book is written for both a general readership and an academic audience.The fact that it was published by Karnac Books, one of the premierepublishers of psychoanalytic theory and practice, leads one to think that thepsychoanalytic community is a particularly important audience. The book’sopening chapter, “Us and Them,” introduces psychoanalysis as a theoreticalsource for helping us to think about cultural identity and conflict, particularly“us vs. them” identity conflicts. Following this general foregrounding of theCrusades and psychoanalytic theory, the author turns to how the Crusaders,namely, the “Franks,” created a larger fantasy that drove their violent engagementwith Muslims, one that was tied to a political effort to build a collectiveEuropean identity.Rather surprisingly, the term fantasy is never defined thoroughly, althoughthe author’s central claim is that the Crusades functioned as a way to develop a unified cultural identity for Europe, a project that was itself tied toa fantasy. This project of building a singular Frankish identity, and whatwould eventually come to be a European identity, is the focus of the second,third, and fourth chapters. In them, Falk pays particular attention to the evolutionof the term Saracen, which the Europeans invoked to refer to all ofthe different kinds of Muslims they encountered during the various crusades.The term was initially deployed to specify all Muslims, but by the Third Crusadeit began to connote Eastern European and Baltic Christians as well.Saracens would later be applied to Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians duringthe Baltic crusades, which lasted for four centuries. This word eventuallycame to designate anyone who was not European and Christian, and evenChristians like the Basques who had fought the Franks (p. 132).The etymology of this term, which means “empty of Sarah,” emphasizeshow Hagar is recognized as Ishmael’s mother in the Islamic tradition in distinctionto Christianity. The primary motivation for deploying Saracen wasmeant to resolve this outer collective state project of a unified Europe, as wellas to resolve a far more abstract psychological identity conflict that was feltacross Crusader culture. As Falk states: ...

Ane Bysted / Carsten Selch Jensen / Jensen et al. (Eds.), Jerusalem in the North. Denmark and the Baltic Crusades, 1100–1522. (Outremer. Studies in the Crusades and the Latin East, Vol. 1.) Turnhout, Brepols Publishers 2012

Article Ane Bysted / Carsten Selch Jensen / Jensen et al. (Eds.), Jerusalem in the North. Denmark and the Baltic Crusades, 1100–1522. (Outremer. Studies in the Crusades and the Latin East, Vol. 1.) Turnhout, Brepols Publishers 2012 was published on February 5, 2015 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 300, issue 1).

Pagans, Saints, and War Criminals: Direct Speech as a Sign of Liminal Interchanges in Latin Chronicles of the Baltic Crusades

In the later Middle Ages, the crusades where most European knights fought were initiated first by the Sword Brothers and then the Teutonic Knights in the lands east and south of the Baltic Sea - Livonia, Prussia, and Lithuania (modern day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, western Russia, Kaliningrad Oblast, and Poland). This article deals with a hitherto unexplored way in which three Latin chronicles produced for the Sword Brethern and the Teutonic Order use direct speech mostly for communication by or to three groups: pagans or recent converts, supernatural beings, and those who commit crimes. As in other frontier areas, here infidel and Christian, the pious and the transgressor, heavenly voices and demons battled but also communicated. The unusual nature of their exchanges is perhaps indicated through the frequent use of direct speech as a signifier of liminal interactions in the chronicles of Peter of Dusburg, Wigand of Marburg, and Henry of Livonia.

The Debate on the Baltic Crusades and the Making of Europe

AbstractThe Baltic Crusades represent a long‐term phenomenon that lasted for about 300 years (1147–1525). The nature of these crusades has been controversial from the very beginning, as they aimed at conquering new land, expanding and consolidating the borders of Christendom, as well as at converting the local pagan population. Along with the ethical issues that are linked to conversion by means of crusading, the debate on the Baltic Crusades has also been heavily influenced by the political situation in the Baltic region and the making of Europe in the 20th century, from German domination and the rise of National Socialism, to the Cold War and finally the independence of the Baltic republics. Two historiographical approaches are mainly addressed in this essay: on the one hand, some works have focused on the religious aspects of mission, conversion and crusading, taking into account the role of the papacy, preaching and ecclesiastical institutions; on the other hand, historians have been interested in conversion and crusading in the Baltic region as means of economic, social and political expansion that contributed to the formation of political unity in Europe during the High Middle Ages, foreshadowing to some extent the well‐known events of the 20th century.

Jerusalem in the North: Denmark and the Baltic Crusades, 1100–1522 by Ane L. Bysted et al (review)

Jerusalem in the North: Denmark and the Baltic Crusades, 1100–1522 by Ane L. Bysted et al (review)

Piracy or Policy? Lübeck’s 1249 Attack on Copenhagen

This article examines a so-called ‘pirate attack’ on the Danish city of Copenhagen in 1249 by the German Hanse town of Lübeck. The attack was part of a larger conflict between Denmark and Lübeck, partially resulting from the political and economic turmoil surrounding the Baltic Crusades. It was also partially the result of political turmoil occurring within Denmark, specifically the dynastic struggles of the sons of Valdemar II (Erik IV, Abel, and Christopher I), with Lübeck taking the part of Abel during this struggle. The attack also became tangled up in a conflict between king and Church in Denmark, which the citizens of Lübeck used to their advantage. Not only did the Danish king fail to support the Bishop of Roskilde, Jakob Erlandsen (later Archbishop of Lund), in his demand for restitution for this attack on his city, he also granted expanded trading privileges to the citizens of Lübeck.

Detecting the environmental impact of the Baltic Crusades on a late-medieval (13th–15th century) frontier landscape: palynological analysis from Malbork Castle and hinterland, Northern Poland

Palaeoecological analysis of peat deposits from a small bog, combined with pollen analysis of sediments infilling the moat of the nearby Teutonic Order castle at Malbork, have been used to examine the ecological impact of the Crusades on the late-medieval landscape of Northern Poland. Studies of the environmental impact of the Crusades have been almost exclusively informed by written sources; this study is the first of its type to directly investigate the environmental context of Crusading as a force of ecological transformation on the late-medieval Baltic landscape. The pollen evidence from Malbork Castle and its hinterland demonstrate that the 12th/13th–15th centuries coincide with a marked transformation in vegetation and land-use, characterized by clearance of broadleaved woodland and subsequent agricultural intensification, particularly during the 14th/15th centuries. These changes are ascribed to landscape transformations associated with the Teutonic Order’s control of the landscape from the mid-13th century. Human activity identified in the pollen record prior to this is argued to reflect the activities of Pomeranian settlers in the area. This paper also discusses the broader palaeoecological evidence for medieval landscape change across Northern Poland.

IBEN FONNESBERG-SCHMIDT. The Popes and the Baltic Crusades 1147-1254. (The Northern World, number 26.) Boston: Brill. 2007. Pp. xvi, 287. $134.00

The crusade is a powerful metaphor in our times, often applied by agents of high-profile causes to justify their use of violence by claiming that there are such things as “just” wars. The problem is that any propaganda department of any belligerent party could tell you the same thing. It may be precisely this moral ambiguity that has drawn much scholarly attention to the original medieval crusades in recent years, whereby light has been shed also on the lesser-known Northerncrusades, directed against pagan peoples on the Baltic Rim in the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. The latter began to be seriously studied in their broader European context only in the 1970s. The most recent contribution to the field is Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt's study of papal policy vis-à-vis the Baltic crusades from Eugene III to Innocent IV: in other words, from the mid-twelfth to the mid-thirteenth century. In its most general guise, the book addresses the widespread misunderstanding that the faculties of the Catholic Church were always the same wherever they appeared. Hence the Northern crusades have tended to be regarded as rather formal procedures that found their final form with Pope Eugene's proclamation of the Second Crusade in 1147. Fonnesberg-Schmidt demonstrates that this was not so.