Paelbio slavų ir vakarų baltų užkariavimų modelis baltų genčių christianizacijos požiūriu

In the article there is the comparison of the pattern of the conquest of the Polabian tribes (including Polish Pomeranian areas) to that one of the Western Baltic tribes. Chronologically the conquest of the Polabian Slavic lands began already during the period of the first dynasty of Otton-Liudolfings (the first half of the 10th century), but the occupation itself, however, was over only in the middle of the 12th century. The lands of the Polabian Slavs were the target of occupation not only for the Saxons, but for Denmark and Poland as well (11th-12th centuries). Poland targeted all its energy towards the conquest of the Polish Pomeranian areas meanwhile Denmark, especially from the beginning of the 11th century, was trying to take hold of the Southern Seaside of the Baltic Sea. All these conquests had several important characteristics in common: 1) the establishment of the institutions of church and their incorporation into the church layers of the conquerors; 2) the implementation of the fiscal policy in the conquered lands; 3) the demand for the conquered tribes to observe the norms of Christian life, not separating this from the obedience to the conquerors. However, the nobility of the Polabian tribes (including Polish Pomeranian tribes) were yet granted some social, and what is most important, some political rights. It is true that historians are still arguing about what kind of structures they were and if there were any of them at all before the conquest began. One way or the other, it is evident, that the top of the nobility of the Polabian Slavs were granted certain political rights. These rights were determined by their vassal dependence on the Saxon earls, Polish dukes and Danish kings. However this right enabled separate ruling dynasties, which were entrusted the right of the fiscal policy, to be formed. Thus Pomeranian Dukes and the local Dukes of the Polabian Slavs became "their own" rulers towards their subordinates, if they had received the right of the Patronage in Church, became the donators of the monasteries. In this case, the political elite, while collaborating with the conquerors, were able to guarantee their minimal political and social rights. In the relationship to the Baltic tribes we can observe similar but yet different processes). Till the 12th century the Western Baltic tribes used to be the expansion target of the Polish Dukes and most often Danish kings. From the end of the 12th century the German elite of the Saxony and Polabian areas began to interfere between them. Since the foundation of the local military Orders of Knights didn’t yield good results, the Polish Dukes, related to the political elite of Saxony and Brandenburg, invited the German Order to come. The German Order took over the pattern of the conquest of the Polabian Slavic tribes (similarly to Saxons the German Order began to build the systems of castles in the conquered territories etc.). But at this point a distinct difference from the conquest of the Polabian Slavs appears. The nobility of the Western Baltic tribes (Prussian, Curonian, Semgallian and finally Ugric Livonian tribes in Livonia), contrary to the nobility of the Polabian tribes, were not granted any political rights. The establishment of the Church structures and the fiscal policy were kept in the hands of the German Order. The German Order enforced their laws on them as well. Thus, neither local political elite nor local dynasties were formed there. The local elite could expect just certain social concessions, which were limited after each uprising. In Prussia (as in Livonia) the German Order related the obedience to the adaptation of the norms of the Christian life to the local conditions. Loyal to the Order were considered only those, who not only observed the norms of the Christian life, as it had been agreed on in the Castle of Christburg and later put in the shape of certain laws, but those, who will loyally serve their conquerors and perform their duties. Of course, the military service to the conquerors could be performed only by the local elite, but it was forbidden to seek for the higher posts. Thus, the German/Livonian Order were executing the political and the social coercion in the conquered lands, meanwhile in the Polabian lands the social coercion towards their subordinates was executed by the local political elite, having received from the Saxons (from Poles in Pomeranian and from the Danish in the island of Rugen) the right to manage all local matters, including the ones related to the tax policy. The nobility of the Prussians, Livonians, Semgallians and Curonians were deprived of all this. In this aspect the conquest of Eastern Coast of the Baltic Sea was different from that one of Polabian Slavs and Pomeranian. In its turn the process of Christianization was influenced by that. This, by the way, is applicable to the process of Christianization of Lithuania, the efforts to prove this have already been made. However, in Lithuania there was the encounter with the state, not with the tribal society, and this aspect undoubtedly changes everything

Crusading in Livonia and Byzantine Romania Considered in a Comparative Review. Key Issues and Historiographical Notes

The article focuses on a topic that so far has not been studied in a comparative approach. The author addresses some basic problems of the comparative research, focusing on the general and the specific causes, the course, and the consequences of the crusading actions in the lands of Livonia and Estonia – in the northeast, and Romania – in the southeast. Reconsidering the already established models and theses in historical research on the Baltic campaigns, on the one hand, and the Third, the Fourth, and the Fifth Crusades, on the other, the author formulates some guidelines and approaches for a comparative study on crusading ‘on the edges’ in the late 12th – the early 13th centuries. The article analyzes several factors including the role of geographical and climatic conditions, the demographic expansion, the papal policy, the commercial maritime activity, and the role of the Knightly orders in the crusading campaigns under review. Furthermore, the author explores the political and social background of the crusading campaigns under question and the different models of interaction between the colonization stratum and the local population in Livonia and the Latin Empire in Constantinople

Dėl krikščioniškųjų misijų ir užkariavimo pobūdžio Baltijos regiono rytinėje pakrantėje XII amžiaus antroje pusėje – XIII amžiaus pirmoje pusėje

Istoriografijoje pastaruoju metu vis daugiau dėmesio yra skiriama krikščioniškųjų misijų ir kryžiaus karų santykių problematikai. Antai, danų tyrinėtojas Carstenas S. Jensenas nesenai iškėlė mintį, jog karines prievartines misijas vykdė jau pirmasis lybių vyskupas Meinhardas, nors tradicinė istoriografija taip lig šiol nemanė. Tačiau lenkų medievistas Marianas Dygo tuo suabejojo, pagrįstai teigdamas, kad prievartinėmis misijomis Meinhardas galėjo pasinaudoti, tačiau to nepadarė. Kryžiaus karai Baltijos regione tampa ne tik enciklopedinių straipsnių objektais, bet ir perkopia didžiųjų žygių į Palestiną šešėlį ir tampa Baltijos regiono europeizacijos sudedamąja dalimi. Kita vertus, kryžiaus karai Baltijos regione, kaip ir rekonkista Pirėnų pusiasalyje, suteikia tam tikro specifinio kolorito, ypač šiuos regionus lyginant tarpusavyje. Nors jau seniai konstatuota, kad kryžiaus žygiai buvo organizuojami ne tik į Palestiną ir ne tik dėl Viešpaties kapo, Baltijos regionas pristatomas kaip Vokiečių ordino kovų su pagonimis veiklos sfera. Tiesa, ši sfera istoriografijoje yra narstoma įvairiais aspektais, o tai rodo daugiabriaunį viso kryžiaus karų proceso Baltijos regione karkasą, palengva pripildomą tyrimo medžiagos

The Teutonic Order and the Baltic Crusades

When people think of Crusades, they often think of the wars in the Holy Lands rather than regions inside of Europe, which many believe to have already been Christian. The Baltic Crusades began during the Second Crusade (1147-1149) but continued well into the fifteenth century. Unlike the crusades in the Holy Lands which were initiated to retake holy cities and pilgrimage sites, the Baltic crusades were implemented by the German archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg to combat pagan tribes in the Baltic region which included Estonia, Prussia, Lithuania, and Latvia. The Teutonic Order, which arrived in the Baltic region in 1226, was successful in their smaller initial campaigns to combat raiders, as well as in their later crusades to conquer and convert pagan tribes. As an Order that focused on Eastern Europe and the Baltic, the Teutonic Order had to balance their relationship between both the papacy and other Christian kingdoms near the region, particularly the Holy Roman Empire. The Teutonic Order successfully balanced the support of the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy, to become a powerful theocratic state carrying out a mission of conquest and conversion in the Baltic region. Eventually the Teutonic Order, despite its success through the Baltic crusades, would eventually fail in the sixteenth century against a coalition of Mongol, Russian, and Turkish forces

In subsidium: the declining contribution of Germany and Eastern Europe to the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1221-91

"Though for a short time the Lord had forsaken it [the Holy Land], with great mercy he gathered together his children and restored the whole land's people from men of different races and diverse languages and nations, so that therein the prophecy seemed to be fulfilled: 'Thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed by thy side'. [As] he observed and drew [them] together, his heart wondered and he was glad when [many] had been directed to him across the great sea, especially those of Genoa, Venice and Pisa. The strength of the nations came to him, especially from France and Germany.

L'art de convaincre : la christianisation de la Livonie et de l'Estonie au sein des croisades baltiques aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles

La présente recherche aborde la christianisation et l’intégration culturelle de la Livonie et de l’Estonie au sein du mouvement des croisades baltiques aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles. Plus précisément, le but de ce projet est de comprendre si la conversion de la Livonie médiévale entre 1180 et 1226 fut seulement issue de la violence des croisés, comme le laisse supposer une grande partie de l’historiographie actuelle, ou bien si elle ne fut pas plutôt le résultat à la fois de la force des armes et des stratégies plus pacifiques employées par les missionnaires. Pour répondre à cette question, une analyse approfondie du Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae ainsi que de la Livländische Reimchronik s’avère nécessaire. Par la démonstration du caractère indissociable des branches religieuses et militaires ayant oeuvré en territoire baltique, il sera démontré que les hommes d’Église ainsi que les hommes d’armes collaborèrent la majeure partie du temps lors de cette entreprise. Que cela soit pour évangéliser la population ou bien sacraliser le sol, tant les ordres militaires, les croisés que les missionnaires et les évêques reposaient les uns sur les autres pour pouvoir parachever leur mission : la christianisation de ce territoire jugé hostile et de sa population. Sans les militaires, l’Église n’aurait su se faire entendre des Livoniens, et sans les religieux, les soldats n’auraient pu avoir d’emprise durable sur le sol ni intégrer ce dernier à la chrétienté occidentale

Ideology and Holy Landscape in the Baltic Crusades

This book examines how the military orders and the ideology of crusading gave rise to a new sacred landscape in the medieval Baltic region, an outpost of Latin Christianity. Drawing on a wide variety of sources and international scholarship, the book discusses the paganism of the landscape in written sources pre-dating the crusades, in addition to the narrative, legal, and visual evidence of the crusade period. It draws out the key sacralizing elements as expressed in those sources, which structure the definition of sacred landscape, particularly martyrdom, the manifestation of the sacred, and use of relics in battle. By analyzing these aspects with Geographical Information Systems (GIS), a map of the Baltic campaigns emerges that provides a fresh approach to studying contemporary views of holy war in a region with no initial links to the loca sancta of Jerusalem or Europe