{"id":74,"date":"2018-03-23T11:03:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T11:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/ecologyofcrusading\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2020-05-13T16:19:39","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T15:19:39","slug":"background-holy-war-in-the-north","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/ecologyofcrusading\/background-holy-war-in-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Background: Holy War in the North"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the late 12th<\/sup> century and throughout much of the 13th<\/sup> century, crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the native societies of the eastern Baltic, defined as threatening \u2018pagans\u2019 by their Christian neighbours. The conquered territories were reorganised as Catholic polities called Livonia and Prussia, largely governed by a militarised theocracy, consisting of the Teutonic Order, bishops and their cathedral chapters. They constructed imposing fortified monasteries, encouraged migrants to settle in newly established towns and, in some regions, populate the countryside. They also imposed Latin Christianity on the conquered societies. To sustain its political and military assets, the theocracy intensified the exploitation of natural resources within its domains. At a time of deteriorating climate, their impact on the local environment, especially plants and animals, would have been profound. Since many aspects of the natural world were sacred to the native societies of the eastern Baltic, this impact would be synonymous with the cultural changes that created a new world \u2013 a European world \u2013 at this frontier of Christendom. Throughout the 14th<\/sup> century, the dominant theocratic authority, the Teutonic Order, led countless military campaigns against Lithuania, which remained defiantly independent and pagan until its Grand Duke converted to Catholicism following a political union with Poland. Knights from all over Europe participated in these campaigns and many did not return from the frontier. The Order\u2019s rule endured until the 16th<\/sup> century when its Baltic branches were secularised and became vassals of Poland and Lithuania. The eastern Baltic would remain the focus of brutal power struggles between rival states into the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

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