The Baltic crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were in principle aimed at converting infidels and establishing a new Christian plantation in the wilderness, but the contemporary narrative sources repeatedly tell of crusaders systematically chasing down pagans and annihilating them with the sword.
Holy War – Holy Wrath: Baltic Wars between regulated Warfare and Total Annihilation around 1200
September 26, 2016 by
Western Balts in the 10/11th – first half of the 13th centuries: After the Vikings and just before the Crusades
January 15, 2016 by
The questions of trans-regional contacts in the area of South-Eastern Baltic, comparative analysis of the statistical data of the Western Balts ornaments, arms, horse harness, ceramics, different tools and imported goods with some general features of burial rite, cemeteries based on social structure, contact zones and trade routes are described in the study.
Inventing Livonia: The Name and Fame of a New Christian Colony on the Medieval Baltic Frontier
December 2, 2015 by
The thirteenth century witnessed the emergence of a new region – Livonia – on the mental map of Latin Christendom.
Which Baltic God/Goddess Are You?
July 30, 2015 by
Have you ever wondered who were/are the last pagans in Europe? Baltic Gods were never forgotten. Lithuanians have so many however who from the main ones do you resemble the most – Perkūnas, Žemyna, Vėlinas, Ragutis, Milda or Laima?
Environmental Crusading: The Teutonic Knight’s Impact After the Baltic Crusades
March 12, 2015 by
Environmental archaeologist and Professor of Archeology at Reading, Dr. Aleks Pluskowski, examined Malbork and several other sites across Eastern and Northern Europe in his recent paper, The Ecology of Crusading: The Environmental Impact of Holy War, Colonisation, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic. Pluskowski is keenly interested in the impact the Teutonic Knights and Christian colonisation had on the region. His ambitious 4 year project on the ecological changes in this area recently came to a close at the end of 2014.
Disputing Identity, Territoriality, and Sovereignty: The Place of Pomerania in the Social Memory of the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Ordensstaat
October 17, 2014 by
This dissertation analyzes state-formation, the development of historical consciousness, and the construction of identities in medieval Europe.
The Sword Brothers at War: Observations on the Military Activity of the Knighthood of Christ in the Conquest of Livonia and Estonia (1203–1227)
October 5, 2014 by
The Knighthood of Christ of Livonia (Militia Christi de Livonia) was the first of the medieval military religious orders to be founded for service outside the Holy Land and Iberia, and thus the first one to be actively involved in warfare anywhere in northern Europe.
The Baltic Frontier: Why were there no Norwegian crusades in the Baltic?
August 9, 2014 by
In this paper I will focus on some of the reasons why Norwegian interests in the 12th and 13th century differed from that of the other Scandinavian and German ambitions in the Baltic region.
England’s First Attempt to Break the Commercial Monopoly of the Hanseatic League, 1377-1380
July 27, 2014 by
During the second half of the fourteenth century English traders first seriously threatened the Hanseatic League’s commercial monopoly in the Baltic. The League, attempting to defendits monopoly, treated the English unjustly,where upon in 1377 the English Parliament rescinded the charter that granted the League important concessions and privileges in its English trade.
Navegación y embarcaciones en la época vikinga: diferentes fuentes para su estudio (Shipping and navigation in the Viking Age: different sources for study)
June 4, 2014 by
This article (in Spanish) is about Viking shipping and navigation.
Estonian small towns in the Middle Ages: archaeology and the history of urban defense
June 3, 2014 by
The purpose of the current article is to summarize the material gathered from the excavations of the medieval town walls from the Estonian towns of Viljandi, Haapsalu, and Narva, to discuss when they were erected, and to analyze what their place was in Old Livonian and Baltic contexts.
Island Words, Island Worlds: The Origins and Meanings of Words for ‘Islands’ in North-West Europe
May 5, 2014 by
This paper proposes the notion that words mirror ideas, perspectives and world- views. Etymologies and meanings of general words for ‘islands’ in a number of languages in North and West Europe are then discussed.
Gesta Danorum and the Wendish Crusade
April 22, 2014 by
The Wendish Crusade from 1147 marks the beginning of ‘Holy Wars’ fought against the Balto-Slavic and Finno-Ugric populations from the Baltic See.
Why did Medieval Slave Traders go to Finland?
April 17, 2014 by
The demand for blonde girls and boys was so lucrative that slave traders would hunt for these people as far away as northern Finland, a recent study finds.
Bjarmaland and interaction in the North of Europe from the Viking Age until the Early Middle Ages
April 6, 2014 by
This article intends to look at interaction in the very north of early medi- eval Europe with Bjarmaland as a starting point. After a short introduction to sources and historiography about Bjarmaland, the main content of the sources will be shortly discussed in order to establish what kind of informa- tion the written sources have to offer.
A Comparative Analysis Of Early Medieval North-West Slavonic And West Baltic Sacred Landscapes
February 15, 2014 by
The major aim of our paper is to present a comparative analysis of early medieval north-west Slavonic and Prussian objects and places which are interpreted in a sacral context.
The politico-religious landscape of medieval Karelia
February 14, 2014 by
In historical sources the Karelians appear in the 12th century although archaeological excavations suggest that the amalgamation of groups of Baltic Finns, centered on the Karelian Isthmus, that came together from east and west respectively to form them originated in the late Iron Age and early Viking Age.
The Richest Bachelor in Late Medieval Reval
December 21, 2013 by
When Hans Bouwer had his last will and testament composed on 9 April 1519, he bequeathed approximately 7000 Rigan marks to different institutions and individuals.
Finland, Tallinn and the Hanseatic League: Foreign Trade and the Orientation of Roads in Medieval Finland
November 24, 2013 by
What was the role of Finland in the trade of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages? Thisquestion has been widely discussed in Finnish history since 1882, when J.W. Ruuth publishedhis study on the relationship between Finland and the Hanse before 1435.
How to justify a crusade? The conquest of Livonia and new crusade rhetoric in the early thirteenth century
November 24, 2013 by
This article examines an apparently simple question: how to justify a crusade that did not aim at recovering the Holy Land.
Riga Castle in Latvia damaged by fire
June 28, 2013 by
Last week’s fire at Riga Castle has left the Latvian landmark with heavy damage, including the destruction of the roof and several rooms.
Novgorod the Great in Baltic Trade before 1300
March 3, 2013 by
The information on trade contacts between Novgorod and Scandinavian countries preserved in the works of Old Norse
The Dominican Convents in Medieval Norway
January 6, 2013 by
In the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Norway was larger than it is today, where the former Norwegian districts of Jämtland and Bohus are now parts of Sweden. In 1380, the Norwegian throne was inherited by the Danish king, and for the rest of the Middle Ages, Danish monarchs ruled Norway, but even though the kings often made use of Danes in the administration, the Norwegian kingdom did in fact remain as an independent part of a so-called double monarchy.
Querimonia desolacionis terre sancte – The fall of Acre and the Holy Land in 1291 as an emotional element in the Teutonic Order tradition
December 24, 2012 by
Those Military Orders − the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights, along with other Military Orders, had shed their blood across the Latin Kingdom and suffered many casualties in the final siege which took place in Acre between March and May 1291.
Fishing with Monks – Padise Abbey and the River Vantaanjoki from 1351 to 1429
December 17, 2012 by
How did the Cistercian Abbey of Padise in Estonia first come into possession of fishing rights for salmon in the River Vantaanjoki in Finland?
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