The Northern Crusades: Second Edition

While I remember being taught about the Teutonic Knights and Hanseatic League, I really knew very little about Baltic history. Eric Christiansen has done a great job in filling in the blank spaces of medieval history. My only complaint is that, at times, the author was a little too academic, but the wealth of information contained in this THE NORTHERN CRUSADES more than makes up for any minor complaints this reviewer might have. Finally, this history lays out the foundation for understanding the 20th century conflicts between East and West.

This book surveys the gripping history of the crusade that conquest the north of Europe,covers 500 years of European history, for me this is the first step into the history of the Baltic,Mr. Christiansen make a nice work explaning the complexities of medieval politics which help me understand more about this *JUST WAR against Poland,Lithuania Prussian pagans,time-travel back to the Middle Ages.

This is a essential key to understanding the events of the time and a new light on early medieval Europe, the important of the engmatic Teutonic Order which the author gave a nice chapter dedicated only the describing the Ideology and efficiency of the Armed Monks or Knight-Brothers.

Is pretty hard to conquest or convert people by the sword, even after almost 300 years of monastic rule, the old prussians were Christian only by name and also to rule a great variety of pleople from different cult or religion,the struggle to maintain power and the conquest land prove a difficult task for the knights and their Order.

The author's vast knowledge of medieval Baltic history make this a fascinating book into a little known event that change the face of the European history. After reading this book you would be thirsty for more on the Teutonic Knights check the new book by William Urban. On the legendary battle of Tannenberg 1410 which Mr. Christiansen give a nice account on the aftermath of this battle, the new book of Stephen Turnbull-Tannenberg 1410: Disaster for the Teutonic Knights deserves a high rate and is a nice companion to understand the disastrous defeat from which the Brother-Knights never recovered.

The crusades against northeastern Europe are far less known than the parallell Palestinian ones, although perhaps of far more historical importance. Between the 11th and 15th century the entire Baltic region grew from an unexplored semi-wilderness into a area of organized, settled states, a growth partly caused by the influx of Western crusaders and partly by the subsequent reaction against this.

Eric Christiansen tells the story of these important centuries without the bias towards one side or another which is typical for other works, particularly when descibing the Teutonic Knights, their conquest of Prussia and subsequent wars with Poland and the Novgorod Russiansand, and has succeeded in writing a book that is both informative and entertaining.

The Crusades are back in the news again (they were out-of-fashion for awhile), but don't believe everything you read in the newspapers or hear on tv, take time to read a few good books on the subject. Begin with JJ Norwich and Bernard Lewis to get a handle on the Crusaders and Byzantium and the Holy Land, then go onto Cathars and the 'Reconquesta' of Spain. Perhaps you will come to the conclusion that I have--the European Crusaders spent more time outside the Levant than in it, although Lewis suggests Europeans probably acquired the idea of mounting religious jihads from the Arabs who were quite good at it.

Christiansen has written an excellent and well-researched book on the NORTHERN CRUSADES. His writing is very readable and unbiased, and he has availed himself of many original documents. I particularly appreciated the material he included that covered the internal church debates on "what constitutes a 'just war'" or when can Christians fight in the name of Christ?

The perspective of some clergy during the High Middle Ages was that good reasons existed for a Crusade or a 'Just War' with the Muslims because they had seized formerly Christian lands in the Levant, North Africa, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Eastern Europe. However, these same clergy argued there was no basis for a 'Just War' with the Byzantine Greeks, the Orthodox Russians, or non-Christian pagans who wanted to become Christian without fighting. Unfortunately, clear thinking did not always prevail.

Christiansen suggests the Crusades were waged for the purpose of Christianizing the tribes who lived at the Eastern end of the Baltic Sea. In the end they were Christianized and mostly Latinized, although Russia chose the Greek Orthodox side. People who lived in what is today Lithuania, Poland, and Russia were invaded by Germans, Swedes, and Danes. Christiansen's book highlights a period when German warrior monks known as the Teutonic knights seized much of the land.

Like the Templars and other warrior-monk orders in Western Europe that formed in response to the loss of the Holy Land, the Teutonic Knights were motivated by a desire to infuse Christianity in "heathern" peoples. Christiansen says that although some individuals undoutedly grew wealthy, "the profit motive is not a convincing argument" for the behaviour of the monks. "To present these wars as false -- either as matters of interest disquised as matters of conscience, or simply as misnamed events -- is too easy. This type of judgment is itself fraudulent."

The Crusades were bloody and cruel, and as is usually the case, folks at the low end of the ladder suffered the most. But Christiansen poses a question -- were these people who led relatively "free" lives at subsistence levels better or worse off when they became Latinized, Christian serfs and/or peasants? Christiansen provides plenty of material to fuel both sides of the argument.

Apparently, the Lithuanians and Polish did not think the Germans made good masters, and in the end they prevailed in defeating the Teutonic Knights. Although the Polish and Lithuanian people Christianized, they never accepted German rule -- a fact not lost on the Nazis. This stance continued long after Germany became mostly Protestant in the 16th Century and Lithuania and Poland remained staunchly Roman Catholic.

This is undoubtedly a valuable piece of work, chronicling the history of christian and germanic expansion into the wild Baltic region of the middle ages.

However, it is not an easy read. There are long tedious passages of historical fact, detailing which Swedish or Danish King sent how many troops to which river, and if they were or were not successful. Little detail is given of the human perspective of this conflict. Christiansen relies heavily on a summarisation of chronicles to present a dry factual account of the incursions of various kings and monastic orders into the region.

If you are seeking information on what happened, you will find it if you persevere. If you are looking for an entertaining or palatable account of the northern crusades, look elsewhere. This is not it.