MEDIEVAL BALTIC CRUSADES (40 FIGS)

Many enthusiasts of medieval history heard about the crusades to the Holy Land, organized during the 11th-13th centuries. On the other hand, the Crusades in the Baltic Sea region and sometimes called the Northern Crusades are much less known, and sometimes not known at all. It is therefore worth mentioning that they were organized during the 12th and 13th centuries by the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, as well as by the German knights' orders: the Teutonic Order and the Order of the Knights of the Sword against Livs, Latgals, Estonians, Koronians and Zembals. They took place in what is now northern Germany and north-west Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast, the Baltic states and Finland. The official beginning of the northern crusades is considered to be the summons of Pope Celestine III from 1194 to take over the lands belonging to the pagan neighbors of the Scandinavian monarchies and the German Reich, although already in 1147 a crusade against the Polabian Slavs was organized. The end of the crusades is considered to be the end of the campaign of the Teutonic Order against the Zemls in 1289 and 1290. However, this is a fairly conventional date. It is worth adding that in the years 1219 and 1222 Konrad Mazowiecki of the Piast dynasty also organized war expeditions with the features of crusades against Prussia.