Hello and welcome to a history of Europe key battles, the Battle of Lake Papers, Part 3 of 5.

In the last episode, I talked about the foundation and early history of a religious order called the Teutonic Knights.

Originally formed as part of the Crusader movement in the Middle East,

in 1223 they accepted an invitation from the Duke of Mesovia in eastern Poland to invade

neighbouring Prussia. The Teutonic Knights were actively supported by the popes in their

efforts to convert the last remaining pagans in Europe to Christianity.

After several decades, the Church failing to achieve this by peaceful means with the use of missionaries,

Pope Innocent III decided on the use of force.

The same types of indulgencies as those received by Crusaders fighting Muslims in the Middle East

were given to those who fought heretics or pagans in Europe.

The last significant block of land in Europe where the natives held on to their traditional pagan beliefs was the East Baltic,

specifically the region along the Baltic coast of Poland and the area of the modern-day Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

The Teutonic Knights and the Duke of Mazavia were by no means the only foreign parties involved in the region.

The East Baltics were being pressed from all sides.

The kings of Denmark, at the time a great naval

power, had ambitious plans to control the whole of the Baltic. The orders of Sweden were busy

extending their influence into neighbouring Finland. The northern German princes of Saxony and

Holstein sought to expand eastwards, and the princes of the western frontier

of Kievan Rus, most notably the city of Novgorod also had interests in the Baltic.

The native pagans' prime regard was as much as possible to retain their independence, and to this

end they played off one great power against another, sometimes very skillfully.

The second goal was to use the great powers to destroy or damage traditional rivals.

...