Ep. 132: The Teutonic Knights (1190-1525) - The Battle on the Ice
History of the Germans from the Middle Ages to Reunification
Dirk Hoffmann-Becking
4.9 • 551 Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2024
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we look at the activities of the Teutonic order in Livonia during the 13th century. The situation in Livonia was profoundly different to Prussia and posed a number of new challenges for the brothers. In Livonia there were the powerful bishops of Riga to contend with who had led the crusade there since its inception in the 1180s. The Hanse merchants who have settled in Riga, Reval and Dorpat are no pushovers. Like in Prussia, the Lithuanians are a formidable force able to inflict painful defeats on the brothers as are some of the Baltic peoples who didn’t enjoy conversion at swordpoint as much as the planners back in Bremen, Marburg and Acre had hoped. And let’s not forget some new neighbors, the Danes in Northern Estonia and the great republic of Novgorod.
In 1240 a great effort gets under way to forcibly convert the orthodox Rus’ian states, including Novgorod that are already under pressure from the Mongols. In their distress the boyars of Novgorod make the second son of the grand duke of Vladimir becomes their military leader, a man we know as Alexander Nevsky. On April 5, 1242 Alexander Nevsky and his men stand on the shore of Lake Peipus staring at a squadron of heavily armored cavalry thundering across the ice towards them…
Whilst the riders almost certainly weren’t accompanied by Prokofief’s amazing soundtrack, they may have brought an organ, but that, like everything else about the Battle on the Ice is subject to intense debate, a debate we will examine in this episode.
Epsiode website: Episode 132– The Battle on the Ice • History of the Germans Podcast
The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.
As always:
Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.com
If you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans Podcast
For do it yourself merchandise go to: Merchandise • History of the Germans Podcast
Facebook: @HOTGPod
Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcast
Bluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.social
Instagram: history_of_the_germans
Twitter: @germanshistory
To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.
So far I have:
Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy
Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen
The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356
The Reformation before the Reformation
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans, Episode 132, the Battle on the Ice. |
| 0:13.1 | Now, first up, a happy new year to all of you. |
| 0:15.6 | 2023 was a great time here on the history of the Germans, and I learned an awful lot about the colonization |
| 0:21.4 | of the East, about the Hanse, and about the Teutonic Knights. And I hope you enjoyed coming |
| 0:26.9 | along for the journey. Now the plan for 2024 is to, well, obviously, complete the Teutonic |
| 0:33.4 | Knights and then revert to the broad chronological story, i.e. resume where we left |
| 0:38.6 | off last January with the death of Emperor Frederick II. |
| 0:43.0 | We will go through the Interregnum, King Rudolf of Habsburg, and then spend some time with |
| 0:48.0 | one of the most glamorous and outside Czechia, sadly largely forgotten emperors, the |
| 0:53.2 | Luxembourgers, Henry the 7th, the |
| 0:55.5 | blind king John of Bohemia, Charles IV, and Sigismont to name just a few. |
| 1:02.0 | I have given up making predictions about how long that will take, given how wrong I usually |
| 1:06.7 | am. |
| 1:07.7 | But one prediction I can make, though, is that this week we will look at the activities |
| 1:12.3 | of the Teutonic Order in Livonia during the 13th century. And the situation in Livonia |
| 1:18.1 | was profoundly different to Prussia and posted a number of new challenges for the brothers. |
| 1:23.4 | In Livonia, there were the powerful bishops of Riga to contend with who had led the |
| 1:27.8 | crusade there since its inception in the 1180s. |
| 1:31.2 | The Hansa merchants who have settled in Riga, Rival and Dorpott were no pushovers either. |
| 1:36.9 | And like in Prussia, the Lithuanians are a formidable force able to inflict painful defeats |
| 1:42.3 | on the brothers, as are some of the Baltic peoples, |
| 1:46.0 | who didn't enjoy conversion at Saut Point as much as the planners back in Bremen, Marburg and Accra |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dirk Hoffmann-Becking, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dirk Hoffmann-Becking and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.