History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 200 and Episode 260 the Baltic Crusades, the Samagetian Crusade

Setting the scene.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the Civil War between the Livonian chapter of the Teutonic Order and

the citizens of Riga continue. We saw the new Archbishop of Riga, Archbishop

Friedrich, take the side of the Regans in the conflict, writing a stinging letter to Rome pointing out all the terrible

wrongs perpetrated by the Teutonic Order. Archbishop Friedrich travelled to Avignon to follow up on the issues he raised in his letter

but was informed by Pope Clement the Fifth

that he would need to wait a couple of years before the matter could be heard.

Now we've spent the past few episodes on the situation in Livonia and now the timeline sits around the year

1309. But you might ask what has been happening in Prussia at this time?

Well, all has been pretty much quiet on the Prussian front.

We saw back in episode 255 that following the defeat of the fifth

Prussian insurrection in 1295 peace came to Prussia,

and with peace came a flood of new immigrants,

mostly from the Holy Roman Empire.

Now, these newcomers brought new farming techniques with them

meaning that the lands the immigrants farmed tended to be more productive

than the land farmed in the traditional manner by the native

Prussians.

Higher productivity of course equals greater profits and we saw in episode 255 that clear divisions

...