History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 260 and Episode 275 the Baltic Crusades, the Samagetian Crusade

the Samagetian Crusade Part 8 Grand Duke Algirdis of Lithuania.

Hello again.

Last week we brought the narrative in Livonia up to the year 1346 with the end of the great Estonian insurrection,

which was effectively concluded with the purchase of Estonia from the Danish crown by the Teutonic Order.

We last left the Samagitzian Crusade early in the year 1342. Nearly a decade into the reign of the new king of Poland,

Kazimir the third, also known as Kazimir the Great, with the death of the Lithuanian ruler,

Gediminas.

So we have around four years of narrative to cover,

to bring the Samajitian crusade to the same point in the timeline as the Livonian

Crusade. Now we are fortunate at this moment in the Baltic Crusades to have two of history's great nation builders

walking the stage. We have already met King Kazimir of Poland and we encountered our Gertis of Lithuania in our last episode.

Our Gertis is about to cause all sorts of headaches for the Prussian chapter of the Teutonic Order.

So let's zoom down and take a closer look at him. Now like King Kazimir of Poland, Algirdus of Lithuania will enjoy a long

and fruitful period of rule and will expand his territory to cover an extensive

region of land probably not even dreamed about in the minds of

Gediminas or Vytenas before him. But unlike Kazimier, Algertis wasn't set to take over the

reins of power upon the death of his father Gediminas. As we discussed in last week's episode,

when Gediminas died, his seven heirs were left to rule a divided Lithuania.

Now, Gediminas himself decreed which of his seven heirs, consisting of his six sons and his brother would rule over which region.

Now we all know that Gediminas was a fair-minded, reasonable sort of a person who had done his best to extend the hand of

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