History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 281, the Baltic Crusades, the Levonian Crusade Part 51, border raids.

Hello again. border raids.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the Crusaders

score a massive victory against the pagans

when they managed to besiege then destroy the castle at Conus.

However, as so often seemed to be the case, the Teutonic order was unable to follow up on its victory by striking into the Lithuanian heartland.

Firstly, the lack of Crusaders was a problem, then the plague hit Lithuania with full force,

causing the Latin Christians to switch their focus away from Lithuania to neighbouring Samagetsia. Now as we mentioned in last

week's episode we are finally able to turn the crusading spotlight back on Livonia at this time. We last left Livonia way back in episode 274,

where we discussed the closing stages of the great Estonian insurrection.

Since the ending of the insurrection, the Teutonic order in Lavonia has been concentrating on matters close to home, bringing its new

possession Estonia under its wing and setting up administrative centers across the region.

Whereas Prussia had seen a drop in the number of Crusaders traveling to its shores,

due mainly to the plague and the resumption of the 100 Years War, hardly any crusaders

made the much larger trek to Livonia, which was fortunate really because they weren't actually needed.

The Lithuanians and the Russians were focusing all their energies on the kingdom of Poland and Prussia, so Livonia and Estonia were just

kind of left to their own devices. That all changed however after a man called Arnold von Fittinghoff was elected master of the

Teutonic Order in Livonia in the year 1360. Master Arnold had a military background and had served as

Castellan at various castles including Marienburg, Goldigan and Reval.

It turned out to be rather fortunate that Master Arnold's skills lay in the military field rather than in diplomacy or administration

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