History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 285, the Baltic, the Baltic Crusades, the Samagitzian Crusade Part 17,

Yugyla versus Vytortis.

Hello again.

Last week we saw Yagila do a series of acrobatic manoeuvres, out leaping, outclassing and outwitting his rivals to become the sole ruler of Lithuania.

His Uncle Kestutus and his wife are now both permanently out of the picture and

Kestutus's son and Air V. Tortus is safely imprisoned.

Yugyla appears to have won the support of most of the Lithuanian people

and has negotiated a four-year-long military alliance with the Teutonic Order, one of the conditions of which had

Yogila agreeing to be baptized, and another condition was the handing over of Western Samagetsia to the Teutonic Order.

Now a bunch of events are about to happen at this point in time which are really quite astonishing and

unexpected and we'll see some seriously wacky political alliances form. Hold on to your hats people because this next bit is

complicated and so bizarre as to be nearly unbelievable. The first event which sets the stage for the

happenings which are about to take place was the death of King Louis the

Great in September of 1382. King Louis, as we all know, was a very powerful

man, being both the King of Hungary and the King of Poland.

King Louis, however, didn't have any sons,

although he had stipulated that he wanted his two surviving teenage children, both of whom were daughters to step neatly into his shoes, and there was some disquiet about this.

Then the question arose whether King Louis's successor would rule both kingdoms

or whether one daughter would take a kingdom each. So powerful players in Poland,

Hungary and further afield were all rubbing their hands together and getting ready to make their moves. The person doing most of the

hand rubbing was young Duke Sigismund of Brandenburg who had married King Louis' oldest surviving daughter Mary, and Duke

...