History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 286, the Baltic, the Baltic Crusades, the Samagetian Crusade Part 18, Poland and Lithuania.

Hello again.

Last week we saw some major developments take place in the politics of the Baltic region, with Kutus's son Vitortis escaping from custody in Lithuania,

and eventually being convinced by the

by the Judonic Order to become the newly Christianized leader of Western Samagizia.

Once the Order's relationship with Yugyla broke down, the order then convinced Vitortis to make a play for the leadership of Lithuania itself.

They set Vitortis up in a castle in Samagetsia, from which he was meant to Christianize the Samagetsians, a venture which wasn't going too well.

As Vitortis accompanied his new allies, the Teutonic Knights, on pagan killing

sacred sight desecrating missions, he started having second thoughts about the choices he had made.

So when Yagila discreetly approached him with an offer for V. tortoise to switch sides and join with

you Gyla to kick the Teutonic order out of Lithuania and Samagetsia, Vitortis readily agreed.

Now, Yagila of course has a plan here.

We saw in last week's episode that the Polish throne is currently vacant and that before he died King Louis of Hungary, who had reigned as the King of Poland as well as the King of Hungary had indicated that he wished his two

surviving daughters to succeed him. King Louis eldest daughter, Mary, who was aged in her late teens, is married to young

Sigismund of Brandenburg.

So Sigismund is all set to use his wife's succession rights to place himself on the Polish throne.

We saw last week how Sigismund gathered an army and marched into Mesovia to successfully convince the last

man standing in the famous Pias dynasty, the current Duke of Mesovia, to drop his claim to the crown.

However, since that time, things haven't gone too well for Sigismund. The problem lay first in the fact that he was German and secondly

that he was second in the line of succession to become the next Holy Roman Emperor.

Did the Polish people want a German aristocrat with rock-solid ties to the Holy Roman Empire to be anywhere near the halls of power in Poland?

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