History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 280. Episode 289, the Baltic, the Baltic Crusades, the Samagitzian Crusade Part 21, the Crusade of Henry Bolingbroke.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the conflict between Yagila and V. tortoise kick off once again, Vittatus allying himself to the Teutonic Order to have another

crack at Austenia Gila and ruling Lithuania as a vassal of the order. The Grand Master has now voiced his opinion that

despite being Christianized, Yugyla is an enemy of the church and enemies of the church can be subject to a

crusade so Grandmaster Conrad Zona von Rothenstein sent word across Europe that a new crusade would muster and in the year

1390 this new force would head to Lithuania to oust enemy of the Church, Gila and install a friend of the Church

Vitortis as the ruler of Lithuania. Now luckily for us, one of the many warriors in Europe who decided to

volunteer for this crusade was a nobleman called Henry Bolingbroke. Why is this lucky for us? Well, because he took along

with him some English bookkeepers who kept extremely detailed and thorough accounts of every single penny spent preparing for the

Crusade and spent during the Crusade, along with meticulous notes of what each expenditure was for.

As a result, historians have been able to piece together an unusually comprehensive picture of Henry Bolingbroke's crusade.

So let's follow him on his journey from England to Lithuania in the year 1390. At the time of his departure from England on Crusade, Henry

Bolingbroke was 23 years old and had already enjoyed considerable success on the battlefield.

He was part of the House of Lancaster being the son of John of Gaunt and he would probably be surprised to learn if you

spoke to him in the year 1390 that in nine years time he will knock his cousin off the throne and have himself

installed as the King of England becoming King Henry the 4th. Young Henry Bolingbroke had successfully led a crack group of English

archers in various battles against the French during the 100 Years War and now he was determined to take his arches

to Lithuania to see how they fared on crusade. Incidentally, should you wish to know more about the

100 Years War, go sign up to our Patreon page. You will get access to a

series I recently completed on Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War and after you've

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