History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 296, the Baltic Crusades, the Lithuanian Conflict Part 1, the Gotland War. Hello again.

Last week we concluded our episodes on the Livonian Crusade, showing how dysfunction and conflict inside Livonia prevented the Teutonic Order from gaining

the upper hand in the region and prevented the Livonian Chapter of the order from contributing in any significant way to the recent

crusades to Lithuania and Samagetia.

So now, effectively, we have reached the end of both the Samagetsian crusade and the

Livonian crusade and the Teutonic order is currently sitting back in a comfy chair beside its fireside, pouring itself an ale, and congratulating itself on having conquered the Baltic region.

Yet here we are beginning a new series in our episodes on the Baltic Crusades.

So if you think that the confidence of the Tutonic Order is misplaced and that

it shouldn't get too comfortable in its chair by the fireside, you would be right.

Before we get started on the series of conflicts between King

Yagyla of Poland, Grand Duke V. Tortoise of Lithuania, and the Teutonic Order, though, we are going

to sidetrack ourselves into a nice little war that's about to kick off on the island of Gotland. Remember Gotland?

For many years it was a vital staging post for the Baltic Crusades with Crus Crusaders heading to Livonia by departing from Lubeck,

sailing to Gotland for supplies, then heading on to Riga.

By the middle of the 13th century though the popularity of Gotland as a stopover point on the journey

to Riga was beginning to wane as ports along the Baltic coastline increased in importance and as the

merchants operating out of Gotland found they could sell their wares more

easily in these new towns which would

eventually form part of the Hansiatic League. The final curtain for Gotland as a

trading port and Crusader stopping point came in the year 1361 when the Danish

King Valdemar the fourth attacked the island and pretty much destroyed its main town, the town of Bisbee.

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