History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 300, how did that happen? The Baltic Crusades, the Lithuanian conflict part 5, Samagetsia erupts.

Hello again.

Last week we saw relations between the Teutonic Order and Grand Duke V. Tortoise of Lithuania deteriorate following the failure of V. tortoise to take Moscow

and the subsequent imprisonment by V tortoise of the Order's former ally, Shrit Reguiler.

The deterioration of this alliance came at the same time as an alarming rise in unrest in Samagetsia, as the taxation obligations

imposed by the order on the Samagetsians saw anti-German sentiment in the region in Greece.

While Grandmaster Urich von Jungingen was nervously wondering whether Vitortis was about to prompt the Samagizians into another full-scale

uprising, King Agilah of Poland decided to pile on more pressure by encouraging Rome to push the Teutonic

order into campaigns far away from the Baltic region and by amping up claims by the Kingdom of Poland for contested lands in the

border regions and in Pomeralia.

Wisely, Grandmaster Urich looked at this situation and decided that he'd better start preparing

for war.

He offloaded Gotland onto a satisfied Queen Margaret and commenced a series of rapid castle building and castle improving projects across Samagetia.

Now all may have been well and war may have been prevented

if not for some extreme weather which occurred during 1408,

and the Grand Master's unfortunate reactions to the events which followed.

The winter of 1407 to 1408 was unusually long with cold

snowy weather remaining well into April of 1408. This meant that the growing season for 1408 would be dangerously short.

Seeds need warmth to germinate and planting a seed into cold ground is just going to be a pointless seed wasting exercise.

So across the Baltic region, fields of wheat and rye, which were the staple

crops for the area, were soon unusually late. Now the growing season in this cold climate was already quite short and everyone

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