History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 301, the Baltic Crusades, the Lithuanian Conflict Part 6, a Troubled Peace.

Hello again. Last week we saw Grandmaster Urich von Jungingen make some unexpected moves in response to the

latest uprising by the Samagitsians.

Seemingly in a panic about the fact that the Teutonic Order may be forced to try to quell the uprising with little or no assistance from Poland or Lithuania,

Grandmaster Urich scrambled to scrape up some troops to dispatch to Samagetia.

However, following a snub from King Yagila of Poland, Grandmaster Urich abruptly switched his attention from Samagetia to Poland and directed

both the mercenaries he had hired and the Order's own fighting men to forget about Samagizia for the moment

and to instead invade Poland. Now it's difficult to reach back in time more than 600 years and try to analyze the Grant

Master's frame of mind at this point in time, but I'm going to give it a shot.

In short, the Grandmaster seems to have swept himself into a whirlpool spinning out of control around and around

while being drawn closer and closer to the thing he most fears. The thing the Grandmaster most fears is being

unable to keep Samagizia in line. Previous Samagitian uprisings have been defeated only with the assistance of Poland and Lithuania,

but with every turn inside his well pool, the Grandmaster seemingly manages to alienate and

anger his former allies, making his darkest fears more likely.

Had the Grandmaster been in a rational, logical state of mind,

he would have been able to approach the problem objectively and would have realized that he needed to do everything

in his power to get Poland and Lithuania on side. so the combined regional forces could bring Samagetia to heal.

Instead of acting objectively, though, Grand Master Urich has been panicking and in his panicked state he keeps pursuing

policies which irritate and offend the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, reducing the likelihood

of them coming to the Order's aid in Samagetsia. So basically every shoot from the hip ill thought out move the Grandmaster is making

is causing his whirlpool to spin faster and is drawing the tutonic order closer

...