Customer Reviews

The Northern Crusades: Second Edition

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This book covers the Christianization of the Baltic region during the late middle ages. Christiansen does a very nice job assimilating the archaelogical and historical evidence, and then explaining it and telling a good "story" in a very readable fashion. This is a very complex area, and Christiansen has to deal with the collision of four different linguistic groups and cultural traditions: 1. The Christian West Germanic and North Germanic peoples, i.e., Saxons, Danes, Swedes, etc. 2. The pagan Baltic peoples such as the Latvians and Lithuanians. 3. The pagan Finnic peoples, including the Finns and Estonians, but also many tribes whose language and culture barely survives today, such as the Livonians, Ingrians, Karelians, etc. 4. The partially Christianized Slavic tribes.

There is very little published in English about this time and place in history. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject, or in the Baltic region in general, especially someone interested in a good overview as a start. As I've indicated, in spite of the complexity of the subject, it does read well.

This is a very readable account of a subject largely inaccessible to the general reader. It covers the conquest and conversion of the pagan tribes of the Southern and Eastern Baltic Coasts from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the extension of German civilisation north-eastwards and the collision, and ultimate uneasy equilibrium between Latin and Orthodox Christianity in the area. The surprise of the book, for this reader at least, is the fact that the Dark Ages endured in this corner of Europe well into Medieval times, and that Paganism was still a vibrant force there almost until the period of the Renaissance. A significant strength of the book is the introductory section, which provides a fascinating overview of the peoples and cultures of the area at the opening of the period covered, and this is built upon in greater detail, when necessary in more detailed accounts of specific campaigns. The linkage to the overall Crusading ideal is well handled and though the transformation of the Teutonic Knights from a warrior order in Frankish Palestine to a frontier force skilled in forest, river and marshland warfare is a dominant theme, the roles of the Danes, Swedes and Russians, not to mention a host of Baltic tribes, receive equal attention. The mechanics of the warfare of the period, including the particular constraints imposed by climate and terrain, are well handled. In summary - a splendidly informative work that cast light on an obscure period that bred baleful myths with dire consequences in more recent times.

The Crusades are back in the news again (they were out-of-fashion for awhile), but don't believe everything you read in the newspapers or hear on tv, take time to read a few good books on the subject. Begin with JJ Norwich and Bernard Lewis to get a handle on the Crusaders and Byzantium and the Holy Land, then go onto Cathars and the 'Reconquesta' of Spain. Perhaps you will come to the conclusion that I have--the European Crusaders spent more time outside the Levant than in it, although Lewis suggests Europeans probably acquired the idea of mounting religious jihads from the Arabs who were quite good at it.

Christiansen has written an excellent and well-researched book on the NORTHERN CRUSADES. His writing is very readable and unbiased, and he has availed himself of many original documents. I particularly appreciated the material he included that covered the internal church debates on "what constitutes a 'just war'" or when can Christians fight in the name of Christ?

The perspective of some clergy during the High Middle Ages was that good reasons existed for a Crusade or a 'Just War' with the Muslims because they had seized formerly Christian lands in the Levant, North Africa, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Eastern Europe. However, these same clergy argued there was no basis for a 'Just War' with the Byzantine Greeks, the Orthodox Russians, or non-Christian pagans who wanted to become Christian without fighting. Unfortunately, clear thinking did not always prevail.

Christiansen suggests the Crusades were waged for the purpose of Christianizing the tribes who lived at the Eastern end of the Baltic Sea. In the end they were Christianized and mostly Latinized, although Russia chose the Greek Orthodox side. People who lived in what is today Lithuania, Poland, and Russia were invaded by Germans, Swedes, and Danes. Christiansen's book highlights a period when German warrior monks known as the Teutonic knights seized much of the land.

Like the Templars and other warrior-monk orders in Western Europe that formed in response to the loss of the Holy Land, the Teutonic Knights were motivated by a desire to infuse Christianity in "heathern" peoples. Christiansen says that although some individuals undoutedly grew wealthy, "the profit motive is not a convincing argument" for the behaviour of the monks. "To present these wars as false -- either as matters of interest disquised as matters of conscience, or simply as misnamed events -- is too easy. This type of judgment is itself fraudulent."

The Crusades were bloody and cruel, and as is usually the case, folks at the low end of the ladder suffered the most. But Christiansen poses a question -- were these people who led relatively "free" lives at subsistence levels better or worse off when they became Latinized, Christian serfs and/or peasants? Christiansen provides plenty of material to fuel both sides of the argument.

Apparently, the Lithuanians and Polish did not think the Germans made good masters, and in the end they prevailed in defeating the Teutonic Knights. Although the Polish and Lithuanian people Christianized, they never accepted German rule -- a fact not lost on the Nazis. This stance continued long after Germany became mostly Protestant in the 16th Century and Lithuania and Poland remained staunchly Roman Catholic.

_The Northern Crusades_ by Eric Christiansen is an attempt to shed light on a relatively poorly known aspect of European medieval and early modern history, that of the Northern Crusades. Less well known than the Spanish Crusade and certainly less known to the average non-specialist reader than the Crusades in the Middle East, the Northern Crusades of the Baltic Sea region can essentially be summed up as the struggles of Scandinavian rulers - chiefly those of Denmark and Sweden - and German military monks (the Teutonic Knights) to conquer and settle non-Christian Finland, Estonia, and Prussia before coming into conflict with the considerably more powerful and organized eastern empires of Orthodox Novgorod and pagan Lithuania (and later Catholic Poland). The period lasted roughly from 1147 (the launch of the First Northern Crusade, against the Baltic Slavs) to at least as far as the book is concerned 1562 (the partition and secularization of Livonia, ending the rule of the Teutonic Knights there, their last outpost).

Though less celebrated than the other crusades, the Northern Crusades were far more successful. Initially many areas were only thinly Christian after their conquest, as for centuries in many regions for instance Teutonic outposts existed like "knots in a net," a net that was full of holes and encompassed areas where "alien subjects lived unredeemed lives within sight of the steeple" and castle, thin scraps of Christian settlement squeezed between the coast and primeval forest, though in the end vast areas became and remain Christian to this day. In stark contrast to the efforts of the Crusaders in the Middle East, the Order and the Scandinavians were able to establish lasting settlements in formerly very hostile areas in the wilderness, lands with difficult terrain, fearsome winter weather, impassable roads (if they existed), and unwelcoming natives. The Order for example established over ninety towns and a thousand villages in Prussia and Livonia. Sweden was able in the course of two centuries to transform Finland from a mainly non-Christian, illiterate, and ungoverned world into a society recognizable as European and Catholic. Even though these outside powers lost the lands that they colonized, they still held them much longer than the Crusaders held the lands of the Middle East (Denmark held on in Estonia for more than a century, the Teutonic Order kept Prussia and Livonia for nearly 300 years, and Sweden remained in Finland for nearly 600 years).

In this book Christiansen sought to show what the world of north-east Europe was like before the Crusades, chronicle the history of the Crusades themselves, detail a little about the personalities involved, detail in particular the history, role, goals, and organization of the Teutonic Knights, the reasons for the Crusades, and the theological debates and political struggles associated with the Northern Crusades as well as the concept of crusade in and of itself. I found the book interesting and fairly well written though a bit dry and sometimes difficult going in parts. I was hindered a little by the many very unfamiliar place names and had to reference many times one or more of the six maps at the beginning of the book, though by the end of the book several places I had once never heard of were quite familiar.

Particularly striking to me in the book was though that particularly in the early centuries the religious aspect of the Northern Crusade was important, in the end the wars were basically examples of imperialism and fought for temporal reasons, for resources and for geopolitical considerations. Though Christiansen cautioned in his concluding chapter that one should not view the wars as fought for "matters of interest disguised as matters of conscience," and indeed until close to the end the religious pull of the Northern Crusade drew in outside forces, whole retinues of warriors or individual knights, absolutely vital to the survival of in particular the Teutonic Knights, it is obvious that religious considerations were but one of many for those who fought. Often political control could only be established by changing the religious affiliation of the inhabitants, owing to the general lack of any other shared cultural identity between ruler and ruled; what type of Christianity prevailed in a region (Latin or Greek) was a way of staking political claims (important in the continuing struggle in later centuries between the Latin Crusade lands and Orthodox Novgorod). In Sweden new lands gained in Finland meant more people paying the tithe (good for the Swedish church and for the Pope in Rome to fund his various goals in Italy) and more fiefs and offices for the more adventurous of the lesser nobility. The Danes went to war in the 1100s as much or more to stop Slavic piracy and slave raids than anything else. The rich fur, feather, wax, amber, fish, whale, and seal resources of the Baltic Sea region were highly sought after by many in northern Europe; the "fur-clad, pickled-herring eaters lolling on the feather-beds" of Western Europe (mainly those of the Hanseatic League) were one of the chief beneficiaries of the Northern Crusades. The Teutonic Knights towards the end of their existence in Prussia were often more concerned with ruling than with crusading and many were hardly monastic, with new ordinances forbidding them to hoard money, keep packs of hounds, to use private seals, to wear fine clothing, and otherwise act as traditional feudal lords appear to have often been ignored.

A very interesting aspect of the book was as noted the discussion of the nature and organization of the Teutonic Order. Christiansen described its existence as both a military organization and a monastic order. From the Order's beginning to near its end there was a continual debate about whether or not one could be a monk and a warrior, if Christianity could be spread at the point of a sword, what the nature of a just war is, and if even the original papal orders establishing the Order were legally or spiritually correct.

A fascinating, well written account of the north-eastern part of European history that is often missing in most books.

While this is a book filled with historic facts and dates, it is written in such a manner that it is easy for even the non student to read and understand.

Once started, the book was hard to put down. It answered so many questions of who, why and how the current nationalites emerged. So much was revealed about the people and cultures of the area.

This book should be required reading in high schools and colleges. A must for anyone who loves history.

This book surveys the gripping history of the crusade that conquest the north of Europe,covers 500 years of European history, for me this is the first step into the history of the Baltic,Mr. Christiansen make a nice work explaning the complexities of medieval politics which help me understand more about this *JUST WAR against Poland,Lithuania Prussian pagans,time-travel back to the Middle Ages.

This is a essential key to understanding the events of the time and a new light on early medieval Europe, the important of the engmatic Teutonic Order which the author gave a nice chapter dedicated only the describing the Ideology and efficiency of the Armed Monks or Knight-Brothers.

Is pretty hard to conquest or convert people by the sword, even after almost 300 years of monastic rule, the old prussians were Christian only by name and also to rule a great variety of pleople from different cult or religion,the struggle to maintain power and the conquest land prove a difficult task for the knights and their Order.

The author's vast knowledge of medieval Baltic history make this a fascinating book into a little known event that change the face of the European history. After reading this book you would be thirsty for more on the Teutonic Knights check the new book by William Urban. On the legendary battle of Tannenberg 1410 which Mr. Christiansen give a nice account on the aftermath of this battle, the new book of Stephen Turnbull-Tannenberg 1410: Disaster for the Teutonic Knights deserves a high rate and is a nice companion to understand the disastrous defeat from which the Brother-Knights never recovered.

While I remember being taught about the Teutonic Knights and Hanseatic League, I really knew very little about Baltic history. Eric Christiansen has done a great job in filling in the blank spaces of medieval history. My only complaint is that, at times, the author was a little too academic, but the wealth of information contained in this THE NORTHERN CRUSADES more than makes up for any minor complaints this reviewer might have. Finally, this history lays out the foundation for understanding the 20th century conflicts between East and West.

This is an excellent introduction to the history of the Teutonic Order and the various "crusades" they carried out around the Baltic. It also covers Swedish activity in Finland.

The author carefully avoids the nationalistic controversies which still plague the history of the region. The account is even-handed in its treatment of the Order, its strengths & failures, and of the native peoples who were crusaded against.

It is a fast read with a lively narrative. I can highly recommended the book.

Fantastic, lucid and witty. Mr Eric Christiansen, a fellow at New College Oxford has drawn from years of experience and mountains of ability and as a result is nothing short of remarkable. As a student of history this book had great appeal however even to the untrained eye this book is worth a good read. It is well written but complicated in areas due Christiansen's stress on geographical orgins and expansion. It is a focused study and the reader does not get an overall historical list of the events of the northern crusades. Still considering his intellect and the detail of his other works and translations this is a plausible and readable attempt at a complex area of study

This book should be in e v e r y classroom in Europe and USA. It is an absolute must-read for everyone trying to understand European and especially Eastern European peoples history. Together with "History of the Goths" and "Agricola and Germania -Tacitus/Mattinly" reading this book will clarify Eastern European History , which for too long has been falsified, ignored or outright silenced away by intimidation.