Customer Reviews

The Scandinavian Baltic Crusades 1100-1500 (Men-at-Arms)

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4 star:		(3)
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This is a wonderfully written book, as one has come to expect from Dr. Nicolle...with some nice local color from Scandinavian writer David Lindholm...yet it is once again those wonderful illustrations by the amazing Angus McBride that captured my imagination. Past his mid 70's Angus' work is still bright, emotional and tells a story expertly.

Most center on the German Armies of the era, this includes the powerful Swedes and Danes and also includes the Russian and Slavic Armies who were waiting for their invasions. Every plate is a gem and coupled with the superb schloarship from the two authors this makes for a very interesting and unique read.

Highly recommended.

Sadly, Angus passed away on May 15th, 2007...this would be one of his last books for Osprey. On a personal note I'd hope you will consider it as a way of honoring the memory of a truly great artist........

I am Lithuanian and I had been told that Lithuania lost her huge land because of fighting with Poland. This book corrected that thinking. It is simple, but clear. Again the Catholic Church ruined an Empire. The Swedes couldn't wait to attack the peaceful Baltic Countries and they got permission from the Catholic Church to do just that. These were countries who were trading nicely and hurting no one. The countries of Finland, Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Poland were attacked. Why? Because they were not Christians yet. What happened to the teachings of Jesus to go out and preach to nations about the good news? No lets just kill them and force it down their throats. This is what this book shows and it does a great job. Colorful pictures and real nice descriptions.

D. Lindholm and D. Nicolle's THE SCANDINAVIAN BALTIC CRUSADES 1100-1500 covers the weaponry, armor and ships of the expeditions of the Scandinavian Catholics against the pagans to the east of the Baltics. This is a specialty coverage indeed and so will be limited to collections strong in early military history - but little has been written about this phase of the medieval Crusades and so it's a key pick.

THE SCANDINAVIAN BALTIC CRUSADES 1100-1500
DAVID LINDHOLM AND DAVID NICOLE
OSPREY PUBLISHING, 2007
QUALITY SOFTCOVER, $15.95, 48 PAGES, ILLUSTRATIONS, PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS, CHRONOLOGY


The Crusades to the Holy Land are well known, or, at least, widely heard of. The Crusades against the Albigensian heretics, and against the Muslims of Spain, are familiar to students of medieval history. But the Crusades of North-East Europe remain outside the scope of most English readers, and are remembered, if at all, as the subject of Eisenstein's haunting essay in nationalist propaganda, the film Alexander Nevsky. He is said to have chosen the subject because so little was known about it that the facts were unlikely to interfere with his fictions.

This book, THE SCANDINAVIAN BALTIC CRUSADES 1100-1500 is an attempt to describe the struggles waged around the Baltic from the 12th to the 16th Centuries in the name of Christianity, and to explain the part they played in the transformation of Northern societies which took place at the same time. The starting point comes at the end of the Viking Age, when Scandinavian rulers found themselves shut off from the long-range overseas conquests of the past, and challenged by newly invigorated Slav nations in home waters.

These Northern Crusades were part of a wider Western drive, and if that is to be studies; it should be studied in full and in the most unlikely places and in the most peculiar forms. The Holy Wars of the Mediterranean brought about spectacular conquests, and enduring obsessions, but amounted in the end to a sad waste of time, money, and life. After 200 years of fighting, colonization, empire-building, missionary work, and economic development, the Holy Places remained lost to Christendom. The Saracens won. The two faiths remained invincibly opposed, and if the cultures mingled, it wasn't because the Christians had attempted to conquer the Near East; there were more enduring and less explosive points of contact.

The Northern Crusades were less spectacular, and much less expensive, but the changes they helped to bring about lasted for much longer, and have not altogether disappeared today. The southern coast of the Baltic is still German, as far as the Oder. Western forms of Christianity survive in all the coastlands opposite Scandinavia, and the Finns wedded to Western institutions and tolerant of their Swedish-speaking minority. The reborn republics of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia look west for support and sympathy. For seven centuries these east-Baltic republics were colonial societies, bearing the mark left by their medieval conquerors whatever outside power tried to annex or change them. If ever the Crusades had any lasting effect, it was here, and in Spain.

This fascinating and elegant book, THE SCANDINAVIAN BALTIC CRUSADES 1100-1500 describes and illustrates the armor, weapons, fortifications, and ships of one of the least-known phases of the of the Medieval Crusades-the expeditions by Scandinavian Catholics against the pagan peoples to the east of the Baltic Sea, and their subsequent clashes with the Eastern Orthodox Russian princes of Novgorod and Muscovy. From isolated castles built in this bleak wilderness of forests, lakes, and bogs, the small garrisons struggled equally against the enemy and the harsh terrain and climate. This well-researched book is both illustrated and supplemented with photographs of rare museum relics and of castles.



Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida

Osprey Books are a must for the modeler and reenactor. The info is concise and the plates and images are invaluable to help put together any reproduction. There are so many to choose from it makes the head spin, but they're worth the purchase.

This one is good because it addresses a lesser known combat arena of the Crusades.

I thought it was a good book but it did not have very much info in it and the middle pictures were not great.

If you like the wizard of Middle Ages Europe Illustrations then get this one. While the text is fairly good, the Illustrations are the reason why I bought this book.

This book gives an informative examination of perhaps the most ignored period of the Crusades. Both the text and the plates detail the appearance and tactics of the Danes, Swedes, Finns, and Teutonic Order, and their typically pagan Slavic and Lithuanian enemies. Plate C also gives an interesting portrayal of the origins of the Danish Flag.

The amount of information within this book is amazing. The history is graphic, real and heroic.