Baltic Crusades: 1193-1418

The year 2018 marks the 600th anniversary of the end of the Baltic Crusades. The final chapter of those crusades was the conversion of Samogitians to Christianity, the completion of which was announced at the Council of Constance in March 1418. Year 1198 can be considered the beginning of the Baltic Crusades - that's when Berthold of Hanover sailed into the Gulf of Riga with a large contingent of crusaders. Pope Celestine III's call for a crusade against Pagan Balts and Baltic Finns was a few years before that, in 1193 (or 1195 according to other sources).



Pagan Baltic and Pagan Baltic Finnic (Estonians, Livonians) tribes ca. year 1200 AD:

Lithuania officially converted to Christianity in 1387-1389:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Lithuania#Christianization_by_Jogaila_and_Vytautas

On 19 April 1389, Pope Urban VI recognized the status of Lithuania as a Roman Catholic state.

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But that conversion did not include Samogitia, which was at that time under Teutonic Order's control. Teutonic Knights despite supposedly being "servants of God", did not really care that much about converting their Baltic subjects (such as Samogitians, Old Prussians and tribes in what is now Latvia). They cared more about exploiting them and collecting taxes from them. When Catholic bishops in Prussia complained that many Prussians were still practicing their old Pagan rituals, the Knights replied "Lasset Preussen, Preussen bleyben" ("Let the Prussians, remain Prussians"):

https://books.google.pl/books?id=Kg...e&q=Lasset Preussen, Preussen bleyben&f=false

http://bazhum.muzhp.pl/media//files...y_Mazursko_Warminskie-r1997-t-n3-s503-520.pdf