The Lithuanian Crusade was a series of campaigns by the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order under the pretext of forcibly Christianizing the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Livonian Order occupied Riga in 1202 and in the 1230s they settled in Chełmno Land, a fief of Poland. They first conquered other neighboring Baltic tribes—proto-Latvians (Curonians, Semigallians, Latgalians, Selonians) and Old Prussians—in the Livonian and Prussian crusades.
The first raid against the Lithuanians and Samogitians was in 1208. From then on, the orders played a key role in Lithuanian politics, but they were not a direct threat until the 1280s. By that time, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was already a centralized state and could mount defenses. For the next century, the order organized annual colonialist reise (raids) into Samogitian and Lithuanian lands, without great success but at immense human cost. Border regions in Samogitia and Suvalkija became sparsely inhabited wilderness due to ethnic cleansing, although the order gained very little territory. The resulting wars between the Teutonic Order and Lithuania were one of the longest conflicts in the history of Europe.
The grand duchy finally converted to Christianity in 1386, when Grand Duke Jogaila accepted baptism from Poland before his wedding to reigning Queen Jadwiga and coronation as king of Poland. However, the baptism did not stop the crusade, as the order publicly challenged the sincerity of the conversion at the papal court. Lithuania and its new ally, Poland, defeated the order in the decisive Battle of Grunwald in 1410, which is often cited as the end of the Lithuanian Crusade and the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The final peace was reached by the Treaty of Melno (1422), ending 225 years of warfare.
Background
Crusaders claimed to wage war to convert non-Christian "infidels" to Christianity by force. In the 12th century, St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote to the Knights Templar in the Levant that the killing of pagans was also justified: "The Christian glories in the death of the pagan, because Christ is glorified." Only in the 15th century, with the Council of Constance, would that view be contested and a discussion on the rights of pagans begun. Lithuania itself accepted various religions—during the reign of kings Mindaugas and Gediminas, Franciscan and Dominican monasteries had already been established in Lithuania with Lithuanian monks. In his letters to the pope, Gediminas complained that crusaders destroyed Christian churches to have a pretext for war.
The Baltic Crusade started in 1197. The first encounters of militant Christian missionaries with the Lithuanians occurred in 1185, when Saint Meinhard was attacked by the Lithuanians. Lithuanian troops were also supporting the local resistance of Semigallians and Latgalians. The Teutonic Order was given land near Toruń in the 1220s by Konrad I of Masovia, bringing the crusaders closer to Lithuanian lands. With the arrival of the first Teutonic crusaders, led by Hermann Balk, in Chełmno Land in 1230, the religious traditions of modern-day Estonia and Latvia began to slowly turn towards Catholicism. There had already been shared religious beliefs between the Germanic and Lithuanian peoples, like the veneration of the god Perkūnas.
In the 1230s, there were military clashes between the Christians and the Lithuanians near the northern borders of what was then part of Livonia. The Livonian Brothers of the Sword, founded in 1202, began campaigns to expand into the area. Through the Livonian Crusade, they conquered the Terra Mariana that bordered Lithuanian Samogitia, which increased conflicts. Those conflicts reached their apex in 1236 with the Battle of Saule near Šiauliai—the Livonian Brothers of the Sword suffered a disastrous defeat. Only 10% of their army survived and more than 48 of their knights were killed. In light of their defeat and outstanding debts, the order was forced to become a branch of the Teutonic Order called the Livonian Order.
The military campaigns of the reformed Livonian Order against Lithuanians were still unsuccessful. Even with support from the Teutonic Order, the Christian Livonians suffered major defeats in the battles of Durbe (1260), Karuse (1270), and Aizkraukle (1279). These losses weakened the Teutonic Order, allowing for the Great Prussian Uprising. When the converted king of Lithuania, Mindaugas, was assassinated in 1263, the region entered an era of instability. Lithuanians supported the Prussian uprisings and arranged military raids together with Prussians and Yotvingians. These included the 1264 siege of Vėluva (Wehlau) castle in Sambia during the reign of Treniota and the revenge taken against Poland for the Yotvingians, led by Vaišvilkas and Švarnas.
Only in 1283, after the reconquest of the Prussians, did the Teutonic Order focus its campaigns on the fragile, newly formed Kingdom of Lithuania.
Objectives
The Teutonic Order initially planned to incorporate all of Lithuania into the Teutonic State, as it had with Prussia, but those plans faced strong Lithuanian resistance. The Teutonic Order's principal objective was to conquer the Lithuanian lowland region, Samogitia, and build fortresses there to solidify their control. Like a wedge, Samogitia separated the territories conquered by the Teutonic Order and those conquered by the Livonian Order. By subjecting Samogitia, the order would be able to unify its administration of both territories. Starting with the reign of Gediminas, Lithuania also began rapidly expanding eastward, conquering Ruthenian lands and gaining more resources for its long-lasting wars.
For the order, the promotion of Christianity had a strong ideological impetus. When the battles around Jerusalem ceased after the Siege of Acre in 1291, Christian religious groups turned their military efforts toward eastern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula, intent on conquest or reconquest. The Lithuanian rulers vehemently disputed the concept of baptism and regularly carried out raids and conquests on Germanic lands. As a result, the order became focused on suppressing them as a potent, pagan enemy. However, the Teutonic argument for the conversion of Lithuanian pagans became, by the end, mostly a pretext for expansion.
Although they had concentrated their efforts toward the unstable principalities of Belarus and Ukraine, the Lithuanians could not ignore the aggression of the Christian crusaders. Nor could they reach any peaceful agreement with the Teutonic Order, which demanded mass baptisms as a condition for peace. From then on, the defense of Samogitia and other vulnerable regions became a priority for the Lithuanians. The prospect of loot from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the State of the Teutonic Order exacerbated the conflict, and the conquests of both sides were often short-lived or haphazard.
Phases of the conflict
Beginnings and Vytenis's rule (1283–1315)
In 1283, chronicler Peter of Dusburg noted that the Teutonic Order finalized its conquest of Prussia and of the Yotvingians. Some Yotvingians retreated to Lithuania, and some the crusaders deported to Sambia. The Lithuanian Crusade began in the winter of 1283.
The first target of the Teutons was Bisenė on the western Lithuanian border. Teutonic soldiers commanded by Prussian Landmeister Konrad von Thierberg crossed the frozen Neman River and attacked the Lithuanian fortress in the morning. It fell in the afternoon and was burned to the ground. After the burning of Kolainiai in 1291 and Bisenė in 1316, Junigeda (now called Veliuona) became the westernmost Lithuanian fortress along the river. In 1298, Lithuanian leader Vytenis attacked the Livonian crusaders in Courland, a part of the Archdiocese of Riga. After initial successes by the crusaders, the two sides fought in the Battle of Turaida after Vytenis forged an alliance with the citizens of Riga, a city ostensibly under the control of the Livonian Order.
The conflicts resumed with the coronation of Grand Duke Vytenis of Lithuania in 1303. Vytenis wanted to confront Lithuania's northern and eastern neighbors. He sent 2,000 armed knights to his borders, while isolated Lithuanian troops raided Prussia. More stable after suppressing the Prussian revolts of 1283, the Teutonic Order sent military units to Semigallia and Skalvia, then under Lithuanian control. Several years of relative calm followed until the Teutonic Order decided to strike at Samogitia.
The Teutonic Knights organized around 20 raids into the region. Vytenis took measures to undermine the influence of local Samogitian nobles, evidenced by an increasing number of traitors and refugees. The Livonian Order consolidated its control over Semigallia, where Lithuanians had garrisons since the Battle of Aizkraukle. In 1313, the Livonian Order captured Dynaburg Castle, which the Lithuanians had controlled since 1281.
To better demarcate and defend its eastern border against the Lithuanian advances, the Teutonic Order took to erecting small fortresses and fortified houses. The garrisons often contained a few knights with more soldiers and squires. The defenders left only to raid Lithuanian lands. The forts were menacing just because of their strategic location. Some of the most imposing were in Neman, Sovetsk, and Mayovka.
Vytenis reacted to the movements of the order in 1311 by directing his best cavalry toward Masuria and unreinforced areas of the Prussian border. Despite 4,000 Lithuanian cavalry, they were surprised and expelled by forces led by Landmarschall Heinrich von Plötzke. But the Christian population's general fear of the "savage pagans" did not change with the victory, especially not among German colonists in rural areas of the order's territory. Vytenis's last great attack came in October 1315, shortly before his death.
Reign of Gediminas (1316–1345)
During Gediminas's rule as grand duke of Lithuania, the war intensified on the northern and western borders with the Teutonic Order. Gediminas allied himself with the king of Poland, Władysław I Łokietek, through a series of marriages in 1325–1328. Poland became more hostile toward the Teutonic Order due to their dispute over the dominion of Pomerania. As a result, Łokietek stipulated an anti-Teutonic defensive military pact with Gediminas in 1330–1331.
In the winter of 1329, King John of Bohemia formed an army to participate in the crusade. Strengthened by this support, the knights of the order were able to capture several important fortresses in Samogitia. Conflicts with the king of Poland and limited contributions from John of Bohemia delayed the conquest of further territories.
Because the conflict between the Teutonic State and Poland had resumed in 1330, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania experienced a respite. The crusaders prevailed against the Polish in Kuyavia in 1331. In 1336, a large army supported by John of Bohemia and his son-in-law, Henry XIV, crossed the Neman in Samogitia and attacked the castle of Pilėnai. Seeing their defeat, the defenders burned the fortress's goods and killed themselves. Once the fortress was conquered, the Teutonic Knights replaced it with a new fortification they baptized Bayernburg (Raudonpilis) in honor of Henry XIV. They hoped the fort would serve as a foothold for further campaigns into the region. After the withdrawal of most of the order's army, Bayernburg was stormed and destroyed by Lithuanian troops led by Gediminas in person. According to local tradition, he was shot by an arrow under an oak tree that still exists outside the fortifications. He more likely died in 1341, a year in which the fighting temporarily subsided.
The brothers Algirdas and Kęstutis (1345–1382)
The conflict intensified again in 1345 after two sons of Gediminas, Algirdas and Kęstutis, assumed power by ousting their brother, Jaunutis, who had been Gediminas's heir. The two shared control of the territory as a duumvirate: the land to the southeast was controlled by Algirdas and the land to the west (including Samogitia) was administered by Kęstutis. As a result, Kęstutis led most of the fight against the Teutonic Order, with mixed results. In 1349, Teutonic commander Winrich von Kniprode seized a victory against the Lithuanians in the Battle of Strėva, which was held in an open field.
In 1352, led by von Kniprode, now grand master of the Teutonic Order, the Teutonic State began a period of quiet growth and avoided disagreements with the Kingdom of Poland. In 1358, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV expressed a desire for peace if the Lithuanian sovereign would accept Christianity. Algirdas stipulated the complete withdrawal of the Teutonic Order from the Baltic region, which Charles IV rejected because he needed support from the order. The war only ended in 1361 when a marshal of the order, Henning Schindekopf, and Louis I of Hungary succeeded in capturing Kęstutis. The poet and herald Peter Suchenwirt wrote a poem to commemorate the capture, when Kęstutis apparently swore an oath to convert to Christianity. Kęstutis successfully escaped from his imprisonment in Malbork Castle in 1362.
That April, a Teutonic army destroyed the Kaunas Castle, which was situated well within the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. That success marked the beginning of a period of mutual devastation that only ended when both adversaries were significantly weakened. Between 1362 and 1370, the crusaders made 20 "punitive expeditions" into Lithuania. (They would complete 52 by 1382.) In response, Kęstutis and Algirdas gathered military contingents from all of Lithuania, from Russian feudal lords faithful to the grand duchy, and from the Tatars who were disposed to help because they shared a border with the Teutonic State near Königsberg.