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Lithuania Ascending
This book, first published in 1994, studies the rise of a pagan state in late medieval Christendom against a background of crises in Europe.
Making a Great Ruler
How does a ruler become "the Great"? Is greatness a part of authority exercised or a part of an image created? These and other questions are addressed in this volume on the life and memory of Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania (r.1392-1430). The study raises a hypothesis that Vytautas was the main engineer of his image as the great ruler while his contemporaries and later generations developed this image and adapted it to their needs and understandings. Investigating the propaganda surrounding the grand duke, this study reveals that, in fact, there were two opposite images: that of a good ruler and that of a tyrant. The paradox is that frequently these opposites were based on the same features of the grand duke's character or episodes from his biography. The research is based on a wide array of written and visual sources as well as on records of oral tradition. Rich and diverse primary materials are analysed from the perspectives of political and social history, memorial culture, as well as iconography and rhetoric.
‘The Slippery Memory of Men’
The Slippery Memory of Men analyzes how during the early fourteenth century a discourse of eternal enmity was created between the Teutonic Knights and the rulers of Poland as these former allies contended over the disputed region of Pomerania.
Crusade and Conversion on the Baltic Frontier 1150–1500
This volume represents a major contribution to the history of the Northern Crusades and the Christianization of the Baltic lands in the Middle Ages, from the beginnings of the Catholic mission to the time of the Reformation. The subjects treated range from discussions of the ideology and practice of crusade and conversion, through studies of the motivation of the crusading countries (Denmark, Sweden and Germany) and the effects of the crusades on the countries of the eastern Baltic coast (Finland, Estonia, Livonia, Prussia and Lithuania), to analyses of the literature and historiography of the crusade. It brings together essays from both established and younger scholars from the western tradition with those from the modern Baltic countries and Russia, and presents in English some of the fruits of the first decade of historical scholarship and dialogue after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. The depth of treatment, diversity of approaches, and accompanying bibliography of publications make this collection a major resource for the teaching of the Baltic Crusades.
The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier
The conversion of the lands on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea by Germans, Danes and Swedes in the period from 1150 to 1400 represented the last great struggle between Christianity and paganism on the European continent, but for the indigenous peoples of Finland, Livonia, Prussia, Lithuania and Pomerania, it was also a period of wider cultural conflict and transformation. Along with the Christian faith came a new and foreign culture: the German and Scandinavian languages of the crusaders and the Latin of their priests, new names for places, superior military technology, and churches and fortifications built of stone. For newly baptized populations, the acceptance of Christi...
The Germans and the East
The editors present a collection of 23 historical papers exploring relationships between "the Germans" (necessarily adopting different senses of the term for different periods or different topics) and their immediate neighbors to the East. The eras discussed range from the Middle Ages to European integration. Examples of specific topics addressed include the Teutonic order in the development of the political culture of Northeastern Europe during the Middle ages, Teutonic-Balt relations in the chronicles of the Baltic Crusades, the emergence of Polenliteratur in 18th century Germany, German colonization in the Banat and Transylvania in the 18th century, changing meanings of "German" in Habsburg Central Europe, German military occupation and culture on the Eastern Front in Word War I, interwar Poland and the problem of Polish-speaking Germans, the implementation of Nazi racial policy in occupied Poland, Austro-Czechoslovak relations and the post-war expulsion of the Germans, and narratives of the lost German East in Cold War West Germany.
Livonia, Rus’ and the Baltic Crusades in the Thirteenth Century
This monograph by Anti Selart is the first comprehensive study available in English on the relations between northern crusaders and Rus'. Selart re-examines the central issues of this crucial period of establishing the medieval relations of the Catholic and Orthodox worlds like the Battle on the Ice (1242) and the role of Alexander Nevsky using the relevant source material of both “sides”. He also considers the wide context of the history of crusading and the whole Eastern and Northern Europe from Hungary and Poland to Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in 1180-1330. This monograph contests the existence of the constitutive religious conflict and extensive aggressive strategies in the region – the ideas which had played a central role in modern historiography and ideology.
