The Mongol Impact on East Central Europe
The Tatar presence in East Central Europe did not last long. The khan withdrew from Hungary in 1243 upon hearing news of the grand khan’s death: he would need every warrior to support his cause during the election of the latter’s successor. The Christians emerged from their hiding places or came back from exile to find empty and devastated lands, but no sign of the enemy. The Mongols had come and gone like some biblical plague, perhaps to return without warning to once again punish the people for their sins. It did not occur to many that their principal sin was political disunity, and those with sufficient wisdom to recognise this saw no practical way to correct the fault.
Rus’ lay prostrate. Only one state, Novgorod, remained independent, and its fate was uncertain. Those familiar with the brilliant silent movie by Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Nevsky, with Prokofiev’s magnificent score, might remember the opening scene, where a Mongol khan visits Novgorod to collect tribute and slaves. In the movie Alexander Nevsky stands up proudly to his dangerous Asiatic visitor; in real life he served in the Tatar armies and was ultimately murdered by the khan.
The Polish lands had been ravaged terribly. The power of the king was negligible for years thereafter, and none of the once powerful Piast dukes were able to provide national leadership. This not only made it almost impossible to defend Galicia against nomad raiders, but also hindered Masovia’s ability to prosecute its ongoing campaigns against the pagans in Prussia. In fact, it was the pagans who were soon on the offensive, carrying away Polish captives to be sold in the slave markets of the East.
The consequences for Hungary were even more profound. So many Hungarian peasants had perished that several regions could be repopulated only by attracting immigrants from surrounding lands. Although the ethnic origin of these peasants was not important immediately, the presence of Rumanian, Serbian, Slovakian, and German peoples on the Hungarian plain would eventually become a serious obstacle to creating a national identity.
The most important beneficiary of the situation was the Teutonic Order. Only a military order had access to reinforcements, supplies, and a dependable source of immigrant peasants and merchants, volunteers for combat, and pious donations to aid the struggle against the enemies of Christendom. Moreover, to the extent that the Teutonic Order could pin down Prussians and Lithuanians in the defence of their own lands, this would relieve Hungary and Poland from fear of devastating raids. Therefore, for many years the German crusaders’ presence in Prussia was very welcome.
Conflict between the Pope and the Emperor
The confrontation between Friedrich II and the popes grew worse each year until the emperor’s death in 1250. The principal victim of the conflict was the Holy Roman Empire, which was fragmented, left leaderless for half a century, and remained permanently weakened. Through these years of desperate struggle the membership of the Teutonic Order was badly divided over whether to give primary loyalty to the emperor or the pope, but in the end somehow managed to prevent becoming permanently identified with either camp. For the rest of the century the grand masters were close friends and allies of the popes; in the next century they tended to favor the emperors, but the contests of those decades were between weak opponents, not strong ones. In these years the Church declined in power and reputation, while the Holy Roman Empire recovered slightly during the reign of Charles IV.
The orientation of the Teutonic Order reflected these larger trends: in the thirteenth century, the primary interest was in defending the Holy Land; in the fourteenth century it was prosecuting the war in Prussia.
Meanwhile, local families in Germany and Bohemia became very important as supporters of the Teutonic Knights, contributing sons and money to the military order generation after generation. This provided the Teutonic Knights with hospitals, churches, and estates that not only produced significant revenues, but brought in knights, priests and men-at-arms for membership and recruited volunteers for the crusading expeditions.
5
The War against Paganism in Prussia
Pagan Prussia
Prussia was never a part or a province of the kingdom of Poland, although Polish culture had made some inroads among the nearest tribe, that which had pushed west into Culm. Perhaps only the Danes could put forward any claim to be the lawful overlords of any of the Prussians, and that claim was very weak indeed, although in the early thirteenth century King Waldemar II was on the way toward giving it substance by making expeditions into Samland – that prominent peninsula bounded by the Frisches Haff (Freshwater Bay) and the Kurisches Haff (Kurland Bay) – and other coastal provinces. Waldemar’s kidnapping by Count Heinrich of Schwerin in 1223 brought a sudden end to those prospects.
Duke Conrad of Masovia had a claim on the southern borderlands of Prussia because he was their closest Catholic neighbour, save only for Duke Sventopełk of Pomerellia (1212 – 66), whose lands lay on the western bank of the Vistula River. Conrad and Sventopełk were thus best situated to revive the Polish crusades of the mid-twelfth century that had failed to conquer and convert the pagans in Prussia. Although Duke Conrad tried to move down the east bank of the Vistula, he never succeeded in doing more than occupying briefly the territory of Culm, which was, like his own provinces just upriver (Płock and Dobrin), so much a battlefield that some areas were depopulated.
The Prussians were ethnically and linguistically different from the Poles, Scandinavians, and Rus’ians. They were neither Germanic nor Slavic. Like their neighbours to the east – the Lithuanians and some of the tribes of Livonia – they were Balts, descendants of Indo-Europeans who had not migrated elsewhere during the great movements of peoples and had held onto their own languages and customs with relatively little change over the centuries.
Prussian was part of a language group which included Lithuanian and Latvian, as well as the tongues of several smaller peoples such at the Jatwingians and Semgallians. This language group had once extended from Moscow to the Baltic Sea, but as prehistory became history the pressure of Slavic newcomers caused its domains to shrink drastically. Modern studies of the language that concentrate on the retention of native words in spite of centuries of intrusion and influence by larger language families reveal much about the speakers’ pre-Christian culture. Words relating to three important economic activities – bees, horses, and wagons – demonstrate that Baltic culture was far from primitive (though, undoubtedly, the lack of population limited the extent to which the Prussians could specialise or maximise their potential for producing wealth). But the study of other areas of activity illustrates that Prussian society was failing to keep pace with its neighbours’ progress in economic and governmental development. Institutions associated with feudalism were almost completely lacking. Consequently the Prussians had few prospects of unifying in ways that were necessary for an effective national defence, for promoting agriculture and commerce, and for sharing in the wider European culture.
The Prussian lands extended along the Baltic coast from the Nemunas (Memel) River in the north-east to the Vistula River in the south-west, and bordered Lithuania, Rus’ian Volhynia, Masovia, and Pomerellia. This meant that their neighbours spoke four different languages. Prussia was divided into eleven districts, each representing a major tribe: Culm, Pomesania, Pogesania, Warmia, Nattangia, Samland, Nadrovia, Scalovia, Sudovia, Galindia, and Bartia. According to the fourteenth-century chronicler Peter von Dusburg, one of the Teutonic Order’s most knowledgeable writers, the most powerful tribes were the Samlanders, who could raise 4,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry, and the Sudovians, who had 6,000 horsemen and ‘an almost innumerable multitude of other warriors’. He estimated that the other tribes had about 2,000 horsemen each and an appropriate number of infantry, except for Culm and Galindia, which were largely depopulated – particularly Galindia, an interior province usually described as a wilderness. Galindia’s terrain was so rugged and wooded and filled with so many lakes and rivers that all armies avoided crossing it. Modern estimates
place the total Prussian population at approximately 170,000, a figure considerably smaller than Peter von Dusburg’s calculation. Although not as numerous as their Lithuanian or Livonian neighbours, the Prussians were settled more densely on the land and were better organised. There were numerous forts that served as refuges for the people in wartime, and although these were not comparable to Western castles of the first rank they served their purpose effectively.
Peter von Dusburg described Prussian paganism thus:
The Prussians had no knowledge of God. Because they were primitive, they could not understand Him by reasoning, and because they had no letters, they could not learn of Him through the Scriptures. They appeared to be primitive beyond measure and marvelled greatly that anyone could make his thoughts known to another by writing. Because they did not know God, they took erroneously all creations for gods, such as the sun, the moon, and the stars, thunder, birds, and even animals and so on right down to the toads. They had forests, fields, and sacred waters in which no one was allowed to cut down trees, plough, or fish. In the midst of that perverse nation, apparently in Nadrovia, in a place called Romow, which owed its name to Rome, dwelt a man named Criwe, whom they honoured as a pope, since just as the pope rules over all the faithful of the Church, so he ruled over not only this one people, but also over the Lithuanians and the many nations of Livonia. Such was his authority that not only he himself or others of his blood, but even his messengers sent with a staff or other sign who crossed the boundaries of the infidel nations were held in great reverence by the rulers, the nobles, and the common people. He guarded, according to the old writings, an eternal fire. The Prussians believed in life after death, but not as they should believe. They believed that one, if he were noble or base, rich or poor, powerful or weak in this life, so also would he be after the resurrection into the future life. And that required the nobles to take with them in death their arms, horses, servants and maids, clothes, hunting dogs and hawks, and everything else pertaining to a warrior. With lesser people were burned the things pertaining to their work. They believed that the burned things were resurrected with them and would be used by them. With each death the following devil’s game occurred: when the relatives of the deceased came to the pope Criwe and asked if on such-and-such a day or night he had seen someone going by his house; then Criwe described without hesitation the appearance of the deceased according to his clothes and weapons, his horse and retinue, and predicted, so as to strengthen his augury, that the deceased left such-and-such a sign on his house with a spear or other such tool. After a victory they bring their gods an offering, and from the booty won in the victory they give a third to Criwe, who burns it.9
While Peter von Dusburg was fascinated by the thought of a pagan anti-pope, it is obvious from other sources that Prussian religion was far from a mirror image of Christianity that worshipped the dark lord, Satan, and his ilk. It was rather a development of that Indo-European nature worship that is familiar to us through Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Germanic mythology. There was a strong element of Scandinavian religious thought that was probably introduced during those centuries when the Vikings exercised a loose authority over the region; and also some Christian ideas that had come in recently from Orthodox Rus’ and Roman Catholic Europe. Western missionaries had visited Prussia since the tenth century, although without making many converts.
The customs of the Prussians were like those of their Baltic neighbours, the Livonian and Lithuanian tribes. The dominant class was the warrior nobility, who lived from booty, hunting, and the produce of their slaves. The free men lived by a combination of hunting and farming that gave them experience in the use of arms and a sense of tribal territory. There were a few priests, some artisans and merchants, and agricultural slaves. The clans organised civic life, raised armies, and regulated justice. Thus one’s place in society was determined largely by the condition of one’s birth.
The Prussians had been long known for hospitality and friendliness, but recent attacks by Scandinavians and Poles had caused that to change. Similarly, the simple nature worship of the past was evolving to resemble Christianity in its emphasis on powerful personal deities such as Perkunas, who had some attributes of a warrior god.
Unlike the Kurs (Curonians or Courlanders) and the Estonians, Prussians do not seem to have participated in piracy. Although they had slowly expanded their territories to the west, toward the Vistula River valley, that area might have been largely depopulated by Viking slave raids previous to their arrival. There is little evidence of their raiding their neighbours for cattle or slaves as was common in Livonia and Lithuania; but on the other hand there is almost no evidence of any kind for the politics or warfare of these years.10 The Sudovians certainly were aggressive, but their lands abutted the Lithuanians, an even more aggressive people, and they may have learned the military arts solely in order to protect themselves. This made their military situation significantly different from that of other Prussian tribes. Similarly, the warlike tribesmen in Culm and Pogesania were possibly only reacting to Polish and Pomerellian pressure.
Prussian Disunity
Clan government was rough and ready, and status and power were probably more important to securing ‘justice’ than having a just grievance was. In this the Prussians may have been no more deficient than the Poles and Germans, whose systems of justice still relied on individual power and the support of relatives and dependants. Clans protected their members from injury by the threat of taking revenge against enemies. If a clan lost a member in a fight, his relatives would kill the murderer – or, more likely, one of his kinfolk. For lesser crimes they would demand compensation. The tribal council was responsible for resolving disputes, and since the council was composed of the elders of the clans, its decisions were generally respected. The council met at intervals to discuss justice, common action, and to celebrate religious festivals. It had some authority to discipline unruly clans, but apparently exercised it only rarely.
Prussian mores were as strange to those who wrote about them as Christian customs were to the Prussians. Drunkenness was the national pastime, as it was for their Slavic neighbours, for Scandinavians, and for Germans. There were parties for marriages, deaths, births, religious festivals, and to honour visitors. The host passed a bowl brimming with an alcoholic beverage among his guests, the womenfolk, the sons and daughters, and even the servants, until everyone was in a stupor. It was an act that demonstrated mutual trust and friendship. As alcoholic beverages they knew only mead, made from honey, and kumiss, made from mare’s or cow’s milk. Because infant females were often killed soon after birth, Prussian women were scarce, and the fathers could demand a high bride price for the sale of their daughters. Nevertheless, polygamy was practised, and a prominent noble was expected to have several wives and concubines. That made it necessary to raid neighbouring lands in order to bring back women as prisoners. This combination of bride purchases and slave-catching probably lowered the status of women in Prussian society. On the other hand, it might have enhanced the role of native wives. There is evidence that women sometimes were important at all levels of society, but they did not assert this importance overtly.
The local markets could hardly be called mercantile centres, nor the villages towns, but the Prussians were not completely isolated from the commercial world. There was one important natural resource – amber. Known to Romans, Babylonians and ancient Egyptians for its lustre and smoothness, amber had been sought by foreign merchants time out of mind. In any form, rough or polished, this petrified tree sap made attractive jewellery, and the wood chips and insects trapped in the glowing material made it more interesting than common jewels. Also, amber could be found in only a few areas of the world, but no matter where it washed up on the shore, it was of a quality inferior to the Baltic product; as a result, Prussian amber had the attraction of being rare, mysterious and expensive.
There is a wealth of anecdotes about Prussian life. The nobles bathed regularly in sauna-like buil
dings, but the commoners avoided the practice altogether. Some people thought white horses unlucky, and others black horses. The Prussians had no calendar; whenever they wished to call a meeting, they sent around a stick with notches cut in it to signify the number of days remaining before the assembly. The Germans noticed that they had no spices for their foods and no soft beds. Their houses were scattered in the woods, surrounded by their fields, never too far from the refuge provided by a log fort. It was a primitive civilisation, but it was far from that of the so-called noble savage; the primitive and warlike nature of the people, combined with their impenetrable forests and swamps, made it possible for them to remain independent and to practice their peculiar customs long after their Polish and Rus’ian neighbours had adopted Christianity and become great kingdoms.
The size of the Prussian territorial unit, the tribe, was limited principally by the ability of the clan-based government to provide defence for its members. The main strongholds were the centres of tribal activities and the safest refuges in time of need. The smaller forts of the individual clans were sufficient to shelter people from minor raids, but unless reinforced would quickly fall to large invasion forces; as a result, such small forts were usually abandoned in times of great danger, the people hurrying to hiding places in the forests. Of course, abandoning homes, crops, and livestock was a highly undesirable course of action. If the clan fort was too far from other clans to receive prompt help, the clan might find it necessary to surrender or to move to a safer location; if the clan was numerous enough to be self-sustaining, it could evolve into a new tribe. The clans do not appear to have had any requirements for marriage inside or outside the group, or to have had any function other than religious and military. The individual nobles and elders do not appear to have been limited greatly by clan responsibilities.
Teutonic Knights Page 6
