„The captive“

On the shores of the Baltic Christianity clashes with the last pagans in Europe.

The Holy Land was lost, the sea lanes blocked by a powerful Muslim fleet.

And the knights grew restless. Then word went out that fair skinned pagans could still found on the shores of the Baltic. There the true Faith could be spread and land and booty obtained in the bargain. The Pope issued edicts, gave His blessing and the Northen Crusades against the last pagans in Europe were on their way.

They were fated to last longer than the crusades in the Mediterranean. For over two hundred years Christian Europes knights waged war agains the stubborn Baltic tribes. They fought for the Faith, for land and plunder, but also, and this was not minor cause in culture obsessed with martial virtues, some fought to prove their knightly prowess. Thus the knight of Chaucers tales fought in Lithuania and so does Englands Henry the V featured so prominently in Shakespeares plays.

This is a tale from the very beginning of this prolonged struggle. The Church of Rome and the knights of the Order of the Sword have consolidated their hold on the Livonian land around Riga. To the south there are the still not completely conquered Couronians and Ziemgalians, beyond them the Lithuanian tribes including the warlike Samogitians. In the time only they will remain unconquered.