The first Northern Crusade was aimed at the conquest and forced conversion of the pagan Wends who lived to the east of the Elbe River in what is now North-Eastern Germany. The Wendish people were a Slavic race who had inhabited the area since the 5th Century. Attempts had been made to convert the Wends to Christianity ever since Charlemagne's time but the Wends had successfully resisted the pressure. By the 10th Century onwards however as the Christian Saxons grew in power and a nascent German state (and Holy Roman Empire) developed from East Francia, the pressure both in terms of missionaries and military force increased massively till in 1147CE a Crusade was declared (later called the Wendish Crusade) to convert the Wends by force. However the Crusade wasn't as successful as it should have been as the resourceful Prince Nyklot leading the Wendish pagans outwitted them militarily to an extent. Only a single pagan temple was destroyed in the whole Crusade and the pagan Wends threw off their nominal conversion as soon as the Crusaders left Wendish territory.
This is part 1 of a series of videos on the crusade and its aftermath. Part 1 deals with the background to the Crusade, Saxon pressure, The Magdeburg letter encouraging a seizure of Slav territory, missionary activity in Slavic lands prior to the Crusade and Slavic resistance to Christianity
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
03:34 The time. The Wendish Crusade in relation to the Middle Eastern Crusades
06:53 The place. The territory of the Wendish people
09:32 The Wendish people. Their character, their cities, their main temples
18:18 The Christian neighbours. The Saxons, Danes and Poles
22:56 The rise of Saxon power
33:22 Advance of the Church. Expansion of bishoprics and the building of churches
36:00 The Great Slav Uprisings
51:33 Bishops advocating military solutions
59:42 The ‘drive to the east’. The displacement of pagan Slavs by Germanic Christians
01:03:37 Summing up
