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The Northern Crusades: 1147

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The Northern Crusades: 1147 CHAPTER THREE THE NORTHERN CRUSADES: 1147 1. The Polabian Crusade The participation of a unit of Polish troops in the Levantine expedition of Conrad III and Louis VII did not exhaust the scope of Polish involvement in the wave of enthusiasm for crusading which in 1147 swept most of Latin Europe. More or less at the same time that the crusader armies of the French and German kings were heading east, there was a rival crusading initiative being enacted in the lands of the Polabian Slavs. These events are known in historiography as the Wendish, Slavic or Polabian crusade, and, despite the many works written about them, remain one of the most mys- terious episodes of the twelfth-century crusading movement.1 The laconic 1 O. von Heinemann, Albrecht der Bär (Darmstadt 1864), pp. 159–74; P. Jaffé, Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches unter Conrad dem Dritten (Hanover 1845), pp. 145–51; Smolka, Mieszko Stary, pp. 252–5; Bernhardi, Konrad III, pp. 563ff., W. Bogusławski, Dzieje Słowiańszczyzny północno-zachodniej do połowy XIII w., 3 (Poznań 1892), pp. 572ff.; K. Wachowski, Słowiańszczyzna Zachodnia. Studya historyczne, 1 (Warsaw 1902), pp. 156–7; F. Curschmann, Die Diözese Brandenburg. Untersuchungen zur historischen Geographie und Verfassungsgeschichte eines ostdeutschen Kolonialbistums (Leipzig 1906), pp. 93–6; M. Wehrmann, Geschichte von Pommern, 1: Bis zur Reformation (1525), in Allgemeine Staatengeschichte, publ. H. Oncken, 3: Deutsche Landesgeschichten, publ. A. Tille, 5 (Gotha 1919), pp. 76–7; S. Zakrzewski, Okres do schyłku XII w., in Historya polityczna Polski, I: Wieki średnie, publ. Zakrzewski, S. Zachorowski and O. Halecki (Cracow 1920), pp. 109–10; Grodecki, in Dzieje Polski średniowiecznej, pp. 168–70; Bünding-Naujoks, “Das Imperium Christianum”, pp. 94ff.; Constable, “The Second Crusade”, pp. 223–6, 255–8, 278–9; J. Schultze, “Der Wendenkreuzzug 1147 und die Adelsherrschaften in Prignitz und Rhingebiet”, Jahrbuch für die Geschchite Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands (hereafter JfGMO), 2 (1953), pp. 95–124; idem, Die Mark Brandenburg, 1: Entstehung und Entwicklung unter den askanischen Markgrafen (bis 1319) (Berlin 1961), pp. 68–75; M. Unger, “Bernhard von Clairvaux und der Slawenkreuzzug 1147. Bemerkungen zu einem Aufsatz von W. Schlesinger”, Zeitschrift für Geschichtwissenschaft (hereafter ZfG), 7 (1959), pp. 80–90; W. Schlesinger, “Bemerkungen zu der sogen. Stiftungsurkunde des Bistums Havelberg von 946 Mai 9”, in Schlesinger, Mitteldeutsche Beiträge zur deutchen Verfassungsgeschichte des Mittelalters (Göttingen 1961), pp. 413–46; idem, “Die geschichtliche Stellung der mittela- lterlichen deutschen Ostbewegung”, ibidem, pp. 447–69; H. Beumann, “Kreuzzugsgedanke und Ostpolitik”, pp. 138ff.; Kahl, “Zum Ergebnis des Wendenkreuzzugs von 1147”, pp. 275– 316; idem, Slaven und Deutsche, 1, pp. 186ff., 2, pp. 722ff.; Berry, The Second Crusade, pp. 492ff.; Mayer, The Crusades, pp. 99–100; Die Slawen in Deutschland. Geschichte und Kultur der Slawischen Stämme westlich von Oder und Neisse vom 6. bis 12. Jahrhundert, publ. J. Herrmann (Berlin 1970), pp. 325–8, 464–6; Myśliński, “Sprawa udziału Polski”, pp. 357–76; 68 chapter three and sometimes mutually-contradictory source documents do not allow us to explain unequivocally the genesis and history of the whole initiative, and this creates room for different interpretations and concepts. From the perspective of the present work, the Annales Magdeburgenses are of cru- cial significance because they show that apart from Saxon, Westphalian, Burgundian, Lotharingian, Frankish, Danish and Moravian crusaders in the northern expeditions, there was also an unnamed Polish duke at the head of a sizeable body of troops.2 Before we begin the deeper analysis of this document, however, the present state of knowledge on the circumstances of the initiation of the Polabian crusade needs to be briefly presented. As was mentioned in the previous chapter, the propaganda and recruitment activities preced- ing the Second Crusade affected Germany with especial intensity. The efforts of its organizers, with St Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Adam of Ebrach at the head of the campaign, were met with spectacular success. By the end of 1146, participation in the new Levantine crusade had been declared by a series of representatives of the political elite of the Reich, including King Conrad III, his nephew the Duke of Swabia, Frederick Barbarossa as well as the leader of the opposition—the Duke of Bavaria, Idem, Polska wobec Słowian, pp. 173–7; Lotter, Die Konzeption des Wendenkreuzzugs, pp. 7–9, 70ff.; Johnson, “The German Crusade of the Baltic”, pp. 545ff.; Christiansen, The Northern Crusades, pp. 51–3; Samsonowicz, “Międzynarodowe aspekty”, pp. 83–90; Dworsatschek, Władysław II Wygnaniec, pp. 130–1; Trupinda, Ideologia krucjatowa, pp. 56–7. 2 Annales Magdeburgenses, p. 188: Eodem anno circa festum sancti Petri, divina inspira- tione et apostolice autoritatis exortatione et multorum religiosorum ammonitione, magna christiane militiae multitudo contra paganos versus aquilonem habitantes assumpto signo vivifice crucis exiverat, ut eos aut christiane religioni subderet, aut Deo auxiliante omnino deleret. Ubi in una societate convenerant Fridericus archiepiscopus Magadaburgensis, Rotholfus Halverstadensis episcopus, Wernherus Monasteriensis, Reinhaldus Mersburgensis, Wickerus Brandeburgensis, Anshelmus Havelbergensis, Heinricus Moraviensis episcopi et Wibolt Corbegensis abbas, Conradus marchio, Adalbertus marchio, Fridericus palatinus comes, Hermannus palatinus comes cum multis comitibus et armatis bellatoribus sexaginta milibus! Interim in alia societate se in unum collegerant Albero Bremensis archiepiscopus, Thietmarus Fardensis episcopus, Heinricus dux Saxonie, Conradus dux Burgundie, Hartwigus princeps prenobilis cum multis comitibus et nobilibus et ceteris armatis numero quadraginta milibus pugnatorum. Rex eciam Dacie cum episcopis terre illius et cum universo robore gen- tis sue, maxima multitudine classium collecta, circiter centum milibus exercitum paraverat. Iter frater ducis Poloniae cum viginti milibus armatorum exiverat. Cuius etiam frater maior cum infinito exercitu adversus Pruscos crudelissimos barbaros venit, et diutius ibi moratus est. Contra quos etiam Rutheni, licet minus catholici tamen christiani nominis karacterem habentes, inestimabili Dei nutu cum maximis armatorum copiis exiverunt. This information is repeated in Chronicon Montis Sereni, ed. E. Ehrenfeuchter, MGH SS, 23 (Hanover 1874), p. 147. .
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