One of the brightest pages in the history of the Middle Ages were the Crusades.As a rule, they are connected with an attempt of expansion of Christianity in the Middle East and the fight against the Muslims, but this interpretation is not quite correct.
When the series of crusades began to gain momentum, the papacy, which was the main initiator of them realize that these campaigns may serve to Rome for political purposes, not only in the fight against Islam.And began to form a multi-vector Crusades.Expanding the geography, the Crusaders turned their gaze to the north and northeast.
By the time the borders of Eastern Europe formed a sufficiently strong bulwark of Catholicism in the face of the Livonian Order, which was the product of a merger of two German spiritual and Catholic orders - the Teutonic Order and the Sword.
Generally speaking, the preconditions for the promotion of German knights in the East were for a long time.Even in the 12th century they began to conquer the Slavic lands beyond the Oder.Also within the scope of their interests included the Baltic states, inhabited by the Estonians and Karel, who at the time were pagans.
first shoots of a conflict between the Slavs and the Germans took place already in 1210, when the Knights invaded Estonia today, to come to grips with the principalities of Novgorod and Pskov for influence in the region.Response principalities have not led to the success of the Slavs.Moreover, the contradictions in their camp led to a split and the complete absence of interaction.
the German knights, the backbone of which were Teutons, on the contrary, were able to gain a foothold in the occupied territories and set about consolidating the effort.In 1236 the Order of the Sword and the Teutonic united in Livonia, and the following year the Pope has authorized new approaches to Finland.In 1238 the Danish king and head of the order agreed on joint actions against Russia.The moment was chosen the most suitable, because by the time the Russian lands were drained of blood by the Mongol invasion.
The same took advantage of the Swedes, who in 1240 decided to take Novgorod.After landing on the banks of the Neva, they met resistance in the face of Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, who managed to defeat the invaders, and it was after this victory became known as Alexander Nevsky.Battle of Lake Peipus was the next milestone in the biography of the prince.
But before that between Russia and German orders for two more years was a bitter struggle that brought success to the latter, in particular, was captured Pskov, was threatened and Novgorod.In these circumstances, and there was a battle on the Lake Peipus, or, as they call it, the Ice.
Battle was preceded by the release of Nevsky Pskov.But when that Russian forces are the principal parts of the enemy, the prince has blocked the way to the Livonian Order on the lake.
Battle of Lake Chud took place April 5, 1242 Knight's forces were able to break through the center of the Russian defense and buried in the shore.Blows from the flank by Russian took the enemy in a vise, and decided the outcome of the battle.That's resulted in the Battle of Lake Peipus.Nevsky also reached the peak of its glory.He went down in history forever.
Battle of Lake Peipsi has long been considered perhaps the turning point in the whole of Russia, the struggle against the Crusaders, but current trends have questioned this analysis of the events, which is more characteristic of the Soviet historiography.
Some authors have noted that after the slaughter of the war dragged on, but the threat from the Knights remained still palpable.Moreover, even the role of the Alexander Nevsky, whose success in the Battle of the Neva and the Ice Battle propelled him to unprecedented heights, such contested by historians as Fenella, Danilevsky and Smirnov.Battle of Lake Peipus and Neva battle, according to these researchers, embellished, however, as the threat of the crusaders.
