top of page
Winter is Coming

Winter is Coming

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania arose as a pagan bulwark against the expansion of the Baltic Crusader States (the Lithuanians were the last of the European peoples to convert to Christianity). Due to the swampy and heavily forested terrain of much of the eastern Baltic littoral, native military campaigns were normally done in winter, when rivers and streams were frozen and could be used as roads, and lack of undergrowth in the forests allowed sleighs and sledges to provide overland transport.

Iron Tower of Gediminas

Iron Tower of Gediminas

The Grand Duke Gediminas (1316-1341 CE) was one of Lithuania's most influential, and the dynasty he established (the Gediminids) made great territorial gains in western Russia, Belarus, and western Ukraine, while staving off crusader expansion in the northeast. They also formed strong ties with the Piast Dynasty in Poland, which ultimately led to a dynastic union between the two states. Gediminas' runic totem—the Iron Tower of Gediminas—seen here, became the symbol of the Grand Duchy.

Mounted Lithuanian Nobles

Mounted Lithuanian Nobles

Sandwiched between the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Mongol Golden Horde, the Kingdom of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Baltic Crusader States, late Medieval Lithuanian arms and armor showed a unique blend of influences. One unique feature seen here is the Lithuanian "keeled" shield, which had a prominent ridge down the center, designed to deflect the impact of crossbow bolts. Although heavily armored, Lithuanian noble cavalrymen skirmished with thrown spears before initiating close-combat.

Dismounted Nobles

Dismounted Nobles

Another unique feature of Medieval Lithuanian warfare is that Lithuanian warriors were equally comfortable fighting mounted and afoot, often switching back-and-forth between the two as topography and tactical circumstances demanded. Mounted, they fought with spear (spisa), sword (kalavijai), axe (kirvis), and mace (vesdas), but afoot they fought primarily as bowmen (although they could still use their close-combat weapons if pressed).

Mounted Levy

Mounted Levy

Mindaugas (1203-1263 CE) is credited with developing a mounted levy of free farmers (laukininkai) to supplement the mounted corps of the nobles. As legend has it, he was inspired by the performance of Mongol light cavalry at the Battle of Legnica (1241 CE), although unlike the Mongols, Lithuanian light cavalry were not horse archers, instead skirmishing with thrown spears. Service in the militia eventually contributed to the rise of a class of minor nobles (bajorai).

Dismounted Levy

Dismounted Levy

As with the ducal class (kunigai), the free farmers (laukininkai) and minor nobles (bajorai) of the mounted levy were equally comfortable fighting as cavalry and infantry. Generally less heavily armored than the ducal class, the levy nevertheless fought with much the same array of weapons. However, the tactical stance of the levy while mounted was firmly established as having a skirmishing role, although when dismounted they seem to have fought as bowmen in identical fashion to the ducal class.

Lithuanian Crossbowmen

Lithuanian Crossbowmen

Crossbows were likely introduced to the Baltic peoples via the agency of the crusaders of the Northern Crusades (1147-1410 CE). They were not adopted on a large scale—most Baltic warriors continued to utilize native bows—although they were used in siege warfare and in the field by sharpshooters, like those seen here, who would use cover to try to pick off high-value targets (e.g., enemy leaders) or to ambush isolated enemy units that had wandered into rough terrain.

Frontiersmen

Frontiersmen

The estates of the Lithuanian nobility tended to be clustered on the Samogitian and Baltic highlands, and as the Lithuanian state expanded into Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, the Highland Balt military system continued to emphasize the importance of cavalry, but a deep belt of marshy forest lay in-between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Baltic Crusader states—purposely kept thinly populated and less intensively cultivated by the Lithuanians (see next slide).

Frontiersmen

Frontiersmen

This frontier region was home to a scattering of native lowland peoples (mostly ethnic Zemaitijans), although the Lithuanian grand dukes also settled refugees from peoples that had been defeated by the Baltic crusaders in this region (mainly the Prussian Bartians and Yotvingians, and the Semigallians and Selonians). These peoples were mainly classed as free farmers (laukininkai), they were the most obstinately pagan and fanatically opposed to the crusaders, and they fought as fierce infantrymen.

FINNS, BALTS, UGRIANS

(ca. 600 - 1500 CE)

 

BALTS

Coastal Peoples: Pomesanians/Pameddi/Pomesaniens (600 - 1236 CE),

Warmians/Warmi/Warmiens (600 - 1241 CE), Pogesanians/Paguddi/Pogesaniens (600 - 1252 CE),

Bartians/Barta/Barten (600 - 1241 CE), Natangians/Notangi/Natangen (600 - 1241 CE),

Sambians/Semba/Samlandiens (600 - 1277 CE), Nadruvians/Nadrawa/Nadrauen (600 - 1275 CE),

Skalvians/Skallawa/Schalauen (600 - 1277 CE), Livlizt/Livs/Livonians (600 - 1212 CE),

Curonians/Kurs/Kursi/Kuren (600 - 1267 CE), Maarahvas/Eestlased/Ests/Eests/Eists/Estonians (600 - 1261 CE),

Semigallians/Zemgalians/Semigalls (600 - 1290 CE)

Highland Peoples: Latgallians/Lettigallians/Lettigalls/Letti/Letts (600 - 1224 CE), Selonians/Seli/Seliai (600 - 1239 CE), Aukstaitijans/Aukstaitians (600 - 1200 CE), Zemaitijans/Zemaite/Samogitians (600 - 1200 CE),

Galindians/Galinda/Galindien (600 - 1283 CE), Sudovians/Sudawa/Sudauen/Yotvingians/Yotwingians (600 - 1283 CE)

Lithuanians: Lithuanian Federation (1200 - 1236 CE), Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1236 - 1250 & 1264 - 1500/1569 CE),

Kingdom of Lithuania (1251 - 1263 CE)

 

FINNS

Western Finns: Suomalaiset/Turki/Finns/Fenni/Finnar (600 - 1249 CE),

Kainulaiset/Kveeni/Kvens/Cwens/Kvenar (600 - 1271 CE), Hämäläiset/Tavastians/Tavastr/Yam/Yem (600 - 1249 CE), Savolaiset/Savonians/Savolaaset (600 - 1300 CE), Vaddalaizod/Vods/Votes (600 - 1100 CE),

Izoralaizet/Izhorians/Ingrians (600 - 1100 CE), Vepsläized/Veps/Ves/Wisu/Vepsians (600 - 1100 CE)

Northern Finns: Saami/Sámi/Lapps/Laplanders (600 - 1500 CE), Karjalaizet/Kirjalabotnar/Koryela/Karelians (600 - 1323 CE)

Permians: Komi/Zyrians/Suryans/Permyaks (600 - 1240 CE), Udmurt'jos/Udmurts/Votyaks/Otyaks/Watyaks (600 - 1240 CE),

Principality of Great Perm (1323 - 1505 CE)

Eastern Finns: Mordva/Mordvins/Morvinians/Mordovians (600 - 1240 CE), Mari/Cherimis (600 - 1000 CE),

Meryans/Merens/Merä (600 - 1100 CE), Meshcherans/Meshchyorans (600 - 1100 CE),

Muromians/Muroma/Muromi (600 - 1127 CE)

 

UGRIANS

Ugrians: Ostiaks/Ostyaks/Khanty (600 - 1500 CE), Voguls/Mansians (600 - 1500 CE), Ungrians (600 - 830 CE)

Magyars: Magyar Federation (830 - 895 CE), Gyulate of Magyarland (895-1000 CE)

 

In a dark age when the illumination by which we view ancient civilizations is already dim, the history of the Finns, Balts, and Ugrians in the Middle Ages is even more shrouded. As pagan, non-literate peoples living in the cold and remote northern forests of Northern and Eastern Europe, the Finns, Balts, and Ugrians are only visible in the written works of foreign, and often hostile, writers. Yet between 600 and 1500 CE, these peoples were essential players in the northern trade networks, and they fought both for and against a wide range of better-known peoples (e.g., the East Slavs/Rus', Vikings/Varangians, West Slavs/Poles, Turks, Mongols, and German, Swedish, and Danish crusaders). By the end of the fourteenth century CE, most of the Western Finns and Balts had been conquered and assimilated by a mixture of German, Swedish, and Danish crusaders and the Republic of Novgorod (an early Orthodox Russian state), while the Eastern Finns were also conquered and assimilated by the Russians, the Volga Bulgars, the Turks of the western steppes, and finally the Mongols of the Golden Horde. Nevertheless, several groups remained independent in the far northern reaches of what is today Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Finland (the Northern Finns and Permians) until well after the end of the Middle Ages, while other groups formed federations that would go on to constitute Medieval states (e.g., the Zyrians and Udmurts in the Principality of Great Perm, the Ungrians/Magyars in the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Aukstaitijans, Zemaitijans, and refugees from many of the other Baltic groups in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), and almost all of these groups have modern descendants. Most of the armies featured here are not likely to burn up a tournament circuit in historical wargaming, but because they inhabited a unique topography and had a unique material culture, they also provide a unique modeling and gaming opportunity.

 

This gallery is intended to cover the wide range of Finnic, Baltic, and Ugric tribal groups mentioned in historical sources between the seventh and fifteenth centuries CE—please keep in mind that several of these groups are believed to have originated much earlier (as early as the first century CE), but they are not well-documented or archeologically attested. Modern ethnologists and linguists have identified the ethno-linguistic kinship of what they refer to as the Finno-Ugric peoples, which would include all of the Finnic and Ugric peoples identified here, but they put the Balts in a separate ethno-linguistic group called Balto-Slavic, and if we were only to follow these modern ethno-linguistic norms we would have to treat these peoples as entirely distinct (i.e., the Balto-Slavs are Indo-Europeans and the Finno-Ugrics are a primary language family unrelated to the Indo-European language family). However, when we are dealing with military history, we're less concerned about linguistics and more concerned by how material culture and socio-political development affected strategic outlooks and tactical traditions, so I have herein treated these peoples (i.e., the Balts, Finns, and Ugrians) together under this gallery due to their broadly shared environmental and historical challenges that produced similar cultural traits, patterns of material culture development and exchange, and common cultural influences. Further, I have subdivided the three broad groups into nine categories that attempt to identify more specific expressions of military culture as they would have differed from region to region within the overall cultural horizon of the Balts, Finns, and Ugrians. The reason for this is that the groups that I herein identify as the Coastal Balts lived along the southeastern littoral of the Baltic Sea, including the Gulf of Riga, which meant that these groups were in close contact with each other and with the western Baltic peoples (the Northmen, Germans, and West Slavs/Wends)—through trade and war—throughout most of the period covered by this gallery, they faced much the same topographical challenges (bogs, lakes, marshy forests) and developed much the same adaptations to these challenges, and they developed similar expressions of material culture and socio-economic development. Some modern ethnologists have pointed out that there was an area of overlap between the Coastal Balts and the Western Finns along that portion of the eastern littoral of the Baltic Sea that is today encompassed by the nations of Latvia and Estonia (and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad), and so the Livonians and Estonians are sometimes referred to as Balto-Finns (i.e., they were Finns by language, but Balts by material culture and socio-political development). I tend to agree with this assessment, so I herein include the Livonians and Estonians under the Coastal Balts subgroup.

 

The Western Finns and Eastern Finns lived along the southern half of the great boreal forest of northern Europe, including the forest-steppe transition zone in northern Russia and the forested lakeland and Baltic littoral in Finland, which meant that these peoples were generally more numerous than the Northern Finns and Permians, they had more densely populated lands, they had a lifestyle that can be characterized as agro-pastoralist (i.e., small-scale agriculture mixed with hunting and husbandry of cattle and horses), and they had generally developed more complex socio-political cultures that often included hill forts and villages, while those that lived in the northern half of the boreal forest (i.e., the Northern Finns and Permians), which included the forest-tundra transition zone, were shaped by their harsher environment and more limited material resources, and they lived as nomadic herders (mainly of reindeer) and hunters in small bands spread across vast stretches of wilderness, and they had developed socio-political cultures (including martial traditions) that generally followed a different trajectory than their more southerly kin. The Western Finns faced similar topographical challenges to those of the Balts and Balto-Finns, and they shared many of the same cultural influences through contact with the Northmen, Germans, Wends, and Russians, but they inhabited a socio-political world that lay somewhere in-between the partly urbanized agro-pastoralist lands of the Coastal Balts and Balto-Finns on the one hand, and the nomadic socio-political world of the Northern Finns and Permians. Although all four groups (i.e., the Balts and Balto-Finns, Western Finns, Northern Finns, and Permians) traded with the agrarian civilizations even further south, the remoteness of the Northern Finns and Permians also generally meant that the impact of cultural transmissions was far less extensive than for their southern kin (i.e., the Balts, Balto-Finns, and Western Finns), and when their southern kin were conquered and assimilated by the Russians, Germans, Danes, and Swedes, the Northern Finns and Permians remained largely independent. The Western Finns and Northern Finns are also separated from the Eastern Finns and Permians due to the fact that the Western Finns and Northern Finns were generally part of a complex of cultural influences based on their geographic proximity to the Baltic (i.e., the Northmen, Germans, Wends, and Russians, as well as the Balts), where they shared many of the interactions that also characterized the world of the Balts, while the Eastern Finns and Permians generally shared a different complex of cultural influences (i.e., the Russians, Bulgars, Turks, and Mongols). It is tempting to put the Ugrians together with the Permians due to their geographic proximity and many shared cultural influences, but the Ural Mountains that separated the two groups was/is a formidable barrier, and with the establishment of the Volga Bulgaria state to the south of the Urals from about the start of the period covered by this gallery (ca. 669 CE), and the continued dominance of this region by non-Finno-Ugric peoples (the Turks, Russians, and Mongols) throughout the period covered by this gallery, I think one can clearly see the development of a unique material culture and socio-political norms among the Ugrians that reflected much stronger links to the eastern Eurasian steppes, as well as to the Samoyedic Nenets of the Russian arctic and sub-arctic.


The army pictured above would be appropriate to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the early grand ducal dynasty of the Gediminids, specifically the reigns of the grand dukes Gediminas (1316-1341 CE), Jaunutis (1341-1345 CE), Algirdas (1345-1377 CE), and Jogaila (1377-1434 CE). The Northern Crusades (1198-1290 CE), carried out mainly by German, Danish, and Swedish crusaders, were aimed at conquering and converting to Christianity the pagan Finns, Balts, and Baltic Slavs (i.e., the Wends). While these crusades were mostly successful, they had the unintended effect of uniting the Zemaitijans ("Lowlanders") and Aukstaitijans ("Highlanders") in a federated union—Lithuania—initially aimed at preventing further crusader expansion in the Baltics. These names are somewhat misleading, since both groups lived in territories centered on highlands in what is today Lithuania—the Samogitian Highlands (Zemaitijans) and the Baltic Highlands (Aukstaitijans)—although the Samogitian highlands are surrounded on all sides by lowland wetlands, the Baltic Highlands are slightly more elevated and are only bordered by wetlands to the west, while they are bordered by the North European Plain to the south and the North Russian Plain to the east. As discussed in the section on the Highland Balts (see button below), the presence of these highlands and the proximity of the North European and North Russian plains made these peoples part of the subgroup I have herein identified as the Highland Balts. Initially, these tribes were ruled by a number of independent tribal leaders known as kunigai (singular, kunigas, usually translated in English as "duke," but literally meaning "priest-chieftain"). One such kunigas, named Mindaugas, emerged as the primary leader in the struggle against the western crusaders, eventually declaring himself grand duke (didysis kunigaikštis)(1203-1250 CE) and then king (koningar)(1251-1263 CE) of Lithuania. The name "Lithuania" is an Anglicization of the Aukstaitijan name of the Lietaka River, the hydronym Mindaugus chose for his newly established kingdom (i.e., "the Land of the Leitaka River"). Mindaugas initially tried to create a feudal kingdom on the crusader model—ironically, considering his early leadership as an anti-crusader, he converted to Catholic Christianity and formed an alliance with the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (a crusading order of knights), which allowed him to secure his control over Zemaitija and Aukstaitija for almost a decade (ca. 1253-1261 CE), and he was granted the title of "king" by the pope (the title, koningar, is an Old Norse loan word used by Mindaugas because the native language had no word for a "king"). However, Mindaugas' pagan subjects and dukes mostly refused to convert to Christianity, Mindaugas was eventually forced to apostatize in order to prevent a widespread rebellion (ca. 1261), and he was nevertheless assassinated by a cabal of pagan dukes (ca. 1263). Despite this ignominious start, the Lithuanian state continued to develop despite significant internal tribal and regional divisions and rivalries. The main division was between Aukstaitija (eastern Lithuania) and Zemaitija (western Lithuania), but each of these regions were also sub-divided into semi-independent tribal dukedoms (there were initially 21 dukedoms, although five of these, all located in Aukstaitija, were considered "senior" to the others). With the rise of the Gediminids (ca. 1263-1295 CE) of Aukstaitija, the dukedoms of Aukstaitija were gradually drawn together into a close union (mostly through extensive intermarriage between the ducal houses), and this unity apparently accounts for the ability of the Gediminid clan to secure exclusive control over the title of grand duke—Zemaitija remained internally divided, although its dukes vaguely accepted the leadership of the Gediminid grand dukes (and often exercised the right to challenge their authority). As has been mentioned, the conquests of the Northern Crusades also led to large numbers of pagan refugees fleeing forced conversion (or death) in Prussia, Livonia, and Estonia (the largest groups being the Bartians, Semigallians, Selonians, and Yotvingians), and these were often settled in border regions where they formed their own distinct tribal duchies. Most of these were established along the emerging frontier zone between the Baltic Crusader States and Lithuania (mainly in Zemaitija), the intention being that these peoples would re-populate areas decimated by crusader raids, that they would be eager to defend Lithuania against the crusaders, and in return the grand dukes of Lithuania would help them to try to re-conquer their homelands from the crusaders (a dream that ultimately proved untenable). Although the war with the Baltic Crusader States long proved to be a bloody stalemate, the grand dukes of Lithuania were far more successful in expanding into the western regions of Kievan Rus'/Ruthenia—the principalities of Grodno and Novgorodok in what is today western Belarus were annexed between 1236 and 1263 CE; Polotsk, Minsk, and Vitebsk in northern and central Belarus fell to Lithuania between 1316 and 1341; Bryansk, Chernigov, and Kiev in southwestern Russia and western Ukraine were taken in campaigns between 1345 and 1377; Smolensk in western Russia was annexed between 1392 and 1430; and the Kingdom of Galich-Volhynia in western Ukraine was partitioned between Poland and Lithuania (ca. 1344-1366 CE), with Lithuania taking control of eastern Volhynia. The Gediminids expanded Lithuanian hegemony in Ruthenia through a combination of conquest and the formation of strategic alliances by marrying younger princes of the Gediminid clan into the ruling princely houses of various western Russian principalities. Despite their falling under the suzerainty of pagan Lithuania, the Russo-Lithuanian princes of Ruthenia converted to Orthodoxy, the populace retained its Orthodox Russian character, and these princely states remained politically semi-independent (similar to the Zemaitijan duchies). Indeed, the political system that took shape in early Medieval Lithuania (ca. 900-1300 CE) seems to have owed much to the model provided by Kievan Rus', in which regional polities (dukedoms in Lithuania, principalities in Rus') and their leaders (kunigai/dukes in Lithuania, kniazi/princes in Rus') were loosely federated under a mutually recognized war-leader (the didysis kunigaikštis/grand duke in Lithuania, veliki kniaz/grand prince in Rus'), but after about 1300 CE we see a marked intensification of Russian/Ruthenian influence on the socio-political system of Lithuania itself, including the development of a noble class (singular, bajoras, plural, bajorai, adapted from the Russian usage of boyar/boyarin) separate from the ancient ducal families (and only sometimes subordinate to them), and the reduction of the broad class of free farmers (laukininkai) into a class of semi-dependant peasants (kaimynai).

 

The grand dukes of Lithuania came to rival the kings of Poland and Hungary, the khans of the Golden Horde (who dominated southern Russia and eastern Ukraine from the mid-thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century), and the grand princes of Russia in power and influence. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania dwarfed the Baltic Crusader States—Terra Mariana/Medieval Livonia (1193-1237 CE), the Duchy of Estonia (1219-1346 CE), and the State of the Teutonic Order (1230-1525 CE). Indeed, the Lithuanians became something of a nemesis for the Teutonic Order (which took administrative control of most of Livonia after 1237 CE), successfully fighting off the crusaders for nearly 400 years and playing a key role in the ultimate demise of the State of the Teutonic Order. They were initially less successful against the Mongols, a Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic army being destroyed by the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica/Liegnitz (1241 CE), and a temporary alliance between the Teutonic Order and Lithuania coming to grief at the Battle of Vorskla (1399 CE). Lithuania and the Golden Horde oscillated between mutual raiding and political detente, and the losses at Legnica and Vorskla were offset by victories such as the Lithuanian defeat of the Mongols and their Muscovite allies at the Battle of Blue Waters (1362 or 1363 CE), and the Russo-Lithuanian defeat of the Mongols at the Battle of Kulikovo (8 September 1380 CE). The Lithuanians and Teutonics resumed their antipathy soon after Vorskla, however, being in a state of almost perpetual war from 1289 CE until the ultimate defeat of the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Tanenberg/Grunwald/Zalgiris (1410 CE), in which a Polish-Lithuanian alliance utterly destroyed the army of the Teutonic Order and thereafter forced the subjection and partition of the State of the Teutonic Order (see my Baltic Crusader States gallery).

 

Throughout this long twilight struggle, the Lithuanian nobility remained doggedly pagan (hence, the antipathy of the Teutonic Order), although Lithuania was a multi-ethnic state that also encompassed significant Christian groups—the capital city, Vilnius, was home to a Franciscan priory that furnished the grand dukes with scribes and counselors; there were Russian, German, Bohemian, and Polish merchants and their families living in distinct ethnic quarters in most Lithuanian towns (complete with their own Catholic churches); as mentioned above, the Ruthenian principalities that fell under Lithuanian dominion remained Orthodox to the core; and grand duke Gediminas is believed to have settled a large number of German peasants in various parts of Lithuania in the fourteenth century (the exact number is unknown, but they were fleeing economic stagnation and lack of social mobility in the Holy Roman Empire, as well as fleeing the Black Death, which left Lithuania almost entirely untouched). These Christians were allowed to build their own churches and practice their own faith (the Russians were Orthodox, the others were Roman Catholic), although they were forbidden to proselytize amongst the pagan populace or to defile pagan holy places. Despite occasional breakdowns, usually by over-zealous priests and monks who were promptly martyred, these Christian communities were left unmolested for three centuries. The Gediminids used a similar strategy in Poland to that which they employed in Ruthenia, by making marriage alliances with various Polish feudal houses, including the emerging Piast Dynasty (which would eventually unite Mazovia, Silesia, and Bohemia with Polans to make the Kingdom of Poland). These marriages often cemented political-military alliances, although they did not lead to the annexation of Polish territory as the Gediminids had been able to do in Ruthenia (due largely to the fact that both the Poles and Lithuanians practiced primogeniture, which favored male heirs through a male line, and for unknown reasons the Gediminids consistently married Lithuanian princes to Ruthenian princesses and Lithuanian princesses to Polish princes). However, it is apparent that Lithuanian princesses and duchesses were accorded much greater prestige and personal power in Lithuania than in Poland or the rest of Christendom (they often ruled in their own right), and it seems that as early as the reign of Gediminas (1316-1341 CE), close ties between the Lithuano-Polish princesses (who converted to Catholic Christianity as a precondition of their marriages) and their female kin in Lithuania had led many Gediminid duchesses and grand duchesses to patronize Catholic churches and the communities they served within Lithuania. By the late fourteenth century, Catholic Christianity seems to have grown despite the official ban on proselytization, which seems to have laid the groundwork for the union of Poland and Lithuania when Grand Duke Jogaila (1377-1434 CE) officially converted to Christianity in 1386 CE, took the Catholic-Polish regnal name of Wladyslaw II Jagiello, and married the young Polish queen, Jadwiga Andegaweńska, making the united Polish-Lithuanian state the largest in Christendom. The seemingly rapid conversion of the remainder of the Lithuanian populace (the Zemaitijans alone held out until 1413 CE) to Roman Catholicism has led many historians to wonder whether Lithuania remained officially pagan in spite of itself due to the long and brutal war with the Teutonic Knights and their crusader allies (i.e., the Lithuanians were so outraged by Teutonic atrocities that they clung to their pagan traditions as a way to defy the crusaders). Ultimately, Poland and Lithuania developed ever closer ties at every level of society, culminating in the foundation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795 CE), the history of which lies beyond the scope of this gallery.

 

bottom of page