Women and Children as Victims of the Baltic Crusades – a case of ’ritual violence’?

Beskrivelse

The thirteenth century Baltic crusades targeting the regions of Livonia and Estonia must be understood as prolonged missionary wars. The mostly German and Danish crusading powers the aimed at converting the pagan population and submitting them to a new Christian rule. The primary account of these wars is found in the Chronicon Livoniae by Henry, a German priest. Henry’s chronicle covers the Christian expansion and conquest from ca. 1184-1227.
Over the pages of Henry’s chronicle women and children appear again and again as numberless and nameless victims of the crusading warfare. For this session, thus, this paper asks two questions: In which ways and for what reasons were women and children used strategically in the crusading warfare of the Baltic? Since Henry’s chronicle is as well an historical account as a piece of medieval literature, this paper also asks: May we ‘read’ the appearance of female and under-age victims as a rhetorical and literary device in Henry’s text? If so, in which ways? And what would have been the motives of the author?

Periode	6 jul. 2017
Begivenhedstitel	International Medieval Congress
Begivenhedstype	Konference
Placering	Leeds, StorbritannienVis på kort
Grad af anerkendelse	International