The Treatment of Prisoners of War during the Fighting between the Teutonic Order and Lithuania

The last of the Baltic crusades – a subject about which noteworthy books have been written by Eric Christiansen, ¹ William Urban ² and Norman Housley ³ –was the conflict between the Teutonic Order in Prussia–Livonia and Lithuania. It lasted over a century, until the heathens converted in 1387. In his chronicle, Peter of Dusburg entitled one chapter, which concerns developments in 1283 on the occasion of the suppression of the final important uprising of the oppressed native Prussians, 'Here the Prussian war ends and the war against the Lithuanians begins' (Explicit bellum Prussie, incipit bellum Lethowinorum). ⁴ Thenceforth, the Teutonic Order was only able to fulfil the mission, 'Fighting for the Faith', that had been bestowed upon it by the pope and the emperor, by means of war with its eastern neighbour, Lithuania.