Page "Northern Crusades" Paragraph 32

When the Livonian knights were crushed by Samogitians in the Battle of Saule in 1236, coinciding with a series of revolts in Estonia, the Livonian Order was inherited by the Teutonic Order, allowing the Teutonic Knights to exercise political control over large territories in the Baltic region.

Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, was baptised together with his wife after his coronation in 1253, hoping that this would help stop the Crusaders ' attacks, which it did not.

The Teutonic Knights failed to subdue pagan Lithuania, which officially converted to ( Catholic ) Christianity in 1386 on the marriage of Grand Duke Jogaila to the 11-year-old Queen Jadwiga of Poland.

However, even after the country was officially converted, the crusades continued up until the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, when the Lithuanians and Poles, helped by the Tatars, Moldovans and the Czechs, defeated the Teutonic knights.