The Wendish Crusade of 1147 was a largely forgotten northern offshoot of the Second Crusade, sanctioned by Pope Eugene III and directed not toward the Holy Land but against the pagan Slavic Wends along the Baltic coast. Saxon, Danish, and Polish forces participated under a papal bull that controversially equated Baltic conversion campaigns with Levantine warfare — a theological concession that had long-term consequences for how crusading ideology expanded into Northern Europe.
The campaign achieved little militarily; Dobin and Demmin were besieged but not taken.
The Wendish Crusade of 1147 was a largely forgotten northern offshoot of the Second Crusade, sanctioned by Pope Eugene III and directed not toward the Holy Land but against the pagan Slavic Wends along the Baltic coast. Saxon, Danish, and Polish forces participated under a papal bull that controversially equated Baltic conversion campaigns with Levantine warfare — a theological concession that had long-term consequences for how crusading ideology expanded into Northern Europe.
The campaign achieved little militarily; Dobin and Demmin were besieged but not taken.