From: Håkan Lindgren
Message: 2424
Date: 2000-05-17
"In 1210 Hermann von Salza assumed the leadership of the Knights, and under his vigorous administration they began to expand more quickly. The Knights also moved their primary field of operations from Palestine to eastern Europe. At first, the King of Hungary invited the order to participate in a crusade against the Slavs, a large non-Christian tribe that inhabited most of the Baltic region of eastern Europe. ---Although the order’s 20th-century presence is modest, its historical importance is large. For several centuries the Knights waged a Crusade in eastern Europe and converted the Slavic peoples to Christianity."Ha ha! By 1200 even we here in Sweden were a more or less Christian people. Perhaps we should keep Encarta away from children...Hakan.