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		Eric Christiansen
Oxford University scholar Dr. Eric Christiansen [b.1937] is perhaps the leading current scholar of the Northern Crusades. He has defined the movement as "the struggles waged round the Baltic from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries in the name of Christianity...The starting point comes at the end of the Viking Age, when Scandinavian rulers found themselves shut off from the long range overseas conquests of the past, and challenged by the newly invigorated Slav nations in home waters." Dr. Christiansen uses the Pope's authorization of a Holy War in 1147 against the "heathen" of the North as a starting point for the Northern Crusades and ends in 1505 at the Russian frontier when the final crusading Bull was issued from Rome.(1) Dr. William Urban has praised Dr. Christiansen's scholarship as among the best in his field, noting, "The best survey of the crusading movement in the Baltic is Eric Christiansen, The Northern Crusades.(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1980." (2) [Continued...] Dr. Christiansen is a Fellow of New College, Oxford. In addition to his studies of the Northern Crusades, he is also the author of multiple works on the Middle Ages, including The Origins of Military Power in Spain. He has also translated the histories of Saxo Grammaticus and Dudo of St. Quentin. According to the brief bio provided in his work, The Northern Crusades, Dr. Christiansen is "Danish by descent and English by education, he has spent some time in and around the Baltic Sea, and has lectured in London, Copenhagen and Florida." [Continued] Northern Crusades- Crusades-Encyclopedia William Urban- Crusades-Encyclopedia 1. Eric Christiansen. The Northern Crusades. (London: Penguin, 1997), 1. 2. Dr. William Urban: An Historical Overview of the Crusade to Livonia- The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (c) Andrew Holt, November 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for eduational and personal use only. No permission is granted for commercial use.