Episode 16 – Grand Schemes Fail, 1238–1291 AD

In the central 1200s Europe escaped a Mongol conquest – by the merest chance. The Baltic became (or was made to be) Christian during this period. The Mongol invasion created the pre-conditions for the later emergence of ‘Russia’. Christendom’s internal conflicts continued regardless: in Italy the Emperor fought a war to re-establish the Roman Empire … and failed, politically dividing transalpine ‘Germany’ from ‘Italy. Heresy arose as a whole social movement, particularly in the County of Toulouse, and was exterminated by an internal Crusade, resulting in a further expansion of the French crown’s territory southward. As the Empire, across the Rhine, fragmented, so too did France consolidate and expand. At the end of the century the Crusading movement in the Holy Land finally met its fate, and was put an end to by the fall of the city of Acre.