The Preparations for war expeditions to Lithuania and Samogitia according to the Chronicle by Wigand of Marburg
ENThe chronicle written by Herald Wigand of Marburg at the close of the fourteenth century, when the grand master of the Teutonic Order was Conrad von Wallenrod (1391-1395), begins in 1311. It was then that Grand Commander Karol de Befart of Treviso was elected grand master of the Teutonic Order. The book deals with the history of wars fought by the Teutonic Knights. The rhymed chronicle was written in German and a few original extracts of the book as well as its Latin translation, inspired by Jan Długosz (Johannes Longinus), have survived to the present day. The very first leaves of the work convey an impression of the task of a lifetime that the Teutonic Knights assumed at that time and express the spirit of crusades against the heathen barbarians. This idea predominates throughout the book. Wigand created a knightly ballad describing the events of the war fought by the Teutonic Knights against the Lithuanians and the Samogitians that occurred between 1311 and 1394 in detail and year by year. The chronicle deals with plundering expeditions to, among others, the territories near the Niemen and the Neris rivers and to Miednica district, which was practically unfortified. Such raids were organized twice or three times a year for a century.
