The crusaders of northern Germany never went to the Holy Land at all; they were allowed the crusaders' privileges for attacking the Wends to the east of the Elbe - a fact which at once attests the cleavage between northern and southern Germany (intensified of late years by the war of investitures), and anticipates the age of the Teutonic knights and their long Crusade on the Baltic. The crusaders of the Low Countries and of England took the sea route, and attacked and captured Lisbon on their way, thus helping to found the kingdom of Portugal, and achieving the one real success which was gained by the Second Crusade.
What the Northmen were to the Western powers in the 8th and 9th the Wends were to the Scandinavian lands in the 11th and 12th centuries.
The stronghold of the Wends was the isle of Riigen.
Both places were captured in 1169 by a great expedition under the command of Valdemar and Absalon; the hideous colossal idol of Riigievit was chopped into firewood for the Danish caldrons, and the Wends were christened at the point of the sword and placed beneath the jurisdiction of the see of Roskilde.
The original Wends were gradually fused with the later Saxons, although the Platea Slavonica, mentioned in 1475, was still distinguished as the Wenden Strasse in 1567.
