Battle of the Ice

Lake Peipus, , German: Peipussee is the biggest transboundary lake in Europe on the border between Estonia and Russia. The lake is the fifth largest... in Europe after Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega in Russia north of St. Petersburg, Lake Vänern in Sweden, and Lake Saimaa in Finland. Lake Peipus is a remnant of a bigger body of water which existed in this area during an Ice Age. It covers 3,555 km, and has an average depth of 7.1 m, the deepest point being 15 m. The lake has several islands and consists of 3 parts: The lake is used for fishing and recreation, but suffered from some environmental degradation from Soviet era agriculture. Some 30 rivers and streams discharge into Lake Peipus. The largest rivers are Emajõgi and Velikaya River. The lake is drained by the Narva River. In 1242, the lake was the site of the Battle on the Ice between the Teutonic Knights and Novgorodians under Alexander Nevsky. The lake is a remnant of a larger body of water which existed in this area during an Ice Age.
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The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic... military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Swedish and German Catholic campaigns against Russian Eastern Orthodox Christians are also sometimes considered part of the Northern Crusades. Some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th century romantic nationalist historians. The east Baltic world was transformed by military conquest: first the Livs, Latgallians and Estonians, then the Semigallians, Curonians, Prussians and the Finns underwent defeat, baptism, military occupation and sometimes extermination by groups of Danes, Germans and Swedes. The official starting point for the Northern Crusades was Pope Celestine III's call in 1193; but the already Christian kingdoms of Scandinavia and the Holy Roman Empire had already begun moving to subjugate their pagan neighbors even earlier.
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