546 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE teenth century saw the Knights at the height of their power and constantly campaigning against the Lithuanians. Their territory extended along the Baltic coast from West Prussia to the Gulf of Finland. But the conversion of the Lithuanians deprived them of the excuse for any further conquests, and the union after 1386 of Poland and Lith- uania under one ruler produced a neighbor who was too strong for them. In the fifteenth century they were de- feated by Poland and their power was confined to East Prus- sia where it had started. We have not time to consider in detail the medieval his- tory of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Their kings were The three elected, as was the custom also in Poland, Bo- ^an king" hernia, and Hungary. The clergy and nobility doms as a rule during this period increased in landed property and political power at the expense both of the Crown and the mass of peasant proprietors, who tended to sink toward serfdom. Trade was in the hands of the Han- seatic League and the chief towns passed under German influence. For the rest, the course of events in these North- ern lands bore a general resemblance to that in other European countries. They felt the influence of the Hil- debrandine reforms in the Church and of the Cistercian monks; they participated in the crusades and sent scholars to Paris and other universities; they had their troubles with papal legates and interdicts, with unpalatable royal tax- ation and depreciation of the coinage. Save for Norse and Icelandic literature, they were somewhat behind the devel- opment of civilization in western and southern Europe. For instance, while Sweden was nominally converted at the beginning of the eleventh century, the faith was not really spread throughout the land nor the Church thoroughly organized until the middle of the twelfth cen- tury. Similarly the first Scandinavian universities were founded at Upsala in 1476 and at Copenhagen in 1479. Denmark was a great power from 1 182 to 1223, with sway over such cities as Hamburg and Lubeck and over the re- gions of Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Pomerelia, Prussia, and
