She had no orders of chivalry, had taken no part in the Crusades, the far-off echoes of which had fallen upon unheeding ears.

The Russians could defend with desperate courage their own flimsy fortifications of wood, earth, and loose stones; but they could not pull down with ropes the solid German fortresses of stone and cement, and their spears were ineffectual upon the shining armor.

Their conquest was inevitable; the conquered territory being divided between the knights and the Latin Church.

So Koenigsberg and many other Russian towns were captured and then Teutonized, by joining them to the cities of Lubeck, Bremen, Hamburg, etc., in the "Hanseatic League." This conquest was of less future importance to Russia than to Western Europe.

It contained the germ of much history.