increasingly ascendant, working their way steadily southward until by 1252 only the emirate of Granada in the far south of the peninsula remained under Islamic rule. Meanwhile, in northern Europe, crusading became effectively permanent, as the Teutonic Knights put down roots in frontier country and led annual raids into pagan lands around the Baltic regions known generically as Prussia, to convert unbelievers by force and carve out new estates for Christian secular lords and bishops. This was a slow but ultimately successful process, which for a time created a military crusader state in the
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