Teutonic Knights

From Free net encyclopedia

The Teutonic Order (German: Deutscher Orden, "German Order"; Latin: Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Ierosolimitanorum, "Order of the Teutonic House of Mary in Jerusalem"; Hungarian: Német Lovagrend, "German Knighthood"; Polish: Zakon Krzyżacki, "Order of the Crossbearers") was a German crusading military order under Roman Catholic religious vows formed at the end of the 12th century in Acre in Palestine. They wore white surcoats with a black cross. Image:Teutonic order charge.jpg

After Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Transylvania in 1211, but were expelled in 1225. The knights moved to Prussia, where they created the independent Teutonic Order state. After basing itself in Prussia, the Order became involved against the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in brutal campaigns in which it was often the aggressor.

In 1410 a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg). The Order steadily declined until 1525 when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism to become Duke of Prussia. The Grand Masters continued to preside over the Order's considerable holdings in Germany until 1809, when Napoleon ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. The Order continued to exist, headed by Habsburgs through the First World War, and today operates primarily with charitable aims.

1 History
2 Quote
3 Cultural references
4 Grand Masters (Hochmeister) of the Teutonic Order, 1198–present
5 See also
6 Coat of arms gallery
7 Castles of the Teutonic Order
8 Teutonic seals and coins
9 References
10 External links

[edit]

History

Image:Marienburg 2004 Panorama.jpg

[edit]

Foundation

The Order was formed in 1190 by German merchants in Palestine to give medical aid to pilgrims at the holy places. They received Papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Latin Christianity. They were based at Acre.

When the mission of the Order in Palestine was nearing its end, the Teutonic Knights moved their headquarter to Venice and offered their services to Christian rulers confronted with hostile non-Christian neighbors. In 1211, Andrew II of Hungary accepted their services and granted them the district of Burzenland in Transylvania. Andrew had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter with the son of Hermann, the Landgrave of Thuringia, whose vassals included the family of Hermann of Salza, the new Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. Led by a brother called Theoderich, the Order defended Hungary against the neighbouring Cumans. In 1224 they petitioned Pope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of the Papal See, rather than of the King of Hungary. King Andrew responded by expelling them in 1225.

[edit]

Teutonic Order in Prussia

Image:Peter Janssen, Kaiser Friedrich II.jpg

In 1226 Konrad I, duke of Masovia in west-central Poland, appealed to the Knights to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic Prussians. Konrad agreed to allow the Teutonic Knights the usage of Chełmno Land as a base for the duration of their campaign against the Old Prussians. The Teutonic Order waited until they received official imperial authorisation. With the Golden Bull of Rimini, Emperor Frederick II bestowed the Order a special imperial privilege for the possession of Prussia including Chełmno Land. Soon the Teutonic Knights assimilated the smaller Order of Dobrzyń, which had been established earlier by Konrad. The conquest of Prussia was accomplished with great bloodshed over more than 50 years, during which native Prussians who remained unbaptised either fell in battle, were subjugated, enslaved, or forced into exile. Christianized Prussians received the same rights as the newcomer settlers from other parts of the Empire. The conversion to Christianity was largely nominal and usually did not entail more than baptism. The Teutonic Knights were sometimes unwilling to convert pagans, as non-Christians could be used for labor. The Order transferred its headquarters to the brick castle of Marienburg (Malbork) on the Nogat River south of Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1309. Image:Zamek krzyzacki w Malborku.jpg

The Order ruled Prussia under permits issued by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor as a sovereign monastic state, comparable to the arrangement of the Knights Hospitallers in Rhodes and later in Malta. Previous documents in 1224 had put the inhabitants of "Terra Prussia"' as Reichsfreie, or under authority of only the emperor and the empire.Template:Citation needed

In order to make up for losses from plague and to replace the partially exterminated native population, the Order encouraged the immigration of thousands of colonists from the Holy Roman Empire (mostly Germans, Flemish, and Dutch) and from Masovia (Masovians, the later Masurians). The surviving Old Prussians were gradually assimilated through Germanization. The settlers founded numerous towns and cities atop former Prussian settlements. They also built a number of castles (Ordensburgen) from which the Order could defeat uprisings of Old Prussians, as well as continue its attacks on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, with whom the Order was often at war during the 14th and 15th centuries. Major towns founded by the Order included Königsberg, founded in 1255 in honor of King Otakar II of Bohemia atop a destroyed Prussian settlement, Allenstein, Elbing, and Memel. Because western Lithuania (most of modern Lithuania) remained non-Christian until the end of the 14th century, much later than the rest of eastern Europe, many knights from western European countries such as England and France journeyed to Prussia to participate in the seasonal campaigns (reyse or Reise) against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Some of these knights and nobles campaigned against pagans to obtain remission for their sins, while others fought to gain military experience.

Image:Krzyzac3.jpg

When the Livonian Order was absorbed into the Teutonic Order in 1237, its territorial rule extended over Prussia, Livonia, Semigalia, and Estonia. Their next aim was to convert Orthodox Russia to Roman Catholicism, but after the knights suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle on Lake Peipus (1242) at the hands of Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod, the idea had to be dropped.

In 1337 Emperor Louis IV allegedly granted the Order the imperial privilege to conquer all Lithuania and Russia. King Albert of Sweden conceded Gotland to the Order as a pledge (similar to a fiefdom), with the understanding that they would eliminate the piratical Victual Brothers from their strategic island base. An invasion force under Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen conquered the island in 1398, destroyed Visby, and drove the Victual Brothers out of Gotland and the Baltic Sea.

In 1386 Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, was baptised into Christianity and married Queen Jadwiga of Poland, thus becoming Władysław II, King of Poland. This initiated an alliance between the two countries and created a potentially formidable opponent for the Teutonic Knights. The Order managed to play Jogaila and his cousin Vytautas against each other, but this strategy failed as Vytautas began to suspect the Order was planning to annex parts of his territory.

The baptism of Władysław II allowed the official conversion of Lithuania to Christianity. Although the crusading rationale for the Order's state had ended as Prussia and Lithuania had become officially Christian, the Order's attacks against Poland and Lithuania continued unabated. According to historian Charles Pichel, it is a fair assessment that by the time the Order was situated in Prussia, it was more interested in the power, lands and plunder attained through warfare than the spreading of a Christian faith that was largely already in place.Template:Ref

[edit]

Battle of Grunwald / Tannenberg

Image:Grunwald bitwa.jpg

In 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald (also known as the battle of Tannenberg), a united Polish-Lithuanian army, led by Władysław Jagiełło and Vitautas, decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power. The Grand Master, Ulrich von Jungingen, and most of the Order's higher dignitaries fell on the battlefield (50 out of 60). The Polish-Lithuanian army then besieged the capital of the Order, Marienburg (Malbork) castle, but was unable to take it. When peace was made, the Order managed to retain essentially all of its territories. The Order was forced to put in place high taxation to pay an indemnity equivalent to £850,000, but did not give the cities sufficient requested representation.

In 1454 the gentry and burghers of western Prussia rose up against the Order in the "War of the Cities" or Thirteen Years' War, at the end of which the Order recognized the Polish crown's rights over Prussia's western half (subsequently Royal Prussia) while retaining eastern Prussia under nominal Polish overlordship (Second Treaty of Toruń, 1466).

[edit]

End of the Monastic state in Prussia

Image:Grunwald Wojciech Kossak.jpg

Eastern Prussia (subsequently Ducal Prussia) was also lost to the Order when in 1525 its Grand Master, Albert of Brandenburg, after another unsuccessful war with Poland, converted to Lutheranism and assumed from the Polish king the title and rights of hereditary Duke of Prussia as a vassal of the Polish Crown.

A new Grand Magistery was then established in Mergentheim in Württemberg, and the Grand Masters, often members of the great German families (and, after 1761, by members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine), continued to preside over the Order's considerable holdings in Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings.

The order, headed by Habsburgs through the First World War, today operates primarily as a charitable organization.

[edit]

Quote

Description of conditions between the Teutonic Knights and the Lithuanians, from The Teutonic Order of Holy Mary in Jerusalem by Guy Stair Sainty:

Enslavement of pagan prisoners by the knights was likewise seen as perfectly acceptable, non-Christians not being considered to have the same rights as Christians. A description by an Austrian poet, Peter Suchenwirt, quoted by Ekdahl, [13] well illustrates these horrifying events, not so dissimilar, perhaps, to recent events in Bosnia Herzegovina: "Women and children were taken captive; What a jolly medley could be seen: Many a woman could be seen, Two children tied to her body, One behind and one in front; On a horse without spurs Barefoot had they ridden here; The heathens were made to suffer: Many were captured and in every case, Were their hands tied together They were led off, all tied up - Just like hunting dogs". One can only wonder at the astonishing use of the word "jolly"! These slaves were then used to supplement the local labor force but, usefully did not require payment and so were often preferred to the Prussian natives who needed to be paid or granted land. By enslaving the Lithuanian prisoners as much needed manual laborers, there ceased to be any incentive to convert them as, once they became Christians, they could no longer be abused in this fashion.

[edit]

Cultural references

The Order and its relations with its neighbours (Poland, Masovia, and Lithuania) are the main subject of the novel Krzyżacy (or, in English, The Knights of the Cross) by the Polish author and Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.
During World War II, Nazi propaganda and ideology made frequent use of the Teutonic Knights' imagery, as the Nazis saw the Knights' actions as a forerunner of the Nazi conquests for Lebensraum.
The Order also appears in James A. Michener's fictitious novel Poland, who wrote in the book that Poland should have conquered Prussia.

[edit]

Grand Masters (Hochmeister) of the Teutonic Order, 1198–present

Image:Feldaltar MK1888.png

Heinrich I Walpot von Bassenheim 1198–1200
Otto von Kerpen 1200–1206
Heinrich II von Tunna 1206–1209
Hermann von Salza 1209–1239
Konrad I of Thuringia 1239–1240

Image:TeutonicCoA.png

Gerhard von Malberg 1241–1244
Heinrich III von Hohenlohe 1244–1249
Günther von Wüllersleben 1249–1253
Poppo von Osterna 1253–1257
Hanno von Sangershausen 1257–1274
Hartmann von Helbrungen 1274–1283
Burkhard von Schwanden 1283–1290
Konrad II von Feuchtwangen 1290–1297
Gottfried von Hohenlohe 1297–1302
Siegfried von Feuchtwangen 1302–1310
Karl von Trier 1311–1324
Werner von Orselen 1324–1330
Luther von Braunschweig, aka Lothar 1331–1335
Dietrich von Altenburg 1335–1341
Ludolf Konig von Wattzau 1342–1345
Heinrich IV Dusener von Arfberg 1345–1351
Winrich von Kniprode 1351–1382
Konrad III Zollner von Rothstein 1382–1390
Konrad IV von Wallenrode 1391–1393
Konrad V von Juningen 1393–1407
Ulrich von Jungingen 1407–1410
Heinrich von Plauen 1410–1413
Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg 1414–1422
Paul Belenzer von Ruszdorf 1423–1440
Konrad VI von Erlichshausen 1441–1449
Ludwig von Erlichshausen 1450–1467
Heinrich VI von Reuss 1467–1470
Heinrich VII Reffle von Richtenberg 1470–1477
Martin Truchsetz von Wetzhausen 1477–1489
Johann von Tieffen 1489–1497
Friedrich of Saxony 1497–1510
Albrecht of Brandenburg 1510–1525
Walter von Cronberg 1527–1543
Wolfgang Schutzbar 1543–1566
Georg Hundt von Weckheim 1566–1572
Heinrich VIII von Bobenhausen 1572–1590
Maximilian of Austria Habsburg 1590–1618
Karl I of Austria 1619–1624
Johann Eustach von Westernach 1625–1627
Johann Kaspar I von Stadion 1627–1641
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria 1641–1662
Karl Josef of Austria 1662–1664

Image:Bruno Platter.jpg

Johann Kaspar II von Ampringen 1664–1684
Ludwig Anton of Palatinate–Neuburg 1685–1694
Ludwig Franz of Palatinate–Neuburg 1694–1732
Klemens August of Bavaria 1732–1761
Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine 1761–1780
Maximilian Franz of Austria 1780–1801
Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria 1801–1804
Anton Viktor of Austria 1804–1835 (becomes hereditary to Imperial House of Austria)
Maximilian of Austria–Este 1835–1863
Wilhelm Franz Karl of Austria 1863–1894
Eugen Ferdinand Pius Bernhard of Austria 1894–1923 (end of hereditary status)
Dr. Norbert Klein 1923–1933
Paul Heider 1933–1936
Robert Schälzky 1936–1948
Dr. Marian Tumler 1948–1970
Ildefons Pauler 1970–1988
Dr. Arnold Othmar Wieland 1988–2000
Dr. Bruno Platter 2000–present

[edit]

Coat of arms gallery

[edit]

Castles of the Teutonic Order

Castle Marienburg in Malbork, Poland.	Castle Marienburg in Malbork, Poland.	Castle Marienburg in Malbork, Poland.	Castle Marienburg in Malbork, Poland; inside the Grand Master's Palace.
Castle in Golub-Dobrzyń, Poland.	Castle in Alden Biesen in Bilzen, Belgium.	Bran Castle in Bran, Romania	Tower in Acre, Israel.

[edit]

Teutonic seals and coins

[edit]

References

Template:Note Pichel, Charles L. Thourot (1975) Samogitia. Wilkes-Barre, PA, Maltese Cross Press.
Military Heritage did a feature on the Battle of Lake Peipus and the holy Knights Templar and the monastic knighthood Hospitallers (Terry Gore, Military Heritage, August 2005, Volume 7, No. 1, pp.28 to 33).
Sainty, Guy Stair, The Teutonic Order of Holy Mary in Jerusalem, as accessed 19 October 2005

[edit]