BruderThe article tells the story of our distant ancestors and brothers. The history of one of the most powerful knightly organizations began with a field hospital set up by merchants.
The name «Teutonic Order» primarily brings to mind the events of 1242, when German knights, facing the troops of Prince Alexander Nevsky and suffering defeat, sank to the bottom of Lake Peipus under the weight of their own armor.
Alexander Nevsky: A Mark in History. What Made Alexander Nevsky Famous?
In reality, the Battle on Ice is just a small fragment of the extensive history of the knightly order, which existed as a full-fledged European state for three centuries.
The Hospital Beneath the Walls of Acre
The history of the Teutonic Order began in 1189, when the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his army took part in the Third Crusade.
At the end of August 1189, the army of the German emperor besieged the Syrian fortress of Acre, one of the oldest cities, founded approximately in the middle of the second millennium BC.
During the siege, merchants from Lübeck and Bremen organized a field hospital for the wounded Crusaders. King Guy de Lusignan of Jerusalem signed a charter granting the hospital the right to establish an inn in Acre once the city was captured.
Pope Clement III, by his bull of February 6, 1191, proclaimed the hospital as the «Teutonic Brotherhood of the Church of St. Mary of Jerusalem.»
On July 13, 1191, after almost two years of siege, Acre was taken, and the field hospital moved to the city, now functioning as a hospital monastery.
The position of the «liberators of the Holy Sepulcher» in the Middle East was always unstable. Therefore, military functions were also assigned to hospital monasteries. In 1193, Guy de Lusignan tasked the hospital with guarding and defending one of Acre’s fortifications in case of an enemy attack.
«Help – Protect – Heal»
On March 5, 1196, a ceremony was held at the temple of Acre to transform the hospital into a spiritual order. Later that year, Pope Celestine issued a bull recognizing the existence of the monastic Order of the Holy Mary of German Jerusalem.
The transformation of the hospital into a military-monastic order was completed in 1199 when Pope Innocent III confirmed its status with a bull.
The order’s objectives were proclaimed as:
- Protecting German knights;
- Treating wounded and sick Crusaders;
- Fighting the enemies of the Catholic Church.
The order’s motto: «Help – Protect – Heal.»
From this moment on, the order quickly established its own regular army, and military functions became its main focus.
Membership in the order, a military-religious community, became extremely prestigious among European feudal lords. Although the order’s headquarters (the Grand Master’s residence) was in Acre, its territories rapidly expanded in Europe, thanks to lands given by monarchs and the territories of feudal lords who became members of the order.
The Teutonic Order, whose members were supposed to be knights of German blood (although this was not always the case), quickly gained power, joining the ranks of the previously established orders of the Templars and Hospitallers.
The order’s statutes divided members into two classes: knights and priests. They were required to take three monastic vows—poverty, chastity, and obedience—and promise to help the sick and fight the infidels.
Unlike knights, who had to prove their noble origin, priests were exempt from this obligation. Their role was to conduct religious services, administer communion to knights and the sick in hospitals, and participate in wars as medics.
Knights lived together, slept in simple beds in dormitories, ate together in a dining hall, and had a limited amount of money. They worked daily, training for battle, maintaining their equipment, and working with horses.
The head of the order, like other leaders, was elected, and his powers were limited by the knights, the order’s members.
Conquest of Prussia
The fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Hermann von Salza, was a man of considerable analytical mind. Several decades before the final collapse of the Crusader states in the Middle East, he realized that the Teutonic Order had no future in the region and began efforts to shift the focus of its activities to Europe.
Several attempts to establish a foothold in Europe were unsuccessful, but the persistent Grand Master was determined and eventually succeeded.
In 1217, Pope Honorius III proclaimed a crusade against the Prussian pagans who had taken the lands of the Polish Prince Conrad I of Mazovia.
The Teutonic knights, beginning their war against the Prussian pagans in 1232, employed the tactic of defeating opposing Prussian tribal alliances one by one, using the defeated as allies in subsequent wars.
On the occupied lands, the order established its castles, securing these territories «forever.» In 1255, the Königsberg Castle was founded on Prussian lands.
The Prussian nobility, now under the control of the knights and becoming their allies, gradually adopted Christianity. The Prussian tribes also began to Germanize—German, without which a successful career in the Teutonic Order state was impossible, began to replace the Prussian dialects.
By decree of the Holy Roman Emperor and a papal bull, Prussia became the possession of the Teutonic Order. Thus, the military-monastic order, absorbing and incorporating smaller similar organizations, transformed into a full-fledged state.
Push Eastward
In the early 1230s to 1240s, the Teutonic Order attempted to expand its territory eastward by conquering the weakened Russian lands, which had just survived the invasion of Batu Khan. The knights of the order aimed to bring the local population, who practiced Orthodox Christianity, under the spiritual authority of Rome.
From 1240 to 1242, the Teutonic knights conducted territorial expansion in the Pskov and Novgorod lands, capturing Izborsk and Pskov. These territorial incursions culminated in the Battle on Lake Peipus on April 5, 1242, the results of which are well-known.
Despite this setback, the order’s influence continued to grow. The Teutonic Order waged a desperate battle for territories with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which controlled much of the Russian lands in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the 14th century, the order launched over a hundred campaigns into Lithuania, seeking to bring it under its influence.
The Fateful Grunwald
For the Teutonic Order, which sought Lithuanian lands, the Polish-Lithuanian union posed a serious threat.
In 1409, a war broke out between the order and the new state union, caused by old grievances. Poland and Lithuania, taking advantage of a rebellion in Samogitia, which had previously belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, decided to attempt to reclaim territories previously captured by the knights.
The climax of this war was the Battle of Grunwald, which took place on July 15, 1410. This battle, one of the largest and most important in medieval European history, ended in the defeat of the Teutonic Order’s army. A crucial role in the battle was played by the troops from Russian lands, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, showing courage and steadfastness at critical moments.
The defeat for the Teutonic Order was crushing: out of a 25,000-strong army, 8,000 were killed, and around 14,000 were captured. Among the dead was almost the entire military leadership of the order, as well as its knightly elite.
And although the war ended in 1411 on relatively mild terms for the Teutonic Order, its power was undermined. The destruction of its invincible army nearly wiped out its influence.
The «Apostate Master»
Massive material losses, the need to pay tribute, and ransom for captured knights forced the Teutonic Order to introduce new taxes on its controlled territories, which led to popular discontent. In March 1440, representatives of the lesser nobility and Hanseatic cities within the order’s territory formed the Prussian Confederation to overthrow the rule of the Teutonic knights. In February 1454, the Prussian Confederation appealed to Polish King Casimir IV for support in their revolution and the inclusion of Prussia into Poland. The king agreed, leading to the Thirteen Years’ War, also known as the «War of the Cities.» As a result, the western part of the order’s former holdings became the Polish province of Royal Prussia, while the remaining eastern part became a vassal of the Polish monarch.
The decline of the Teutonic Order’s great history stretched out over several more decades and was very sad for those who upheld its traditions. The last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht of Hohenzollern, disillusioned with its ideals, converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism in 1525, renounced his powers as head of the order, and declared the secularization of the Prussian lands, the main territory of the Teutonic Order.
This decision was made with the approval of the King of Poland, to whom the order’s Grand Master was a vassal.
The former territories were transformed into the Duchy of Prussia, led by the «apostate master.» This duchy became the first state in Europe with Protestantism as its religion, even though it remained a vassal of Catholic Poland.
Sisters Instead of Brothers
Despite losing its influence, the Teutonic Order retained control over some territories and officially existed until 1809 when it was disbanded during the Napoleonic Wars.
The order was revived in 1834 in Austria with the support of Emperor Franz I. Military and political ambitions were no longer a focus—the Teutonic Order returned to aiding the sick and charity work.
The military traditions of the order were preserved in Prussia, where even the «Iron Cross» order was founded, directly descending from the Teutonic symbolism.
After the Nazis came to power in Germany, there was a glorification of the military history of the order, especially its attempts to conquer lands in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the priests of the real Teutonic Order, focused on charity, were persecuted.
After the end of World War II, the order’s charity work continued. Its current residence is located in Vienna. The residence houses unique historical archives about the activities of the Teutonic Order, which had a profound impact on European history.
Today, the Teutonic Order operates several hospitals and private sanatoriums in Austria and Germany. Interestingly, the modern Teutonic Order is composed not of brothers, but of sisters.
Постоянный адрес статьи: http://livland.org/?p=263