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A Band of Brothers - Military Orders of the Crusades For a warrior in the crusades, it is comforting to have the support of fellow warriors, and in many ways, a military order provided just that. More than that, though, it also provided camaraderie for fellow soldiers and knights, and in some cases may also have provided spiritual guidance too. After all, many of the military orders founded during the Crusades were founded with at least a partial religious basis. Many of these orders are ones that are already known to the people. A few weeks ago, we gave some information on the Templars, and about two weeks later, we followed it up with some information about the Hospitallers - two of the most well-known military orders of the Crusades. Now, we finish off the series with a third - the Teutonic Knights. Teutonic Knights and the Crusades The full title of the order of knights of the Teutonic Order is the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem. While formally founded in 1190, the order has its roots in an earlier order issued by Pope Celestine II in 1143, when he ordered the Knights Hospitaller to take over management of a German hospital in Jerusalem. It would formally be a Knights Hospitaller institution, although the prior and the brothers who served at the hospital should always be Germans themselves, preserving a German tradition in the Holy Lands. Merchants later took up a similar idea and founded a field hospital for the duration of the Siege of Acre in 1190, which became a nucleus for the order. The order was recognized by Pope Celestine III in 1192, and was based on the model of the Knights Templar. Eventually, it was transformed into a military order some six years later, in 1198. The iconic uniform of the order was the white surcoat with a black cross. A black cross pattee was sometimes used as their emblem, and would later become a basis for the iron cross, which was, and sometimes still is, used in military decorations and popular symbols. The motto of the order was "Helfen, wehren, heilen", which translates as "Help, Defend, Heal". |
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| The order was originally based out of Acre, and while they played an important role in the territory surrounding the area, they never quite took on the same level of influence as the older orders, the Templars and the Hospitallers. After the defeat of Christian forces in the East, the Order re-located to Transylvania in 1211 to help defend the borders of the Kingdom of Hungary, although growing power would later see them expelled from the nation in 1226. They would later go on to conquer and rule Prussia, under charters issued by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, in much the same fashion as the Knights Hospitaller would rule Rhodes and Malta in later years. At this time, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order would also come to be known as an ecclesiastic imperial head of state, as well as the sovereign prince of Prussia. Crusades and wars against Lithuania and Poland would follow, with the Teutonic Order steadily gaining in power and influence, until in 1337, Emperor Louis IV allegedly granted the Order the imperial privilege to conquer all of Lithuania and Russia. At this time, they hosted numerous nobles and well-known Crusaders, and reached their largest territorial extant as well, holding the lands of Prussia as well as considerable lands along the Baltic Sea. Such was their success up to this point that some even marked the Teutonic Order as an order of "invincible warriors". |
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The Decline of the Teutonic Order The order's decline can likely be marked by the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, which marked a decisive defeat of the order by a combined Polish and Lithuanian army. During this battle, the Order's Grand Master and many of its higher ranked authorities fell on the field, with an estimated 50 out of six ranked officials being killed. The Polish-Lithuanian forces then besieged the Teutonic Orders capital, but was unable to take it. In 1411, a peace treaty was signed, and surprisingly, the Order managed to retain all its considerable territories - but its fighting reputation did not come out completely unscathed. The power of the order continued to decline due to infighting and financial issues. The new Grand Master was authoritarian and reforming, but was later forced from power and replaced. His replacement, though, could not resuscitate the order's fortunes. Small border territories were progressively lost as the knights were defeated on several fronts in small and moderate conflicts. A big defeat came in 1466, after the Thirteen Years War. The defeated Teutonic Order lost all rights to Western Prussia, although they retained Eastern Prussia under nominal Polish overlordship. In 1525, struggles from within and an issue with Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resulted in the Teutonic Order being cast out from Prussia entirely. From here, the Teutonic Knights attempted to concentrate on their possessions in the Holy Roman Empire. A new power structure had to be created, since the knights possessed no contiguous territories. Thus, a three-tiered administrative system was created. While somewhat successful in the short-term, the long-term saw the Order loosing many of these territories over the passing of years, until only two holdings remained in 1810. |
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Teutonic Knights Steel Battle Shield View Item | Teutonic Knight Pendant Silver Finish View Item | |
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The Teutonic Order Today Militarily, the history of the Teutonic Order ended in 1809, when Napoleon Bonparte ordered the dissolution of the order. It continued to exist in Austria, though, as a Roman Catholic institution, well out of Napoleon's reach. From there on, it was a purely religious order, with every Grand Master after that point being priests. Almost 130 years later, the emblems and imagery of the Teutonic Order was used by Hitler in Nazi propaganda. Hitler envisioned the Teutonic Orders actions as forerunners to his own, and even tried to idealize his own SS forces as a reincarnation of the order. Ultimately, though, he had the Teutonic Order suppressed, as he saw the Roman Catholic order as a tool to the Papacy and as a threat to his Nazi regime. Branches survived in Italy, though, and later, the order was revived in Germany and Austria in 1945. Today, the Catholic branch of the Teutonic Order consists of about 1,000 members. They are headquartered in Vienna, and concern themselves mostly with charitable works and clinics, as well as with some sponsoring of excavation and tourism projects in Israel. A smaller portion of the order retains a bit more of the character of knights during the height of its power and prestige, those being the Bailiwick of Utrecht, functioning more as a Protestant aristocratic society. Both the Roman Catholic branch and the Bailiwick of Utrecht are authentic parts of the original order, but are completely different from one another. |
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