Teutonic Knights

The Teutonic Order (German: Deutscher Orden; Latin: Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum; Hungarian: Német Lovagrend-German Knighthood; Polish Zakon Krzy?acki - The Order of the Cross ) 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 coats with a black cross. After Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, they moved to Transylvania in 1211, but were expelled in 1225. The knights moved to northern Poland, where they soon created the independent Teutonic Order state. The aggression of the Order posed a threat to the neighbouring states, especially Poland and Lithuania. In 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg), a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power. The power of the Order steadily declined until 1525 when its Grand Master, Albert of Brandenburg, converted to Lutheranism and assumed the title and rights of hereditary 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. However, the order continued to exist, headed by Habsburgs through the First World War, and today operates primarily with charitable aims.

Cultural references

The Order and its relations with its neighbours (Poland, the Duchy of Masovia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) are the main subject of a novel Krzy?acy (or, in English, The Knights of the Cross) by the Polish author and Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Related Topics:
Poland - Masovia - Grand Duchy of Lithuania - Novel - English - Nobel Prize - Henryk Sienkiewicz

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