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The Teutonic Order, whose full name was the House of the Hospitalers of Saint Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem,was founded in Palestine in 1190 during the siege of Acre, when a hospital brotherhood was established to protect piligrims coming from the German state and to care for the many crusaders. It was given a building after the conquest of the city, and in 1198 was turned into a military-monastic order on the model of the Hospitallers of Saint John and the Templars. This creation reflected the growing involvement of the Hohenstaufen dynasty in the Holy Land. Like the Templars, the German monk- knights developed far beyond their initial purpose. They were called Knights of the Cross, as they wore white coats with black crosses on them.
The Knights' ambition was to establish their own ideal Order Country. When their attempts to do so in Hungary failed, the Knights came to an agreement with the Polish Prince Conrad of Mazovia, who had fought with pagan Prussia, which had been tormenting Polish territories for years.
It was 1226 when the Polish Duke of Mazowsze (Mazovia), Konrad Mazowiecki invited the Teutonic Order into the lands of Chelmno, on the river Wisla (Vistula), expecting the Order's help in their struggles against pagan Prussians. The knights came to the Polish territories and in 1231 crossed the Vistula River in a place where they later founded a town called Torun.
Malbork, whose German name is Marienburg, meaning Mary's castle, became the capital of their country. The site was carefully chosen, making use of the defensive properties of a peninsula formed on the Nogat River and the nearby swamplands.
| Grand Master Hermann von Salza had brought his first German knights to Poland that same year, with the presumed intention of staying a year or two. Nearly two hundred years later they owned most of the Baltic coast, including the lands of Latvia and Estonia, and showed every intention of soon controlling of Polish Kingdom and even Grand Duchy of Lithuania. |
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The Teutonic Knights achieved excellent diplomatic relations with other western countries, and developed a particularly good relationship with the papacy. They seemed destined to control and occupy the whole of Eastern Europe, and acted under a commission signed by the Pope, ordering them to Christianise the pagan lands in the Baltic Region. No matter how they behaved, they could always claim that they acted under Papal authority, and with the approval of God Himself.
next page: Teutonic Knights in Prussian
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Links about Teutonic Order:
Teutonic Order by F. Velde with links to Heraldica and Glossary