The Teutonic Knights: Rise and Fall of a Religious Corporation

By Aleksander Pluskowski

Reaktion Books
ISBN: 978 1 78914 868 8

The Teutonic Knights, a prominent military order, were active primarily in the Baltic region but also played a significant role in the Near East and Transylvania. This book explores their origins, rise to regional dominance, and eventual decline.

Excerpt:

The Teutonic Order, also known as the Teutonic Knights, was the last of the great military orders to be founded in the Holy Land in the twelfth century. It would become one of the most powerful religious institutions in medieval Christendom, and leave a profound legacy that continues to resonate into the present day. This book provides a short introduction to the Order, tracking its development from a field hospital established outside the walls of Acre during the Third Crusade through to its meteoric rise in northeastern Europe as a major territorial ruler. The Order came to dominate the crusades that transformed the pagan tribal lands of the eastern Baltic into the Catholic polities of Prussia and Livonia. Here, the Order built a unique set of forti ed convents, including the largest castle in Christendom as its headquarters. This book concludes with the Order’s eventual decline over the course of the fifteenth century, following a disastrous war with Poland-Lithuania, and the transformative impact of the Reformation that secularized its Prussian branch and eventually, in the face of military defeat, its Livonian branch.

Who is this book for?

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the Teutonic Order, offering a thorough overview of its medieval history. It is aimed at readers with an who are starting to learn about medieval military orders, crusading, or the history of the Baltics and Prussia.

“Pluskowski also utilizes current scholarship and the Teutonic Order’s own chronicles to great effect. Throughout its ten chapters, The Teutonic Knights continuously highlights different aspects of the knight brothers such as their transnational character and organizational flexibility.” – review by Patrick James Eickman in Crusades.

The Author

Aleks Pluskowski is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading. His research focuses on enviornmental history, particularly as it related to the Crusades in Eastern Europe.

You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.

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