James Baquet The Teutonic Knights! If that name isn’t romantic enough, get a load of their full name: The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem. This Catholic religious order was originally founded around 1190 in Acre, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, during the Crusades. It was originally a military order whose purpose was to aid Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land; the Order also established hospitals. Since 1929 they have dropped any military pretentions and been strictly religious in intent, though the title of “knight” may still be conferred. They continue to perform charitable work. Things were a bit different back in 1410. The Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War, also called “the Great War” (1409-1411) pitted the Teutonic order against Poland and Lithuania. It started with a skirmish in 1409, when the Teutonics invaded Poland. But as neither side was ready for full-scale war, a truce was brokered, and the real fighting commenced when the truce expired in 1410. The Knights were thoroughly trounced at Grunwald (also called Tannenberg) in one of medieval Europe’s largest battles, involving perhaps 30,000 to 60,000 men. About 210 of 270 sworn Teutonic Knights were killed. Though they lost very little territory, the reparations the Order had to pay prevented them from ever regaining their former power. Back in 1230, the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the King of the Masovian Slavs had called on the Teutonic Order to undertake a crusade against the Prussian clans, a cluster of pagan tribes occupying the region known as Prussia. Having successfully christianized the Prussians, by the 1280s the Order had turned its attention to the Lithuanians. This “Lithuanian Crusade” went on for around a century. Poland and Lithuania were joined in 1385 when the Lithuanian king converted to Christianity and married the already-Christian Polish queen. With Lithuania converted, the Knights’ original impetus was removed. However, they claimed that the King’s conversion was insincere, giving them an excuse to continue their crusade. As we have seen, they failed, and the Polish-Lithuanian alliance rose to greater power thereafter. Vocabulary: Which words above mean: 1. claims 2. not honest 3. fight between small troops of men 4. plan, design 5. arranged, negotiated 6. motivation, stimulus 7. non-Christian 8. set against 9. arranged peace 10. group |