This article on the Teutonic Order serves as a complement to the previously published one, together they form an approximate portrait of the Order in all its facets. In this case, the article deals with the military disputes and the political development of the Order throughout the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Within the aforementioned chronological axis, it will be necessary to emphasize some aspects that marked the evolution of these military christi such as the battle of Lake Peipus, the war with Lithuania or the battle of Tannenberg.
The Order on three fronts: the Holy Land, Hungary and Prussia.
As commented in the first part of the previous article, the Teutonic Order was born in the context of the Third Crusade. So, its first theater of operations was the Holy Land, where the wealthy and influential Temple and Hospital orders also operated. The Teutonics were always below both in these territories, which does not mean that they did not take over territories in the Crusader states. His properties, moderate in importance and extension, extended mainly through the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as well as in the Kingdom of Cilicia, to the south of the Anatolian peninsula (Nicolle, 2011; 8). His headquarters was the castle of Monfort, until its fall into Muslim hands, at which time he moved to Acre. His role in the Holy Land will come to an end with the fall of Acre in 1291.
But by then the Order had already diversified its presenceacting both in Hungary and in the Baltic theater this being its main stage. Regarding its presence in the young Magyar kingdom, it was short, lasting between 1211 and 1225. The Hungarian king offered the Order the area of Burzenland (a region between present-day Hungary and Romania), where they began to establish a certain control of the territory. However, it seems that King Andrew distrusted the intentions of those he had invited himself, and faced with the possibility that the power of the Order would continue to strengthen and end up causing him problems, he decided to expel them from his lands.
Once they were expelled from the Hungarian domains, the Knights received a request from a Polish duke: Conrad of Mazovia. The motives, causes and intentions that this aristocrat had are still the subject of intense debate (Demurger, 2005; 79). Be that as it may with the Rimini Bull of 1226, Emperor Frederick II granted the Prussian lands to the Teutonic Order. This document has been considered the founding text of the Teutonic State in Prussia. In addition, in two resolutions, Gregory IX authorized the missionary action and allowed the Order to keep the conquered lands.
Much of the success of the Teutonic Knights between 1209 and 1239 was due to the skill of the Hochmeister Hermann de Salza (Palacios, 2017; 375). The Order not only spread to other borders of Christendom, but also managed to gain a practically autonomous territory in Prussia. In addition to this, perhaps the most important of all was the Balance who knew how to keep between the Pope and the Emperorsince spiritually he owed to one, but his political success in Prussia depended on the other.
Prussia and Livonia: context, conquests and difficulties.
If the Holy Land and the Iberian Peninsula had become places where fighting the infidel was rewarded, according to the crusade dialectic, those Baltic territories plagued by pagans were not going to be different. In the 12th century, the Scandinavian and Germanic political powers had long coveted these lands. It will be from that century when the war in the aforementioned territories will be sanctioned as one more crusade.
Early 13th centurydue to the cross activity already existing in the region, as well as the impulse that the military orders had experienced in Europe at the time, two indigenous institutions were created. Its structures and objectives resembled that of the rest of the military orders of Christianity. In those first bars of the century, the bishop of Riga began to constitute what would be the cavalry of the Christ of Livonia or Brothers of the Sword and whose objectives would be: “defend and expand the diocese by the river Duina” (Tyermann, 2007: 883 ). Shortly after, the formula applied in Livonia (Estonia and Latvia today, approximately) would be followed on the border between Prussia and Poland. This was due to the fact that the border was a constant focus of raids and attacks, which led to the creation of the Livonian Christ Militia, also known as the Knights of Dobrin. In any case, both orders failed. The Brothers of the Sword were defeated by the Lithuanians at the Battle of Saule in 1236, leading to their integration into the newly established Teutonic Order. The Knights of Dobrin suffered the same fate as their Livonian counterparts, the reason for this was that they simply failed to stop the Prussians (Pósán, 2001: 436), this being the task entrusted to them.
As mentioned before, the Order was established in Prussia around 1230, beginning the conquest of those lands. The first phase lasted twelve years, ending in 1242. After the conquest of the Prussian lands, the Teutonics continued their war activity in Livonia, a neighboring region of Novgorod. In collusion with other forces, the Teutonics attacked the Russian principality, which called Prince Alexander Nevski out of exile. The Russian prince will defeat the Crusader forces in early April 1242, on the frozen waters of the Lake Peipus. The defeat would end the aspirations of the crusaders and the Order in the east. But this was not all, since that same year prussian tribesspurred on by a Polish nobleman, they rebelled. Most of the Teutonic defensive enclaves fell; those that were preserved were used as a platform for counterattack.
The second phase of the conquest of Prussia begins with the Treaty of Christburg, which put an end to the Polish intervention in the revolt. The Order, aware of its limitations, was aware of the difficulties involved in the conquest of that territory (Turnbull, 2003: 12). Fortunately for them, the King of Bohemia would join the crusade. Thanks to his help, native resistance was crushed and in order to maintain control of the territory the Order built a new fortress on that territory. This castle would be called Könisberg, that is, “the king’s mountain”, in honor of the monarch.
The peace would not last long and only five years later the second prussian revolt. Started in Livonia by the semigalleses and the kuros was quickly followed by prussian tribes. The Order was once again up to its neck in water as it was forced to fight on two fronts, to which was added its manifest inferiority that was to be accentuated after the defeats of Durben in 1260 and Pocarwist the following year. Once again, foreign aid will be what manages to stabilize the situation around 1264. But the revolt of the semi-Galleses would continue, since, obstinate in resisting until the end, they returned to the fight in 1272. fight, brutal and without quarter, would last two more decades, since the semi-Galician only surrendered after being massacred (Demurger, 2005: 82). The remains of this people took refuge in Lithuania, which since then will be the mortal enemy of the Teutonic Order.
Poland and Lithuania, the new enemies of the Order.
Once Prussia was conquered and pacified, the Order, far from dedicating itself to the contemplative life, found new enemies that will keep it busy for a long time. In the case of Polandalthough in his day it was a Polish nobleman who invited the Black Cross to settle in the area, relationships weren’t always easy. In this way, if during a good part of the 13th century the collaboration between Poles and Teutons (with exceptions) can be appreciated, the final decades of the century as well as during the beginning of the 14th century were of increasing confrontation. The causes of disaffection between these two former allies are various and the development of events long and intricate. Be that as it may, the commercial interests and territorial disputes will play a predominant role in that change of attitude. Relations were strained to the extreme at various points, then violence set in. One of the main milestones in bilateral relations was the Peace of Kalisz. Signed in 1343 before the resignation of some Poles who knew they were inferior, this peace meant the transfer of Pomerania to the Order. But that transfer was not the fundamental thing; since what ratified that peace was the enmity between each other.
In the case of the Lithuanians, the Order never had good relations with them. Despite the short-lived conversion of Mindaugas in 1252 and Jagellon in 1386, the Teutonics would never treat them as Christians. the lithuanianswho had been left out of the crusades Baltics until the end of the 13th century would at that time become the main white. The war between the Order and the Grand Duchy would begin at the end of the 13th century. However, it should be remembered that the Lithuanians had defeated the Brothers of the Sword at Saule, and that they had actively participated in the second Prussian revolt. In other words, if it was not previously classified as the main objective, it is due to the existence of other objectives that were considered to be priority, and simpler.
The conflict between both factions brought them to the brink of exhaustion. Between 1305 and 1409, the major military actions amount to 299 according to Paravicini (Demurger, 2005: 296). This “endless crusade” would consist, according to some authors, of Two phases: between 1305 and 1350, when both powers dealt each other very hard blows, but without falling to the canvas; and a second phase that begins with the rise to power of Winrich de Kniprode, the Hochmeister most important of the Order since the times of Germán de Salza. In this second episode, the Order got the better of it, as the Lithuanians only launched two offensives: in 1361 and 1370. However, Lithuania still did not give in completely.
During the time that this endless war lasted infinity of European nobles approached the Baltic battlefields, reinforcing the Teutonic contingents and acquiring fame. At that time, true family sagas were created in which from generation to generation, numerous members of the same family traveled to the Baltic to fight. This practice suffered after the conversion of Lithuania, since the ideological foundations no longer existed, although it did not disappear until approximately 1423 (Tyermann, 2007: 914).
The fact that Poland was at enmity with the Teutonics and that Lithuania had an endless war with them, gave rise to the fact that these two powers could reach an understanding. And indeed it happened. In 1384 Poland and Lithuania restored peace between both; in 1386 Jagiellon, was baptized, married a Polish princess and assumed the Polish crown;…