The Order of Chivalry, an organization that probably arose in Western European countries in the 12th century, was first a military organization that evolved from the "Catholic religious order" and was a product of the Crusade era.
Although the Arab Empire had controlled Jerusalem since the seventh century, religious policies were relatively tolerant and Christians did not lose much religious rights. But the 11th-century Fatimid ordered the destruction of all non-Islamic churches in Jerusalem and forbade Christians from making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, a practice that provoked the anger of European Christian states.
In addition, the Arab Empire also occupied the Spanish Peninsula and Sicily, constantly attacking European countries. The contradiction between Islam and Christianity has intensified.
In order to resist the invasion of the Islamic world and expand the influence of the Holy See itself.
In 1095 AD, Pope Urban II's mobilization speech in Clement, France, with the slogan of "reclaiming the house of God", called on the entire European Christian countries to launch a huge religious war, and since then the Crusades, which have lasted for more than 200 years, began, a large number of European kings, nobles, careerists, and "light egg knights" and poor peasants who were eager to change and gain wealth enlisted in the army, running to the East under the banner of holy war, and hatred between Christians and Muslims began to accumulate rapidly during this period. It has not been resolved to this day.
Pope Urban II giving a mobilization speech in Clement, France
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="373" > the beginning of the First Crusade and the only victorious crusade. </h1>
In April 1096, the impatient peasant crusaders set out first, only to be completely overwhelmed by the Seljuks. In August of the same year, a well-armed crusader of knights set out, including 30,000 knights and their retinue, led by Hugues, Duke of Vermand of France. After many bitter battles, Jerusalem was finally captured in July 1099.
The First Crusade against the Siege of Jerusalem
Thus, the Crusaders established four crusader states: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the Kingdom of Edessa, and the Kingdom of Tripoli. The Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted 88 years in Western Asia.
As a result of the First Crusade, the crucifixions were all crusader-founded states, and the white area was the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Although the First Crusade successfully occupied Jerusalem and established several Crusader states in the Middle East, the overall situation remained surrounded by Muslims. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem was fraught with hardships, with a large number of Christians making long journeys to the pilgrimage, encountering constant looting and persecution by the Seljuks along the way.
According to pilgrim accounts of the time, wild beasts and thieves roamed the road from the ports on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to Jerusalem, and pilgrims were often attacked, robbed and killed by Muslim soldiers.
The most shocking massacre occurred on Easter in 1119: on the way from Jerusalem to the Jordan River, 300 pilgrims were killed and 60 were sold into slavery. The tragic experience of the pilgrims awakened the sense of responsibility of the Western knights who came to the pilgrimage.
In order to defend the holy city, protect the safety of pilgrims along the way, treat the wounded who have been attacked, and crack down on Muslim infidels. On the way to Jerusalem, many chivalric organizations emerged, and just under their flying battle flags, thousands of people wore crosses and went to the battlefield, exchanging their glory of iron and blood for tickets to heaven.
Three of the most famous of these were the Knights Hospitaller, the Templar and the Teutonic Order.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="33" > Knights Hospitaller</h1>
The full name of the Knights Hospitaller is "Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem, Rhodes and St. John the People's Republic of Malta", abbreviated as the "Knights of Malta".
Flag of the Representative of the Knights of Malta
The Hospitaller's slogan was "Defence of the faith and assistance to the suffering". The original symbol of the Knights Hospitaller was a white octagonal cross on a black background, and by the mid-13th century it was commonly used in white on a red background, and this octagonal cross was also known as the "Maltese Cross" after the Knights' name.
Guard the faith and aid the suffering
Unlike other knightly organizations that set out to conquer the East from the outset, the Knights Hospitaller was created with a more humanitarian meaning.
In 1080, a group of Italian merchants, in the name of st. John the Apostle, built a Christian hospital in Jerusalem under islamic control (Muslims were much more religiously tolerant than Christians at the time), the predecessor of the Knights Hospitaller. Since it is called a hospital, its main business is naturally to save lives and help the injured, so although the group already has a strong taste of religious groups at this time, it is not related to military organizations.
French painter Signore's "Crusaders Capture Jerusalem", on the right side of the picture of a religious monk supporting the wounded
The transformation of the Order was sparked by the First Crusade, when Jerusalem, which had fallen in 1099, became Christian, st. John's hospital had found a patron, and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in Jerusalem had been founded. Under the leadership of the first head of the regiment, Gerald, the Order remained true to the need to save lives and the wounded, actively carrying out activities around Jerusalem, winning widespread praise among Christians in the Holy Land.
In 1113 AD, the Holy See recognized them as independent religious orders and granted them a series of economic and political privileges, such as no need to pay eleven taxes, no need to accept the leadership of any regime, and only papal moderation. Recognized by the Holy See, the influence of the Order exploded, the hospital expanded, and the Order's creed, "Guarding the Faith and Aiding the Suffering," became the warmest slogan of the Holy Land for a time.
Early Knights Hospitaller logo
It was not until 1120 AD that the Knights Hospitaller began to operate as a military order, protecting pilgrims by force from infidel attacks, and developed into an important military force in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with great influence over the political situation in Jerusalem. King Baldwin III of Jerusalem praised them as "highly skilled, well-equipped, and religious."
Nearly a century after the first Crusades seized the Holy Land was the golden age of the Knights Hospitaller, and in less than a hundred years, the Hospitallers transformed from small to large, from order to knight, with 7 fortresses and more than 140 estates in the kingdom of Jerusalem, becoming a pivotal force in the middle East's military landscape.
Battle of Harding
However, this glory did not last long, and at the Battle of Harding in 1187, Saladin dealt a heavy blow to the Crusaders, and the main army of the Knights Hospitaller was completely destroyed, and its grand commander Roger de Mullin was killed. Since then, the Knights Hospitaller has also gone downhill along with the Crusader cause. The Crusaders and Knights Hospitaller, though still engaged in many battles, never again conquered the Holy Land. By 1291 AD, with the fall of the last stronghold of acres at the hands of the rising Egyptian Mamluks, the hospitallers' last stronghold in the Middle East was lost.
Turbulence on Rhode Island
The Knights Hospitaller then moved to the Kingdom of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, where they established their new base. The Knights Hospitaller had been in Cyprus for nearly 20 years, and on August 15, 1309, after more than two years of fighting, the Knights Hospitaller finally seized Rhodes from the weakening Byzantine Empire, which was the first time in history that the Knights had acquired a truly sovereign territory of their own.
Blue is Rhode Island
The new base of Rhode Island was in ruins, God helped the Hospitallers a big favor at this time, the rival Knights Templar for many years was purged and dissolved, and many of the properties that originally belonged to the Knights Templar were transferred to the name of the Knights Hospitaller by the Church, which was originally financially strained. With large sums of money, the Knights Hospitaller soon gained a foothold in Rhode Island, building majestic castles and bustling ports, expanding their organization while encouraging European immigrants to move to the island.
An old photograph of Rhode Island with an unknown date
The Knights Hospitaller spent two centuries in Rhodes, encountering three major attacks, the first on the Mamluks from Egypt, which was successfully repelled by the Order's courageous resistance. But the Islamic world in the East ushered in a new hegemon, and the Ottoman Empire was rising on the remains of the Byzantine Empire. After the fall of Constantinople, the Knights Hospitaller of Rhode Island unfortunately became the next target of the Golden Crescent Banner.
The first major Ottoman attack on Rhode Island took place in 1480, when Sultan Mehmed II sent an army of 100,000 men to besiege Rhode Island, which ended in failure after three months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties.
In 1522, the Ottoman Suleiman I attacked Rhode Island again, this time with a staggering 200,000 troops. The bloody siege lasted from June to December, with both sides pushed to the limit. The Ottoman Empire on the attacking side paid a terrible price, losing more than fifty thousand soldiers, morale was generally low and the army was plagued; the Knights Hospitaller on the defensive side were not much better, with less than 1,000 Knights left to fight, and almost all the city walls and fortresses had been reduced to rubble.
Siege of the Ottoman Empire
Just as the so-called army that has no salvation must be defended, the City must not be defended, and in the case of the European countries watching from the sidelines, the Knights Hospitaller finally chose to surrender helplessly. Perhaps because of the rush to end the battle, or perhaps it was also the tragic resistance of the Knights that won the respect of the Sultan. In short, the Ottoman Empire issued an extremely generous surrender condition to the Knights Hospitaller: the Knights were given 12 days to pack their bags, keep their weapons and equipment, take away all their possessions, and any religious relics they considered valuable. Churches on the island are respected and protected, and the island's inhabitants can also choose to move out of Rhodes within three years, and those who choose to stay in Rhodes are not subject to any taxes for five years.
Although they were ultimately unable to defend their homeland, the knights Hospitaller's heroic performance on Rhodes elevated their prestige, and the current Grand Master was given the title of "Guardian of the Faith" by the Pope. Over the next seven years, the Hospitallers, who had once again lost their bases, began their journey across Europe.
Storm Malta
Until 1530 AD, with the support of the Pope and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, they "leased" the islands of Malta and Gozo to the Order, collecting only a symbolic silver coin per year, which was probably the most generous donation the Knights Hospitaller had ever received.
Probably such a silver coin
In this way, the Order established its own state on the island of Malta, officially known as the "Knighthood of Malta".
The Turks were uneasy about the comeback of the Order, and in 1565 the Turks sent a large army to attack Malta. The war began with a lot of resemblance to the last one in Rhode Island: the Knights struggled to hold on, most of the cities were destroyed, and half of the Knights were killed. Just when the Knights saw that they could not hold on, a reinforcement army came from Spain, and the situation on the battlefield was suddenly reversed, and the Turkish army retreated in panic, with losses of more than 30,000 people.
This great victory gave the Knights of Malta a period of peace. More importantly, unlike the previous Battle of Rhode Island, the Hospitaller successfully defended his homeland this time, making the battle the most important and final large-scale military victory in the history of the Knights Hospitaller, and the current capital of Malta is named after the Grand Master of the Order who led the army to resist the invasion.
It was also the last decisive military victory of the Knights Hospitaller
In 1571, the Turks, believing that their navy had almost grown, raised an army again in an attempt to eliminate the Order. This time, however, they were even more defeated: before they reached Malta, they encountered the Spanish Armada at sea, and the Turkish fleet was almost all sunk or captured. The Knights of Malta then entered their heyday, and warships with the Maltese octagonal cross marked on their sails roamed the Mediterranean Sea unhindered.
The Knights' rule on the island of Malta lasted until the 18th century, when Napoleon led an expedition to Egypt on 11 June 1798. On the way across the Mediterranean, the Knights Hospitaller was asked to open the port of Malta to supply the French fleet, and the Order agreed to Napoleon's request, but on the condition that the French army must abide by the Knights' custom of not allowing foreign ships to enter the port more than two at a time. At this time Nelson was cruising the Mediterranean with a large British fleet, and such a slow replenishment speed would undoubtedly put the French in crisis in the face of a possible British attack. How could the proud Napoleon eat this set, and the future emperor immediately decided: shelling his mother.
Napoléon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), also known as Napoleon I (
At this time, France's national strength was like the day in the sky, although it was known for its bravery, but it was helpless in the face of a French army ten times that of itself that was about to sweep through Europe. The walls that once helped the Hospitallers survive the darkest years were already vulnerable to the artillery of the time, and a large area of land in the western part of Malta fell within a few hours, leaving only the capital fortress in Valletta to hold. Faced with a death-defying situation, the regimental commander Ferdinand had no choice but to surrender.
The Knights Hospitaller lost the island of Malta forever and once again began their exile in Europe. Most of the members went to Russia, where Tsar Paul I gave them asylum, while the Order elected Paul I as the new Grand Master of the Order.
The official website of the contemporary Knights Hospitaller
In 1834 the Order rebuilt its headquarters in Rome and finally stabilized again. Although the homeland has been lost, life will continue. Since "Defending the Faith" has basically failed their turn to intervene, "aiding suffering" has once again become the purpose of the Knights Hospitaller's action, and the Knights Hospitaller has also transformed into a charitable organization, and the promotion of humanitarian relief around the world has become its main industry.
Today, the Order of Malta remains an observer organization of the United Nations, with its headquarters at the Palais de Malta, 68 Via Condodi, Rome, Italy. Diplomatic power, but sovereignty over the Maltese Mansion remained in Italy, not the Knights of Malta.
Joining the Knights Hospitaller in contemporary times is far more difficult than it was hundreds of years ago, when they did not accept applications and only invited specific people to be recruited. So, to join the Knights Hospitaller, you can only convert to God (preferably Catholic) and then try to make a big splash in your field to get the Hospitaller's attention.
Mandela was also a member of the Knights Hospitaller
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="49" > Templar lament</h1>
Full name "The Poor Knights of Christ and Solomon's Temple"
The Templar order's slogan was "God wills it." There are also Non Nobis, Domine, Sed Nomini Tuo Da Gloriam(Latin). (Give us glory, God, give us glory, not for us, God, but for your name)
Their symbol is a white uniform plus a white robe. After the Second Crusade in 1147 AD, the left shoulder of the white robe was embroidered with a red cross, first an equilateral cross and later an octagonal cross.
Of the three major European orders, the Templar Order is undoubtedly the most famous, and until modern times, there are many games and novels that like to use the mysterious aura of the Templar order to intersperse the plot of their works, such as the most famous Assassin's Creed series.
In 1119 AD, two French nobles, Hugo de Parin and Geverér de Saint-Omo, who had fought in the war, proposed the formation of a monastic council, well-armed to protect pilgrims. The Templar Order was founded very poorly at the beginning, with only nine members. They swore before the bishop of Jerusalem to "keep poverty, abstinence and obedience."
The earliest headquarters of the Knights Templar, the Al-Aqsa Mosque
Because they have neither a church nor a place to live. Baldwin II of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at that time gave a corner of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to these knights to garrison, and it is said that the temple was built on the ruins of the former Solomon Temple, and the monks would be named "The Poor Knights of Christ and Solomon's Temple", which is the famous "Knights Templar". It was the first true Knights, after which the successive establishment of knightly orders began to be established everywhere. (Although the Knights Hospitaller was founded early, it was originally founded as a religious group rather than a military organization.)
Knights Templar insignia
The Templar order badge is for the two men to ride a horse to highlight their poverty (at the same time, it is understood as the friendship between the Templar brothers who helped each other on the battlefield, and one Templar saved the other Templar who had lost his horse). It was only because this badge was too ambiguous that it later became an important "evidence" that King Philip IV accused the Templar Order of homosexuality, bearing in mind that in Christendom homosexuality is a crime against the sixth commandment of the Ten Commandments of God.
In 1129 AD, the Knights Templar also received official recognition from the Church of Rome, which further expanded the Templar order's influence in Europe and legitimized its acceptance of donations from Christians.
In 1139 AD, the Pope also granted them privileged status by edict: the Knights Templar were accountable only to the Pope and not under the command of the king and local bishops; they had tax-free privileges and could also collect tithes in their territories. At this point, the Knights Templar became an armed force directly under the Holy See.
Illuminated by the aura of faith, the Knights Templar grew rapidly, with various forces constantly donating land and money, and the Knights accumulated even more astonishing wealth through large-scale financial services, and France and England even entrusted the king's royal treasury to them for a time.
The Templar Order's banking business was quite specialized, and it had begun to use double-entry bookkeeping and issued a commercial draft with which money could be withdrawn from the Various Branches of the Templar Order, and it was said that many times there were far more IOUs and account books stacked in the Templar base than religious books.
By the end of the 12th century, the Order had more than 9,000 properties throughout Europe, including famous churches and castles such as the Templar Church in London, the Templar Palace in Berlin, and for a time the Order even owned the entire island of Cyprus.
The Knights Templar had enormous wealth
The Templar Order's wealth allowed them to maintain a strong professional army, and they could recover quickly even after heavy losses on the battlefield. At its peak, the Knights Templar had more than 20,000 members and were so rich that the Knights Hospitaller was no match for the Teutonic Knights.
However, money is both beautiful and dangerous, and the endless wealth makes the Knights Templar too powerful, and also lays a terrible foreshadowing for its future end, and eventually it becomes the strongest of the three knights and the first to die.
Militarily, the main mission of the Templars was to guard the Holy Land and protect the Saints, from the siege of Damascus in 1129 to the attack of acres by the Arabs in 1291, the Knights Templar participated in all the battles to defend the Holy Land, although the number of people participating in each battle was very small, usually only a few dozen, two or three hundred people belonged to the large team, but its role was very huge, even decisive, because each Templar had a super combat ability, often one against ten, It was the ace force of the Crusaders charging at that time.
One of the Templar Order's most famous victories was the defeat of saladin, the Muslim god of war, at the Battle of Mongiza.
On November 25, 1177, King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, at the age of 16, led 80 Templars, 375 cavalry, and 6,000 infantry to launch an attack on the 30,000-strong army of Saladin the Arab Conqueror, resulting in the latter's elite Mamluk Guard army being almost completely annihilated, with more than 20,000 casualties. Saladin fled back to Egypt with less than a tenth of his remnants.
Stills of Saladin of the Kingdom of Heaven
However, the god of war was always the god of war, and this defeat did not discourage Saladin, and in the next great war, he gave the Templar Order and the Crusaders, and even the whole of Europe, a very heavy blow, that is, the "Battle of Harding", which completely changed the pattern of the Crusades.
The "leper king" Baldwin IV in the movie
The Battle of Harding, which changed world history
When the wise King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem died, the kingdom divided into two factions vying for the throne and began to attack each other.
This was also interspersed with the personal grudge of the Templar Grand Master Gerald against the regent Raymond at the time, it is said that When Gerrard first arrived in Jerusalem, he became a knight under Raymond, but he was not reused for a long time, and Raymond also promised him to marry a white rich beauty, and eventually reneged on his promise. In a fit of rage, Gerald joined the Templar Order, and soon became the Grand Master of the Templar Order, but he always held a grudge against Raymond, laying the foundation for future failures.
In early July 1187, Saladin, in retaliation for the Crusader raids, personally led an elite force to attack Tiberius, which was quickly conquered, and the wife of the regent Raymond was still in the city, with soldiers in a castle, and they asked for help from the Jerusalem army stationed in Ánfulia.
Raymond, who was concerned about the overall situation, proposed not to move his troops and not to save his wife, he understood that Saladin's mobilization of the army this time was not for a small Tiberias, and had been besieging without attacking to force the Crusaders to leave the favorable terrain.
The Templar Grand Master, Gerald, scoffed at this "cowardly" strategy, encouraging him to support the new emperor Guy to bravely attack and pursue Tiberias to fight Saladin, and the young and vigorous king finally chose this plan that looked more "manly".
From Ānfurya to Tiberias, through a barren and dry plateau, and with constant harassment by Saracen hussars along the way, the troops marched slowly and hard, and many soldiers felt thirsty. Soon Raymond's troops, who were in the vanguard, and Guy, who served as the Central Army, and knights Templar, who served as the rearguard, began to disconnect.
When they reached the middle of Ānfuriya and Tiberias, Grand Commander Gerald made another wrong choice, advising Guy to stop the main force, fix it in place and wait for his rearguard to follow. Raymond, the regent in the front, sent a letter asking Guy to advance quickly anyway, and to reach the place where there was a water source before dark. This time Guy listened to Gerald again and asked the main force to stop at Mariscalcia, after which they could no longer go.
Saladin's main force rushed to surround the Crusaders and set aside weeds, smoke and ashes that made the Jerusalem army even more thirsty, while the surrounding Muslim army sang hymns of praise to Allah, psychologically interfering with the Jerusalem army.
After dawn, Guy organized the Jerusalem army to charge in an attempt to break through the siege, but due to extreme thirst and fatigue, there was no fighting power to speak of, not so much a battle as a cat playing with a mouse in the palm of his hand, and the Crusaders were only slaughtered.
In the end, Guy organized a phalanx to resist centered on the "True Cross". Many knights could have survived the siege with their fast horses and heavy armor, but in order to protect the true cross, they did not retreat until finally Saladin ordered the slaughter to stop.
The army in Jerusalem was almost completely destroyed, and the Catholic holy relic, the True Cross, and the cross that crucified Jesus Christ, were taken by the Arabs and never appeared in history again, presumably destroyed.
The cross that crucified Jesus is the true cross
The elite Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller were either killed or executed by Saladin, but the Templar Grand Master Gerald was not executed, and he was exchanged for a city as an important prisoner of war.
Harding was defeated, the main Crusader forces were almost completely wiped out, and Saladin swept away most of the Crusader states, including the holy city of Jerusalem. The news of the fall of the holy city shook all of Europe, and the pope died on the spot due to great grief.
After that, the Europeans launched eight more crusades and all of them ended in failure, and the Europeans never really occupied Jerusalem again, until the strong "return" of the Israeli Jews...
In addition to the loss of the Templar Order, the biggest damage was the fall of Jerusalem, which had lost its political foothold, and the Templar Order, which had been established to defend the Holy City, was now lost, and its significance of existence became more and more elusive. Richard the Lionheart of England and Philip II of France in the Third Crusade later despised the power of the Templar Order and no longer regarded them as the core force.
In 1291 AD, the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt attacked Saint Jean Acre (Siege of Acre), and William, Grand Commander of the Knights Templar, served as commander of the Christian army, commanding the defenders of Saint Jean Acre. Under siege by the Muslims, the Christian army suffered heavy casualties, and eventually they decided to surrender. The Mamluk sultan agreed, but his soldiers insulted Christian women.
The Templars, enraged, took up arms again. Finally, they retreated to the wooden tower of the headquarters, repeatedly repelling the enemy's attack. The Sultan ordered the wooden pagoda to be burned. The last Templars in Jerusalem were buried in ashes, the Crusader state collapsed, and the original purpose of the Templar Order ceased to exist.
Black Friday The end of the Templar Order
The origins of Black Friday are unknown, but the popularity of the european claim is based on a series of bad things that happened on Fridays, of which the story of the Knights Templar is the most representative.
After the fall of Acre in 1291, the Crusader kingdoms established by Christianity were all destroyed, several major knights lost their foothold in the Middle East, and the Knights Hospitaller and teutonic Knights withdrew to their fiefdoms, established new bases, and eventually developed into new states.
It was a grave mistake for the rich Knights Templars to return to their french homeland: the Templar Order at this time had become an organization in which they had countless properties and great wealth, but the force on which they depended had clearly declined, and the reasons for possessing them no longer existed. Moreover, the Templar Order was still the largest creditor of King Philip IV, and the King owed the Templar money that was difficult to pay off, which put great pressure on the King, and he was always looking for an opportunity to write off this debt, isn't there a saying? "If you can't solve the debt, then solve the creditor." ......
Philip IV, king of France, killed by a wild boar
On Friday, October 13, 1307 (one of the origins of the "Black Friday" superstition), without any prior warning, members of the Templar Order throughout France were almost all arrested and restricted from using any property to prevent transfers out of the country. The reason is that King Philip IV, a "beautiful man" known for his shrewdness and ability, had previously issued a secret letter ordering local officials to open it at the same time and carry out his purges. In Paris alone, 138 members were arrested, including Grand Master Jacques de Molay.
Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar
Then, under the pressure of the French king, the pope was forced to announce the dissolution of the Templar Order, and the King took advantage of the situation to charge the Templar Order with heresy, sending them to the Inquisition on a large scale for torture, including "blasphemy, collaboration with the enemy, witchcraft, cult belief, and homosexuality", and many others died under torture and burning, and other countries were forced by the Pressure of the King, although they were not persecuted, but they also disbanded the Templar Order in their own countries.
On 20 October 1307, Jacques de Molay pleaded guilty to being tortured in prison. He was then forced to write to every member of the Order to confess to these crimes, and Philip IV and Pope Clement V ordered a search for the Order throughout Christendom. Most of them died in interrogation, and the rest were burned at the stake.
Ancient painting depicting the Mass Burning of the Templars
In 1312, King Philip IV forced Pope Clement V to announce the dissolution of the Knights Templar. The Spanish and Portuguese Knights property was transferred to two new orders: the Knights of Montessa in Spain and the Knights of Christ in Portugal.
At dusk on March 22, 1314, the last grand chancellor, Jacques de Molay, was put at the stake. He had angrily cursed King Philip IV and Pope Clement V before he was burned to the stake that he would face eternal judgment within a year! His curse was fulfilled, and just a month later, Clement V died of a violent illness, and Philip IV died on November 29 of that year, supposedly killed by a wild boar while hunting, and many people doubted that this should be the work of the remnants of the Templar Order.
The history of the Knights Templar came to an abrupt end, but for later generations of explorers and novelists, it was just beginning.
Endless legends under mysterious treasures and conspiracy theories
In the short history of the Templar Order in 200 years, there are too many legendary stories and unimaginable wealth accumulated, which gives future generations huge imagination space.
It is said that after the destruction of the Templars, the King did not loot much property except for his debts, and most of the great wealth of the Templar Order was transferred in time, and there are many opinions about where this treasure is hidden.
Fueled by conspiracy theories, there are many more mysterious Templar legends. In the novel "The Code of Leonardo da Vinci", one of the more famous legends is borrowed, that is, the reason why the Templar Order was placed on Solomon's Temple was basically to let them find the secrets of Solomon's Temple.
Legend has it that the Knights Templar found the Holy Grail here, which contains the Holy Blood, that is, the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and the blood of Jesus, which is said to have a very powerful power, and the Knights Templar, as the knights of God, after getting them, took on the mission of guarding the Holy Grail Holy Blood, and with the demise of the Templar Order, the whereabouts of the Holy Grail and the Holy Blood became a secret that no one knew.
It is said that the real Holy Grail has been discovered
Although some later organizations claimed to be the successors of the Templar Order, none of them were widely recognized. In modern times, european and American folk have also appeared the legend that the founding members of Masonics are direct descendants of the Knights Templar, and then believe that Masonics and knights Templar have a historical heritage. However, this claim was rejected by Masonic officials and most historians, so the Knights Templar could say that there were no definite successors.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="142" > legend of the Black Cross: Teutonic Knights</h1>
The full name of the Teutonic Knights is "Knights of the German Brothers in the Hospital of St. Mary of Jerusalem"
At the beginning of the founding of the Teutonic Knights, the Pope approved them to wear the same white robes as the Knights Templar, but with a black cross embroidered on them. Since then, the black cross on a white background has become the symbol of the Teutonic Knights. The cross on the flag of the Teutonic Knights differs from the general cross in that it is symmetrical to the left rather than to the left. Dressed in white, he wears a black cross and a white cloak painted with a red sword and cross.
Black cross on white background
The slogan is "Help, Heal, Guard (Helfen, Heilen, Wehren)".
As the latest of the three orders, the Teutonic Order may not be the most legendary of the three, but the Teutonic Knights as a military friar have probably seen more wars than the Templars and Hospitallers combined.
After the beginning of the Crusades, a large number of European armies and Christian pilgrims entered the Middle East and other places. Both the army and the pilgrims faced serious problems of subordination, and the large number of non-combat attrition of armies from the central and western Europe and northern Europe seriously damaged the morale and combat effectiveness of the army. At this time, knights with certain medical skills and honor needs were assembled and began to deal with the health and medical problems of the Crusade army.
However, the main members of the Knights Hospitaller were either English or French—at the time the two were even difficult to distinguish, and they certainly gave priority to the treatment of their compatriots—the French army or the English army. This greatly engulfed the German army, which was also shouldering important military tasks at that time, and their soldiers also suffered the serious consequences of the insurmounciation and plague, but could not be effectively treated.
In this case, the German nobles did not want to suffer casualties of themselves and their own armies, so they spontaneously formed their own hospital monastic societies in the Crusaders to deal with the medical problems of the German army. Later, this action was echoed by the Great Feudal Lord Duke Friedrich, and with his support and support, Celestine III approved the establishment of the order, called the "German Brothers Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of Jerusalem" – abbreviated as the "German Knights".
On 5 March 1198, the Teutonic Knights were founded in Acre and henceforth used Akka as their headquarters until 1291.
Similar to the Knights Hospitaller, the Knights, founded in war and outside the countryside, provided more and more services to their compatriots, in addition to money and medical services, they began to dabble in the military, protecting their compatriots from attack, after all, they themselves had experienced military training and war, and as feudal lords, they also had enough ability to arm themselves.
In 1197, with the approval of the Pope, the German Knights were revised to the Military Order, and began to pay for the defense of the castles on the front line, and it was from this time that the German Knights gradually became known to the world - but their other name was more resounding, that is, the Teutonic Knights.
Due to the ethnic relations that led to the water, the Teutonic Knights were inherently inextricably linked to the Holy Roman Empire, and at the call of the Empire, the Teutonic Knights received the most urgently needed economic support at the beginning of their existence, and received some small territorial donations in the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Greece and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Frederick II also bestowed the title of Prince of the Empire of Hermann von Salza, the grand chancellor of the time, giving the Teutonic Knights the same de jure powers as the other German states (not electors, no chance of becoming emperors). On Frederick II's journey to the Holy Land, the Teutonic Knights were chosen as guards. The Teutonic Knights, who were originally unknown in Jerusalem, thus became the rising stars of the jihad stage, and their value increased sharply.
The coat of arms also has the mark of Shen Luo
The close cooperation with Shinra became the biggest boost to the growth of the Teutonic Knights, but this partnership also determined that the Teutonic Knights were destined to be more secular than the other two, and relatively inferior in their independence. Since then, the Teutonic Knights have been actively involved in large and small military operations in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and many documents have recorded their heroic battles. But after all, the Teutonic Knights started late and had a thin foundation, and their prestige and actual role in the Holy Land were never as great as those of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller. Fortunately, the wolf smoke of the jihad was far more than that of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Teutonic Knights soon found their way forward in a new world.
Soldiers to Eastern Europe
When the Crusaders reached a stalemate in the Holy Land, the development of the Teutonic Knights took a turn for the better.
In 1211, the Kingdom of Hungary, in cooperation with the Order, "lent" a piece of land in what is now Romania to the Order, inviting it to help defend it against invasion by the Chincha and Cumans on the southeastern border. However, the honeymoon period between the two families did not last long, and the Teutonic Knights, who had first acquired their territory, were blinded by ambition and soon began to want to occupy Hungarian land permanently. Unfortunately, the Knights' plan was eventually revealed, and in 1225 they were expelled and forced to leave Hungary.
The Teutonic Knights had many dealings with the nomads of the East
But the haze of defeat did not last long over the heads of the Teutonic Knights.
In 1226 AD, the Order was again invited to a similar invitation, when Conrad, Grand Duke of Mazovia of Poland, messed up the war against Prussia (which at the time controlled the Region as a pagan native, not later Germanized Prussia), was counter-attacked by the Prussians, who, in times of crisis, asked the Teutonic Knights to help defend their borders against the Prussians on the Baltic coast, and promised to lend the Chelmno region to the Order as a base. At that time, the enthusiasm of the Crusaders in Europe was still very high, and the possibility of a counterattack on Jerusalem had not faded from people's vision, and the Knights' top brass also regarded this as a training opportunity for the future to enter the Holy Land, and gladly agreed.
The style of the teutonic knights flag was passed on to future generations
Ironically, the Teutonic Knights learned their lesson in Hungary, and hermann von Salza, grand master of the Order, first went to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and obtained a golden edict from the Emperor: the Teutonic Knights had the right to take possession of the lands given by Conrad and the lands they had acquired after their conquest of the Prussians, and that attacks on the Knights' territories would be severely punished by the Holy Roman Empire. With a written assurance from Fitre ii, the Teutonic Knights would justifiably occupy the lands they had conquered.
The fourth grand master, Hermann von Sarza, it was under his decision that the Teutonic Knights eventually went to Prussia.
At this point Conrad began to regret it, and in order to avoid the Teutonic Knights taking root next to him, Conrad organized a knighthood, the Knights of Christ of Prussia, to fight against the Prussians himself. This time he failed again, he could not even defend the core of his own territory, and Conrad had to bow his head and concede.
In 1230 AD, in a treaty he signed with the Teutonic Knights, he promised that if the Teutonic Knights conquered Kulmerland, he would give the land to the Order in perpetuity.
In 1234, Pope Gregory IX issued a golden edict acknowledging the Knights' ownership of the lands they had conquered, while requiring them to convert the natives to Christianity. In this way, the Teutonic Knights received a threefold written promise that all they had left to do was to conquer the land, which was clearly their best skill. Thereafter, the development and rule of Prussia will remain closely related to this order.
The Teutonic Knights did not get along well with their neighbors in the southeast
The conquest took half a century for the Teutonic Knights, and the process was so brutal that the Prussians roasted the captured Teutonic Knights directly into their armor with a low flame, and the Teutonic Knights, like almost all military friars, usually killed pagan prisoners of war on the spot. With support from the Holy Roman Empire, the Order eventually won the war, and the whole of Prussia was brought under the banner of the Black Cross on a white background. Some of the prussian aborigines converted to Christianity, and those who did not want to convert fled to Lithuania. The Emperor and Pope also formally made the Teutonic Knights independent after the war, giving them the same status as the Knights Hospitaller of Rhode Island.
Coat of arms of the Commander-in-Chief of the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Road
The Teutonic Knights were recruited in a similar way to the other two great orders, and the main difference was reflected in the origin of their members. Since its roots were in the eastern part of the Holy Roman Empire and were largely German-speaking, although the Order also welcomed people from other countries, its main source of recruitment had a distinctly localized character. In the 12th-13th centuries, about 90% of the members came from the Rhineland, Turingia and Saxony, the vast majority of the members spoke German, and the majority of the members were far less diverse than the Knights Templar and The Hospitallers.
Most of the members are Germans
If you look at the mentality of the joiners, wearing the teutonic knighthood robes is actually no different from joining other military monks. Although it is true that some people joined the Order driven by fanatical faith, a considerable number of them simply begged for food. Here are ten questions that the Teutonic Knights ask during the "interview", the correct answer to the first five questions should be yes, and the answer to the last five questions should be yes, which generally allows us to see what the criteria for the use of the Teutonic Knights are:
Are you affiliated with other monastic societies?
Are you married?
Do you have a disability?
Are you in debt?
Are you a serf? (Serfs were not free men, and they needed the approval of their lords to join such organizations.)
Are you willing to fight in Palestine?
Are you willing to fight in other areas?
Are you willing to take care of the patient?
Would you like to learn the craft of the Knights' arrangement?
Are you willing to obey orders absolutely?
One of the wood carvings of the Order
In terms of internal management, the Teutonic Knights basically followed the example of the Knights Hospitaller. Military training was more influenced by the Templar Order, although the Teutonic Knights added a German ruggedness and harshness to both. The members of the Order lived a life of extreme hardship, completely unable to possess any personal property, not even the wooden boxes placed at the foot of the bed for their clothes. Activities such as hunting and competition are strictly prohibited, and the only legal and promoted entertainment activity is wood carving, because it is said that "this way of communicating with God's creation can better understand the divine will."
(Teutonic Knight's rank attire)
Battle of Chude Lake
Nor did the expansion of the Teutonic Knights to the outside world smoothly.
In December 1237, the Pope of Rome took advantage of the severe blow of the Mongol Crusade in Russia to announce the Second Crusade to the Catholic countries of northern Europe at that time. The first to bear the brunt of the crusade was the Russian principality of Novgorod in the west. But what was special about Novgorod was that the principality could be said to be extremely belligerent, and in the face of such a formidable enemy, Sweden, which had taken the lead in waging the war, was ruthlessly defeated by the Novgorods at the Neva River.
The Mongol conquest of Rus' made the Catholic state feel like an opportunity to take advantage of it
After the defeat of the Swedes, the Knights of Dantiut also began a war against Novgorod. In 1240, the Teutonic Knights captured Pskov, which was so close to Novgorod that the Novgorod nobles had to welcome back Alexander Nevsky, who had been expelled by them. Living up to expectations, Alexander Nevsky led the Novgorods to retake Pskov, but in the face of the prestigious Teutonic Knights, Alexander Nevsky was not absolutely sure, so he had to send small troops to attack the Teutonic Knights to delay time, and then wait for reinforcements from his hometown of Vladimir.
Famous Russian general - Alexander Nevsky from the Duchy of Vladimir
The army on the Novgorod side was commanded by Alexander Nevsky, who had just been restored to the position of Grand Duke of Novgorod, and Dryy Yaroslavich, the Vladimir-Suzdal Grand Public Security Officer, who had come to his aid. For the Teutonic Knights, the Commander-in-Chief, Andreas von Ferben, a knight of the Sword of Livonia attached to the Teutonic Order.
On April 5, 1242, the two armies finally went to war at the frozen Chude Lake. At the beginning of the war, due to the limitations of the river embankment and the narrow ice, the knights simply gave up the deployment of the army, but instead gathered them into the shape of an awl, trying to break the Novgorod chinese army from the front in one fell swoop. Alexander Nevsky naturally knew that these knights' charge had terrible destructive power, so he placed some brave archers in the forefront in advance in an attempt to hinder the knights' charge, but Alexander Nevsky obviously underestimated the courage and skill of these knights. They faced the rain of arrows from the archers and broke through the archers' front, and then rushed into the Middle Army, which was composed of infantry in the rear.
The Knight of the Sword and the Knight of the Teutonic Knight charge
The bravery of the knights can be said to have been a great success, they almost tore apart the Novgorod infantry, but at this moment, the cavalry of the Novgorod army also began to surround the knights from both flanks. As the Knights threw all their strength into the hope of a frontal attack on the Novgorod army, the encirclement of the two flanks of the Novgorod cavalry was almost powerless, and it fell into a state of being surrounded on three sides. Despite the tenacity of the Knights, they fought fiercely against the Novgorod army, especially the Teutonic Knights, whose 20 knights were killed. In the end, seeing that victory was hopeless and there was a danger of total annihilation, the Knights chose to break through and retreat.
Map of the course of the Battle of Chude Lake
Due to the lack of detailed documentation, the specific strength of the two sides in this battle can only be estimated to be between 15,000 and 17,000 people in Novgorod, while the army of the Teutonic Knights was between 10,000 and 12,000 people.
Casualties on both sides are just as difficult to determine. On the Novgorod side, there is no direct record of the Knights, and on the part of the Knights, the Knights lost 400 to 500 Germanic soldiers, of whom about 50 were knights, at least 20 were Teutonic knights, and about 30 were sword knights. Although the total number of 50 people does not seem to be much, considering that the entire Teutonic Knights only have about a few hundred knights, and many regions often rely only on single-digit knight management and town defense, this number is actually a very big blow to the Teutonic Knights. As for the casualties of other non-Germanic mercenaries and Estonian conscripted militias, it is known that the number is absolutely large, but the detailed figures cannot be verified.
The battle also established a great personal prestige for Alexander Nevsky, which allowed him and his son to sit on the throne of the Grand Duke of Novgorod and even Vladimir. Most importantly, his youngest son, Daniel Aleksandrovich, traveled to the small city of Moscow, where he founded the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a small principality that was not yet remarkable at the time, and eventually developed into the Russian Empire.
The defeat at the Battle of Lake Chude led the Order to abandon its plans to advance east and instead concentrate on the conquest of Lithuania. From this time on, the great drama of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" of Teutonic, Polish and Lithuanians was staged for more than a hundred years.
Rise to the Baltic Sea
In 1291 AD, the last stronghold of the Crusader kingdom, the city of Acre, was captured by the Muslims, christian forces were completely eliminated on the Jerusalem front, and the Teutonic Knights moved their headquarters to Venice. However, the doom of the Templar Order in 1307 alerted the Teutonic Knights, who feared that one day they would be behind the Pope and the Emperor of Shenluo, and in 1039 they moved their headquarters again to Marienburg on their own territory, keeping the Order's command center away from threats from other secular kingdoms. At this time, the secular state nature of the Teutonic Knights was also becoming more and more obvious, and they basically no longer relied on external financial assistance to maintain their own operations, as the Knights Hospitaller and other monastic churches did.
Currency issued by the Order
The teutonic knights' worries were not unfounded, and sure enough, not long after the "capital was moved", it was not known whether it was coveting the wealth of the Knights or for some other reason, and the Holy See began to find trouble with the Knights. Fortunately, the Teutonic Knights at this time had the support of the Holy Roman Empire, and with the help of a group of legal experts and theologians from Vienna (for a long time in the Middle Ages, the two were the same thing), a series of accusations made by the Holy See were ultimately not confirmed.
Under the cross, there are power struggles
As the last country in Europe to convert to Christianity, Lithuania at this time had not completely abandoned the original polytheistic belief, and still jumped left and right between Christianity and primitive religion. It is precisely for this reason that in the eyes of Westerners, it is no different from the pagans who ride camels in the Holy Land. And the Teutonic Knights could always use this as an excuse to attack them and occupy their lands.
Captured Lithuanian soldiers and civilians were usually taken back to lands controlled by the Order, subjected to forced labor, effectively becoming slaves, and sold to baltic slave traders when the number of captives was excessive. An Austrian poet of the time once described in his own work the scene of women and children being taken back to the territory by the Knights, who tied two children to a woman in groups of three. These men were clearly not captured on the battlefield, but looted after looting.
Full-body equipment of late Teutonic knights
In 1343, the Teutonic Knights occupied Pomerania and controlled Poland's access to the Baltic Sea. In 1346, the Teutonic Knights defeated Denmark and captured Estonia. In 1370, the Teutonic Knights defeated their main enemy, Lithuania, and the Order reached its peak. The Teutonic Knights not only controlled Prussia, but also blocked the access of Poland, Lithuania and Russia to the Baltic Sea, and had their own possessions in Italy, Spain, France, and Greece.
Once upon a time
Sunset
The march to the east achieved the great cause of the Teutonic Knights, but eventually destroyed the entire Knighthood.
In the mid-13th and 14th centuries, the Kingdom of Poland remained divided, and the relatively weak Poland and the Teutonic Knights maintained a friendly alliance. But as the Teutonic Knights' ambitions for Eastern European territory became more apparent, relations between the two countries eventually broke down and went against each other.
Faced with strong pressure from the Knights, Lithuania and Poland gradually came together. In 1386, jagiello, the 38-year-old Grand Marquis of Lithuania, married Hedwig, the 13-year-old Queen of Poland. Poland and Lithuania merged into one state on the basis of a political marriage, which not only greatly increased in strength, but also the king was baptized as a Catholic, making it difficult for the Teutonic Knights to gain direct support from the Western Christian kingdoms when sending troops to the southeast. The situation on the Knights' borders suddenly became grim.
The Teutonic Knights did not approve of this change, still regarding the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a pagan state, and continued to expand their territory eastward. Under these circumstances, the Teutonic Knights and the Polish-Lithuanian Confederacy were on the same page, and war was inevitable.
Battle of Glenwald
The trigger of the war was a rebellion in the Knights' territory supported by the Kingdom of Boli. Discovering the Polish plot, the Knights threatened to invade Poland without stopping their support for the rebels. In the face of the teutonic Knights' accusations, Poland was bold and frank, but responded tit-for-tat to the Knights' threats, saying that if the Knights invaded Poland, they would invade Prussia.
Every year in Lithuania there is an activity to restore the Battle of Greenwald
War was inevitable, and on 6 August 1409 the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights , Ulric von Jönningen , declared war on the Kingdom of Boli. The special nature of the Teutonic Knights' Military Monastic Order allowed them to maintain more elite troops ready to fight than other feudal kingdoms in peacetime, and with this elite force, the Teutonic Knights fought very well in the early stages of the war, and the troops marched all the way into the Polish hinterland and captured many villages, towns and castles.
However, after the merger of Poland and Lithuania was already a large country in Europe that was not much different from the size of Thera, the Teutonic Knights never achieved a decisive victory. With the passage of time, the Boli side also used its strategic depth to organize effective resistance, and the war situation entered a stalemate.
At this time, King Ventzer I of Bohemia intervened, and the two sides reached a nine-month truce. Both sides, who had already killed the red eye, hoped for a complete reckoning with the two hundred years of accumulated grievances, so instead of conducting any substantive negotiations during the armistice, they used this time to mobilize troops and win over allies.
In June 1410, Teutonic and Poley fought again in a very tacit manner. The forces of the two sides met at Glenwald, with about 39,000 men on the Side of the Kingdom of Boli and about 27,000 men on the Side of the Teutonic Knights. A great battle to determine the fate of the Teutonic Knights began.
Part of the oil painting The Battle of Greenwald
The smaller Teutonic Knights hoped to adopt a defensive tactic, and their troops were equipped with many cannons, but unfortunately a heavy rain on the eve of the battle dampened most of the gunpowder, so that the Knights' artillery fired only two shells throughout the battle. However, their defensive counterattack strategy worked, and through a series of changes and maneuvers, they finally induced the Bori army to take the lead in attacking. With better equipment and good training, the Assault of the Boli Army was completely crushed in less than an hour under the iron hooves of the Teutonic Knights, and the whole army collapsed.
In order to avoid being taken advantage of by the Teutonic Knights, the Boli army launched a fierce attack on the entire teutonic knights. The entire line of troops of the two sides collided together, and a fierce battle was launched, and it was difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat for a while. In the end, the leaders of both sides had to lead the reserves to the field personally, and the Flag of the Polish King was once taken away, and then snatched back in the desperate battle of the Guards. The Knights' elite heavy cavalry also stormed the Polish king, who himself was spared under the desperate protection of his own personal guards.
A set of reliefs depicting the battle
If the battle had been fought, the Teutonic Knights, who were generally more effective and disciplined, were likely to achieve final victory. Unfortunately, the Lithuanian army, which had been defeated earlier, miraculously regrouped and attacked it from behind the Teutonic Knights (whether the Lithuanian army's previous rout was a fraudulent or real defeat is still a question debated by historians). The Teutonic Knights, who were attacked on their backs, immediately fell into trouble, but still stubbornly fought with the enemy on both sides, and the excellent military traditions accumulated by the Teutonic Knights over the years once again showed value here.
Although there was no confusion in the troops, the reappearance of the Lithuanian army left the Teutonic Knights at a disadvantage in both number and form, and it was inevitable that they would be defeated if they were consumed. Faced with a dangerous situation, the grand commander "Ulric von Joanningen" chose to make a desperate bet and personally led the SS to launch a charge against the Polish army in front, hoping to be the first to defeat the Polish troops in front. Unfortunately, the commander himself was stabbed in the neck with a spear by the polish heavy cavalry who was attacking in the charge, and was killed on the spot.
After losing their leader, the Teutonic Knights launched several tragic assaults against the enemy position, but unfortunately they did not return. At this point the Polish army began to swerve towards the two wings of the Order, trying to completely encircle it. Even so, the Teutonic Knights did not collapse, and the troops began to retreat in an orderly manner in the direction of the camp. After reaching the camp, they set up an emergency ring of fortifications around the camp with large trucks carrying supplies, hoping to hold on to the area and wait until dark to break through. But just after the Polish-Lithuanian army surrounded the camp, fate made a joke with the Teutonic Knights, and the entourage that had been left in the camp rioted!
Many of the Teutonic Knights' entourage, lithuanian and Polish slaves who had been taken captive, naturally hated the Order to the bone, while some other civilians from the country had a lot of resentment against the Order's usual tyranny. These cooks, groomsmen, blacksmiths, and servants chose to fall into the well at the most critical moment of the Teutonic Knights, and launched an attack on the Knights inside this last line of defense, and the Polish army naturally did not miss this good opportunity and attacked at the same time. By this time, no amount of military genius could prevent the Order from eventually routing.
The Knights' losses at Grünwald were very heavy, about 8,000 soldiers were killed on the spot, 14,000 were captured, only 1,427 of the main force departing from Marinburg returned, a total of 300-400 officers and generals were killed, the command center, including the Grand Commander, was almost completely destroyed, and the military essence accumulated over the years was destroyed, and the cloud of annihilation hung over the teutonic knights for the first time.
The Grand Commander falls
The Teutonic Knights were in a slump, and military conflicts between the Teutonic Order and Poland and Lithuania continued to occur from time to time, but the Order never gained the upper hand and lost control of the Livonian Order and Riga. Poland gradually regained lost territory and gained access to towns such as Gdansk and the mouth of the Baltic Sea.
One of the remaining Teutonic Knights Castles is in present-day Poland
The two sides finally signed the First Peace of Toruń in February 1411, and as the victorious party, Poland seized a small piece of land in the hands of the Teutonic Knights, but successfully forced the Knights to accept a huge compensation clause roughly equivalent to ten years of revenue for the Kingdom of England at that time, while the Knights had to pay it in four years. In today's view, it was the financial burden of this huge reparation that finally crushed the backbone of the Teutonic Knights.
In order to pay this reparation, the Teutonic Knights had to borrow heavily in Europe, increase taxes, and even confiscate gold and silver utensils from churches in the country, causing a series of domestic rebellions. (with the support of the Kingdom of Boli), years of internal friction prevented the Teutonic Knights from regaining their military strength.
In 1440 AD, 53 nobles and 19 cities formed the Prussian Alliance in Marienborg aimed at rebelling against the tyrannical rule of the Knights. In 1453, the Prussian Confederacy formed an alliance with Poland, which led to 13 consecutive years of war. It was not until the signing of the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466.
The treaty stipulated that West Prussia belonged to Poland as a Polish autonomous province, and although East Prussia was still under the control of the Order, the Knights must be subordinate to the Polish king and no longer obey the orders of the Pope. This article caused great controversy within the Order. Under the external troubles and internal worries, the Knights at this time have reached the end of the mountains and rivers.
Old photograph of the Teutonic Knights
In 1511, "Albrecht", who was born in the Franconia branch of the Hohenzollern family, was elected head of the Teutonic Knights, and in 1525 he converted to Protestant Lutheranism and secularized the territory of the Order, making Prussia his family domain and renaming it the "Duchy of Prussia". Although the teutonic knights were converted to secular aristocrats, the Teutonic Order still existed, and Prussia eventually unified Germany, but the Teutonic Knights gradually parted ways with them.
Fuehrer: Slag!
Napoleon forcibly disbanded the Teutonic Knights after the destruction of the Holy Roman Empire in 1809 AD. Although this order was not fully enforced, and the teutonic order was still organized, it still left the teutonic knights with the last few small pieces of land scattered in the Catholic areas of Germany.
The Teutonic Knights' efforts to regain territory did not stop, but as the Christian kingdoms did when they conquered Jerusalem, the desire to rebuild its former glory was a success. In 1938, Hitler again declared the Teutonic Order illegal, and the Order went underground, and only resumed its activities after the surrender of Germany in 1945, focusing on charity and medical causes, and regaining its original purpose.
The conditions for joining the Teutonic Knights today (renamed the German Order, but also calling themselves teutonic knights on their official website) are more relaxed than joining the Knights Hospitaller, and the only hard indicator written on paper is probably only one: you must be a Catholic priest who speaks German...
Official website of the contemporary Teutonic Knights
The demise of the military function of the Teutonic Knights was a microcosm of the political and military changes in Europe—the gradual replacement of the feudal landlords by the civic class and the gradual elimination of the religious state by the nation-state. Nation-states with vast amounts of property, population, and new technologies completed the purge of Europe like an autumn wind sweeping away leaves, and the decline of the Knights born of religion and feudalism was inevitable.
However, the Knights who fought for their faith still have romantic and honorable colors in people's hearts.