Where do the Teutonic Knights come from?
The topic of knightly orders draws to mind the Templars, typically enwrapped in esoteric conspiracies of hidden treasures. But what about the origins and activities of the Teutonic Knights?
The Teutonic Knights, or The Order of Brothers of the German House of St. Mary in Jerusalem (Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum), is a current religious order whose first members were predominantly Germans involved in the crusades in the Holy Land of the 12th century. Although a group with the aforementioned title already existed in 1118, it was not until the events following the Third Crusade in the early 1190s that a formal recognition was granted.
Origins of the Teutonic Knights
The first step along the path to recognition occurred at a meeting in October of 1190 with Duke Frederick of Swabia—a son of the late Emperor Frederick I—in which he granted the group his protection and presumably that of his brother’s, the newly crowned Emperor Henry VI. Unfortunately, Duke Frederick died in the siege of Acre on January 20th, 1191 putting a temporary halt to their formal foundation.[1] However, the siege offered the young Order a tremendous opportunity to prove their mettle.
One month after the duke’s death, the process of inducting them as a new religious order began with a preliminary acceptance granted by Pope Clement III on February 6th, 1191 for their efforts in constructing field hospitals for the crusaders stricken with disease outside of the besieged city of Acre.[2]
The years that followed included their involvement in the conquest of Sicily by Emperor Henry VI, and the resulting process of ridding the island of Normans. On 21 December 1196, Pope Celestine III extended another privilege by granting the group the freedom from having to pay a tithe when breaking land for the first time, in addition to funerary rights at the behest of the master of the order.
Despite these confirmations and privileges, the group still did not have a firm footing as a military order akin to the Hospitallers or Templars.[3] However, the failed crusade of 1197 due to the death of Emperor Henry VI in September of the same year yielded interesting results—once more upon the death of a benefactor. The dying emperor had gifted them the Church of the Holy Trinity in Palermo, Italy, and the Hospital of St. Thomas in Barletta, and officially recognized them as an official military order in March of 1198 AD.
It must be noted that the preferred amusement of emperors of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was to spar with the Vatican on all topics. To say that they collided on occasion would be a severe understatement. The Hohenstaufen emperors routinely supported anti-popes, butchered unfavorable clergymen in the streets, drove wedges between the Cistercian Order and the Church, and had a lengthy record of other divergences including numerous excommunications.
For the late emperor to elevate a group of knights to a military order—an ability he did not formally possess—would normally have drawn that new order into direct opposition to the pope. However, an exception was made in which Pope Innocent III elevated them to the same religious level as the monastic orders on 19 February 1199, and granted the legal and religious principles associated with the military orders.[4] This can very well be interpreted as an attempt by the Holy Father to pull the Teutonic Knights away from the Roman-German Kings and into his own camp.
The extent of the Order’s dominion began to truly take shape soon after the turn of the 13th century when the Roman-German King, Philip of Swabia, gifted the knights various properties and loans in 1207, which were confirmed by both the Emperor Otto IV in 1212, and King Frederick II in 1214.[5] However, it was Frederick II who contributed most to the early success of the Teutonic Order by gifting them the chapel of the imperial palace in Nuremberg on January 30th, 1216.[6]
The order expanded itself in Nuremberg by constructing the Hospital of St. Elizabeth, which by 1230 was the largest in southern Germany and quickly became the main hospital of the order.[7] The rapid expansion of the Order throughout the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was in part due to their involvement in the emperor’s retinue—as Frederick II had wrestled them back from the pope. Their first documented high master, Hermann von Salza, was a trusted advisor of Frederick II, who received a confirmation from Frederick II on February 17th, 1217 granting the Order all the privileges that they had enjoyed under his predecessors.
Rapid Expansion
During the first decades of the 13th century, the Order shifted its area of operations towards establishing a presence in Central and Western Europe, rather than remaining limited to the Holy Land.[8] The Teutonic Knights had been involved in the area for a number of years, considering that a commandry in Saarburg had already been established in 1208 by a count from the free imperial city of Metz.[9]
The commandries and castles belonged to Bailiwicks, which operated as mother abbeys do within a monastic context. The members of the order quickly increased over the course of the 13th century, and by 1300 had established 300 branches throughout Europe and the Mediterranean,[10] including 150 commandries that formed the basis of the administration of the order’s dominions.[11]
The Commandries
Commandries served as the first point of interaction between the Order and its neighbors, necessary for the economic development of the order’s infrastructure.[12] A typical commandry consisted of 12 knights and a Komtur (commander), who was responsible for leading the estate and communicating with his superior, the Landkomtur (regional commander).
Within the Roman-German Kingdom, the number of knights at a particular commandry was likely to fall well below the 12-person limit, whereas the limit was sometimes times extended in commandries near Poland due to the crusades against the Slavic Pagans. These regional differences in the local organization of a commandry included the absence of marshals in the German Kingdom, as it was forbidden for a Teutonic Knight to make battle against fellow Christians within the HRE.
The members of a commandry were responsible for the administration of their estate including:
Tax master
Trappier: responsible for the clothing
Cellarer: responsible for the provisions
Kitchen master: responsible for both cooking and baking
Building master: responsible for maintaining the various buildings on the estate
Fish master: responsible for fishing and maintaining ponds on the estate
Shipmaster: only if the estate bordered water
Pietas master: responsible for marking the remembrance of benefactors
Hospital master: responsible for the infirmaries
Additionally, at least one priestly brother was responsible for worship services and for the spiritual health of his fellow brothers
If the commandry had a local church in its possession, it was also the duty of the priestly brother to serve as its pastor.[13] Thus, the majority of the brother knights were monks who spent their days following the Benedictine rule or Ora et Labora (Pray and Work), with the added task of martial training.
Establishing a State
Unlike the Templars, whose fame far outpaced their actual accomplishments, the Teutonic Knights managed to mostly stay clear of intrigue, presumably because they had not gotten as involved in banking as the Templars had. Not owing money and not having the looming threat of constant accusations of usury levied by aggrieved debtors prevented unwanted inquiry into their operations.
Instead, the Order established a reputation of both ecclesiastical loyalty and cooperation with secular leaders. They also recognized that expansion was far more plausible in the pagan east, where fewer Christian states were competing for the same territory. In contrast, the Templars had tried to carve a state for themselves in the south of France—an already hotly contested region.
Although the Vatican supported the Templars, the King of France certainly did not and ultimately devised their rather sudden downfall. The collapse of the Templar Order in the early 14th century and the exile of its remaining knights was effectively a referendum on the necessity of knight-monks throughout Europe. The Western European powers expressed their disapproval of such orders, as they considered them to be chief competitors at best, and enemies at worst.
The situation in the HRE was completely different. Although some princes may not have wanted Teutonic Knights roaming their territories, it was not a serious issue in the least as most of the commandries were built on royal estates and only in counties or duchies by invitation. After all, their more aggressive expansion was in the pagan east where they were more likely to have support of the princes than their discontent.
Complications with Poland
The eastern border of the HRE was composed of a number of principalities including three electorates: the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Duchy of Saxony, and the Kingdom of Bohemia. Other borderlands included the Margraviates of Meissen and Lusatia, as well as the Duchies of Austria and Styria. With the exception of a small portion of the Electorate of Brandenburg, none of these states were located along the Baltic coastline.
Having set their sights on Christianizing the pagan east, the Teutonic order pressed along the Baltic, avoiding the HRE territories and potential conflicts. However, one state stunted their progress—the Kingdom of Poland. The two entities would become nearly eternal competitors, often conjuring antagonistic images of past offenses to the minds of modern Poles and Germans.
Although the Teutonic Order regularly clashed with the Poles, they were inextricably linked both economically and politically. In the mid-13th century, the Poles and Teutonic Knights even fought side-by-side against the invading Mongols, and the two routinely combined their efforts in order to Christianize the pagans.
Next time we will continue our exploration of the Teutonic Order from the Battle of Grunwald to the present!
[1] Militzer, Die Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens. P. 15.
[2] Fendler, Geschichte der Deutschordenskommende Einsiedel bei Lautern. P. 11.
[3] Militzer, Die Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens. P. 15.
[4] Militzer. P. 16.
[5] Burger, „Die Frühgeschichte des Deutschen Ordens und die Anfänge seiner Wehrbauten“. P. 32.
[6] Böhmer, Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV, Friedrich II, Heinrich (VII), Conrad IV, Heinrich Raspe, Wilhelm und Richard 1198-1272. P. 207.
[7] Burger, „Die Frühgeschichte des Deutschen Ordens und die Anfänge seiner Wehrbauten“. Pp. 32-33.
[8] Fendler, Geschichte der Deutschordenskommende Einsiedel bei Lautern. P. 12.
[9] Hennes. P. 191.
[10] Fendler, Geschichte der Deutschordenskommende Einsiedel bei Lautern. P. 12.
[11] Militzer, Die Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens. Pp. 41-42.
[12] Militzer. P. 44.
[13] Militzer. P. 43.
For more reading, check out these sources:
Armgart, Martin, und Andreas Diener. „Einsiedel, St. Maria Deutschherrenkommende, zeitweise Kommende des Lazarusordens“. In Pfälzisches Klosterlexikon: Handbuch der pfälzischen Klöster, Stifte und Kommenden, herausgegeben von Jürgen Keddigkeit, Matthias Untermann, Hans Ammerich, Pia Heberer, und Charlotte Lagemann, 1 A-G:338–77. Beiträge zur pfälzischen Geschichte herausgegeben vom Institut für pfälzsiche Geschichte und Volkskunde Kaiserslautern in Verbindung mit dem Institut für Europäische Kunstgeschichte der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 26.1. Kaiserslautern, Germany: Institut für pfälzische Geschichte und Volkskunde Kaiserslautern, 2014.
Böhmer, Johann Friedrich. Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV, Friedrich II, Heinrich (VII), Conrad IV, Heinrich Raspe, Wilhelm und Richard 1198-1272. J.F. Böhmer, Regesta Imperii, V. Innsbruck: Verlag der Wagner’schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1892.
Burger, Daniel. „Die Frühgeschichte des Deutschen Ordens und die Anfänge seiner Wehrbauten“. In Montfort und der frühe Burgbau des Deutschen Ordens, herausgegeben von Thomas Biller, 1. Aufl., 9–65. Forschungen zu Burgen und Schlössern, Sonderband 5. Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, 2015.
Fendler, Rudolf. Geschichte der Deutschordenskommende Einsiedel bei Lautern. Quellen und Abhandlungen zur Mittelrheinischen Kirchengeschichte 55. Mainz: Selbstverlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 1986.
Hennes, Johann Heinrich. Commenden des Deutschen Ordens in den Balleien Coblenz, Altenbiesen, Westphalen, Lothringen, Oesterreich und Hessen. 1. Aufl. Mainz: Verlag von Franz Kirchheim, 1878.
Militzer, Klaus. Die Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens. 2. Aufl. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer GmbH, 2012.