New statutes in 1839–40 limited the knights to charitable and pastoral activities and limited the order’s sisters to nursing. Early in 1224, Emperor Frederick II announced at Catania that Livonia, Prussia with Sambia, and a number of neighboring provinces were under Imperial immediacy (German language: Reichsfreiheit). The crusades, involving many of Europe's knights, lasted for sixty years. The State of the Teutonic Order (German language: Staat des Deutschen Ordens; Latin language: Civitas Ordinis Theutonici); also Deutschordensstaat (pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃ ɔɐdənsˌʃtaːt] "German Order's State") or Ordensstaat[1] (pronounced [ˈɔɐdənsˌʃtaːt] "Order's State") was a crusader state formed by the Teutonic Knights or Teutonic Order during 13th century Northern Crusades along the Baltic Sea. In 1834 the Austrian emperor reestablished the order in Vienna, as an ecclesiastical institution, reserving the dignity of grand master for an archduke of his house. Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg, who had converted to Lutheranism in 1539, was after the co-enfeoffment of his line of the Hohenzollern with the Prussian dukedom. In 1809 the emperor Napoleon, at war with Austria, declared the order to be dissolved and distributed most of its remaining lands among other principalities. Formed in the year 1192 in Acre, in the Levant, the medieval order played an important role in Outremer (the general name for the Crusader states), controlling the port tolls of Acre. [21], In the conflict with the Burgundian Philip the Bold on the Hanse privileges in the Flemish cities the positions of the Hanse cities and Prussia were again reversed. ). Teutonic Order, also called Teutonic Knights, formally House of the Hospitalers of Saint Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem, German Deutscher Orden, or Deutscher Ritter-Orden, or Haus der Ritter des Hospitals Sankt Marien der Deutschen zu Jerusalem, Latin Domus Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum in Jerusalem, religious order that played a major role in eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages and that underwent various changes in organization and residence from its founding in 1189/90 to the present. 1291); (2) Marienburg, Prussia (modern Malbork, Pol. [9][10] Of the major players only Bremen and Hamburg refused to send forces, but contributed financially. In 1408 Letzkau served as a diplomat to Queen Margaret I and arranged that the Order sold Gotland to Denmark. In 1525, during the aftermath of the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521), Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland, and his nephew, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, agreed that the latter would resign his position, adopt Lutheran faith and assume the title of Duke of Prussia. Later (1234), Hermann also secured privileges from Pope Gregory IX, which can be regarded as the second foundation charter of the order’s Prussian state: the papacy was ready to accept the order’s current and future conquests as the property of the Holy See and to grant them back to the order in perpetual tenure. In 1466 it ceded Pomerelia, both banks of the Vistula, and the bishopric of Warmia (Ermland) to Poland (Treaty of Torún, 1466). After the capture of Acre (1191), this fraternity took over a hospital in the town and began to describe itself as the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem. [13] However, when Valdemar IV then captured Prussian merchant ships in the Øresund on their way to England, Grand Master Winrich of Kniprode travelled to Lübeck to propose a war alliance against Denmark, received with reluctance only by the important cities forming the Wendish-Saxon third of the Hanse. Since Valdemar IV had also attacked ships of the Dutch city of Kampen and other destinations in the Zuiderzee, Prussia and Dutch cities, such as Kampen, Elburg and Harderwijk, allied themselves against Denmark. The Knights began the Prussian Crusade in 1230. In the late 17th century Louis XIV secularized its possessions in France. [18] Premium Membership is now 50% off! [20] However, this brought about a conflict with the rest of the Hanse, which was in a deep conflict with Richard II of England, who wanted to levy higher dues from the Hanse merchants, who only achieved an unsatisfactory compromise. In the Teutonic takeover of Danzig, the Teutonic Knights seized the city in November 1308. ), remaining a Polish fief. The chances of reunification were dim, as the various branches of the Piast dynasty pursued their vested interests and further subdivided their lands. In 1618, the Prussian Hohenzollern were extinct in the male line, and so the Polish fief of Prussia was passed on to the senior Brandenburg Hohenzollern line, the ruling margraves and prince-electors of Brandenburg, who thereafter ruled Brandenburg (a fief of the Holy Roman Empire), and Ducal Prussia (a Polish fief), in personal union. It received privileges from Popes Celestine III and Innocent III and extensive grants of land, not only in the kingdom of Jerusalem but also in Germany and elsewhere. Hermann von Salza proceeded carefully, in order to avoid a repetition of what the order had experienced in Transylvania. During the following century the order demonstrated its power by continually, although unsuccessfully, trying to conquer and convert Lithuania; by actively protecting the merchant cities of the Hanseatic League; and by expanding its territories through purchase and conquest. Thus after almost 200 years of Polish suzerainty, Prussia regained full sovereignty in 1657, a necessary prerequisite for elevating Ducal Prussia to become the sovereign Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 (not to be confused with Polish Royal Prussia). It worked to develop the region by building castles, by importing German peasants to settle in depopulated areas, by bestowing substantial estates on German and Polish nobles who became vassals of the order, and by monopolizing the lucrative Prussian grain trade, particularly after 1263, when the pope allowed the knights, who had previously been bound by a vow of poverty, to engage directly in trading activities. Eventually von Plauen was promoted to Grand Master and, in 1411, concluded the First Treaty of Thorn with King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland. In February 1454, the Prussian Confederation asked King Casimir IV of Poland to support their revolt and to become head of Prussia in personal union. [14] [17] While the relations had eased by 1371 so that trade resumed, they soured again until 1388. The shift of sovereignty from Denmark to the Teutonic Order took place on 1 November 1346.[3]. [23] Frederick William, Duke of Prussia and Prince-elector of Brandenburg, sought to acquire Royal Prussia in order to territorially connect his two existing fiefs. King Casimir IV agreed and the War of the Cities or Thirteen Years' War broke out. In 1801 the Treaty of Luneville stripped the order of its German possession on the left bank of the Rhine. A new rule of Nov. 27, 1929, emphasized religious discipline. [6] While the Lübeckers provided the Order important logistic support with their ships, they were otherwise, with the exception of Elbing, rather uninvolved in the establishment of the Monastic State.[6]. Edit The State of the Teutonic Order, or just the Teutonic Order for short, was a crusader state in the Batic lands. This offer was speculative, since Frederick William would have to commit to military support of the campaign, while the reward was conditional on achieving victory. Although the order was compelled to give up only Samogitia and the Dobrzyń land (Treaty of Toruń, 1411), its military might was broken. At the beginning of the 14th century, the Duchy of Pomerania, a neighboring region, plunged into war with Poland and the Margraviate of Brandenburg to the west. The cathedral capitular canons of Culm, Pomesania and Samland were simultaneously members of the Teutonic Order since the 1280s, ensuring a strong influence by the Order. Konrad of Masovia had already called a crusade against the Old Prussians in 1208, but it was not successful. Its major residences, marking its major states of development, were: (1) Acre, Palestine Numerous other attempts followed, and, under Duke Konrad I of Masovia, were intensified, with large battles and crusades in 1209, 1219, 1220 and 1222.[5]. [19] So the Order welcomed English Merchant Adventurers, starting to cruise in the Baltic, competing with Dutch, Saxon and Wendish Hanseatic merchants, and allowed them to open outposts in its cities of Danzig and Elbing.