CHAPTER TWO
THE EARLY YEARS OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER
The Third Crusade (1189-1191) had been expected to be the most glorious
triumph that German arms had ever achieved. The indomitable redbearded Hohenstaufen,
Friedrich Barbarossa, had brought his imperial army intact across the Balkans and Asia
Minor--where the Second Crusade had come to grief, had smashed the Turkish forces that
blocked the land route east from Constantinople for a century, and had crossed the
difficult Cilician mountain passes leading into the Syria, whence his army could pass
easily into the Holy Land. There he was expected to lead the combined armies of the Holy
Roman Empire, France, and England to recover the lost ports, thereby opening the way for
trade and reinforcements, after which he would lead the Christian forces on to the
liberation of Jerusalem. Instead, he drowned in a small mountain stream. His vassals
dispersed, some hurrying back to Germany because their presence was required at the
election of the German king (Friedrich's son Heinrich VI), others because they anticipated
a civil war in which they might lose their lands to the Welfs or win their lands. Only a
few great nobles and prelates honored their vows by continuing their journey on to Acre,
then besieged by crusader armies from France and England which were suffering terrible
agonies from heat and disease. For the newly arrived Germans the psychological torment may
have been worse than the physical. Richard the Lionheart, the English king who was winning
immortal fame at Acre, hated those Hohenstaufen vassals who had driven his Welf
brother-in-law, Heinrich the Lion, into exile a few years before, and he missed few
opportunities to insult or humiliate them. Richard recovered Acre but little more. The
French king, Phillip Augustus, went home, angry at his repeated insults, and most Germans
left, too, determined to get revenge on him at the first opportunity. The German nobles
and prelates, both those who had served at Acre and those who had run home, were bitterly
disappointed with the outcome of their great expedition. Reflecting back on the high hopes
with which they had set out, they felt they had been betrayed by everyone--by the English,
by the Byzantines, by the Welfs, and by one another. They had but one worthwhile
accomplishment to show for all their suffering, so they thought later: the foundation of
the Teutonic Order.(1)
The Foundation Era 1190-1198
The
establishment of the Teutonic Order was an act of desperation, desperation based not on a
lack of knights, but on a lack of medical care. The crusading army besieging Acre in 1190
had been more than decimated by illness. The soldiers from northern Europe were not
accustomed to the heat, the water, or the food, and their sanitary conditions were
completely unsatisfactory. Unable to bury the dead properly, they threw the bodies into
the moat opposite the Accursed Tower with the rubble they were using to fill it, and the
stink hung over the camp like a fog. Once taken by fever, the soldiers died like flies,
their agony made worse by the innumerable insects that buzzed around them or swarmed over
their bodies. The regular hospital units, particularly the Knights of Saint John (better
known as the Hospitallers), were overburdened and, moreover, favored their own nationals,
the French and English. The Germans were left to their own devices.
Seeing that the situation was intolerable and would last
indefinitely--the siege showed no sign of ending soon, and no monarch was coming east to
demand that his subjects be better cared for by the established hospitals--a number of
middle class crusaders from Bremen and Lübeck decided to found a hospital order that
would care for the German sick. This initiative was warmly seconded by the most prominent
of the German nobles, Duke Friedrich of Hohenstaufen.(2) He
wrote to his brother, the Emperor Heinrich VI, and also won the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
the Hospitallers, and the Templars over to the idea. They recommended to Pope Celestine
that he approve the new monastic order, and he did so. The brothers were to do hospital
work like the Hospitallers and to live under the Templar rule. The new foundation was to
be named the Order of the Hospital of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem. The name given
the new Order implied a connection with an older establishment, one now practically
defunct, but in fact there seems to have been no direct relationship. The members of the
new Order avoided this tie, lest they fall under the control of the Hospitallers, who held
supervisory rights over the older German hospital. Nevertheless, they do not seem to have
discouraged visitors and crusaders from believing that their Order had a more ancient
lineage. Everyone valued tradition and antiquity. Since many religious houses indulged in
pious frauds to assert a claim to a more illustrious foundation, it is easy to understand
that this new hospital Order would be tempted to do the same.
In 1197, when the next German crusading army came to the Holy Land,(3) it found the hospital flourishing and rendering invaluable
service to its fellow-countrymen. Not only did the brothers care for the ill, but they
provided hostels for the new arrivals, and money and food for those whose resources had
become exhausted, or who had been robbed, or who had lost everything in battle. A
significant contingent of the new army came from Bremen. Those crusaders lavished gifts
upon the hospital they had helped to establish. As the visitors observed the relatively
large number of brothers who had been trained as knights but who had been converted to a
religious life while on crusade, they concluded that the Order could take on military
duties similar to those of the Templars and Hospitallers.
The narrow strip of land that formed the crusader kingdom in the Holy
Land was protected by a string of castles, but those castles were only weakly garrisoned.
Many crusaders feared that a sudden Turkish onslaught might overrun them before relief
could be brought from Europe. The knights who could support themselves on fiefs were far
too few for effective defense, and the Italian merchants (the only significant
middle-class residents committed to the western Church) were fully occupied by the need to
patrol the sea lanes against Moslem piracy or blockade and the responsibility of
garrisoning the seaports. Consequently, the defense of the country had come to be the duty
of the crusading orders, the Templars and the Hospitallers, who had a formidable
reputation as cruel and relentless warriors but whose numbers were insufficient to the
task. Moreover, the two orders quarreled with one another to the detriment of the crusade.
The Germans who came to Acre in 1197 decided that their hospital order could be of great
help in garrisoning the frontier castles; therefore, they requested Pope Celestine III to
reincorporate it as a military order. He agreed, issuing a new charter in 1198.(4)
Laws and Customs
Because the character of the Order that became known as the Teutonic
Knights reflected its charter, its rules, its legislation, and that body of laws known as
the customs, it is important to look at those documents in detail. They were written down
in German so that every member could understand them easily, and they were short and
clear, so that they could be easily memorized. Each member took a vow of poverty,
chastity, and obedience. From the moment they entered into the religious life as monks
they owned nothing personally. As a practical measure the monks kept their simple clothing
and military equipment separately, but everything was owned in common. In theory they were
obliged to tend the sick and thus honor their original purpose for existence. To a certain
extent this was compatible with their military duties and their religious devotions, and
to a certain extent it was not, so that hospital duties generally fell to a special branch
of the membership. They attended services at regular intervals throughout the day and
night. They were to wear clothes of a "priestly color" and cover them with a
white mantle bearing a black cross that gave them an additional nickname, the Knights of
the Cross.
Although there were members who were priests, hospital orderlies, and
female nurses, the Hospital of Saint Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem was primarily a
military order. Therefore, the membership was largely made up of knights who required
horses, weapons, and the equipment of war. Those items had to be maintained personally so
that armor would fit, the swords would be of the right weight and length, and the horse
and rider accustomed to one another. Care was taken to avoid acquiring pride in these
articles; the rules proscribed gold or silver ornaments or bright colors.
Each knight had to have supporting personnel, usually at a ratio of ten
men-at-arms per knight. The men-at-arms were commoners and often members of the Order at a
lower level, serving for a period of time or for life as each chose. They served as
squires or sergeants, responsible respectively for providing the knight with a spare horse
and new equipment and for fighting alongside him against the foe.
The knights had to keep themselves in fighting trim, which would have
been a serious problem if they had been strictly cloistered. They were permitted to
hunt--an unusual privilege specifically conferred by the papacy--because hunting on
horseback was the traditional method of training a knight and had the additional benefit
of acquainting him with the local geography. To forbid hunting would have been impractical
and also very unpopular among German knights who had grown up amid extensive forests still
filled with dangerous beasts and plentiful game. The knights were permitted to hunt
wolves, bears, boars, and lions with dogs, if they were doing it of necessity and not to
avoid boredom or for pleasure, and to hunt other beasts without hounds.
The rule warned the knights to avoid women. In the cloister that was no
problem, but this was often difficult when traveling or on campaign. At times they had to
stay in public hostels or accept hospitality where it was offered. Moreover, when
recruiting members or on diplomatic business they often resided in their host's castle or
villa, because it was impractical to travel on to a neighboring monastery and thereby miss
the banquet, where business was usually conducted on an informal basis. Realizing that
their duties prevented the knights from living a life of retirement from the world, the
rule simply warned them to shun the secular entertainments such as weddings and plays,
where the sexes mingled, where alcoholic beverages flowed freely into gaudy drinking cups,
and where light amusement was all too enticing. They were especially warned to avoid
speaking to women alone, and above, all speaking to young women. As for kissing, the usual
form of polite greeting among the noble class, they were forbidden to kiss even their
mothers and sisters. Female nurses were permitted in the hospitals only when measures were
taken to avoid any possibility of scandal.
Punishment for those brothers who violated the rules could be light,
moderate, severe, or very severe. Those condemned to a year of punishment, for example,
would have to sleep with the servants, wear unmarked clothing, eat bread and water three
days of each week, and be deprived of the privilege of holy communion with the knightly
brethren. That was a moderate punishment. For more severe infractions there were irons and
the dungeons. Once the punishment was served, the criminal could be returned to duty
(although barred from holding office in the Order) or he could be expelled. For three
offenses only was there no possibility of forgiveness--cowardice in the face of the enemy,
going over to the infidels, and sodomy. For the first two the offender was expelled from
the Order; for the latter he was sentenced to life imprisonment or execution. The most
common offenses, always minor, were punished by whipping and deprivation of food.(5)
Officers
No medieval organization--or even state--of this era had a large
officialdom. The Teutonic Knights were no exception. The chief officer was the master
(later grandmaster--after regional masters and commanders were created), who was elected
by the Grand Chapter to serve for his lifetime or until he resigned. The election process
was formal and complex. The second in-command to the late master set a date and a location
for a meeting of all the nearby knights who could be spared from their duties and summoned
representatives from the more distant provinces. When they were assembled in a Grand (or
General) Chapter, he recommended a knight to serve as first elector. If the members
approved of his choice, that knight then nominated a second elector, and the members
either voiced their approval or required him to submit other names until agreement was
reached. The two then chose another, and the members expressed their will until eight
knights, one priest, and four members from the lower ranks had been selected as an
election panel. This electoral college then took an oath to do its duty, without prejudice
or previous commitment, to select the best man available for the vacant office. In closed
session the first elector made the initial recommendation to the panel. If that nominee
did not win a majority of the votes, then the others in turn proposed names until a choice
had been made. When the college announced its decision to the chapter, the priests broke
into Te deum laudamus and escorted the new Master to the altar to take his oath
of office.
The Master was a diplomat and overseer. Election ennobled him far beyond
the status of his birth.(6) He met with the important
nobles and churchmen of the areas where the Order was active and carried on an extensive
correspondence with the more distant potentates and prelates, including the Emperor and
the Pope. He also traveled widely, visiting the various convents of the Order, inspecting
discipline, and seeing that the resources of the Order were being properly managed.
The Master appointed the other officials, who served as his inner
Council. The Master, the grand commander of the forces in the Holy Land, and the treasurer
were each responsible for one of the three keys to the giant chest that kept the treasury
of the Order. This responsibility underlined the limits on the authority which was
entrusted to any one individual, whatever his office. All important decisions were made by
a group, often by the Master and his subordinate officials, but also often by the
membership assembled as a Grand Chapter.
In time there were Masters in Germany, Prussia and Livonia, making it
appropriate to designated the highest officer, the Master governing over the Holy Land, as
Grandmaster. This was also the customary title of the heads of the other military orders.
The treasurer was responsible for monetary affairs. Although the knights
had taken oaths of poverty, the Order could not survive without food, clothing, weapons,
good horses, and the services of artisans, teamsters, and sea captains that often only
money could buy. In theory only the chief officers were supposed to know the financial
status of the Order, but in practice the minor officials could make a good guess, and the
Grand Chapter was given sufficient information to make responsible plans for building
castles, churches, and hospitals, and embarking on military campaigns.
The grand commander was responsible for day-to-day supervision of
activities that were not directly related to warfare. He directed the minor officials in
their functions, supervised the treasurer in collecting and dispersing funds, conducted
correspondence, and kept records. His duties were obviously much the same as those of the
Grandmaster, although on a lesser scale, and he commanded the forces in the Holy Land when
the Grandmaster was absent. There were also regional commanders in the Holy Roman Empire
(Austria, Franconia, and so forth), and local castellans who presided over the many
convents and hospitals.
The marshal was responsible for military preparation. His title, which
originally referred to a keeper of horses, indicates how important the equipping and
training of the cavalry was to battlefield success, and he gave more time to that duty
than to his other responsibilities. The quartermaster and the commander of the hospital
were subordinate to him, but in practice they were essentially self-sufficient. It is
perhaps better to think of the titles as honorific than the equivalent of heads of modern
bureaucracies.(7)
Few of the members had reason to interest themselves in the details of
administration. The priests had their own duties to perform. The sergeants (and Turcopoles
in the Holy Land) were limited to minor responsibilities of little prestige, such as
managing small estates and caring for equipment. And few of the knights had sufficient
intelligence and experience to hold high office or were of sufficiently high birth to be
given responsibility without having proven themselves beforehand. Noble birth was
essential to advancement. Nobles were assumed to have inherited ability in the same way
that warhorses inherited strength and courage; and because they had important relatives
and experience in court life, they could win advantages for the Order that mere ability
and piety could never achieve. Not all nobles were equally noble, and that few knights
were of truly noble birth--German knights were often descendants of burghers, gentry, and
even the so-called "serf knights" or ministeriales. The number of real nobles in
the Order was always small.(8)
Whatever stain remained on one's reputation from being of ministeriale
birth, or even of burgher origin, largely vanished in the ceremony of induction. The
sacrifices were great, not just in the vows which were taken, but in the 30-60 Marks which
had to be contributed as "dowry", often in the form of land. Relatives
undoubtedly contributed, because membership not only enhanced the family prestige, but
made likely financial and political profit as well. In addition, if the knight were
bankrupt, joining the Teutonic Order expunged his debts.(9)
Daily activities for the knights were scrupulously planned along lines
that can still be recognized in most armies today: keep the soldier busy, keep him out of
trouble. The greatest difference between a Teutonic Knight and a modern soldier was not in
weapons and equipment, but in the former's total commitment to a dual calling. Being a
friar as well as a warrior, he was expected to attend the short but regular services at
the times specified by the Church and endure a discipline that would be beyond bearing in
any modern military--because it was a lifelong obligation. Poverty, chastity and obedience
were real sacrifices men by real men.
Religious Life
The total commitment to a religious as well as a military life was
emphasized to the knight when he applied for membership. After he had passed the
preliminary interrogations, he was brought before a chapter and asked:
The brethren have heard your request and wish to know if any of these
things apply to you. The first is whether you have taken an oath to any other Order, if
you are betrothed to a woman, if you are another man's serf, if you owe money to anyone or
have debts to pay that might affect the Order, or if you are in bad health. If any of
these is so, and you do not admit it, when it becomes known you may be expelled from the
brotherhood.
The recruit then took the following oath: I promise the chastity of my
body, and poverty, and obedience to God, Holy Mary, and you, to the Master of the Teutonic
Order, and your successors, according to the rules and practices of the Order, obedience
unto death.
Because there are historians who say that the Order was a political
organization with little or no religious meaning, it is important to remember that the
Teutonic Knights differed little from any other religious order that did not require its
members to withdraw from the world but sought to improve it. By the same standards we
would have to assume that the papacy was no more than a political organization (although
the activities of the popes of this era tempt one to that conclusion, the assumption would
be incorrect). But there was a mixture of religious and secular ideas and interests that
cannot be blithely separated without making a caricature of the Teutonic Order. The
corporate prayer that was developed at a slightly later date illustrates this amalgam of
ideals better than a long dissertation:
Brothers, beseech our Lord God, that he comfort Holy Christianity with
His Grace, and His Peace, and protect it from all evil. Pray to Our God for our spiritual
father, the Pope, and for the Empire and for all our leaders and prelates of Christianity,
lay and ecclesiastical, that God use them in His service. And also for all spiritual and
lay judges, that they may give Holy Christianity peace and such good justice that God's
Judgment will not come over them.
Pray for our Order in which God has assembled us, that the Lord will
give us Grace, Purity, a Spiritual Life, and that he take away all that is found in us or
other Orders that is unworthy of praise and opposed to His Commandments.
Pray for our Grandmaster and all the regional commanders, who govern our
lands and people, and for all the brothers who exercise office in our Order, that they act
in their office of the Order in such a way as not to depart from God.
Pray for the brothers who hold no office, that they may use their time
purposefully and zealously in worship, so that those who hold office and they themselves
may be useful and pious.
Pray for those who are fallen in deadly sin, that God may help them back
into his Grace and that they may escape eternal punishment.
Pray for the lands that lie near the pagans, that God may come to their
aid with his Counsel and Power, that belief in God and Love can be spread there, so that
they can withstand all their enemies.
Pray for those who are friends and associates of the Order, and also for
those who do good actions or who seek to do them, that God may reward them.
Pray for all those who have left us inheritances or gifts that neither
in life nor in death does God allow them to depart from Him.
Especially pray for Duke Friedrich of Swabia and King Heinrich his
brother, who was emperor, and for the honorable burghers of Lübeck and Bremen, who
founded our Order. Remember also Duke Leopold of Austria, Duke Conrad of Masovia, and Duke
Sambor of Pomerellia....Remember also our dead brothers and sisters....Let each remember
the soul of his father, his mother, his brothers and sisters. Pray for all believers, that
God may give them eternal peace. May they rest in peace. Amen.(10)
The question of the religious idealism of the Teutonic Order is one to
which constant reference will be made. It is an important aspect to an understanding of
the Order, as important as radical Protestantism was to Cromwell's Roundheads, or
communion in both kinds to a Hussite. If the narrative sources do not dwell upon this
religiousness, it is no surprise. No author has yet been able to make an endless round of
prayer, contemplation, and corporate worship into interesting reading. But the chroniclers
constantly refer to the piety of individuals and of convents, even to the point of
disturbing the narrative. It should be borne in mind that even medieval historians had a
good sense of what made news, and they knew that dramatic events captured the ears of
their audience. The Old Testament was dearer to their heart than was the New--and that
perhaps is the key to the religious thought of the crusading orders.
The total involvement of the individual in a religious life is not often
found today, and many find it difficult to believe that people once seriously considered
it normal behavior. Therefore, they regard those who are deeply religious in the medieval
sense as freaks or hypocrites. The modern mind easily accepts contradictions in our own
behavior but demands a consistency from medieval man that makes him either a saint or a
brutal imposter. The knights and priests born between 1180 and 1280 whom we will be
studying were neither. They were complex personalities who had varying reasons for
entering a religious life, but certainly almost all of them saw themselves as part of a
divine plan that made order out of chaos and gave reason to their lives. Whatever else
they might do in this world made little sense when compared to the vast span of eternity
that lay ahead in the death that waits inevitably for each one of us. To them any other
behavior, particularly any behavior that ignored the fate of one's immortal soul, was
foolish and dangerous.(11)
Firm in the belief that they had chosen the right path, the knights
followed it, convinced that destiny had really given them no choice. Success or failure,
victory or defeat, were incidental and in the hands of God. Pride in their achievements,
they knew, would bring swift retribution in the form of battlefield defeat but would not
slow the divine plan for an instant. Their duty lay in acceptance and obedience--and,
fortunately for them, the divine voice usually told them what they wanted to hear.
The
Holy Land
We know little about the first decades of the Order's history. In 1200
King Almarich II of Jerusalem sold them some lands north of Acre. In addition to their
hospital in that port city, they had a few scattered holdings near Jaffa, Ascalon, and
Gaza, and a few estates on Cyprus. Only later, after the acquisition of the Joscelin
estates, did the Teutonic Order have a significant territorial base in the Holy Land; and
even that was challenged by a twenty-four year lawsuit. The suspicion and jealousy of the
established military orders, combined with their prestige and power, made it difficult for
a new organization to fasten a foot firmly in the soil of Palestine.(12)
So small were the possessions of the Teutonic Knights and so
insignificant were their military contributions in the early years that we know nothing
more about the first three masters than their names. They must have earned a good
reputation among the crusaders and made a number of valuable friends, because the Order
was able to expand rapidly after Hermann von Salza was elected Master in 1210. This man,
brilliant as he was, could have done little if his predecessors had not handed on to him a
well-functioning organization, with strong discipline, and a larger number of knights than
were needed to protect their estates around Acre.(13)
Hermann von Salza
Hermann von Salza, for his part, was an empire-builder of the stamp of a
Henry Ford or a John D. Rockefeller, who saw opportunities where others saw only problems,
and who knew how to work within an existing system to create a new type of empire, using
the ability and capital of other men to do things that no one else had dreamed possible.
Because he did this, the history of the Teutonic Knights should begin not with the Third
Crusade but with his election.(14)
Hermann von Salza was the offspring of a Thuringian ministeriale family.
Because worldly success depended upon good marriages and relatives high in the Church and
his parents were neither wealthy nor of high birth, Hermann could not expect to advance
far if he followed his father's career as a secular knight. For ministeriales the most
that could be hoped for was to acquire another office or two and make a better marriage,
or to go into a religious life and become a prior or perhaps a minor bishop or abbot, or
to emigrate to the east, where Polish dukes were welcoming capable warriors and
administrators. Hermann von Salza took a middle road between the first two traditional
occupations. In joining the Teutonic Knights he combined the military and the religious
careers--and later he would send his Order to eastern Europe.
It was fortunate that he chose a small crusading Order, because he did
not have the high birth that would be required to aspire to high office in one of the
older or more prestigious orders. His amiable personality would have made an impression
anywhere, but probably not a sufficient one to overcome the handicap of ministeriale
birth. As it was, his ability stood out among the small membership of the Teutonic
Knights, and 
he was elected Master at an early age--probably while in his thirties. He
was one of those rare persons who inspire instant trust in their honesty and ability--if
he had not had that characteristic he could not have become the confidant of Pope and
Emperor, much less served as a mediator in bitter disputes between seemingly
irreconcilable enemies.(15)
There was little in his early career to suggest his later prominence. He
probably attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, but certainly did not speak
publicly; he accompanied Friedrich II to Nürnberg in December 1216; and he made
arrangement to send a small body of knights to defend the frontiers of the kingdom of
Hungary against nomadic raiders--the Cumans, who were to be of significant importance to
the Prussian Crusade.
Hermann von Salza himself joined the expedition that set out in 1217
from Cyprus to Damietta in the Egyptian delta. This Fifth Crusade was not a success, but
it held the promise of being one. Hermann stood out among the grandmasters of the
crusading orders less because of his ability or the number of knights under his direct
command than because the Germans who contributed so much money and men to the crusade
during the next four years looked to him for advice and leadership. Hermann used the
opportunity wisely to obtain privileges and donations for his Order. When the crusader
army botched its offensive in 1221, losing almost the entire army and the city of
Damietta, Hermann was among the prisoners. He was soon ransomed, but he had reason to
conclude that the Order's future did not lie solely in the Holy Land.(16)
Many blamed the disaster on Friedrich II, who had not honored his vow to bring an army to
Egypt. Hermann von Salza was not among that number. He was a Hohenstaufen loyalist, at
least as far as his obligations to the Church allowed.
As happens often in human affairs, a friend came to the aid of Hermann
von Salza and made possible his first great venture in eastern Europe. In this case it was
Count Hermann von Thuringia, who was the lord of the Salza family. The Salzas had been his
loyal vassals, and it is probably no coincidence that Hermann von Salza received the name
he did. Count Hermann was well-known not only for a brilliant court where he encouraged
poetry and chivalry but also for his excellent relationship with his vassals. The Count's
ancestors were noted crusaders. His father had been on the Third Crusade, and he himself
had been present when the Teutonic Order was transformed from a hospital order into a
military one. It is quite possible that Hermann von Salza had accompanied him on this
crusade and had joined the Teutonic Knights at that time. Certainly Count Hermann knew
Hermann von Salza and followed his career with much interest. At approximately the time
that Hermann von Salza was elected Master of the Teutonic Order and the news would have
spread back to the Thuringian court, Count Hermann was negotiating with King Andrew of
Hungary, trying to win the hand of four-year-old Elisabeth for his son Louis. King Andrew
had long contemplated a crusade to the Holy Land, a subject that fascinated him and Count
Hermann alike, but he could not leave his kingdom while it was endangered by the
increasingly strong attacks of the Cumans.(17)
The Transylvanian Episode
The Hungarian kingdom extended over the vast plain that lay south of the
Carpathian mountains and stretched across the Danube River to the hills that marked the
boundary of the kingdom of Serbia. In the southeastern part of the kingdom the steep
mountain chain became less formidable and dis solved into rolling hill country variously
called Transylvania or Siebenburgen. This region was never fully settled by the
Hungarians, who were descendants of nomads and therefore preferred the plain, and it was
but sparsely populated by the descendants of the Roman settlers of Dacia. The passes
served less for commerce than to lead the Cumans from the coastal plain into Hungary. King
Andrew had tried to stem the invasions by planting vassals in that region, but the nobles
either lacked warriors to hold the land secure from raids or preferred a safe and easy
life in the interior of the kingdom. When King Andrew mentioned this problem to Count
Hermann or his emissaries, it was suggested--it seems likely--that a crusading Order such
as the Teutonic Knights could protect the frontier and make it possible for the king to go
on crusade with a free mind. Although there were other ways that King Andrew could have
heard of Hermann von Salza and his Order--his Queen was from the Tyrol, an early base of
the Order--it seems more than a coincidence that King Andrew wrote to him to invite the
Teutonic Knights to come to Transylvania only shortly after signing the marriage contract
with Count Hermann of Thuringia.
King Andrew promised lands in the endangered region and immunities from
taxes and duties; this implied that the Order could bring in settlers and maintain itself
from their rents and labor without having to share its hard-won early revenues with the
monarch. In effect, Andrew was presenting them that part of Transylvania called the
Burzenland. He kept the right to coin money and a claim to half of any gold or silver that
might be discovered, but he renounced his claims to taxes and tolls, and his authority to
establish markets and exercise justice. This appeared to be a generous offer, and because
the Order had little experience in such affairs, the Master accepted the invitation on the
assumption that the good will of the king would continue into the future. The Teutonic
Knights had sent a contingent into the unsettled region, had built a series of wood and
earth forts, and brought in peasants from Germany to farm the land and provide the taxes
and labor that were necessary to construct more fortifications and buildings and to
harvest the crops that fed the garrisons. Only after these things had been accomplished
was it apparent that the offer made by the king was terribly vague and unspecific. By that
time, however, little could be done to change it, because the king had joined the Fifth
Crusade.
King Andrew had sailed to the Holy Land in l2l7 with a large army in the
company of Hermann von Salza and a force of Teutonic Knights. Finding the crusaders there
idle, without much hope of recapturing Jerusalem, the King and Hermann von Salza had
called all the crusader leaders together and planned an attack on Egypt. If they could
capture Cairo, they could exchange that city for Jerusalem and the surrounding fortresses.
First, however, they had to capture Damietta. When the siege did not succeed as quickly as
hoped, King Andrew returned home overland, making a truce with the Turks in Asia Minor to
permit him safe-passage.
Meanwhile, the contingent of Teutonic Knights in Hungary had not been
content to act the part of quiet vassals, defending the frontier in a static manner. They
were ambitious and aggressive, pressing outward against the Cumans, and they found it easy
to occupy new territories, because the nomads had no permanent places to provide centers
of resistance. By 1220 the Teutonic Knights had built five castles, some in stone, and
given them names that will later be recognized as belonging to castles in Prussia.
Marienburg, Schwarzenburg, Rosenau, and Kreuzburg were grouped around Kronstadt at a
distance of twenty miles from one another. These became bases for expansion into the
practically unpopulated Cuman lands, an expansion that went forward with surprising speed.
This aroused the jealousy and suspicion of the Hungarian nobles and clergy who previously
had shown little interest in the region.
If the Teutonic Knights had had another decade, they would probably have
pushed down the Danube to occupy all the territories held by the nomadic Cumans who had
pressed so long on Hungary and the Latin Kingdom of Constantinople. They would have
garrisoned castles in the lower Danubian basin and reopened the land route to
Constantinople that had been unsafe for crusaders in recent decades. But that time was
denied.
The Teutonic Knights were so successful so quickly, in fact, that the
Hungarian nobles began to doubt that the Cumans were still a danger. They remembered that
those wild horsemen had beaten the Byzantines, the Latin king of Constantinople, and had
even invaded their own country. But that was in the past. Now it seemed that even a
handful of foreign knights could drive them away. The Hungarian nobles did not understand
the special organization and dedication that made it possible for a crusading order to
succeed where they had failed. For their part, the Teutonic Knights made little effort to
win friends among the Hungarian nobility. They ignored the rights of the local bishop and
refused to share their conquests with those important nobles who had previously held title
to the region.
It was only natural that the Teutonic Knights did not wish to surrender
what had been won by their labor and money, particularly when they would need every parcel
of land and every village to provide the resources in food, taxes, and infantry for future
campaigns toward the Black Sea. But also there were few men like Hermann von Salza who
knew how to make friends and allay the suspicions of potential enemies, and Hermann of
Salza was not in the Burzenland; the Teutonic Knights in Transylvania operated with
considerable autonomy, and they did not make many friends.
The result was a conflict of ambitions and bitter jealousy. As the
Hungarian nobles came to see it, King Andrew had unwisely invited in a group of
interlopers who were making themselves so secure in their border principality that soon
the king himself would not be able to control them. They accused the Order of overstepping
its duty to defend the border and of planning to become a kingdom within the kingdom.(18)
Hermann von Salza could have done little about this. He was busy at
Damietta, where tor two years the Christian and Moslem worlds fought desperately, each
side bringing up reinforcements from farther and farther away, until it seemed that there
would be no one left to call upon. At last the fortress fell, and the crusaders proceeded
on toward Cairo. That offensive ultimately proved unsuccessful. Though everyone called
upon the Emperor to come to their aid, Friedrich II found plausible reasons to delay his
departure. As negotiations dragged on, the crusaders returned home one-by-one. Though the
crusaders could have obtained access to Jerusalem in return for surrendering Damietta, the
papal legate stubbornly refused to settle for anything less than total victory.
Discovering prophecies of a mythic King David and Prester John, tying them together with
rumors of a great king threatening the Moslem rear (Genghis Khan?), and promising an easy
victory over the disorganized Egyptians, he persuaded the grandmasters of the Templars,
the Hospitallers, and the Teutonic Knights to undertake the final offensive that ended in
total defeat.(19)
King Andrew meanwhile had returned home to a kingdom bitter about the
losses and the expenses of his crusade. His reputation had fallen badly, and the country
had suffered in the absence of firm government. In l222 the nobility forced from him a
document called the Golden Bull, which was very similar to that Magna Carta the English
barons had extorted from their unlucky king only a few years before.
When the nobility demanded that he take back his grants to the Teutonic
Order, the king was in a poor state to refuse them, but he did. He examined the
complaints, concluded that the Order had indeed exceeded their mandate, and agreed that
changes should be made in the charters; but he ended by issuing a new charter more
extensive in its terms than the first. He allowed the Teutonic Knights to build castles in
stone; and, although his grant forbade them to recruit Hungarian or Romanian settlers, he
implicitly approved their having brought in German peasants. Hermann von Salza had
doubtlessly used his influence with Pope Honorius and Count Louis of Thuringia to
strengthen the royal resolve on this issue, but he could not affect the attitude of the
Hungarian nobility, nor could he win over Prince Bela, who had thrown in his lot with
them. These continued their complaints concerning the Teutonic Order and supported the
bishop in his ambition to subordinate the Order to his rule.(20)
Hermann von Salza was in Germany in l223 and l224 on imperial business,
negotiating for the release of the Danish king, who had been kidnaped by Count Heinrich of
Schwerin,(21) an event that was drawing all the northern
states into war. Hermann arranged for the ransom and obtained a promise that the Danish
monarch would participate in the crusade that Friedrich II was planning to the Holy Land.
The Emperor had not gone to Damietta when the pope pleaded with him to save the Fifth
Crusade, but now he was dispatching Hermann to recruit nobles for an expedition that would
revenge all previous defeats. As imperial spokesman he was able to establish the Teutonic
Knights in the public mind as the guiding force of the German crusading movement.
While he was in Germany Hermann thought about the situation in Hungary.
He reasoned that his Order need not anticipate trouble as long as King Andrew was alive,
but that he could expect great difficulties once Prince Bela mounted the throne. This
could be avoided perhaps if the Order could loosen its ties to the crown. When he returned
to Italy he spoke to Pope Honorius about the problem. Subsequently the pope took the lands
in Transylvania under papal protection. In effect, the Burzenland became a fief of the
Holy See.
This action was a fatal mistake. In place of trouble at some future
date, Hermann von Salza had to deal with it at once. King Andrew ordered the Teutonic
Knights to leave Hungary immediately. Not even he was willing to see a valuable province
lost, stolen from his kingdom by a legal trick. The Pope intervened as best he could, and
Hermann von Salza tried to explain that the act had been misinterpreted, but it was of no
use. The Hungarian nobles had their issue, and now the king stood with them. When the
Teutonic Knights unwisely refused to leave without a further hearing, Prince Bela was
authorized to lead an armed force against them. The Order was driven ignominiously from
their lands and expelled from the kingdom. Only the peasantry remained, forming an
important German settlement until 1945.(22)
The Hungarians did not replace the Teutonic Order with adequate
garrisons or follow up on the attacks on the Cumans, so that those steppe warriors
recovered their self-confidence and their strength. Soon the Cumans were again a danger to
the kingdom.
The Hungarian debacle shook the Teutonic Order to its foundations. Many
men had given their lives, and much money had been collected with difficulty to build the
fortifications and make the new settlements secure. These efforts were all lost. The
reputation of the Order was besmirched. In the recent past many gifts had come from the
Emperor and the princes--estates in Bari, Palermo, Hale, and Prague. How many potential
donors would consider the stories they heard and then make their donations elsewhere? The
answer was not at all certain, although the example of the Tyrolean count of Lengmoos was
encouraging--in the midst of the controversy he had joined the Order and brought all his
lands with him as a gift. Such a knight, reared in the art of the Alpine plateau where
German chivalry and poetry flourished a short way from the richest and most brilliant
Italian cities, was a living example of the problem the Order faced. It could thrive in
Germanic regions, winning recruits and donations from the idealistic nobles and burghers,
but it had no reason to operate in those areas. To have a purpose for existence the
Teutonic Knights had to fight infidels or pagans, and those could be found only on the
borders of non-German states. Unfortunately, the nobles and people of those states often
had little in common with the members of the Teutonic Order; therefore, hostility rather
than sympathy was their natural attitude toward the crusaders.
The First Invitation to Prussia
Hardly had the shock of the Hungarian experience worn off sufficiently
for rational thought to prevail again when a letter arrived from Duke Conrad of Masovia,
inviting Hermann von Salza to send knights to assist protect his subjects against raids by
the pagan natives of Prussia. He told essentially the same story that King Andrew had
related fifteen years earlier, and he may have made essentially the same promises; but few
members of the Teutonic Order wanted to repeat that misadventure.(23)
Hermann von Salza had other reasons he could have used to decline the
count's offer. There was a new urgency to support the crusade in the Holy Land fully and
without hesitation. The Fifth Crusade had barely failed in its attack on Egypt; many
thought that if the Emperor had sailed to the aid of the crusaders, he could have saved
the situation and won a great victory. At that time, however, he had little interest in
the crusade. He had pressing affairs in Sicily and no incentive or than papal admonitions.
Now he was planning to wed the heiress of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and he would acquire
her lands only if he went to them and took possession. Therefore, he announced that he
would fulfill his crusading vow in l226 or l227. The membership of the Teutonic Knights
realized that if they provided a large contingent of knights on the crusade, they stood to
profit greatly from imperial gratitude. In the matter of crusading no man stood closer to
the Emperor, either as friend or counselor, than Hermann von Salza, who knew that
Friedrich rewarded his friends as much for what they might do for him in the future as for
their past loyalty and service. Therefore, he made it clear that the Emperor could
anticipate full cooperating from the Teutonic Knights. The membership of the Order was
expecting great things to come out of the imperial crusade, and they were not interested
in diverting their energies into another eastern European fiasco.(24)
These were reasons that Hermann von Salza could have used to ignore the
inquiry about sending aid to Prussia, but he did not do so. He did not take the decisive
step of sending warriors there, but he began an investigation so that if he did decide to
send an army there later, the terms of the contract would be absolutely fixed and
satisfactory. It might be that Duke Conrad of Masovia did not expect more than a small
force such as the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the Spanish Order of Calatrava had
already introduced into the region; they had come on the understanding that no more was to
be expected of them than to bring in a few settlers and help in territorial defense.
Hermann von Salza, however, was a greater dreamer than were the leaders of other crusading
orders. Perhaps it was that he was more aware of the possibilities for expansion--thanks
to his recent visit to north Germany and to his contacts with a small crusading order, the
Swordbrothers, which had been operating in Livonia. He accepted the invitation in
principle, without committing himself too deeply, and asked the Emperor to issue a grant
of sovereignty (the Golden Bull of Rimini) that would prevent misunderstandings such as
had brought the Hungarian interlude to grief. At the same time he asked for bulls that
strengthened the position of the Order in the Holy Land, where he had the greater
interest. It was a good moment to ask the Emperor for favors, and Hermann did not want to
miss it. Even though the Emperor had no interest in Prussia (indeed, he did not even have
a right to grant a title to it), he might not be so willing to accommodate a friend later.
Hermann thus had an imperial decree, had begun to negotiate with the Duke of Masovia, and
had not yet committed himself to sending a single knight to Prussia. Instead, he was
bringing every man he could to the imperial crusade. Prussia was a project for the future,
one that could be taken up or laid aside as he desired.
The Holy Land
The imperial fleet sailed from Brindisi in l227 and returned to port
immediately because an epidemic had claimed the life of Count Louis of Thuringia and
stricken many other crusaders. Although excommunicated by Pope Gregory for failing to
press on to the Holy Land, as soon as his troops were healthy, Friedrich II reembarked
without bothering to resolve the dispute with the Pope, apparently not caring that this
would give his enemies in the Holy Land the excuse they needed to refuse him aid--a
circumstance that condemned the crusade to eventual failure as a military expedition.
Everywhere he met a sullen reception, and practically every noble declined to participate
in any campaign led by an excommunicate. Under those circumstances Friedrich was drawn
even closer to the Teutonic Order than would have been the case. Because that Order
remained loyal and assisted him in every way, he gave the members special consideration in
Jerusalem after that city was recovered in the peace treaty, and he gave them the toll
receipts from Acre. As long as he remained in the Holy Land with his army, he could do
much as he pleased, but he could not remain there long. Grandmaster Hermann, realizing
this, avoided antagonizing the local nobles or the other crusading orders. In that way he
saved his Order from the reprisals that followed when Friedrich II left Acre in l229 under
a shower of rotten fruit and vegetables; and he arranged for a speedy removal of the
excommunication which had been placed on the Order for its support of Friedrich's crusade.
Still, all was not well in the Holy Land: wherever the imperial garrisons were small or
isolated, they were attacked by the Christian nobles and prelates who were angry about
Friedrich 's failure to help them in the past, about his policies in Sicily, about his
quarrel with the Pope, and who considered him nothing more than an atheistic
fortune-hunter.(25)
Hermann von Salza accompanied the unfortunate Emperor back to Italy and
helped to reconcile him with Pope Gregory.(26) He had
given up all hope of establishing his Order permanently and solely in the Holy Land.
Quickly he sent off the first contingent of knights to Prussia. His estimate of the
situation in the Holy Land was correct. By l23l most of the imperial garrisons were
expelled, and it was only a matter of time until Jerusalem was recaptured by the Moslems.
The city fell in l244, and the Holy Land stood on the defensive, awaiting the inevitable
attack that would deprive the Christians of their last footholds there.
The Teutonic Knights did not give up their interest in the
Mediterranean--far from it. Their knights were more necessary for providing a garrison for
Acre than ever before. But Acre was a port city, hot, humid and crowded, not a suitable
place to live year in and year out. Knights flourished in the countryside, where the
climate was healthier and there were opportunities to ride and to hunt, and fields and
fodder for the horses; but also, they needed a dependable supply of locally-grown food and
wine. In l220 they had purchased a run-down castle from the Hennenberg family, and now
they began to repair it, using the tolls from Acre to finance the work. They named the
huge fortress Montfort, probably deriving both the name and the architecture from a castle
in Transylvania. In German it was called Starkenberg (Strong Mountain), and, indeed, it
was sited on a most difficult location to assault. However, it was not a formidable
defensive post, and was probably more noted for its handsome guest house and remarkable
view over the wooded hills on one side and the Acre plain on the other than for its
contributions to the defense of Acre. The surrounding lands were the richest in northern
Galilee, and the Order added to them in l234 and 1249, but the castle was too far away for
the garrison to assist significantly in protecting the farmers from raiders. Crusaders
assisted in enlarging the fortifications in 1227, and Friedrich II contributed money in
1228. A second castle was built three miles to the south, again perched on a rocky ridge.
The architecture of both structures was thoroughly German, with little influence from the
neighboring castles: a massive keep dominated, with towers connected by a strong curtain
wall.(27)
Although Montfort was lost in l27l, the Teutonic Knights kept a
considerable force in Acre until l29l, when that place was lost, too. The Grandmaster
withdrew to Venice, where he could continue to direct the crusade against the Moslems.
Only in l309 did he move to Prussia and abandon the war in the East.
One of the enduring controversies inside the Teutonic Order was whether
resources should be concentrated on defending the Holy Land or used in the Baltic or
nourished to provide services in the Holy Roman Empire. The knights in the Holy Land
jealously guarded their preeminence, denouncing Grandmasters who spent too much time
"abroad" (outside the Holy Land) or who wavered from loyalty to the Hohenstaufen
cause; soon enough the German Master, Prussian Master, and Livonian Master were eloquently
championing the interests of their knights, too. One Grandmaster after the other endured
criticism and frustration in attempting to reconcile the demands of regional power blocks
and avoid the scandal of schism. This office was not one to be held by the thin-skinned or
impatient.
Only slowly, therefore, did the Teutonic Knights shift their attention
and resources away from the Holy Land to the new crusades in the Baltic. Jerusalem long
remained their primary commitment, both in interest and in money, and only the loss of
Acre caused them to reluctantly give up hope of regaining the holy city. The religious
order had goals that were more important than either lands or power, but one cannot
separate motives easily or neatly. Religious idealism, superstition, ambition, and duties
combined in a complex way so that only little did the knights see that their religious
duties were best performed against the pagans of northeastern Europe.(28)
1. Christensen's realistic chapter title, "The
Armed Monks: Ideology and Efficiency", summarize well the reasons why military orders
were so popular with rulers. But they also responded to deeply-felt needs of the human
psyche--they reconciled the apparent contradictions in spiritual and earthy warfare.
Christianity no longer had to remain passive when confronted with great evil; nor did it
have to wait for a shift in public opinion or the presence of a great leader to raise an
armed force. Northern Crusades, 70-74; for illustrations of Acre, see Unter
Kreuz und Adler, 22-25.
2. The Crusades, 139-147; Friedrich, born
1164, Duke of Swabia, died on this crusade in 1191. His younger brother Heinrich, became
emperor-elect. Since Heinrich had married the heiress of Sicily in 1186, this brought
about the personal union of the southern Italian territories with the Holy Roman Empire.
3. The Crusades, 147-148; Hiestand,
"Kingship and Crusade in Twelfth-Century Germany," England and Germany,
248-249, 255-258, 260, 264-265, for the political implications and results of Emperor
Henry VI's crusade.
4. There had been a German hospital in Jerusalem
since 1118. This small establishment and others like it which were founded later were
essentially similar to Hanseatic Kontors (mercantile hostels), places where strangers
could find bed, board, and medical care at fair prices or even free if they had no money.
The foundation of 1190 is considered by some historians to be a continued of that hospital
of St. Mary that had been evacuated from Jerusalem. Marian Tumler, Der Deutsche Orden,
21-29; Walther Hubatsch, Montfort und die Bildung des Deutschordensstaates im Heiligen
Lande, #5 of the 1966 series Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in
Göttingen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1966), 162-167; Marie Favreau
undertook the task of demonstrating the continued existence of the German hospital after
the foundation of the Teutonic Order, which would prove that the two orders were and
remained separate. This thesis provoked lively debate. Forstreuter tended to believe that
the two orders were actually one, while Mayer (Favreau's mentor) disagreed. The thirteenth
century lawyers actually ruled in favor of discontinuity by rejecting Hospitaller claims
to rule over the Teutonic Knights. Udo Arnold, "Entstehung und Frühzeit des
Deutschen Ordens," Protokoll, # 216(1977), 32-49; Udo Arnold, "De
primordiis ordinis Theutonici narratio," Preussenland, 4/2(1966), 18-29; see
also Arnold's summary of the foundation years in Hochmeister, 4-8; The
Military Orders, 19-23.
5. Die Statuten des Deutschen Ordens (ed.
Ernst Hennig. Königsberg: Friedrich Nicelovine, 1806), 21-74; see Elisabeth Apelt, Die
Ideale des Deutschen Ritterordens, dargestellt nach dem schriftlichen Quellen des 13. und
14. Jahrhunderts (Danzig: dissertation typescript, 1932); Geschichte Ost- und
Westpreussens, 58-60; The Military Orders, 54-58, 132-147, 195-202.
6. Over the centuries the Teutonic Knights became
ever more conscious of birth, until finally the name was changed to the
Deutschritterorden. A seventeenth century publication of the presumed coats-of-arms
reflected this: Hans-George Boehm, Hochmeisterwappen des Deutschen Ordens 1198-1618
(Tauberbischofsheim: Fränkische Nachrichten, 1990).
7. Geschichte Ost- und Westpreussens, 60-62;
The Military Orders, 148-158.
8. Die Statuten des Deutschen Ordens,
161-198; Der Deutsche Orden, 405-426; Johannes Voigt, Namens Codex der
Deutschen Ordens-Beamten (Königsberg: Borntrager, 1843), ix-xxvi; Manfred Hellmann
demonstrated that the ministeriales form the bulk of the knightly members; he speculates
that their enrollment in the Order was a means of social advancement. "Bemerkungen
zur Sozialgeschichtlichen Erforschungen des Deutschen Ordens," Historisches
Jahrbuch, 80(1961), 126-142; The Military Orders, 141.
9. Peter Conradin von Planta, Adel, Deutscher
Orden und Königstum im Elsaß des 13. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1997),
106-161, 264-270; ministeriales formed 53% of the membership which can be identified,
nobles 9%. Personengeschichte, 78-79.
10. Die Statuten des Deutschen Ordens,
94-95, 216-217; Der Deutsche Orden, 337-401; The Military Orders,
188-192.
11. Christiansen summarizes, Northern Crusades,
85: "The dominant nature of the Teutonic Knights, and all other crusaders, was the
desire for atonement through self-sacrifice."
12. Hubatsch, Montfort, 174-175, 183-184;
Walther Hubatsch, Der Deutsche Orden und die Reichlehnschaft über Cypern, #8 in
the 1955 series Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen
(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1955), 245-260; Eberhard Mayer, "Die
Seigneurie de Joscelin," Protokoll, #216, 49-58; Eli Rothschild, "St.
Marien der Deutschen zu Jerusalem," Deutscher Orden, (1973), IV, 6-8; Arnold
Wieland, "St. Marien der Deutschen, Ibid., (1974), IV, 3-5; Edmund Baron von
Hammer, "An der Wiege des Ordens", (1976), Ibid., III, 3-6; Konrad
Adenauer, "Neues vom Deutschen Haus", Ibid., II, 3-6.
13. For early Grandmasters, see Udo Arnold, Hochmeister,
9, 12; and Kluger, Hochmeister Hermann von Salza, 7; among the most important
early donations, in 1219, was that of the Hohenlohe family, presenting their district of
Mergentheim. This castle still remains in the possession of the Teutonic Order and is the
site of an important museum. Unter Kreuz und Adler, 45-46; Alois Seiler,
"Der Deutsche Orden als Stadtherr im Reich. Das Beispiel Mergentheim," Städte,
165-166; also Personengeschichte, 8, 19-21, 64-78, for the importance of the
Franconian district and Thuringia.
14. See Hermann von Salza; and Erhard Peter
Opsahl, Hermann von Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, 1210-1239
(unpublished Master's Thesis. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1971); a solid summary of
his career is Udo Arnold, "Hermann von Salza," TRE. Theologische
Realenzyklopädie, XV, 1/2 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gryter, ) 97-100, and Hochmeister,
12-16.
15. Górski, L'Ordine teutonico, 16-18,
suggests that Hermann von Salza was of insignificant ancestry and therefore suffered from
the mockery of his betters; to prove himself equal or better than them, he became an
empire builder. This interpretation of the status of the ministeriale class is
interesting, but unprovable as it concerns Hermann. Contrast Maschke, Domus Hospitalis
Theutonicorum, 104-116; Schuhmacher does not consider the question answerable. Geschichte
Ost- und Westpreussens, 25-26.
16. Hochmeister Hermann von Salza, 8-34;
Hans Eberhard Mayer, The Crusades (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972),
209-218.
17. Europe's Steppe Frontier, 2-9,
describes well the dynamics of life on the vast grasslands of eastern Europe and the
interact of war and disease on the peoples who live there. The most dramatic change in
power relationships among the various peoples at this time was caused by the rise of the
Mongol empire. Bertold Spuler's history is an excellent source for nomadic peoples
throughout this period, though the focus is on the Mongols. History of the Mongols.
Based on Eastern and Western Accounts of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 1972).
18. Zur Geschichte der Deutschen in
Siebenbürgen (ed. Franz Zimmermann and Carl Werner. Hermannstadt: Franz Michaelis,
1892), I, 11-13; According to Henryk owmiaski, the Teutonic Order revealed too early its
ambitious plans to establish an independent state on the Danube, a mistake it would not
repeat in Prussia. "Anfänge und politische Rolle der Ritterorden an der Ostsee im
13. und 14. Jahrhundert," Polnischen Geschichtsschreibung, 50-51; The
Military Orders, 34-35; a "state", Neitmann reminds us, does not correspond
to modern concepts. A medieval state was merely a ruler who was independent of a directly
superior lord. Staatsverträge, 7. Hence, being subject to a distant emperor or
pope was not an impediment to being considered a state, whereas a vassal had to defer to
his immediate lord.
19. Der Deutsche Orden, 181-189; for a
photo of their fortress at Starkenberg (Montfort), Unter Kreuz and Adler, 28-29.
20. Steven Runciman, The Kingdom of Acre
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955), volume 3 of A History of the Crusades,
146-169.
21. Schwerin was created by Heinrich the Lion in
1167, granting it to his Saxon vassal, Gunzelin von Hagen. Gunzelin's sons, Heinrich
(1187-1228) and Gunzel (1199-1221), shared the rule of their tiny state, even living in
the same castle. In 1218 Heinrich had married Margarethe of of Schlawe, who was connected
to the ruling family of Pomerania. The previous year Waldemar had coerced Gunzel to marry
his daughter Ida to a royal bastard, Niels, who died in 1218, leaving an infant son. In
1220 Heinrich went on crusade to the Holy Land. When he returned he discovered that Gunzel
had died and that Waldemar had taken half of Schwerin for his young grandson.
22. Urkundenbuch...Siebenbürgen, I, 18-25;
Balint Homan, Geschichte des ungarischen Mittelalters (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1943),
II, 76-94; Der Deutsche Orden, 189-194; Hochmeister Herman von Salza,
61-68; Górski suggests that Andrew himself was the dissatisfied party, fearful that the
Teutonic Knights would begin to act like the Templars and Hospitallers he had observed in
the Holy Land. L'Ordine teutonico, 37.
23. Kluger notes that if Conrad had asked for help
in 1225-1226, a message could have reached the Grandmaster in Apulia before he left for
the Holy Land. Circumstances suggest 1228 as a more likely date. Hochmeister Hermann
von Salza, 58-59.
24. Urkundenbuch...Siebenbürgen, I, 29-47;
Hubatsch, Der Deutsche Orden...und Cypern, 260-262.
25. Hubatsch, Der Deutsche Orden...und Cypern,
272-276; Runciman, The Kingdom of Acre, 175-195; Hochmeister Hermann von
Salza, 69.
26. Pope Gregory called him "a man who loves
the honor of the Church and the Empire and strives to uphold both." Cited by Udo
Arnold in "Hermann von Salza," Hochmeister, 13; Hochmeister Hermann
von Salza, 109-122, 163.
27. Hubatsch, Montfort, 183, 186-199; John
La Monte, Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (Cambridge, Mass.:
Medieval Academy of America, 1932), 217-225; Hugh Kennedy, Crusader Castles
(Cambridge: University Press, 1995), 129-132; The Military Orders, 63-64; Hochmeister
Hermann von Salza, 74-78.
28. Kurt Forstreuter, Der Deutsche Orden am
Mittelmeer (Bonn: Wissenschaftliches Archiv, 1967), 7-11, and Marian Tumler, Der
Deutsche Orden, 54-194, describes the wide network of hospitals, churches, and
castellanies that the Teutonic Order possessed.