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Teutonic Knights: German Order
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Following the union of Lithuania and Poland, the Teutonic knights soon forfeited the support of the Church and neighboring Princes. Conflicts with the Archbishop of Riga had bedeviled relations with the Church over the previous half-century, these divisions were accentuated with the Order's crusading mission reduced to insuring the conversion of the pagan populations under the rule. The conversion of Lithuania's rulers gained the latter the support of the Papacy who ordered the knights to reach a settlement. Disputes between the knights and the new Polish-Lithuanian alliance increased, nonetheless, and the knights even found themselves engaged in the war between two other Christian states, Denmark and Sweden. A temporary peace signed in the Order's favor in 1404 led to the sale of Dobrzin and Ziotor to the Polish king but, although the Order's wealth had never been greater, it was brought down by its own success. The Order now ruled a vast area with two million one hundred and forty thousand inhabitants of Prussia alone but was resented by much of the native population and feared by its neighbors.
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After the loss of Prussia in 1525, the Teutonic Knights concentrated on their possessions in the Holy Roman Empire. Since they held no contiguous territory, they developed a three-tiered administrative system: holdings were combined into commanderies which were administered by a commander (Komtur). Several commanderies were combined to form a bailiwick headed by a Landkomtur. All of the Teutonic Knights' possessions were subordinate to the Grand Master whose seat was in Bad Mergentheim. Altogether there were twelve German bailiwicks: Thuringia, Alden Biesen (in present-day Belgium), Hesse, Saxony, Westphalia, Franconia, Koblenz, Alsace-Burgundy, An der Etsch und im Gebirge (Tyrol), Utrecht, Lorraine, and Austria. Outside of German areas were the bailiwicks of Sicily, Apulia, Lombardy, Bohemia, "Romania" (Greece), and Armenia-Cyprus.
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The Order of Teutonic Knights came to Poland at the invitation of Polish royalty, to help convert the heathen Prussians to christianity. Instead, the order took control over large part of northern Poland and began building their strongholds. The most impressive fortress went up in the town of Malbork on the right bank of Nogat, the right branch of the delta of Vistula river. In 1309, the Grand Master moved his seat from Venice to Malbork, officialy making it the Order's capital.
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The epitome of ruthless military efficiency, the Teutonic Knights became a military order in 1198, their insignia a black cross on a white background. Their original purpose was to protect Christians in the Holy Land but at its loss they moved their headquarters to Marienberg in 1309, gaining their own Baltic state at the same time the Hospitallers gained Rhodes. This may well have saved both orders from suppression - the fate of the Templars in 1314.
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The Teutonic Knights deployed between the villages of Tannenberg and Lodwigowo. Tannenberg anchored the rear of the Order's left flank and the right by Lodwigowo and the near by marshes. Infantry and artillery formed the front rank. The Knights formed two ranks behind the infantry. The right flank was commanded by marshal Konrad Von Lichtenstein. The left by Marshal Fridrich Wallenrod.
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Inheritors of the traditions of the Knights Hospitallers, the Teutonic Order waged continual war against the pagans of Eastern Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. After being driven out of the Holy Land, they established their headquarters at Marienburg (present-day Malborka) in what was then eastern Prussia and built a fortress there. In keeping with the traditions of Christian military orders, the Teutonic Knights constructed a clinic adjacent to Marienberg Castle sometime in the fourteenth century to care for the sick and needy. Named after the first hospital built by the German order in Jerusalem, the former Jerusalem Hospital in Malborka is a rare example of a Teutonic Order hospital structure.
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