The Teutonic Knights were powerful and ferocious advocates of holy war. Their history is suffused with crusading, campaigning, and destruction. Feared by their enemies but respected by religious authorities, the knights and their order maintained a firm grasp over the Baltic region and established a dreaded regime that flourished across Central Europe during the late Middle Ages. Christianity blossomed during the times which the Teutonic Knights controlled a vast part of Europe. Begun many years ago, the Italian mafia started as a small group of poor, immigrant families trying to support one another. It grew to become a large, rich, and corrupt organization feared by many. Like the Italian mafia, the beginnings of the Teutonic Order were aimed at bringing religion to an unreligious people. Again, like the mafia, the knights became corrupt, greedy, and more interested in killing the nations they conquered than at exposing them to a new religion. Their methods of gaining control and converting the population to Christianity were forceful, cruel, and self-serving, ultimately leading to their defeat as natives united to recover their own land.
Contrary from their later corruption, the Order of the Teutonic Knights began as a missionary group to provide medical care and religious knowledge to soldiers. About 1190, a wealthy German, having participated in the siege and capture of Jerusalem during the third crusade, settled there, and soon began to show pity for his unfortunate countrymen. Having realized the German soldiers suffered great miseries from sickness and from their wounds, and as their language was not understood by other contingents of the crusading army, they were left untended and friendless and so he took them into his own house to care for them. When the work became too great for him there, he built a hospital, in which he devoted himself to nursing sick soldiers. Still the task outgrew the means at his command, and, to increase his charity, he beseeched fellow countrymen to aid him in his task. To meet his request, many other locals joined him to devote themselves to the care of their wounded and sick countrymen. Taking after surrounding religious Orders, they banded themselves together and shared the care of the sick under the title of the Hospitalers of the Blessed Virgin. These Teutonic Hospitalers continued their care of the sick soldiers, in hospital and field, until the Christian army took Jerusalem, in 1191. It was then that Pope Innocent III, with Henry de Walpot as its first master, confirmed the order. Henry de Walpot purchased a site within the city, and built a church and hospital for his order, the first that it possessed. Throughout the next decade, extra lodgings were added to house the incoming members of the order, which were enlisted to assist the knights in the field. It was very easy to be accepted into the Order; it was enough to know basic prayers. These scant requirements attracted soldiers ready to conquer, but not in the name of Christianity. The Teutonic Knights had a hierarchal chain of command with distinct classes, ranging from slaves, known as secular knights, to priests, which had power in the church, to brother-knights, which overpowered all other members. "Knights came from the aristocratic branch of society and had to give evidence of nobility when being accepted to the Order" (Hafka 14). With many new members, their numbers grew and they became a powerful army ready to seek new assignments funded by the Pope.
The Teutonic Knights' regime spread vastly as they introduced their authority to new regions. A duke in northern Poland requested assistance from the Pope; heathen tribes of the "Prussen", a Baltic people, were attacking the duke's territory. As a result, the Pope directed the Teutonic Order to conquer the lands of the "Prussen" and convert the population to Christianity. In return, the Polish authorities agreed that the German order would be politically sovereign over the lands they conquered. Using superior fortifications and technology, they conquered all of Prussia. The Knights' power and control permeated into arrogance and cruelty with their recurrent victories. The Knights learned to use their empowering force and presence as weapons for personal gains: they robbed families of all possessions and left them penniless. The weaker were oppressed and wealth and power led to luxury and greed. Conquered land was carved out for their own personal investments and assets. Although membership of the Teutonic Order comprised of thousands of individuals, only the few priests and Knights, a few hundred, truly expressed loyalty, devotion, and obedience to the Catholic Church: "Few knights other than those within the Order ever expressed religious feelings about the campaigns" (Turnbull 86). The Knights would cut and burn their way through pagan lands leaving nothing living and the land a waste. If a Knight was captured, he could expect horrible treatment; the natives hated the Knights so bitterly that they would skin them alive as sacrifices to their gods. The crusade of the German Order on the Baltic coast paved the way to mass German colonization in Eastern Europe. The Teutonic knights realized that the easiest way to change the nature of society was to change its inhabitants. Therefore, they ensured that Christianized Germans settled in the regions they overtook. The take-over of Prussia was the first major act of genocide by the Catholic Church, carried-out by the Teutonic Knights. However, the overwhelming disruption in society angered the natives and would ultimately lead to the fall of the Order.
As a result of their tactics, the Knights were never popular in the region, even if the locals had all been converted to Christianity. By 1410, the order had reached the summit of its greatness. The times were full of violence, cruelty, and crime. In 1409, King Jagiello of Poland invited all enemies of the Teutonic Knights to participate in a massive campaign against the order, a call that led to the major defeat for the Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, a year later. In Grunwald, King Jagiello's army and joint allies numbered 39,000. Although 39,000 fought against the Teutonic Order in this battle, the strength of the allied army was estimated at 5.1 million. Composing the allied army were Poles, Lithuanians, Czechs, Tartars, and Russians. Quickly assembling an army of their own, the Teutonic Knights met the approaching legion with 27,000 of their knights and soldiers; "A knight had to always be ready to fight" (Hafka 15). However, the Teutonic Knights were not at a disadvantage; "they had a formidable corps of well-trained soldiers and cavalry holding their army together" (Poland battles Teutonic Knights at Tannenberg). On July 15, 1410, the armies attacked each other. The battle raged all day long. It was unclear clear who would prevail. Upon the conclusion of the day, the Teutonic Order's army was in retreat, leaving 8,000 dead on the battlefield. The Battle of Grunwald set the stage for the collapse of the Order. The downfall of the Teutonic Order continued beyond the Battle of Grunwald throughout the fifteenth century, with territorial and political losses, culminating with the decline of the Order.
In response to the cruel treatment of the Teutonic Knights, the natives joined together to overcome the Teutonic Knights and regain their homeland. Having begun as a small missionary group and field hospital, the Hospitalers of the Blessed Virgin gained approval from the Church to become a major religious order. Receiving funding from the Pope, Teutonic Order traversed the Baltic in aims to convert the population to Christianity. Disregarding informing the Pope, their methods became malicious and callous. Their homelands and lives destroyed, the natives joined together to create a massive allied army and defeat the Teutonic Knights. Encountering one another at Grunwald, the armies battled. By days end, the Knights were in retreat and the natives had retrieved their homeland. As the Italian mafia infixes fright in today's society, the Teutonic Knights instilled fear and terror in the lives of the people during the middle ages. Understanding the actions carried-out by the Teutonic Knights, the conclusion seems forced upon us that human nature was much the same in those days as it is now, and that riches and irresponsible authority scarcely fail to sway inferiors into selfish and corrupt treatment.
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