TEUTONIC KNIGHTS (The Teutonic Knights of Saint Mary's Hospital at Jerusalem). An order of knighthood which originated in a brotherhood formed by German knights in 1190 during the siege of Acre by the Crusaders and recognized by Pope Clement III. in 1191. In 1198 this association was changed into an order of knighthood as a balance to the political influ ence of the Templars and Hospitalers. Her mann von Salza. grand master from 1210 to 1239, saw no future in Palestine, and the order engaged in the conquest of the heathen Prussians, inhabit ing the Baltic regions to the northeast of Ger many. After a fierce struggle of half a cen tury they completed their subjugation in 1283. Christianity was planted with fire and sword. cities were founded. and the land was colonized by Germans. In 1237 the Teutonic Knights ab sorbed the order of the Brothers of the Sword, and so acquired Livonia and Kurland. They waged long wars with the Lithuanians for the possession of the territory intervening between these regions and the Prussian country. Early in the fourteenth century they extended their dominion westward, making themselves masters of Danzig and Little Pomerania (Pomerellen). They beoame a great power and their State pros pered, but the Knights themselves remained a ruling aristocracy, and were hated by the con quered natives and Germans alike. In 1410 the power of the Teutonic Knights sustained a great blow through their defeat in the battle of Tannen berg at the hands of the Poles and Lithuanians.
In 1466 they were compelled in the Treaty of Thorn to cede West Prussia to Poland and to agree to hold East Prussia as a Polish fief. Half a century later the Knights of the Sword cut loose from the Teutonic Knights, whose domin ion was now restricted to East Prussia. In 1525 the grand master, Albert of Brandenburg (q.v.), having embraced Protestantism, laid down his office and converted the State over which he ruled into the hereditary Duchy of Prussia, fo• which he did homage to the King of Poland. The order was composed of knights, priests, and servants. The rule followed was that of Saint Augustine. The insignia was the white mantle with the black cross. After the secularization of the Prussian domain of the Teutonic Knights the order con tinued to exist in Germany, having numerous possessions, mostly of very small extent, scat tered throughout the Empire. Its head resided at Mergcntheim (now a town of Wurttemberg). The order was abolished by Napoleon in 1809, and its possessions were confiscated. It was re vived as an Imperial Austrian order in 1834. Its head is an Austrian archduke. Consult: Strehlke, Tabula; Ordinis Thentonici (Berlin, 1869) ; Voigt, Geschichte des dentschen Ilittcrordcns (1857-60).