Teutonic Order Research Articles

Music in a vanished kingdom: medieval polyphony in the Teutonic Order state in Prussia

Abstract The state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, or Ordensstaat (1228–1525), belongs to those ‘vanished kingdoms’ which—devoid of any contemporary heirs—remain on the margins of historical narratives about music. The aim of this article is to describe polyphonic practices in medieval Prussia on the basis of archival and musical sources. Although the information they contain is of a fragmentary character, referring mainly to the first half of the 15th century, it does indicate that a variety of music was cultivated: from simply polyphony in chant notation to international Ars Nova. Outside the major ecclesiastic centres, conditions for the cultivation of polyphony could have existed at the court of the Grand Master, at which musicians—mostly instrumentalists—from across Europe appeared. Particular attention is devoted in the article to fragments from the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Ms. 2153a) which contain works in the style of Central European polyphony, belonging to the genres of motet, cantio and rotulum. These and other sources indicate that the culture of medieval Prussia should be seen from the perspective of various European connections, and not as Germanic or Polish culture, as has often occurred in the past.

Attempt at specifying the attribution of late medieval leather amulets From Central and Eastern Europe

We determine the function of the so-called leather amulets, of which we already know 50 specimens, mainly as identifiers of medieval messengers. In several cases, we managed to identify the connection between the amulets and document/letter cases and to specify other tangible attributes of messengers. Owing to the diversity of the iconographic programme and, occasionally, also of inscriptions, we were able to identify the issuers of these artefacts, albeit not without some reservations: rulers, the wealthy, municipal self-governments, trade organizations, minnesingers, bishops, religious fraternities, commanders of the Teutonic Order, and Jews. As for now, we know of only one workshop where the amulets and document cases were manufactured, specifically, in Nysa, Silesia; however, only part of the known products were made there. The origin of the amulets not discovered yet in Western Europe is still to be determined, along with specifying the function of love amulets and identifying coats of arms of commanders known from the amulets, as well as narrowing down the identification of the emblem of a mermaid with a specific trade organization.

Diabelskie koło historii. Poetyki miejskie w powieści Aleksieja Iwanowa Cienie Teutonów

Shadows of the Teutons, a novel by the contemporary Russian writer Aleksei Ivanov, was published in 2021. The story unfolds across two different time periods. Some events take place in 1457 during the siege of Marienburg, the capital of the Teutonic Order’s State, and the Polish-Teutonic conflict serves as a starting point for the depiction of later battles, in 1945, within the former East Prussia, now known as the Kaliningrad Oblast. This article examines the means used to create the urban spaces depicted in the novel and their transformation as a result of armed conflicts. It focuses on the urban landscapes of Baltiysk (Pillau) and Malbork (Marienburg), which exhibit a complex identity and strong interconnections at various levels of the narrative structure. The analysis explores somatopoetics and thanatopoetics, two categories the author employs to describe places, as well as the auditory and olfactory dimensions of everyday wartime experiences, memoryscapes, Teutonic castles and underground settings such as cellars, bunkers, catacombs, secret passages and tunnels.

Die völkerrechtliche Rechtspersönlichkeit der Beteiligten am Friedensvertrag von Sallinwerder aus dem Jahre 1398

The treaty of Sallinwerder was perceded by long wars between the Teutonic Order and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and by few earlier treaties. In April 1398 the Teutonic Order and the Grand Duke Witold (Vytautas) closed a tentative agreement in Grodno, followed by the main treaty, which was signed on 12th of October 1398 on the island Sallinwerder. This agreement granted the Western part of ethnic Lithuania called Samogitia to the Order. The are some questions concerning the entitlement of the Teutonic Brethren who were not ancestoral in that area, as well as the entitlement of the Grand Duke Witold. Although Samogitia belonged to him, it was also part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, at the top of which stood not Witold, but the Supreme Duke Jagiello (Jogaila). After signing the mentioned treaty Witold launched a big campaign against his Eastern neighbours which ended up in a devastating defeat. Shortly after he came to the conclusion that the treaty of Sallinwerder was very disadvantageus to him and started looking for a better outcome.

THE NEW URBAN CONCEPT OF HANSEATIC CITIES OF THE RIGA ARCHBISHOPRIC IN THE 13TH–14TH CENTURIES

Bishop of Riga Albert established bishoprics and centers of spiritual life on the Southern Baltic Sea coast to subjugate the local population. Sacred buildings were the main architectural highlights of the urban environment. Later, Riga became the main military base for expansion in the Baltics, the economic base of the Teutonic Order, and the administrative center of the Archbishopric of Riga (1255–1562). On the Baltic Sea coast, new bishoprics began to be established in the lands of the subject Prussians. Important cities were involved in the Hanseatic League. Consequently, the concept of urban planning and construction changed in the 13th– 14th centuries. Research object: urban space of the Hanseatic League cities on the Prussian lands in the 13th–14th centuries. Research problem: sacral buildings changed urban aesthetics and the urban space of the Hanseatic cities, which has not been studied enough to preserve their identity. Research goal: analysis of the impact of churches for the citizenship parishes on the planning, visual image, and architectural-spatial development of the Hanseatic League cities in the lands of the subject Prussians. Novelty: analysis of common and local features of the structural evolution of the Hanseatic cities under the authority of the Archbishopric of Riga during the 13th and 14th centuries. Research methods: analysis of archive documents, projects, cartographic materials, and studies of published literature.

“Under the Law and Customs of War”: Treaties and Prisoners of War

The law of war in the Middle Ages extended beyond the considerations of when to initiate a war (the concept of ius belli), the treatment of prisoners, and the permissibility of plunder and destruction. These dimensions were shaped by the contributions of medieval jurists and, significantly, by the influence of Christianity. Despite the concerted efforts to regulate warfare, certain practices persisted, such as the capture of peasants, women, and children – the non-combatants. The expansion of Christianity to the East, particularly to the Baltic Sea region, saw these principles advancing hand in hand, especially through the Teutonic Order and Western nobility. This article endeavors to analyze, primarily drawing from normative sources, the criteria for becoming a prisoner of war during the conflicts involving the Teutonic Order, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdom of Poland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It explores the process of prisoner distribution and examines the prevailing customs and rules outlined in treaties. Notably, the peace treaties of Salynas (1398), Thorn (1411), Melno (1422), and Brest (1435) highlight evolving formulations in the quest to define who qualified as a “prisoner of war,” the conditions for regaining freedom, and the challenges surrounding the effectiveness of international treaties on the matter of captives.

The establishment and development of St Elizabeth's Hospital as intended by the Teutonic Order at the turn of the 15th century

The Teutonic Order exercised a dominant impact on social and religious relations in late 14th-century Gdańsk through taking initiatives in terms of new religious foundations. One such undertaking – St Elizabeth's Hospital – reveals the way in which the co-existence in the city and its monastic lords was eroding. The facts presented in the article demonstrate a crisis in the Order, which compromised itself in terms of its religious function. In the Gdańsk community this might have been one of the stimuli to take a decision to seek liberation from the rule of the Order.

Seals as a Reflection of the Self-Confidence, Self-Image and Identity of the Teutonic Order

This article deals with the question of the extent to which the Teutonic Order, as a clerical order of knights founded during the Third Crusade, succeeded in expressing its self-confidence and identity by means of its seal. The “geographical” area of investigation extends to the bailiwicks of Franconia, Alsace–Burgundy, Lorraine, Austria, An der Etsch and in the mountains (South Tyrol) as well as the so-called Deutschmeistertum, whereby the terms mentioned do not necessarily correspond to the present-day areas of that designation. The time frame is within the Middle Ages. Due to the large number of surviving seals of the Teutonic Order, however, only a small insight from a larger study can be provided here. Selected seals of the Order’s various internal leadership strata are therefore presented, compared and examined to determine whether and to what extent they express a form of self-confidence and identity.

Состав и функции прусских локаторов в Вармийской епископии в XIV веке

The social institution of locators, alongside the feudal land tenure system, was one of the main methods for land development in the Teutonic Order’s state. The position of a locator entailed establishing a settlement, attracting residents to its territory, and managing the social life of the new community. The formation of this group from the local population during the period of 1300-1370 raises the question of their status within the new social system, the key characteristics of which include their composition and functions. These aspects have been defined using typological and historical-comparative methods based on the records of the Warmian Episcopate. The records document land grants to a total of 190 locators, the majority of whom fall into two groups: those obligated to provide service and pay taxes, and those exempt from service but required to pay dues. Representatives of both groups had the right to build mills and taverns on their lands and were also responsible for allocating plots for the construction of parish churches. Their jurisdiction included both minor and major judicial powers. Throughout the period under review, the locators experienced processes of socio-economic stratification, exacerbated by the shrinking availability of free land and Lithuanian invasions. Measures to support locators (such as inheritance of their position and property through both male and female lines, as well as rights to fishing and hunting) were applied according to the situation in each estate, ensuring stable land development within the episcopate’s territory.

Institutions and development in a fragile limited access order of late-medieval Lithuania

Abstract Applying the framework of North et al. (2009, Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), this paper analyses institutional and economic development in a new setting – the Grand Duchy of Lithuania between 1245 and 1386. Although remaining a fragile limited access order, Lithuania achieved positive institutional change. Its elite became more stable by restricting ruling privileges to the grand duke's family and integrating rival dukes through administrative positions and hereditary property rights. This arrangement encouraged land accumulation and productive activity over extraction, while the elite started providing better security to traders and craftsmen seeking to finance its war against the Teutonic Order. Synthesised material evidence reflects development at the extensive margin. However, health data shows no increase in average living standards, potentially due to population growth and inequality. Both sets of findings are consistent with the conceptual framework, as it expects fragile limited access orders to be underdeveloped from a static perspective, but improve following institutional development.

Водные угодья в хозяйстве прусских условных землевладельцев в XIII—XIV веках

Local conditional landholding, which bolstered the rule of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, involved the utilisation of land parcels with diverse landscape characteristics, spanning from well-cultivated arable lands to less fertile areas covered with woods and shrubs. To ensure the stable existence of households, the Prussians were granted rights to fish and build watermills on their plots, along with cultivating the land. These rights, explored in this study within the chronological framework of 1242—1370, were universally applicable. A total of 308 persons of different property status, duties and juridical status enjoyed these rights. Most of them, 213 individuals, were lieges obligated to serve in the military, pay taxes or do both. Another 95 persons were lokatoren required to organise settlements on the plots granted by the Order or the Church. The fishing right was regulated by permitting the use of tools (hooks, gigs, fishing rods, waders and nets, except the seine, termed collectively ‘small gears’), sometimes accompanied by leave to build a barrage across the river. The right to build a watermill applied to erecting a one- or two-wheeled structure, typically encompassed by a plot of land measuring 0.5 to 2 huffen and subject to taxation ranging from two to three marks.

Ordensritter und Frauen in Livland im 16. Jahrhundert

The Teutonic Knights and Women in the 16th century Livonia Amount of information on women in the castles of the Teutonic Order in Livonia is scarce. From the 16th century there is evidence about the female housekeepers (low-ger. mayersche) in the manors and smaller castles of the commandery of Fellin. The artisans and servants of the Order were not bound to the vow of celibacy, some of them certainly had families and lived in the castles. The knights in Livonia participated in worldly activities such as weddings in the sixteenth century. Moreover, in some cases it could be shown that the knights were organizers of these events. This involved not only initial match-making but also guiding through the actual event as well. On these occasions it can be shown, how deeply the knights were involved in organizing the family affairs of their relatives: be that the guardianship of a mother or betrothal of a sister. Female relatives of the knights sometimes also visited Livonia. Several critics of the Order also single out the concubines of the brethren. The number of knights, who are known to have had concubines in the sixteenth century is not small. We do not know much about the forms of the relationships or eventual cohabitation. Most of the information is on the children born of these relationships, whose subsistence was taken care of.

Der Aufstieg der Landsmannschaft aus Elsass-Burgund im preußischen Zweig des Deutschen Ordens im späten 14. Jahrhundert

The rise of the brethren from Alsace-Burgundy in the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in the late 14th century In the late fourteenth century, brethren of the Teutonic Order from Alsace-Burgundy, who had not played any role in the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Orden so far, gained much importance. At the end of 1379, not a single brother from that region had an important administrative function. Eighteen years, however, later they controlled two of six seats of the highest dignitaries, and two offices in the Komtur’s rank and two in the Pfleger’s rank. Key to such a success was – beside personal and professional connections – cooperation with the two Frankish Grand Masters, with the brethren from Swabia and also with one brother from probably Lower Austria. From the very beginning, the most important figures from Alsace-Burgundy were Johann Marschalk von Frohburg, then especially Werner von Tettingen, Konrad von Kyburg and Rudolf von Kyburg.

Dwór krzyżacki w Benowie (Polska), jego geneza, historia i znaczenie w świetle analizy historyczno-architektonicznej

This paper deals with the history of the former Teutonic manor in Benowo (German name: Bönhof) in relation to its spatial arrangement. The first part presents the source historical messages relating to this place and an attempt is made to read them again based on the relevant available research by historians and archaeologists regarding the beginnings of the activity of the Teutonic Order in the Prussian land. The available archival cartography concerning the location of the manor house is also described. The following section presents new findings related to the use of modern land registration techniques – aerial and satellite photos and LIDAR airborne laser scanning. The result of the research is the indication of the character and shape of the buildings and the exact location of some of the objects included in the farm buildings, as well as the formulation of a hypothesis regarding the land forms existing in their immediate vicinity.

Visored Bascinets in Iconography from The Teutonic Order’s State in Prussia

Visored Bascinets in Iconography from The Teutonic Order’s State in Prussia

“In Heavy Chains”: The Treatment of Prisoners of War in the Teutonic Order in Prussia, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the First Half of the Fifteenth Century

This article delves into a analysis of the treatment of prisoners of war during the late 14th and 15th centuries. The study not only examines the challenges encountered by the prisoners themselves, as documented in their letters, but also sheds light on the difficulties faced by the officials of the Teutonic Knights and lords involved in their release and care. The work highlights the most salient aspects of captivity, including the deprivation experienced by the prisoners, the means by which they were able to obtain basic necessities such as food and clothing, and the types of places in which they were typically detained. Moreover, the article explores the various factors that influenced the behavior of both captors and captives, and distinguishes between the appropriate and inappropriate treatment of prisoners based on the established norms of medieval times.

The March to Prussia: The Informative Value of a Peripheral Phenomenon

This article not only introduces new sources that underline the importance of the march to Prussia (Preußenreisen) for the nobility of Western Europe at the time, but also highlights the challenges they faced along the way, including encounters with marauders, adverse natural conditions and captivity. These campaigns provide a detailed insight into the life of European nobility: how nobles inspired by literary ideals embarked on long journeys, visited various courts and feasted with other knights, and finally how European chivalry conceived itself on these campaigns. The story tells how from the westernmost corner of Europe they travelled to the East and, on their return, tried to make sense of their journeys (despite the enormous expense) through places of memory. In addition, this study explores how the Teutonic Order faced the new challenge of seeking new legitimacy after the baptism of Lithuania and Samogitia.

Miracles and Divine Intervention during the Struggle between the Teutonic Order and Lithuania in Christian Narratives from the 14th Century

More than a hundred years of fighting between the Teutonic Order and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania have left us with a considerable amount of narrative sources that allow researchers today to imagine the language of the Christians who fought against the pagans, and to understand their beliefs and propaganda measures. One little-studied question in this regard is how the Christian narrative tradition of the 14th century portrayed miracles and divine intervention during the struggle between the Teutonic Order and Lithuania. To address this question, the author of the article focuses on the chronicles of the Teutonic Order, which represented the idea of the Crusade to the Lithuanian lands, and therefore showed a strong need to emphasise the religious aspect of the whole military conflict. At the same time, however, she also draws on other surviving documents for comparison, including Lithuanian and Ruthenian narrative sources. The author argues that the accounts of miracles and divine intervention in sources from the Teutonic Order were influenced by the nature of the Order as a religious military corporation and the chroniclers’ need to explain the campaigns to Lithuania as a holy war. It was this need that led them to place a great emphasis on the depiction of divine intervention in the campaigns of the crusaders to help them.

The Christianisation of the Baltic Seen from Medieval France

The way the Baltic region was viewed in Christian Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages was strongly characterised by the fact that it was the land of the last pagans. Beginning with the crusade against the Wends (Polabian Slavs) in 1147, attempts to convert them in the region took the form of the Northern Crusades, authorised by the Pope. The Teutonic Order became the driving force behind these crusades from the 13th to the 15th centuries, and secured support in Christian Europe, including France. The representation of the east Baltic region, on which this article focuses, was mainly related to these crusades. The author’s aim is to provide an overview of the attitude of the French-related nobility and intellectual elite towards the Christianisation of the Baltic from the tenth to the 15th centuries, with a special focus on Lithuania. In the first half of the 14th century, many crusaders from France and neighbouring countries backed the Teutonic Order’s struggle against Lithuania. These expeditions, mostly a derivative of the crusades in the Holy Land, were seen as the epitome of the chivalric lifestyle. This view changed slowly after Grand Duke Jogaila acceded to the Polish throne in 1386 and a year later baptised the grand duchy. With the evangelisation of Žemaitija (Samogitia) in 1417, Lithuania was definitely considered a part of Christendom.

Morality Tale or Attempt at Reportage? Yet Another Look at Peter von Dusburg’s Description of the Prussian Pagan Religion

The story by the Teutonic Order chronicler Peter von Dusburg about the Prussian pagan priest Criwe and his sanctuary Romowe has for centuries provoked historiographical arguments about the nature of the Baltic pagan religion and the interpretation of Medieval chronicle sources relating to the Balts. This article focuses on an interpretation of Dusburg’s text, without attempting to decide on the reality of ancient pagan religious practice. Through a ‘close reading’ approach to actual words and the contexts of sentences that are often extracted and used out of context, the article argues against either dismissing the passage as an invented moral exemplum or accepting it literally. A speculative explanation for Dusburg’s portrayal of the pagan priest Criwe as a pope is presented for consideration. Moreover, through a reminder of the often-neglected context of the Criwe passage in book III of the chronicle, this article suggests an overarching aim for Dusburg’s portrayal of the Old Prussians, which is not as the ‘avatar of evil’ often proposed in historiography, but rather as simple peoples who should be left to the Teutonic Order and not to the Franciscans favoured at that time by Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania. To aid readers, the article contains the whole Latin passage (rather than the extracts often quoted), and an English translation by Rasa Mažeika.