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1263, when the pope allowed the knights, who had previously been bound by a vow
of poverty, to engage directly in trading activities.
In 1237, less than two years before Hermann von Salza's death, the Order of the
Brothers of the Sword (Schwertbrüderorden), also known as the Knights of the
Sword, or the Livonian Order (founded 1202), was made a branch of the Teutonic
Order, its head becoming Landmeister of Livonia. The Teutonic Order, however,
never established such effective control over these Northern provinces as it did
over Prussia.
By 1309, when the order's grand master established his residence at Marienburg,
the order had created a strong feudal state that governed not only Prussia but also
the eastern Baltic lands of the Livonian Knights (i.e., Courland, Livonia, and, after
1346, Estonia); Pomerelia, or Eastern Pomerania, including the city of Danzig
(Gdansk); and lands in central and southern Germany. During the following
century the order demonstrated its power by continually, although unsuccessfully,
trying to conquer and convert Lithuania; by actively protecting the merchant cities
of the Hanseatic League; and by expanding its territories through purchase and
conquest.
The order's expansion and increasing power, however, aroused the hostility of both
Poland, whose access to the Baltic Sea had been cut off, and Lithuania, whose
territory the knights continued to menace despite Lithuania's conversion to
Christianity in 1387. Consequently, when a rebellion broke out against the order in
Samogitia (1408), Poland and Lithuania joined forces and decisively defeated the
knights at Grunwald (1410). Although the order was compelled to give up only
Samogitia and the Dobrzyn land (Treaty of Torun, 1411), its military might was
broken. Subsequently, its authority and financial position also rapidly declined; it
was unable to withstand the wars that Poland continued to wage, and when its own
vassals joined the Poles in the Thirteen Years' War (1454-66), the order was finally
defeated. In 1466 it ceded Pomerelia, both banks of the Vistula, and the bishopric
of Warmia (Ermland) to Poland (Treaty of Torún, 1466). The order retained the
rest of Prussia, but its grand master became a vassal of the Polish king for that
territory. Furthermore, the formerly exclusively German order was obliged to
accept Polish members.
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 re
embarked 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
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 103 of 200