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Henry VI had turned his attention to them while he was planning the Crusade, but,
in spite of many benefactions, the confusion that followed his death hampered this
purely German movement in its development.
The Church and older rivals looked at it with no friendly eye, and its real prosperity
began with Frederick II. After he had taken his crusading vow a definite
opportunity presented itself for the employment of the Teutonic Knights, and
Frederick at once got into touch with them. Numerous gifts in this and the ensuing
years bear witness to Frederick s determination to strengthen the Order by every
means in his power. He even granted its members privileges which encroached on
his own imperial rights, or which robbed him of considerable royal revenues. He
was here even more open-handed than towards the princes. He had at first
primarily the Crusade in view, but beyond the needs of the moment Frederick
sought to enlist their enthusiasm and their strength for other tasks. He created out
of them little corps elite, free from feudal fetters and extraneous influences whether
of temporal or spiritual lords, independent, reliable, unconditionally loyal to
himself a small body, but one immediately at the service of the Empire as sword
and weapon, and in spiritual matters subject to the Pope alone. To increase the
authority of the Order in Church affairs Frederick applied personally to the Pope,
with the result that the notaries in the papal Chancery were busy night and day pre
paring nothing but charters for the hitherto sorely neglected Order of Teutonic
Knights.
Yearly years of the Teutonic Order
The Third Crusade (1189-1191) had been expected to be
the most glorious triumph that German arms had ever
achieved. The indomitable red bearded Hohenstaufen,
Friedrich Barbarossa, had brought his imperial army
intact across the Balkans and Asia Minor--where the
Second Crusade had come to grief, had smashed the
Turkish forces that blocked the land route east from
Constantinople for a century, and had crossed the
difficult Cilician mountain passes leading into the Syria,
whence his army could pass easily into the Holy Land.
There he was expected to lead the combined armies of
the Holy Roman Empire, France, and England to recover
the lost ports, thereby opening the way for trade and reinforcements, after which he
would lead the Christian forces on to the liberation of Jerusalem. Instead, he
drowned in a small mountain stream. His vassals dispersed, some hurrying back to
Germany because their presence was required at the election of the German king
(Friedrich's son Heinrich VI), others because they anticipated a civil war in
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 97 of 200