“The Teutonic Knights: A Military History”, by William Urban

 

288 pages, Greenhill Books, ISBN-13: 978-1853675355

The Teutonic Knights – The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem – Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum – Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus der Heiligen Maria in Jerusalem – The Teutonic Order – Deutscher Orden, Deutschherrenorden or Deutschritterorden – is a Catholic religious order founded as a military order in 1190 in Acre in the former and long-dead Kingdom of Jerusalem (and it’s still around, too, serving as a charitable organization by established numerous clinics, as well as sponsoring excavation and tourism projects in Israel).

But none of that concerns us here, as William Urban’s book The Teutonic Knights: A Military History is about when the Teutons went about the Middle East and Northern Europe, converting if they could and killing if they must (it must be said that it was the second bit that they were best at). Urban – the Lee L. Morgan Professor of History and International studies at Monmouth College who specializes in the Baltic Crusades and Teutonic Knights – has given us a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of a great military order; most importantly, he has demonstrated convincingly that the Teutonic Knights was a Christian organization, like many others, dedicated to helping the sick and advancing Christianity via the crusade, and not some kind of twisted forerunner of Nazi Germany; indeed, he takes generations of so-called historians and political leaders to task for creating and perpetuating this myth, which does not honestly study the Order’s history but rather foments ethnic hatreds between Germans, Poles, Lithuanians, and Russians. Since this book is a military history of the Teutonic Knights, the author poses this in the Introduction:

Why a book on the military history of the Teutonic Knights? Why not earlier?...One answer is the best historians of the crusades have traditionally concentrated their attentions on the Holy Land; most medieval historians in recent decades have lacked much interest in military affairs; and amateur historians in the English-speaking world are not prepared to handle the many languages involved in studying Baltic and East Central European history....Another good answer, perhaps more fundamental, is that the English-speaking public was generally unaware that there had been crusades in the Baltic, and, moreover, for many years also lost interest in the medieval efforts to recover Jerusalem. No demand, hence no response by authors and publishers.

The Teutonic Knights are often portrayed in a rather negative light, either as an early manifestation of later German attempts to expand into the east, or as a barrier to the conversion of the pagans. Urban paints them in a rather more positive light, at least in the earlier part of their time in Prussia and Livonia, when he believes that their religious motivations were rather more genuine than many other authors. Although the defeat at Tannenberg had surprisingly little direct impact, it did change the nature of the organization, and in the last few decades of its existence as a major power the order became increasingly divided and dependent on mercenaries. Urban has done a good job of relating the military exploits of the order, while at the same time examining the changing nature of their opponents, the development of Poland-Lithuania, the problems caused by the conversion of most of the pagans, the decreasing appeal of the crusade in the rest of Europe and the place of the Teutonic Knights in the wider Catholic Church. This is an excellent study of an important and often misunderstood military order.