The Prussian Crusade and the Teutonic Order

I. The Prussians

The Prussians were a Baltic people, related to the Lithuanians and Latvians, who lived between the lower Vistula and the Neman along the southeastern shore of the Baltic. They were divided into about a dozen tribes or regions, including the Pomesanians, Pogesanians, Warmians, Natangians, Sambians, Bartians, Nadruvians, Scalovians, Galindians and Sudovians. Each region had its own nobles and hill forts, but there was no common ruler. They spoke a Baltic language, Old Prussian, which is known from a few texts of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.

The Prussians were pagans. According to the fourteenth-century chronicler Peter of Dusburg, they worshipped the sun, moon, stars, thunder, birds and animals, and had sacred groves, fields and waters where no one could cut wood, plough or fish. Peter wrote of a high priest called the Kriwe, who lived at a place called Romowe, though modern historians doubt the reliability of this account. They cremated their dead, with their horses, weapons and possessions, believing that the dead would live in the next world as they had in this.

The Prussians traded amber, furs and slaves, and they were known as fierce warriors who raided their neighbours, especially the Poles of Masovia and Kujawy. The site's page on the Northern Crusades describes the place of the Prussian conquest in the broader history of the Baltic crusades.

II. Adalbert of Prague

The first known Christian mission to the Prussians was that of Adalbert, bishop of Prague, who came to Prussia in 997 under the protection of the Polish duke Bolesław the Brave. He preached at Gdańsk and then went among the Prussians, but on 23 April 997 he was killed by a Prussian priest, perhaps because he had entered a sacred grove. Bolesław ransomed his body for its weight in gold, according to legend, and buried it at Gniezno, which became the seat of the first Polish archbishopric in 1000. Adalbert was canonised and became a patron saint of Poland and Bohemia.

In 1009 Bruno of Querfurt, another missionary, was killed with eighteen companions on the border of Prussia and Lithuania. These martyrdoms made Prussia a place of missionary aspiration, but for two centuries no further mission had lasting success.

III. Christian of Oliva

In the early thirteenth century, a Cistercian monk named Christian, from the abbey of Oliva near Gdańsk, or possibly from the abbey of Łekno in Greater Poland, began to preach among the Prussians of Pomesania and Lubawa. He had some success, converting several Prussian nobles, and in 1215 Pope Innocent III consecrated him as the first bishop of Prussia. Christian worked with the support of the Polish dukes, especially Konrad of Masovia, and of the Cistercian order.

The success of the mission provoked a pagan reaction. The Prussians raided Masovia and Kulmerland, the land around Chełmno on the Vistula, destroying churches and villages. In 1217 Pope Honorius III authorised a crusade to protect the converts, and Polish dukes and German crusaders made expeditions into Prussia in the following years, but these had little lasting effect. The Prussian raids continued, and Masovia was devastated.

IV. The Order of Dobrin

In about 1228 Bishop Christian and Konrad of Masovia founded a small military order, the Knights of Dobrin, named after the fortress of Dobrzyń on the Vistula given to them. The order was modelled on the Sword Brothers of Livonia, described in the site's page on the Livonian Crusade. It had only a few dozen knights and was unable to stop the Prussian raids. In 1235 most of its members were absorbed into the Teutonic Order.

V. The Teutonic Order

The Teutonic Order, or the Order of the Hospital of St Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem, had been founded as a hospital brotherhood at Acre during the Third Crusade, about 1190, and became a military order in 1198. It was composed mainly of Germans and had its headquarters at Acre and later at the castle of Montfort, called Starkenberg, in Galilee. Under its grand master Hermann von Salza, from about 1209 to 1239, the order grew rapidly, receiving lands and privileges from the emperor and the pope. Hermann was a close adviser of Frederick II, as described in the site's page on Frederick II's Crusade.

Before Prussia, the order had tried to establish itself in Hungary. In 1211 King Andrew II of Hungary invited it to defend the Burzenland in Transylvania against the Cumans. The order built castles and brought in German settlers, but it sought to make the land independent of Hungary under papal protection, and in 1225 Andrew expelled it. The experience shaped the order's demands in Prussia.

VI. The Invitation

In about 1226 Konrad of Masovia invited the Teutonic Order to help him against the Prussians, offering it the Kulmerland as a base. Hermann von Salza, having learned from the Hungarian experience, sought guarantees. He obtained from Frederick II the Golden Bull of Rimini, dated March 1226, which granted the order the Kulmerland and all lands it would conquer in Prussia, with the rights of an imperial prince. In 1230 Konrad, in the Treaty of Kruschwitz, ceded the Kulmerland to the order, though the authenticity of this treaty has been disputed. In 1234 Pope Gregory IX, in the Bull of Rieti, took the order's Prussian lands under papal protection as the property of St Peter, held by the order.

The dating of the Golden Bull has also been disputed. Some historians argue that it was issued later, in 1235, and backdated to strengthen the order's claim. The question matters because the documents formed the legal basis for the order's independent state in Prussia, which later became a source of conflict with Poland. Polish historians long held that Konrad had intended only to grant the order a temporary fief, not a sovereign territory.

VII. The Beginning of the Conquest

In 1230 a small group of knights, led by Hermann Balk, arrived on the Vistula and built a fortress at Vogelsang, opposite the site of Toruń. In 1231 they crossed the river and built a fortress at Thorn, now Toruń, under an old oak tree, according to the order's chronicle. The following year they founded Kulm, now Chełmno. In 1233 the two towns received a charter of rights, the Kulm law, which became the model for many towns in Prussia. The site's page on Bible Scholarship in Toruń describes the later history of the city.

The conquest proceeded with the help of crusaders from Germany, Poland and Bohemia, who came each year to fight for the indulgence. The order advanced down the Vistula, building castles at Marienwerder in 1233 and Elbing in 1237, then along the coast of the Vistula Lagoon. The Prussians of Pomesania and Pogesania were subjugated in the 1230s, and the order advanced into Warmia, Natangia and Bartia.

The conquest was violent. The order's chronicler Peter of Dusburg describes the destruction of villages, the killing of men and the enslavement of women and children. Those who submitted and accepted baptism were spared and given land under the order's lordship. The Prussian nobles who allied with the order kept their status and became vassals.

VIII. The Treaty of Christburg

In 1242 the Prussians, encouraged by Duke Swantopolk of Pomerania, who was in conflict with the order, rose in rebellion. The rebels destroyed many of the order's castles and killed the German settlers. The war lasted until 1249, when the papal legate Jacob of Liège, later Pope Urban IV, mediated the Treaty of Christburg between the order and the Prussian converts.

The treaty guaranteed the personal freedom of the baptised Prussians, their right to own and inherit property, to marry, to sue in court and to become priests or knights. In return the Prussians promised to abandon pagan practices, including cremation, polygamy and the sale of daughters, to build churches and to attend Mass. The treaty is an important document, giving a picture of Prussian society and of the terms on which the papacy hoped to integrate converts. But the order did not observe it consistently.

IX. Sambia and Königsberg

In 1254–1255 the order, with a crusading army led by King Ottokar II of Bohemia, conquered Sambia, the peninsula at the northern end of Prussia. The order built a castle there, named Königsberg, the King's Mountain, in honour of Ottokar. The town that grew up around the castle became the largest in Prussia, and after 1457 the seat of the grand master. The site's page on Bible Scholarship in Königsberg describes its later importance as a centre of learning.

X. The Great Prussian Uprising

In 1260 the Livonian Order and the Teutonic Order were defeated by the Samogitians at Durbe in Courland, and the Prussians rose in a great rebellion. The uprising was led by Herkus Monte of Natangia, who had been raised in Magdeburg as a hostage and was a Christian, and by leaders of the other regions. The rebels besieged and took many of the order's castles, killed the settlers and clergy, and defeated the order's armies in the field, notably at Pokarwis in 1261.

According to Peter of Dusburg, the rebels sacrificed a captured German knight by burning him alive in his armour on his horse. The order responded with equal brutality. The war lasted until 1274, and the order was saved only by repeated crusades from Germany. Herkus Monte was captured and hanged in 1273. The last resistance in Sudovia ended in 1283, when the Sudovian leader Skomantas surrendered and accepted baptism. Many Sudovians were resettled in Sambia, and their land was left empty, a wilderness that separated Prussia from Lithuania.

XI. Peter of Dusburg

The main source for the conquest of Prussia is the Chronicle of the Land of Prussia written by Peter of Dusburg, a priest of the Teutonic Order, about 1326. Peter wrote to glorify the order and to justify its wars. He presents the knights as new Maccabees, fighting for God against the pagans, and he records miracles and visions that confirmed the divine approval of the conquest. His chronicle was translated into German verse by Nicolaus von Jeroschin, also a priest of the order.

Peter's chronicle is the principal source for Prussian religion and society, but it was written by an enemy of the Prussians, and its account must be read critically. The order's view of the conquest was the one that shaped later German memory, while the Prussians left no written record of their own.

XII. The Order's State

By 1283 the Teutonic Order ruled all of Prussia. It created a state unlike any other in Europe, ruled by a religious order of celibate knights. The order was divided into commanderies, each with a castle and a convent of knights under a commander, and it ruled through its officials. The bishops of Kulm, Pomesania, Warmia and Sambia held part of the land, but the cathedral chapters of three of them were incorporated into the order.

The order encouraged colonisation, bringing German peasants and townsmen to settle the land. It founded about a hundred towns and over a thousand villages. The Prussians who survived became peasants or, if nobles, vassals of the order. Over time the Prussians were assimilated, adopting German language and customs. The order's state became prosperous, exporting grain, timber and amber through the Hanseatic towns of Danzig, Elbing, Thorn and Königsberg.

XIII. Pomerelia and Danzig

In 1308 the order seized Danzig and Pomerelia, the eastern part of Pomerania, which had been claimed by Poland and by Brandenburg. The order's troops entered Danzig, which had been held for the Polish king, and killed many of the inhabitants. The number killed is disputed, from a few dozen to thousands. Poland protested to the pope, and a long legal case followed, in which witnesses testified against the order. The papal court in 1339 ruled in Poland's favour, but the order ignored the verdict. The conquest of Pomerelia gave the order a land link to the empire but made it the enemy of Poland. The site's page on Bible Scholarship in Gdańsk describes the later history of the city.

XIV. Marienburg

In 1309, after the fall of Acre and the loss of the order's base in the Holy Land, the grand master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen moved the order's headquarters from Venice to Marienburg, now Malbork, on the Nogat. The castle of Marienburg, built of brick, was expanded into the largest castle in Europe, with a high castle, a middle castle with the grand master's palace and a lower castle. It became the capital of the order's state and a symbol of its power.

The move to Marienburg reflected the order's transformation from a crusading order of the Holy Land into a territorial state in the Baltic. It also coincided with the suppression of the Templars, which raised fears that the Teutonic Order might face a similar fate. The order defended itself against accusations of brutality and of hindering the conversion of Lithuania. The site's page on the Fall of Acre describes the end of the crusader states.

XV. The Reisen

In the fourteenth century the order continued to fight the pagan Lithuanians, and its campaigns, known as the Reisen, attracted knights from all over Europe, especially from France, England, Germany and Scotland. They came to Prussia for a season of hunting, feasting and raiding in Lithuania, which earned them the crusading indulgence and chivalric prestige. Henry Bolingbroke, later Henry IV of England, went to Prussia in 1390 and 1392. Geoffrey Chaucer's knight in the Canterbury Tales had fought in Prussia and Lithuania.

The order held an honour table, where the most distinguished knights were seated at a feast. The campaigns were often brutal raids, burning villages and taking captives, rather than battles. The site's page on the Lithuanian Crusade and Grunwald describes this warfare and its end.

XVI. Conversion and Language

The conversion of the Prussians was slow and superficial. The order and the bishops did little to instruct the Prussians in their own language, and pagan practices survived into the sixteenth century. The first printed book in Old Prussian was a catechism published in Königsberg in 1545, after the Reformation, and a translation of Luther's Small Catechism, known as the Enchiridion, was printed in 1561. By then the language was dying, and it became extinct about 1700.

The Greek Scriptures record that on the day of Pentecost the disciples spoke in the languages of the people who were present, so that each heard the message in his own language (Acts 2:6-8). The good news was to be preached to every nation and tongue (Revelation 14:6). The Prussians, by contrast, received the faith from conquerors who did not speak their language, and their language disappeared with them.

XVII. Thirteen Years' War

The order's power declined after its defeat by Poland and Lithuania at Grunwald in 1410. The towns and nobles of Prussia, resenting the order's taxes and rule, formed the Prussian Confederation in 1440, and in 1454 they rebelled and placed themselves under the Polish king. The Thirteen Years' War followed, ending in the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466, by which the order lost western Prussia, including Danzig, Thorn, Elbing and Marienburg, to Poland. The order kept eastern Prussia as a fief of the Polish crown, with its capital at Königsberg.

XVIII. Secularisation

In 1525 the grand master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, influenced by Martin Luther, secularised the order's state in Prussia and became the first duke of Prussia, a vassal of the Polish king Sigismund I, his uncle. He paid homage to the king in Kraków on 10 April 1525. Prussia became the first Lutheran state. The Teutonic Order continued to exist in Germany and the Habsburg lands, but its state in Prussia came to an end. In 1618 the duchy passed to the electors of Brandenburg, and in 1701 the elector Frederick III crowned himself king in Prussia at Königsberg. The site's page on Bible Scholarship in Kraków describes the Polish capital at the time.

XIX. The Use of the Crusade

The Prussian Crusade raised questions about the use of the crusade for territorial conquest. The order's critics argued that it was more interested in land and power than in conversion, and that it attacked Christian neighbours such as Poland. The Polish lawyer Paulus Vladimiri argued at the Council of Constance in 1415 that pagans had the right to their lands and that it was wrong to wage war against them merely because they were pagans. The order's defenders argued that the war was defensive and that the pagans threatened the Christians.

The teaching of the Greek Scriptures offers no basis for conquest in the name of the faith. Jesus told Peter to return his sword to its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword (Matthew 26:52). The apostles were told to go and make disciples by teaching (Matthew 28:19-20), and Paul said that he made himself a slave to all, so that he might win as many as possible (1 Corinthians 9:19).

XX. Assessment

The Prussian Crusade created one of the most remarkable states of medieval Europe, ruled by a military order that was both a religious community and a territorial power. It brought Prussia into Latin Christendom, but at the cost of the Prussian people, whose language and culture disappeared. It made the Teutonic Order a powerful force in the Baltic, but also the enemy of Poland and Lithuania, which would eventually defeat it.

The name of Prussia, taken from the conquered people, passed to the duchy and then to the kingdom that would unite Germany in the nineteenth century. The conquest of the Prussians was invoked by German nationalists as a precedent for German expansion in the east, and the memory of the Teutonic Order was used both to glorify and to condemn German aggression. In 1945, after the Second World War, the German population of East Prussia was expelled, and the land was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union.

XXI. Hermann Balk

Hermann Balk, the first master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, led the small group of knights who arrived on the Vistula in 1230. He was a capable commander and organiser who began the conquest of Prussia, founded Thorn, Kulm, Marienwerder and Elbing, and established the order's rule over the Pomesanians and Pogesanians. In 1237 he also became the first master of the Livonian branch of the order after the absorption of the Sword Brothers, and he went to Livonia to organise it. He died in 1239, the same year as Hermann von Salza.

Balk's success depended on the support of the crusaders and the Polish dukes. In 1233 a large army of crusaders, including the margrave of Meissen and Polish dukes, defeated the Pomesanians at the battle of the Sirgune river. The order's strategy, followed by Balk and his successors, was to advance slowly, building a castle at each step and securing the surrounding land before moving on.

XXII. Bishop Christian and the Order

The arrival of the Teutonic Order led to conflict with Bishop Christian, who had begun the mission and expected to rule the converted lands. In 1233 Christian was captured by the Sambians while on a missionary journey and held for several years. During his captivity the order consolidated its control, and when he was released in about 1239, he found that the order had taken most of the land. He complained to the pope, who in 1243 divided Prussia into four dioceses, Kulm, Pomesania, Warmia and Sambia, each bishop receiving one third of his diocese while the order held two thirds. Christian died in 1245 without receiving a diocese.

The story of Christian shows the tension between the missionary bishops and the military orders, which also appeared in Livonia. The missionaries hoped to convert the pagans and to found churches, while the orders sought land and power. The papacy tried to balance the claims, but in practice the orders, which had the armies, prevailed.

XXIII. The Crusaders from the Empire

The conquest depended on crusaders who came from Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Poland and elsewhere. Some of the most important expeditions were led by princes: Margrave Henry of Meissen in 1236–1237, King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1254–1255 and 1267–1268, Margrave Otto of Brandenburg in 1266, and Duke Albert of Brunswick. They brought large armies and enabled the order to undertake major campaigns.

The papacy supported the crusade with indulgences and with preaching, which was carried out mainly by the Dominicans. In 1245 Pope Innocent IV allowed crusaders to fulfil vows for the Holy Land in Prussia, and in the period of the Great Prussian Uprising the popes repeatedly called for help. The Dominicans also served as missionaries and as bishops in Prussia.

XXIV. Swantopolk of Pomerania

Duke Swantopolk II of Pomerania, who ruled the land west of the Vistula from Danzig, was at first an ally of the order but became its enemy when he saw the order's growing power as a threat. In 1242 he allied with the Prussian rebels and fought the order for most of the following decade, cutting the Vistula supply route. He was supported by some of the Polish dukes but opposed by others. The papal legate negotiated peace in 1248, and Swantopolk eventually made peace with the order. His conflict with the order showed that the Christian princes of the region could ally with pagans against the order when their interests demanded it.

XXV. Material Culture and Archaeology

Archaeological research has added much to the knowledge of the Prussian Crusade. Excavations of Prussian hill forts, cemeteries and settlements have revealed a society with rich material culture, including weapons, jewellery and horse equipment. The Prussian cremation burials, which included horses and grave goods, continued in some areas long after the conquest, showing the persistence of pagan customs.

The order's castles, built of brick, have been studied for their architecture and for the evidence of daily life. The excavations at Marienburg, Elbing and other sites reveal the order's diet, its trade connections and its religious practices. Environmental archaeology has shown how the conquest transformed the landscape, with forest cleared for agriculture and new crops introduced by the settlers.

XXVI. The Old Prussian Texts

The Old Prussian language is known from only a few sources: the Elbing Vocabulary, a German-Prussian glossary of about 800 words from about 1400; a short vocabulary compiled by Simon Grunau in the early sixteenth century; and three catechisms printed in Königsberg in 1545 and 1561. The 1561 Enchiridion, a translation of Luther's Small Catechism by the pastor Abel Will with the help of a Prussian interpreter, Paul Megott, is the largest text.

These texts are precious to linguists as evidence of a Baltic language closely related to Lithuanian and Latvian. They show that the Lutherans, unlike the medieval church, made an effort to teach the Prussians in their own language. But by then it was too late. The language had already declined, and the last speakers died around the beginning of the eighteenth century, partly as a result of the plague of 1709–1711, which devastated East Prussia.

XXVII. The Order's Rule

The Teutonic Order's rule in Prussia was efficient and centralised. The order kept detailed records, including registers of its income and of the services owed by its vassals. It minted its own coins, regulated trade and maintained roads and bridges. Its officials were knights of the order, who were not allowed to marry or to hold property personally, so the order did not develop a hereditary nobility among its members.

The order's rule was resented by the local nobility and the towns, who were excluded from power. The knights were mostly from the empire, and they did not form ties with the local population. The burden of taxes for the order's wars, especially after Grunwald, led to the formation of the Prussian Confederation and the rebellion of 1454.

XXVIII. The Order in the Empire

The Teutonic Order held lands not only in Prussia and Livonia but throughout the Holy Roman Empire, organised in bailiwicks under a German master. These lands provided income and recruits for the order's wars in the Baltic. After the secularisation of Prussia in 1525, the German master became the head of the order, with his seat at Mergentheim in Franconia. The order survived the Reformation and the Napoleonic Wars, and it exists today as a religious order based in Vienna, devoted to charitable and pastoral work.

XXIX. The Kulm Law

The Kulm charter of 1233, known in German as the Kulmer Handfeste, granted the citizens of Thorn and Kulm the right to elect their own judges and councillors, to inherit property under the law of Magdeburg modified for local conditions, and to hold land in return for military service. It fixed the rates of tithes and set the obligations of the citizens to the order. The charter was renewed in 1251 after the original was lost in a fire.

The Kulm law became the basis for town and land law in much of Prussia and was later adopted in parts of Poland and Lithuania. It attracted settlers by offering them favourable conditions, and it was one of the most important instruments of colonisation. It also defined the rights of the vassals of the order, who held land under Kulm law, and these rights later became the basis of the nobility's resistance to the order's taxation.

XXX. The Prussian Nobility

Some Prussian nobles who submitted to the order early and remained loyal during the uprisings were rewarded with land and privileges. They held their lands under Prussian law or, if especially favoured, under Kulm law, and they served in the order's armies. Over time these families merged with the German nobility and adopted the German language. Some of the later noble families of East Prussia had Prussian origins.

The lower ranks of Prussian society fared worse. Many became unfree peasants, bound to perform labour services for the order or its vassals. Those who rebelled and were defeated lost their freedom. The guarantees of the Treaty of Christburg were gradually forgotten, and by the fifteenth century the distinction between free and unfree Prussians was largely one of legal status within a German-dominated society.

XXXI. Amber

Amber, the fossilised resin found along the coast of Sambia, was the most famous product of Prussia. In antiquity it had been traded across Europe, and in the Middle Ages it was used for rosaries, which were in great demand. The Teutonic Order claimed a monopoly over amber, and collecting it without permission was punishable by hanging. The order sold the raw amber to guilds of rosary makers in Bruges and Lübeck, who had exclusive rights to work it. The amber monopoly was a major source of the order's income.

XXXII. The Reputation of the Order

From the late thirteenth century the Teutonic Order faced criticism of its conduct. Archbishops of Riga, Polish kings and Lithuanian rulers accused it of preventing the conversion of the pagans in order to continue its wars and of attacking Christians. In the fourteenth century, the papal court heard testimony against the order in the cases brought by Poland. After the baptism of Lithuania in 1386, the order's justification for its wars came into question, since its main enemy had become Christian. At the Council of Constance, the Polish delegation, led by Paulus Vladimiri, argued that the order's wars were unjust.

The order defended itself with the argument that the conversion of Lithuania was insincere and that its wars were defensive. It also hired the Dominican John Falkenberg, who wrote a treatise arguing that the Polish king and his subjects deserved to be killed as idolaters. The council condemned the treatise, and Falkenberg was imprisoned. The debate at Constance, at which the council also condemned Jan Hus, marked a turning point in the discussion of the rights of pagans and the legitimacy of crusading war.

XXXIII. The Wilderness

The conquest left a broad belt of uninhabited forest and marsh, known as the Wildnis, between Prussia and Lithuania. Through it the armies of both sides passed on their raids, guided by scouts who knew the paths. The order deliberately kept the land empty as a defensive barrier, and it was only settled in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, partly by Lithuanian and Polish immigrants.

XXXIV. Chronology

In 997 Adalbert of Prague was killed. In 1215 Christian was consecrated bishop of Prussia. In 1217 a crusade was authorised. In 1226, by its traditional dating, which is disputed, the Golden Bull of Rimini was issued. In about 1228 the Order of Dobrin was founded. In 1230 the order arrived on the Vistula. In 1231 Thorn was founded. In 1233 the Kulm charter was granted. In 1234 the Bull of Rieti was issued. In 1237 Elbing was founded. In 1242 the first uprising began. In 1249 the Treaty of Christburg was concluded. In 1255 Königsberg was founded.

In 1260 the Great Prussian Uprising began. In 1273 Herkus Monte was hanged. In 1283 the last Sudovians submitted. In 1308 the order seized Danzig. In 1309 the headquarters moved to Marienburg. In 1410 the battle of Grunwald was fought. In 1454 the Thirteen Years' War began. In 1466 the Second Peace of Thorn was concluded. In 1525 the order's state was secularised. In 1701 the kingdom of Prussia was proclaimed.

XXXV. Bibliography

The following studies, editions and reference works underlie this account.