The Teutonic Knights: Rise and Fall of a Religious Corporation (Medieval Lives) - Hardcover

Book 9 of 10: Medieval Lives

Pluskowski, Aleksander

 
9781789148688: The Teutonic Knights: Rise and Fall of a Religious Corporation (Medieval Lives)

Synopsis

'Fluent, fresh and confident, this clever blend of history and archaeology brings the story of the Teutonic Knights sharply into focus.' - Jonathan Phillips, author of The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin

'Pluskowski has pulled off a remarkable feat . . . his succinct account of the Teutonic Order provides a comprehensive new standard reference.' - Christopher Tyerman, author of The World of the Crusades

This book provides a concise and incisive introduction to the Teutonic Knights, or Teutonic Order, the last of the great military orders established in the twelfth century. Evolving into a powerful religious institution, the Knights left a profound and enduring legacy. Aleksander Pluskowski traces the Order's journey from a field hospital outside the walls of Acre during the Third Crusade to its remarkable rise as a major territorial ruler and power in northeastern Europe. He charts the three centuries of theocratic rule by this remarkable religious corporation and examines the Order's notable accomplishments, as well as its failures.
From constructing distinctive fortified convents, including the largest castle in Western Christendom as its headquarters, to the Order's decline in the fifteenth century due to a devastating war with Poland-Lithuania and the secularization of its Prussian and Livonian branches during the Reformation, The Teutonic Knights is a compelling look at a pivotal force in European history.

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About the Author

Aleksander Pluskowski is Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Reading. His publications include Environment, Colonization, and the Baltic Crusader States (2019) and The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: Holy War and Colonisation (2nd edn, 2022).

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