The Teutonic Knights – A Short History of the State of the Teutonic Order (1226–1525)

Who were the Teutonic Knights? The origins of the Teutonic Order lie in the Crusades during the Siege of Accra. They conquered the lands of the Old Prussians. Their main base was the Marianburg Castle (Malbork Castle). In this video a short history of the State of the Teutonic Order (later the Duchy of Prussia).
History Hustle presents: The Teutonic Order – A Short History of the State of the Teutonic Order (1226–1525).

Recorded at Malbork Castle in Poland on July 25, 2020.

SOURCE
The Teutonic Knights. A Military History (William Urban).

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MUSIC
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

SOUNDS

[Artur_M.]

It's fitting that this castle is now such a tourist attraction because the Teutonic Knights were in a way precursors of organized tourism. Inviting knights from all over Europe to visit the picturesque Prussia, kill some pagans (and possibly Christians, but they were surely bad) and generally have a good time. I remember reading about additional attractions like role-playing the Knights of the Round Table and such. Among the most notable guests of the Order were the Bohemian Kings Ottokar II and John the Blind, and Henry of Bolingbroke, future Henry IV of England.

[janherburodo]

Every Teutonic castle was in the eye sight of at least one other castle so they could message each other using smoke signals

[The_Cultural_Historian_DrRGST]

My wife and I visited it when we were in Poland - fantastic place. We took an Aida cruise (German) and I was surprised they still call Gdansk, Dazing.

[XHollisWood]

One of my favorite time periods of history . Incredible forgotten History, Amazing and inspiring research.. Thank you for sharing 👍

[parmindersingh]

We respect love your channel and your videos. You are one of the topmost honest historian alive. Wishing you success in life.

[niklasciccone]

I never was really interested in other time periods other then ww1 and two, but you made it more interesting thank you and hope your channel keeps on growing :)

[DavidJones-ocup]

Very Informative. I really wanted to see Malbork when I was in Gdańsk in 1999, but I only had two days in Gdańsk. Hopefully I’ll get the chance.

[johnryder]

Love any locations Stefan, your a well traveled man

[janherburodo]

After the Soviets took power in Poland many books, movies and other works of art about Polish-Russian relations were banned for obvious reasons, but Communist in Warsaw and Moscow created many movies with anti-German undertones to keep to animosity between Poland and Germany alive, most notable example was "Knights of the Teutonic Order" in my opinion it is a mediocre film, but the final scene illustrating the Battle of Grunwald is really well made for a 1960 film, one of those huge battle scenes from eastern block movies with hundreds of soldiers as extras.

[superjohnnygamble]

Many thanks for this. Very informative I really enjoyed this and learnt allot.
It would make my day if one day in the future you could do a video of Owain Glyndwr the last Native Prince of Wales.

[luxembourgishempire]

Sorry I was late for the video, I was sick. ☹️
Your video was really good. I am not too into medieval history but you made it very interesting. 🙂 Keep up the good work.

[greenberetdelta]

Could you explain, in greater detail, how the Prussians went from a culturally/ethically baltic to german region?

[januszduzinkiewicz]

Wonderful program as usual. Three additional points, 1) the Teutonic Knights fought for the Hungarians against the pagan Cumans in Transylvania after their expulsion from the Middle East. 1) They were sent by the Pope to battle the pagan Prussians after an appeal from Duke Konrad I of Mazowsze (a Polish Duchy). They were given the Chelmno Land as a base. 2) In 1525 the Teutonic Knights were secularized and their new duchy became a fief of Poland. The new duke was Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach (1490 - 1568, NOT 1620-1667), 3) Marienburg (Malbork) Castle was, of course, rebuilt by the Poles after WWII.

[alexfrank]

One detail I would also have mentioned is, that the Teutonic Knights were invited by the Polish King Conrad of Masovia to help him pacify and christianze the old Prussians. Since they raided his kingdom quite rigorously.
So they Order was not there by chance or because they had nowhere else to be but, they were tasked to help Conrad of Masovia.

[InsolentViolet]

I mean there is something extremely intriguing about the Teutonic Knights, I feel like they were probably the Rock Stars of their day

[jasonjames]

Excellent video! Thanks for your hard work!

[eesti]

Hello from Estonia, there is large part missing, mostly from Livonian Chronicles.

[jjc]

would love a more detailed video or even series over this part of history!!

the crusaders are glorified in alt right circles but it seems they weren't much good.

[MyLateralThawts]

I may have some surprising info to contribute on the history of the old Prussians. Surprising, because it comes from my own DNA. The conventional thinking, which you mentioned in your video, is that most of the old Prussians were the victims of genocide, with the region repopulated with German settlers, along with some Dutch. Well, a few years ago I had my DNA tested to see if I had any French ancestry as Koenigsberg, where my father’s family originated from, was a destination point for the Huguenots (and my grandfather did possess a distinctly Gaelic nose). I also suspected some Dutch ancestry, but mostly, I suspected to be confirmed as majority German. Here’s what’s interesting: I am only 16% French and German, part of 29% broadly Northwestern European. I am 70.2% Eastern European, but neither Polish nor Lithuanian. This is especially telling as both the paternal and maternal branches of my family came from different regions of East Prussia. To me, this suggests the Teutonic Knights were not as thorough in their purported extermination of the indigenous Prussians as previously reported and that there were fewer settlers from Western Europe as previously stated as well. Curiously, I live within walking distance of an aboriginal Canadian reserve. The people there, though native, speak only English, have English names and belong to a Christian Church. Settlement by Europeans here in Alberta took place less than two hundred years ago, accelerating a little over a century ago in fact. Comparing what happened here to East Prussia, whose indigenous people were themselves blond, blue eyed Europeans who resembled their conquerors very closely, I can see why people thought they may have been exterminated. In short, they became culturally German, but remained a mostly homogeneous community in their ancestral lands. Even speaking their own distinctive dialect according to my mother. So the true irony here is that they were not the victims of ethnic cleansing or genocide by the Germans in medieval times, but were ethnically cleansed from their ancestral lands in recent times FOR BEING GERMAN! How bizarre is that? I’ve got more to say on the subject, but I think I’ll message you on your patreon for that.

[WWSzar]

It's ridiculous what a huge impact on History the conquest of Prussia had.