Overview

A gripping account of the rise and fall of the last great medieval military order. This book provides a concise and incisive introduction to the knights of the Teutonic Order, the last of the great military orders established in the twelfth century. The book traces the Order's evolution from a crusader field hospital into a major territorial ruler in northeastern Europe. Notably, the knights constructed distinctive fortified convents, including their headquarters in Western Christendom's largest castle. The narrative concludes with the Order's fifteenth-century decline due to the combined effects of a devastating war with Poland-Lithuania and the Protestant Reformation. The result is an accessible overview of this pivotal corporation in European history.

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9781836393269

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Reviews

""Fluent, fresh and confident, this clever blend of history and archaeology brings the story of the Teutonic Knights sharply into focus. Pluskowski incisively steers us through the emergence, expansion and decline of this mighty organization, enabling us to appreciate their profound influence on the faith, politics and landscape of northeastern Europe.""--Jonathan Phillips, University of London ""Pluskowski has provided a concise, well-researched and highly readable account of the vicissitudes of the Teutonic Knights from their establishment as a hospitaller military order in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, through its meteoric rise as a major political and military power in Prussia and Livonia, to its transformation and decline during the Reformation and eventual conversion into a religious, charitable organization under the Holy Roman Empire. This book is a welcome addition to the limited English language library on the Teutonic Order.""--Adrian J. Boas, University of Haifa, Israel ""Pluskowski has pulled off a remarkable feat. Combining up-to-date international scholarship, detailed narrative and shrewd assessment of complex evidence with close analysis of the full range of economic, political, environmental, ideological, artistic and architectural contexts, his succinct account of the Teutonic Order provides a comprehensive new standard reference.""--Christopher Tyerman, University of Oxford ""The Teutonic Knights is a concise, soberly written and authoritative survey of the military order that fought in both the Holy Land and Europe's eastern borderlands, becoming in the process one of the continent's most powerful religious institutions . . . Pluskowski is especially good at describing the scores of castles that the Teutonic Knights built across north-eastern Europe.""-- ""Financial Times""

Author Information

Aleksander Pluskowski is professor of medieval archaeology at the University of Reading. His publications include The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: Holy War and Colonisation.

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