Albert of Prussia (; ) ( 17 May 1490 – 20 March 1568 ) was the 37th and last sovereign Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and, after converting to Lutheranism, the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia, which was the first state to adopt the Lutheran faith and Protestantism as the official state religion.

Because Albert was a member of the Brandenburg-Ansbach branch of the House of Hohenzollern, it had been hoped that his election as Grand Master would reverse the decline of the Teutonic Knights since 1410 ; Duke Frederick of Saxony of the House of Wettin had been elected for the same reason.

Category: Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights

For want of funds, Alexander was unable to resist the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights or prevent Grand Duke of Muscovy Ivan III from ravaging Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Tatars.

In 1211, he granted the Burzenland to the Teutonic Knights in order to ensure the security of the southeastern borders of his kingdom against the Cumans.

However, the Teutonic Knights began to establish a country independent of the King of Hungary.

In the same year, Andrew expelled the Teutonic Knights from Transylvania because they had ignored his overlordship.

* 1242 – During a battle on the ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.

The marriage took place on 30 April or 16 October 1325 and was a purely political maneuver to strengthen the first Polish – Lithuanian coalition against the Teutonic Knights.

# Frederick ( b. Torgau, 26 October 1474 – d. Rochlitz, 14 December 1510 ), Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

The Poles commanded by Piotr Dunin, consisting of some 2000 mercenaries decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights, having some 2700 mercenaries, commanded by Fritz Raweneck and Kaspar Nostyc.

The psychological significance was that this was the first open field battle won by the royal forces, so it increased the morale of the Polish forces and lowered the morale of the Teutonic Knights.

Duke Konrad of Masovia still was not capable to end the Prussian attacks on his territory and in 1224 began to conduct negotiations with the Teutonic Knights under Grand Master Hermann von Salza in order to strengthen his forces.

He obtained a charter by Emperor Frederick II issued in the 1226 Golden Bull of Rimini, whereby Chełmno Land would be the unshared possession of the Teutonic Knights, which was confirmed by Duke Konrad of Masovia in the 1230 Treaty of Kruszwica.

The Council also condemned and executed Jan Hus and ruled on issues of national sovereignty, the rights of pagans, and just war in response to a conflict between the Kingdom of Poland and the Order of the Teutonic Knights.

In 1411, the First Peace of Thorn ended the Polish – Lithuanian – Teutonic War, in which the Teutonic Knights fought the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The propaganda war soon grew from a border quarrel to a fundamental dispute of the Teutonic mission – did the Knights have the right to wage the crusade?

The Teutonic Knights conquered the region and the inhabitants dispersed in the process.

After the defeat of the Teutonic Knights and the destruction of the castle by the inhabitants, the city successively was under the sovereignty of the Polish crown ( 1466 ), the Kingdom of Prussia ( 1772 ), and Germany ( 1871 ).

Elbląg is the Polish derivative of the German name Elbing, which was assigned by the Teutonic Knights to the citadel and subsequent town placed by them in 1237 next to the river.

In 1226 Duke Konrad I of Masovia summoned the Teutonic Knights for assistance ; by 1230 they had secured Chełmno ( Culm ) and begun claiming conquered territories for themselves under the authority of the Holy Roman Empire, although these claims were rejected by the Poles, whose ambition had been to conquer Prussia all along.

The victorious Teutonic Knights built a castle at Elbing near, if not on top of, the destroyed Prussian town of Truso.

After building two ships, the Pilgerim ( Pilgrim ) and the Vridelant ( Friedland ), with the assistance of Henry III, Margrave of Meissen, the Teutonic Knights used them to clear the Vistula Lagoon ( Frisches Haff ) and the Vistula Spit of Prussians:

In 1440 several western and eastern Prussian towns formed the Prussian Confederation, which led the revolt of Prussia against the rule of the Teutonic Knights in 1454.

Prior to the year 1878, all apostolic letters and briefs requiring for their validity the leaden seal were engrossed upon rough parchment and in Gothic characters ( round letters, also called Gallicum and commonly Bollatico, but in Italy today Teutonic ) without lines, or diphthongs, or marks of punctuation.

The Bavarii were a Germanic tribe whose name emerged late in Teutonic tribal times.

Most of the Teutonic army, under the command of Fritz Raweneck and Kaspar Nostyc, were mercenary soldiers gathered from the nearby castles Mewe ( Gniew ), Stargard ( Starogard Gdański ), Nowe, Skarszewy and Kiszewy.

The direct result of the battle of Schwetz / Świecino was that the city of Danzig and Pomerania were freed from Teutonic Order danger so that the royal and municipal armed forces could be used elsewhere in the war, mainly to protect the Vistula waterway and to capture the Teutonic held strongholds.

This way that Teutonic forces in Prussia on the right bank of Vistula were cut off from the supplies form Western Europe.

Knightly religious orders were established, including the Knights Templar, the Knights of St John ( Knights Hospitaller ), and the Teutonic Order.

Also, the Teutonic Knights were invited to Prussia by Duke Konrad of Masovia to Christianise the Prussians in 1226.

The monastic state of the Teutonic Order () and its later German successor states of Prussia however never were part of the Holy Roman Empire.

In October, the Khwarazmians, along with the Egyptian army under the command of Baibars, were met by the Frankish army, led by Philip of Montfort, Walter of Brienne, and the masters of the Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights, along with al-Mansur and Dawud.

Acre was defended by Henry II's brother Amalric of Tyre, the Hospitallers, Templars, and Teutonic Knights, the Venetians and Pisans, the French garrison led by Jean I de Grailly, and the English garrison led by Otton de Grandson, but they were vastly outnumbered.

The Knights Templar were occasionally at odds with the two other Christian military orders, the Knights Hospitaller and the Teutonic Knights, and decades of internecine feuds weakened Christian positions, politically and militarily.

This situation heightened tensions with some European nobility, especially as the Templars were indicating an interest in founding their own monastic state, just as the Teutonic Knights had done in Prussia and the Knights Hospitaller were doing with Rhodes.

Due to Latvia's strategic location and prosperous city, its territories were a frequent focal point for conflict and conquest between at least four major powers, the State of the Teutonic Order ( later Germany ), the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden and Russia.

After being defeated by Lithuania in the 1236 Battle of Saule, the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were incorporated into the Teutonic Knights as the Livonian Order in 1237.

" They were converted to Catholicism in the late 13th and 14th centuries, after conquest by the Knights of the Teutonic Order, and then to Protestantism in the early 16th century.

The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.

After their decisive defeat in the Battle of Saule by the Samogitians and Semigallians, the remnants of the Swordbrothers were reorganized in 1237 as a subdivision of the Teutonic Order, and became known as the Livonian Order.

When the Livonian knights were crushed by Samogitians in the Battle of Saule in 1236, coinciding with a series of revolts in Estonia, the Livonian Order was inherited by the Teutonic Order, allowing the Teutonic Knights to exercise political control over large territories in the Baltic region.

As the westernmost clan, the Pomesanians were the first of the Prussians to be conquered by the Teutonic Knights, a German military crusading order brought to the Chełmno Land to convert the pagans to Christianity.

In the following year, the Sword-Brothers were absorbed into the Teutonic Order.

However, these possessions were all environed by the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order, which have long been the enemies of the state.