The Teutonic Order's strategy was to move down the Vistula and secure the delta, establishing a barrier between the Prussians and Danzig ( Present day Gdańsk ).

Moreover, he entered into correspondence with Luther, discussing with him the most important problems of faith, and in 1524 he met him personally during the negotiations concerning his brother Albert's secularization of the Teutonic Order's state of Prussia into the secular Duchy of Prussia.

They continued, however, to function in all respects ( rule, clothing and policy ) as an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, headed by their own Master ( himself de jure subject to the Teutonic Order's Grand Master ).

The Teutonic Order's attempts to conquer Orthodox Russia ( particularly the Republics of Pskov and Novgorod ), an enterprise endorsed by Pope Gregory IX, can also be considered as a part of the Northern Crusades.

In February 1454, the Prussian Confederation rose against the Teutonic Order's rule.

The Teutonic Order's army numbered about 18, 000 cavalry, mostly Germans and 5, 000 infantry.

On 15 July, at the Battle of Grunwald ( also known as Battle of Tannenberg ) after one of the largest and most ferocious battles of the Middle Ages, the allies won a victory so overwhelming that the Teutonic Order's army was virtually annihilated, with most of its key commanders killed in combat, including Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and Grand Marshal Friedrich von Wallenrode.

Most of the Teutonic Order's territory, however, including towns which had surrendered, remained intact.

In 1422, Władysław fought another war, known as the Gollub War, against the Teutonic Order, defeating them in under two months before the Order's imperial reinforcements had time to arrive.

The fortress Malbork Castle | Ordensburg Marienburg, founded in 1274, the world ’ s largest brick castle and the Teutonic Knights | Teutonic Order's headquarters on the River Nogat.

From the 14th century, in old texts ( until the 16th / 17th c .) and in Latin, the terms Prut ( h ) enia and Prut ( h ) enic refer not only to the original settlement area of the extinct Old Prussians ( Prusowie, see: Prussia ) along the Baltic Coast east of the Vistula River, but also to the adjacent lands of the former Samboride dukes of Pomerelia, which the Teutonic Knights had acquired from Poland in the 1343 Treaty of Kalisz and added to their Order's State.

During the Thirteen Years ' War (" War of the Cities "), in February 1454, the Confederation, led by the citizens of Gdańsk, Elbląg, and Toruń, as well as gentry from Chełmno Land sent a delegation with Johannes von Baysen to ask the Polish king for support against the Teutonic Order's rule and for incorporation of Prussia into the Polish kingdom.

The eastern part of Prussia remained under the rule of the Teutonic Knights and its successors as a fief of Poland, becoming the Ducal Prussia in 1525 when the Order's last Grand Master Albert von Hohenzollern adopted Lutheranism and secularized the land as its hereditary ruler.

The combination of taxation by the nobility, the furor of the Protestant Reformation, and the abrupt secularization of the Teutonic Order's remaining Prussian lands exacerbated peasant unrest.

They continued, however, to function in all respects ( rule, clothing and policy ) as an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order, headed by their own Master ( himself de jure subject to the Teutonic Order's Grand Master ).

In 1336, the defenders of Pilėnai in Lithuania set their castle on fire and committed mass suicide in order to make the attacking Teutonic Order's victory a costly one.

With the secularization of the Teutonic Order's Prussian territories in 1525, Bartenstein became part of the Duchy of Prussia.

Ulrich and his elder brother Konrad von Jungingen, as younger sons excluded from succession, took the vow of the Teutonic Knights and moved to the Order's State in Prussia.

The settlement was founded by Teutonic Order's Otto von Luttenberg and was known under following names Nuwenmarkt, Novum Forum, Nowy Targ.

The Diocese of Warmia lost the two thirds of its diocese within Teutonic Prussia after 1525 when the Order's Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted the monastic state into Ducal Prussia, himself ruling as duke.

Kneiphof became part of the Duchy of Prussia after the Teutonic Order's Prussian branch was secularized in 1525.

Malbork Castle, former Ordensburg of the Teutonic Order-biggest brick castle in the world

The Teutonic Order built a castle and founded Elbing at the lake with a population mostly from Lübeck ; today the much smaller lake does not reach the city any more.

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 ).

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

The burghers destroyed the Teutonic Order castle.

The crusaders, led not by Frederick but by his representatives Richard Filangieri, Henry IV, Duke of Limburg, and Hermann of Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, arrived in the east late in 1227, and while waiting for the emperor they set about refortifying Sidon, where they built the sea castle, and Montfort, which later became the headquarters of the Teutonic Knights.

* Ordensburg Marienburg ( Malbork Castle ), the large brick castle built by the Teutonic Knights

The Teutonic Knights built a castle in the vicinity of the Polish settlement in the years 1230-31.

The Poles destroyed the Teutonic castle.

* Ruins of 13th-century Teutonic Knights ' castle

Ordensburg castle built by the Teutonic Knights

The Teutonic Knights began the construction of Ordensburg castle in 1347 as a stronghold against the Old Prussians, and the settlement of Allenstein was first mentioned the following year.

In 1336, after the Prussian Crusade, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights Dietrich von Altenburg founded a castle called Instierburg at the site of a former Old Prussian fortification.

Teutonic Knights castle ruin

* 1489: Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, John von Tieffen pays tribute to Casimir IV of Poland in Radom castle

During the conquest and Christianization of Prussia, the Teutonic Knights conquered an Old Prussian settlement named Brusebergue in 1240 and built in 1242 a new castle atop it on the Passarge ( Pasłęka ) River.

** Memelburg, the Ordensburg in Memel, a castle built in 1252 by Teutonic Knights which was the nucleus for the city

This fortified castle became the seat of the Teutonic Order and Europe's largest Gothic fortress.

During the Thirteen Years War, the castle of Marienburg was pawned by the Teutonic Order to their imperial soldiers from Bohemia.

Then the Teutonic Knights left the castle.

The Teutonic Knights founded an Ordensburg castle in 1232 and a town the following year.