The Teutonic Order (Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Ierosolimitanorum) stand up against the evil empire which Islam. The order was formed out of knights and priests in 1190 by merchants of Bremen and Lübeck for the establishment of a hospital for the care of German pilgrims during the Siege of Acre of the Third Crusade. In 1198 the head of the order became known as the Hochmeister or Grand Master. They received Papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Latin Christianity and defend the Holy Land against the Muslim Saracens. During the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza (1209-1239) the order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order.They were based at Acre. Other fortresses of the order in the Middle East were Montfort (Starkenberg) northeast of Acre, which served to defend the route between Jerusalem and the Mediterannean Sea, and a castle near Tarsus in Armenia Minor. The order received donations of land in the Holy Roman Empire (especially in present-day Germany and Italy), Greece, and Palestine.Emperor Frederick II granted his close friend Hermann von Salza the additional title of Reichsfürst, or "Prince of the Empire", enabling the Grand Master to negotiate with nobility as an equal. During Frederick's coronation as King of Jerusalem in 1225, Teutonic Knights served as his escort in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; Salza read the emperor's proclamation in both French and German. However, the Teutonic Knights were never as influential in Outremer as the older Knights Templar and Hospitallers.In 1211, Andrew II of Hungary accepted their services and granted them the district of Burzenland in Transylvania. Andrew had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter with the son of Hermann, the Landgrave of Thuringia, whose vassals included the family of Hermann von Salza. Led by a brother called Theoderich, the order defended Hungary against the neighbouring Cumans and settled colonists known as the Transylvanian Saxons among their wooden fortresses. In 1224 they petitioned Pope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of the Papal See, rather than of the King of HungaryExtended Network Banner made with MyBannerMaker.com! Click here to make your own!
My Interests
I'd like to meet:
All the Grand Masters of the order that have passed on and those who have stood against Islam in the past, and those who will stand against our enemies once more.
