A Robert Barnes, age 15, of Great Falls, Mt., for his question:
WHO WERE THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS?
Teutonic Knights was the name of an organization of German crusaders that arose in central Europe during the late 1100s. The Teutonic Knights were organized for service in the Holy Land. They modeled their organizations after two earlier crusading orders, the Knights Template and the Knights Hospitalers.
Teutonic Knights was also called Teutonic Order. It was a religious and military group.
In the late 1200s, the Teutonic Knights shifted their activities to central Europe, where they tried to covert end control the people of what became Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Their power and influence spread through central and eastern Europe.
In the 1300s, the Teutonic Knights lost much of their power, and finally the Poles and Lithuanians overthrew them.
In 1525, the Grand Master, Albert of Hohenzollern, embraced Protestantism, and changed the ordor from a religious to a civil organization. In 1618, the order's territory passed to the Hohenzollern Elector of Brandenburg.
Teuton is a name sometimes given to a member of the Germanic peoples. The term comes form the Teutones, or Teutons, who, with the Cimbri, were the first "Germans" to threaten the power of the Roman Empire.
With their neighbors, the Ambrones, the Teutones left their homeland around the mouth of the Elbe River in the 100s B.C. In Gaul, they allied themselves with the Cimbri. The Roman general Gaius Marius routed them at Aquae Sextise in 102 B.C.
Later the Teutones mixed with other early groups that wandered through Europe. They eventually gave their name to a whole group of Teutonic langauges. These languages included the Scandianavian and Germanic tongues and the Low German (Dutch and Flemish) of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Before the Teutonic Knights organized, the Knights Template and the Knights Hospitalers had already made history.
Knights Hospitalers, also called the Knights of Saint John, was an order founded in the late 1000s in a monastery at Jerusalem. It was a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church and their first work was limited to caring for pilgrims and for the sick.
Later the order fought in the Crusades and its members became powerful rivals of the Knights Templars. When the order of the Template was abolished in 1312, the Hospitalers took over most of the property of the order.
The Knights of Saint John carried a specially shaped cross when they went into battle during the Crusades. It had eight points and is now known as the Maltese cross.
The Knights Templars were founded in 1119. They fought in the Crusades and became famous for their bravery. Membership was limited to nobles who took vows of poverty and obedience.