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Topic: Knight orders
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Maria Moderator
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posted 02-12-2005 12:51 PM
I found a mention of teutonics which setteled in Transylvania somewhere and then of Ioanits (St John's order) in Walachia. And this has aroused the following question: What were these orders? What was there pupose? And what were they doing in Eastern Europe?[This message has been edited by Maria (edited 02-13-2005).] |
ElCid Senior Member
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posted 02-12-2005 02:45 PM
Do you mean the Tutonic Knights?. This order like all other Military Orders, were established to (in the beginning) protect Christian pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land and later to reclaim lands from Muslims and other non-Christian 'Pagans'. The Christian church considered people from Slavic countries to be Pagan in the early middle ages and so crusades were carried by these Military orders into the Baltic countries and the northern parts of Eastern Europe generally.The Tutonic Knights were establihsed in Germany (obviously) and held lands and built castles throught Eastern Europe. Remember, there were many Muslim held lands in the east - the Turks/Ottomans had large territories in what is now Bulgaria, Hungary etc. There were many smaller and local Orders of Miltary Knight/Priests eg Spain. The most well known of the large orders was the Order of the Temple or the 'templars', associated with Crusader castles of the Holy Land but they held commanderies all over Europe including Croatia, Czech Republic, as well as Spain France England etc. Regards Peter |
Peter Member
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posted 02-13-2005 03:54 AM
Osprey Pubishing do an excellent series of small soft books called 'Fortress'. Normally about 60+ pages, think they are about £10. They are covering everything from modern warfare to early ring-works. I do think they have been mentioned in these pages before? Two of them (I have only one) are on this subject in the area of 'Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Kinghts (1). The red brick castles of Prussia 1230-1466. Worth going to the Osprey web-site and seeing what they have. An other Peter
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Maria Moderator
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posted 02-13-2005 12:43 PM
Thank you, Peters! The Teutons were mentioned in Transylvania at around 1220, in the service of the Hungarian King if I am not mistaken. The Turks arived at the Danube around 1280, so I'm not sure they had anything to do with it. Then the Teutons were banished for building stone castles (privilege of the king)and they are mentioned fighting Polands and Moldavians in 1310 and 1322. Not sure about their protective role, either. I'll look for the books.[This message has been edited by Maria (edited 02-13-2005).] |
Merlin Senior Member
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posted 02-14-2005 03:32 AM
As for the Ionatis ("Johanniter" in German): They also belonged to the most important orders since the time of the crusades. Around 1100 AD, they were not knights yet but had some hospitals in the holy land and Italy. Under their second master, Raimund de Puy (1120-1160), they changed into a clerical knight's order. After the fall of Akkon (1291), they had their headqauters in Rhodos (until 1522), but they had also castles and fortified houses all over europe (many of them in Switzerland).The order still exists today but is back at its roots: They have hospitals and look after the old and the sick. Especially in Germany. Many infos (in german) on the official website: http://www.johanniter.de/ |
Maria Moderator
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posted 02-16-2005 01:01 PM
Sadly, I don't speak German. But I'm quite interested in this order bussines and will keep looking. I would like to know if they had special training, how were they organised and so on... I learned about the Ioanites because their diploma (1244) is one of the first documents o speak about Romanians (walachians). |
Merlin Senior Member
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posted 02-18-2005 03:39 AM
Maria, I found an english site which contains also a brief history of that order (which is called "St.Johns Order" in England): www.orderofstjohn.org |