A report on Knight, Teutonic Order and Crusader states

A 14th century depiction of the 13th century German knight Hartmann von Aue, from the Codex Manesse.

A Norman knight slaying Harold Godwinson (Bayeux tapestry, c. 1070). The rank of knight developed in the 12th century from the mounted warriors of the 10th and 11th centuries.

The battle between the Turks and Christian knights during the Ottoman wars in Europe

The coat of arms in the style of the 14th century

Anatolia at the beginning of the First Crusade (1097)

Godfrey of Bouillon during the siege of Jerusalem (from the 14th-century Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon)

The miles Christianus allegory (mid-13th century), showing a knight armed with virtues and facing the vices in mortal combat. The parts of his armour are identified with Christian virtues, thus correlating essential military equipment with the religious values of chivalry:
The helmet is spes futuri gaudii (hope of future bliss), the shield (here the shield of the Trinity) is fides (faith), the armour is caritas (charity), the lance is perseverantia (perseverance), the sword is verbum Dei (the word of God), the banner is regni celestis desiderium (desire for the kingdom of heaven), the horse is bona voluntas (good will), the saddle is Christiana religio (Christian religion), the saddlecloth is humilitas (humility), the reins are discretio (discretion), the spurs are disciplina (discipline), the stirrups are propositum boni operis (proposition of good work), and the horse's four hooves are delectatio, consensus, bonum opus, consuetudo (delight, consent, good work, and exercise).

Reliquary made in Elbing in 1388 for Teutonic komtur Thiele von Lorich, military trophy of Polish king Wladislaus in 1410.

Tournament from the Codex Manesse, depicting the mêlée

Hermann von Salza, the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (1209–1239)

Kings Louis VIII and Conrad III meet Queen Melisende and King Baldwin III at Acre from a 13th-century codex

Elements of a harness of the late style of Gothic plate armour that was a popular style in the mid 15th to early 16th century (depiction made in the 18th century)

Tannhäuser in the habit of the Teutonic Knights, from the Codex Manesse

Saladin and Guy fight from a 13th-century manuscript of Matthew Paris's chronicle

Page from King René's Tournament Book (BnF Ms Fr 2695)

Frederick II allows the order to invade Prussia, by P. Janssen

The crusader states after Saladin's conquests and before the Third Crusade

The Battle of Pavia in 1525. Landsknecht mercenaries with arquebus.

Fortified house – a family seat of a knight (Schloss Hart by the Harter Graben near Kindberg, Austria)

Ruins of the Teutonic Order's castle in Paide, Estonia

A 13th-century manuscript of the marriage of Frederick and Isabella

The Battle of Grunwald between Poland-Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights in 1410

Pomerelia (Pommerellen) while part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights

Pippo Spano, the member of the Order of the Dragon

The feudatories of the king of Jerusalem in 1187

The English fighting the French knights at the Battle of Crécy in 1346

13th-century miniature of Baldwin II of Jerusalem granting the Al Aqsa Mosque to Hugues de Payens

Miniature from Jean Froissart Chronicles depicting the Battle of Montiel (Castilian Civil War, in the Hundred Years' War)

Coins of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the British Museum. Left: European style Denier with Holy Sepulchre (1162–1175). Centre: Kufic gold bezant (1140–1180). Right: gold bezant with Christian symbol (1250s)

A modern artistic rendition of a chevalière of the Late Middle Ages.

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Bad Mergentheim

12th-century Hospitaller castle of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria

A battle of the Reconquista from the Cantigas de Santa Maria

A German National People's Party poster from 1920 showing a Teutonic knight being attacked by Poles and socialists. The caption reads "Rescue the East".

14th-century brass stamp with the shield insignia.

In the 16th century, officers of the order would quarter their family arms with the order's arms.<ref>In this example (dated 1594), Hugo Dietrich von Hohenlandenberg, commander of the bailiwick of Swabia-Alsace-Burgundy, shows his Landenberg family arms quartered with the order's black cross.</ref>

Example of the Deutschmeisterwappen on the gate of the Bad Mergentheim residence

Coat of arms of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Grand Master from 1761 to 1780.

Procession in honour of Saint Liborius of Le Mans with Knights of the Holy Sepulchre together with Teutonic Knights in Paderborn, Germany.

Purely religious since 1810, the Teutonic Order still confers limited honorary knighthoods.

- Teutonic Order

Soon Pope Clement III approved it and the Order started to play an important role in the Outremer (the general name for the Crusader states), controlling the port tolls of Acre.

- Teutonic Order

The first military orders of knighthood were the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the Knights Hospitaller, both founded shortly after the First Crusade of 1099, followed by the Order of Saint Lazarus (1100), Knights Templars (1118) and the Teutonic Knights (1190).

- Knight

It was only over the following century, with the successful conquest of the Holy Land and the rise of the crusader states, that these orders became powerful and prestigious.

- Knight

Violence was endemic, and a new class of mounted warriors, the knights, emerged.

- Crusader states

Three further military orders followed in the Levant: the Order of Saint Lazarus mainly for leper knights in the 1130s, the German Order of Teutonic Knights in 1198, and the English Order of St Thomas of Acre in 1228.

- Crusader states

2 related topics with Alpha

Indications of presence of military orders associated with the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Holy Land during the Crusades (in German).

Military order (religious society)

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Reconquista of the main towns (per year) (in Spanish).

Map of the branches of the Teutonic Order in Europe around 1300. Shaded area is sovereign territory, Grand Master HQ in Venice is highlighted)

A military order (militaris ordo) is a Christian religious society of knights.

The original military orders were the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of Saint James, the Order of Calatrava, and the Teutonic Knights.

They arose in the Middle Ages in association with the Crusades, both in the Holy Land and in the Iberian peninsula; their members being dedicated to the protection of pilgrims and the defence of the Crusader states.

Knights Templar

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Catholic military order, one of the most wealthy and popular of the Western Christian military orders.

The first headquarters of the Knights Templar, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Crusaders called it "the Temple of Solomon" and from this location derived their name of Templar.

Battle of Hattin in 1187, the turning point leading to the Third Crusade. From a copy of the Passages d’outremer, c.1490.

Convent of Christ Castle in Tomar, Portugal. Built in 1160 as a stronghold for the Knights Templar, it became the headquarters of the renamed Order of Christ. In 1983, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Templar chapel from the 12th century in Metz, France. Once part of the Templar commandery of Metz, the oldest Templar institution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Templar building at Saint Martin des Champs, France

Representation of a Knight Templar (Ten Duinen Abbey museum, 2010 photograph)

Depiction of two Templars seated on a horse (emphasising poverty), with Beauséant, the "sacred banner" (or gonfanon) of the Templars, argent a chief sable (Matthew Paris, c. 1250).

Temple Church, London. As the chapel of the New Temple in London, it was the location for Templar initiation ceremonies. In modern times it is the parish church of the Middle and Inner Temples, two of the Inns of Court, and a popular tourist attraction.

Although the city of Jerusalem was relatively secure under Christian control, the rest of Outremer was not.

In 1119, the French knight Hugues de Payens approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Warmund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and proposed creating a monastic order for the protection of these pilgrims.

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, both politically and militarily.