Teutonic Knights, a German military monastic order. It is best known for its conquests in the 13th and 14th centuries of Baltic lands that became the powerful German state of East Prussia.
The order was formed by German pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land in 1190, during the Third Crusade, to provide hospital care. It later became a fighting order and in 1230 it settled on the Baltic after an invitation from a Polish duke to Christianize the Prussians by force of arms. The knights subdued the Prussian region and were soon given control of Latvia and Estonia by another order. In 1466, however, they were forced to swear allegiance to Poland and to renounce large portions of their domain. (.)
In 1525, when Albert of Hohenzollern, grand master of the order, turned Protestant and claimed East Prussia for himself, the knights reestablished themselves in Germany. Napoleon suppressed the order in 1809, but it was revived in 1834 in Austria, where the members work in schools and hospitals.
