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111-637: Originally, the Teutonic Order created the Estate to appease the local citizens, but over time the relations between the Order and the Estates grew strained, as the Order of knights treated the local population with contempt. Different Prussian holders of the privilege of coinage (among them the Order and some cities), actually committed to issue a Prussian currency of standardised quality, had debased

222-760: A bailiwick headed by a Landkomtur . All of the Teutonic Knights' possessions were subordinate to the Grand Master, whose seat was in Bad Mergentheim. There were twelve German bailiwicks: Outside of German areas were the bailiwicks of The Order gradually lost control of these holdings until, by 1809, only the seat of the Grand Master at Mergentheim remained. Following the abdication of Albert of Brandenburg, Walter von Cronberg became Deutschmeister in 1527, and later Administrator of Prussia and Grand Master in 1530. Emperor Charles V combined

333-585: A Prussian Landmeister Heinrich von Plötzke , evicted the Brandenburgers from Gdańsk in September 1308 but then refused to yield the town to the Poles, and according to some sources massacred the town's inhabitants ; although the exact extent of the violence is unknown, and widely recognized by historians to be an unsolvable mystery. The estimates range from 60 rebellious leaders, reported by dignitaries of

444-513: A brother called Theoderich or Dietrich, the Order defended the south-eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the neighbouring Cumans . Many forts of wood and mud were built for defence. They settled new German peasants among the existing Transylvanian Saxon inhabitants. The Cumans had no fixed settlements for resistance, and soon the Teutons were expanding into their territory. By 1220,

555-520: A larger and modern army and magnates bribed by foreign powers paralyzing the Commonwealth political system, the Commonwealth was unable to keep up with its increasingly militarized and efficient (through bureaucratization ) neighbors, becoming a tempting target for foreign aggression. It was eventually partitioned and annexed by stronger absolutist neighboring countries in the late-18th-century partitions of Poland . The Golden Liberty created

666-592: A naval power in the Baltic Sea . In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald . However, the Knights successfully defended their capital in the following Siege of Marienburg ( Malbork ) and the Order was saved from collapse. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made a marriage alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter,

777-537: A number of castles ( Ordensburgen ) from which it could defeat uprisings of Old Prussians , as well as continue its attacks on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, with which the Order was often at war during the 14th and 15th centuries. Major towns founded by the Order included Thorn (Toruń) , Kulm (Chełmno) , Allenstein (Olsztyn) , Elbing (Elbląg) , Memel (Klaipėda) , and Königsberg , founded in 1255 in honor of King Otakar II of Bohemia on

888-416: A proposal designed by Yorck, Clausewitz and Stein. The hesitant king could not stop this anymore, but only approve it (17 March 1813). However, this civic act of initiating Prussia's participation in the liberation wars did not meet with the gratitude of the monarch, who again and again procrastinated over his promise to introduce a parliament of genuine legislative competence for all the monarchy. Only in

999-522: A stake would be driven into their bodies or the knight would be flayed. Lithuanian pagan customs included ritualistic human sacrifice, the hanging of widows, and the burying of a warrior's horses and servants with him after his death. The knights would also, on occasion, take captives from defeated Lithuanians, whose condition (as that of other war captives in the Middle Ages) was extensively researched by Jacques Heers. The conflict had much influence in

1110-587: A state that was unusual for its time, but somewhat similar political systems existed in other contemporary states, like the Republic of Venice . (Both states were styled the " Most Serene Republic ". ) A similar fate was averted by Italy; first due to a secular inability of the kings of France and Spain, and the Papacy, to come to terms on how to divide the country, then through the reaction against Habsburg domination which, as late as 1861, finally aligned most of

1221-404: A term used from 1573), included the following: The Commonwealth's political system is difficult to fit into a simple category, but it can be tentatively described as a mixture of these: The "Golden Liberty" was a unique and controversial feature of Poland's political system. It was an exception, characterized by a strong aristocracy and a feeble king, in an age when absolutism was developing in

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1332-856: The Bundesrat ) in Leipziger Straße and one for the House of Representatives in Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, today's Niederkirchnerstraße . The House of Lords was reorganised and renamed into the Staatsrat (state council) of the Free State of Prussia after the abolition of the monarchy in 1918. Its members were representatives of the Provinces of Prussia . Konrad Adenauer served as its president from 1921 to 1933. Since 1993

1443-711: The Christianization of Lithuania . However, it initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , and the Novgorod Republic (after assimilating the Livonian Order ). The Teutonic Knights had a strong economic base which enabled them to hire mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies, and they also became

1554-794: The Habsburg monarchy during the Ottoman wars in Europe . The military history of the Teutonic Knights was to end in 1805 by the Article XII of the Peace of Pressburg , which ordered the German territories of the Knights converted into a hereditary domain and gave the Austrian Emperor responsibility for placing a Habsburg prince on its throne. These terms had not been fulfilled by the time of

1665-902: The Holy Land and to establish hospitals . Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights , having historically served as a crusading military order for supporting Catholic rule in the Holy Land and the Northern Crusades during the Middle Ages , as well as supplying military protection for Catholics in Eastern Europe . Purely religious since 1810, the Teutonic Order still confers limited honorary knighthoods . The Bailiwick of Utrecht of

1776-800: The Holy Roman Empire and Livonia , although the Livonian branch retained considerable autonomy. Many of the Imperial possessions were ruined in the German Peasants' War from 1524 to 1525 and subsequently confiscated by Protestant territorial princes. The Livonian territory was then partitioned by neighboring powers during the Livonian War ; in 1561 the Livonian Master Gotthard Kettler secularized

1887-625: The Kingdom of Hungary against the Cumans . The Knights were expelled by force of arms by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1225, after attempting to build their own state within Transylvania and Pope Honorius III's papal bull claiming authority over the Order's territory in Transylvania and its tax exemption toward the king. In 1230, following the Golden Bull of Rimini , Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke Konrad I of Masovia launched

1998-687: The Kingdom of Prussia and Germany as the Iron Cross . The motto of the Order was: "Helfen, Wehren, Heilen" ("Help, Defend, Heal"). In 1143 Pope Celestine II ordered the Knights Hospitaller to take over management of a German hospital in Jerusalem , which, according to the chronicler Jean d'Ypres, accommodated the countless German pilgrims and crusaders who could neither speak the local language nor Latin ( patriæ linguam ignorantibus atque Latinam ). Although formally an institution of

2109-598: The Neman River , with as many as twenty forts and castles between Seredžius and Jurbarkas alone. A dispute over the succession to the Duchy of Pomerelia embroiled the Order in further conflict at the beginning of the 14th century. The Margraves of Brandenburg had claims to the duchy which they asserted after the death of King Wenceslaus of Poland in 1306. Duke Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland also claimed

2220-536: The Nogat River , outside the reach of secular powers. The position of Prussian Landmeister was merged with that of the Grand Master. The Pope began investigating misconduct by the knights, but no charges were found to have substance. Along with the campaigns against the Lithuanians, the knights faced a vengeful Poland and legal threats from the Papacy. The Treaty of Kalisz of 1343 ended the open war between

2331-676: The Prussian Crusade , a joint invasion of Prussia intended to Christianize the Baltic Old Prussians . The Knights had quickly taken steps against their Polish hosts and with the Holy Roman Emperor 's support, had changed the status of Chełmno Land (also Ziemia Chełmińska or Kulmerland), to which they had been invited by the Polish Duke, into their own property. Starting from there, the Order created

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2442-721: The Thirteen Years' War ). The estates eventually became governed by the Kingdom of Poland. First the western part of Prussia, which became known as Royal Prussia after the Second Peace of Thorn ended the Thirteen Years' War in 1466, and later the eastern lands, known as Ducal Prussia , after the Prussian Homage in 1525, became part of the kingdom. On 10 December 1525 at their session in Königsberg

2553-567: The Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, and therefore Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the Knights' remaining territory to be disbursed to his German allies, which was completed in 1810. Golden Liberty Golden Liberty ( Latin : Aurea Libertas ; Polish : Złota Wolność [ˈzwɔ.ta ˈvɔl.nɔɕt͡ɕ] , Lithuanian : Auksinė laisvė ), sometimes referred to as Golden Freedoms , Nobles' Democracy or Nobles' Commonwealth ( Polish : Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka or Złota wolność szlachecka )

2664-939: The Vistula River Valley and the Brandenburg Neumark were ravaged by the Hussites during the Hussite Wars . Some Teutonic Knights were sent to battle the invaders but were defeated by the Bohemian infantry. The Knights also sustained a defeat in the Polish-Teutonic War (1431–1435) . In 1440, the Prussian Confederation was founded by gentry and burghers of the State of the Teutonic Order. In 1454, it rose up against

2775-547: The first Mongol invasion of Poland . The combined Polish-German army was crushed by the Mongol army and their superior tactics, with few survivors. In 1337, Emperor Louis IV allegedly granted the Order the imperial privilege to conquer all Lithuania and Russia. During the reign of Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode (1351–1382), the Order reached the peak of its international prestige and hosted numerous European crusaders and nobility. King Albert of Sweden ceded Gotland to

2886-698: The purchasing power of every extra issued coin equalled its material and production costs. "Obligations would be retroactively changed if new coins, too plentifully issued, would be counted as equal to the old ones (1526, lines 307-310)." Thus a law was "passed by the Diet of Teutonic Prussia in 1418 (cf. Max Toeppen, 1878, 320seqq.), smartly regulating the fulfilment of old debts fixed in old currency by adding an agio when repaid by new coins." Thus creditors and recipients of nominally fixed revenues were not to lose by debasement-induced inflation. As Prussia became increasingly tied economically and politically with Poland, and

2997-619: The reforming Prussian minister Heinrich vom und zum Stein prompted Frederick William III to decree the October Edict (Edict concerning the relieved possession and the free usage of real estate [landed property] as well as the personal relations of the rural population) which generally transformed all kind of landholdings into free allodial property. This act enormously increased the amount of alienable real estate in Prussia apt to be pledged as security for credits, needed so much to pay

3108-449: The slave -owning aristocracy of Southern United States , where slave-owning democrats and founding fathers of the US, such as Thomas Jefferson or George Washington , had many values in common with the reformist noblemen of the Commonwealth. However, the comparison is very weak, as the so-called Southern aristocracy was not limited to a hereditary caste; the social structure, based simply on

3219-569: The szlachta ' s grip on power. The political doctrine of the Commonwealth of the Two Nations was "our state is a republic under the presidency of the King". Chancellor Jan Zamoyski summed up this doctrine when he said that " Rex regnat sed non gubernat " ("The King reigns and does not govern"). The Commonwealth had a parliament, the Sejm, as well as a Senat and an elected king. The king

3330-544: The " modern " system of an absolutist and national monarchy , the Commonwealth suffered a gradual decline down to the brink of anarchy because of liberum veto and other abuses of the system . With the majority of the szlachta believing that they lived in the perfect state, too few questioned the Golden Liberty and the Sarmatism philosophy until it was too late. With the szlachta refusing to pay taxes for

3441-479: The Commonwealth's elected king . This political system, unique in Europe, stemmed from the consolidation of power by the szlachta ( noble class ) over other social classes and over the monarchical political system . In time, the szlachta accumulated enough privileges (established by the Nihil novi Act (1505), King Henry's Articles (1573), and various Pacta conventa ) that no monarch could hope to break

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3552-705: The Cross") and as Kryžiuočių Ordinas in Lithuanian, Vācu Ordenis in Latvian, Saksa Ordu or, simply, Ordu ("The Order") in Estonian. The fraternity which preceded the formation of the Order was formed in the year 1191 in Acre by German merchants from Bremen and Lübeck . After the capture of Acre they took over a hospital in the city in order to take care of the sick and began to describe themselves as

3663-905: The Duchy did not). Royal Prussia also had its own parliament, the Prussian Landesrat , although it was partially incorporated into the Commonwealth Sejm after the Union of Lublin , it retained distinct features of Royal Prussia. With the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth waning from the mid-17th century onwards, the Prussian Estates drifted under the influence of the Hohenzollern Electors of Brandenburg , who ruled Ducal Prussia in personal union with Brandenburg from 1618 (first

3774-456: The Empire", enabling the Grand Master to negotiate with other senior princes 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 ; von 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 Knights Hospitaller . Teutonic Order domains in

3885-463: The Estates assembly, called its members for 5 February 1813. After debating the appeal of Ludwig Yorck , illoyal and – therefore by Berlin – outlawed general of the Prussian auxiliary corps within Napoléon's army, to form a liberation army, which was widely agreed, on February 7 the East Prussian estates unanimously voted for financing, recruiting and equipping a militia army (Landwehr) of 20,000 men, plus 10,000 in reserve, out of their funds - following

3996-424: The German landowners and were gradually assimilated. Peasants in frontier regions, such as Samland , had more privileges than those in more populated lands, such as Pomesania . The crusading knights often accepted baptism as a form of submission by the natives. Christianity along western lines slowly spread through Prussian culture. Bishops were reluctant to have pagan Prussian religious practices integrated into

4107-405: 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. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort Castle , northeast of Acre, in 1220. This castle, which defended the route between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea , was made

4218-405: The Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem. Pope Clement III approved it and the Order started to play an important role in Outremer (the general name for the Crusader states ), controlling the port tolls of Acre. After Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Burzenland (southeastern Transylvania ) in 1211 to help defend the south-eastern borders of

4329-411: The Hospitallers, the pope commanded that the prior and the brothers of the domus Theutonicorum (house of the Germans) should always be Germans themselves, so a tradition of a German-led religious institution could develop during the 12th century in the Kingdom of Jerusalem . After the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, some merchants from Lübeck and Bremen took up the idea and founded a field hospital for

4440-565: The Jewish Paradise, but also Purgatory for the Townsfolk and Hell for the Peasants " was a statement of social satire, and it should be evaluated whether it reflected the fact of the age. A number of Russian peasants fled from their far more brutal lords to settle in liberal Poland, which might stand out as example of counterevidence to the "Hell for the Peasants" claim. In its extreme, the Golden Liberty has been criticized as being responsible for "civil wars and invasions, national weakness, irresolution, and poverty of spirit". Failing to evolve into

4551-402: The Jews - became citizens in 1812. When in 1813 the defeated and intimidated King Frederick William III, forced into a coalition with France from 1812, refrained to take his chance to shake off the French supremacy in the wake of Napoleon's defeats in Russia, the East Prussian estates stole a march on the king. On 23 January Count Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten , president of

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4662-550: The Knights Hospitallers in Rhodes and later in Malta . To make up for losses from the plague and to replace the partially exterminated native population, the Order encouraged immigration from the Holy Roman Empire (mostly Germans , Flemish , and Dutch ) and from Masovia ( Poles ), the later Masurians . These included nobles, burghers, and peasants, and the surviving Old Prussians were gradually assimilated through Germanization . The settlers founded numerous towns and cities on former Prussian settlements. The Order itself built

4773-433: The Levant: In 1211, Andrew II of Hungary accepted the services of the Teutonic Knights and granted them the district of Burzenland in Transylvania , where they would be exempt from fees and duties and could administer their own justice. Andrew had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter with the son of Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia , whose vassals included the family of Hermann von Salza. Led by

4884-441: The Order and asked Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region into the Kingdom of Poland , to which the King agreed and signed an act of incorporation in Kraków . Mayors, burghers and representatives from the region pledged allegiance to the Polish King during the incorporation in March 1454 in Kraków . This marked the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War between the Teutonic Order and Poland. The main cities of

4995-460: The Order as a pledge (similar to a fiefdom ), with the understanding that they would eliminate the pirating Victual Brothers from this strategic island base in the Baltic Sea . An invasion force under Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen conquered the island in 1398 and drove the Victual Brothers out of Gotland and the Baltic Sea. In 1386, Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania was baptised into Christianity and married Queen Jadwiga of Poland , taking

5106-445: The Order lost its last secular holdings. However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body. It was outlawed by Nazi Germany in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe . The Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms ; this emblem was later used for military decoration and insignia by

5217-475: The Order state the Prussians would "roast captured brethren alive in their armour, like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local god". The native nobility who submitted to the crusaders had many of their privileges confirmed by the Treaty of Christburg . After the Prussian uprisings of 1260–83, however, much of the Prussian nobility emigrated or were resettled, and many free Prussians lost their rights. The Prussian nobles who remained were more closely allied with

5328-492: The Order won a great victory over the Lithuanians in the Battle of Strėva , severely weakening them. In 1370 it won a decisive victory over Lithuania in the Battle of Rudau . Warfare between the Order and the Lithuanians was particularly brutal. It was common practice for Lithuanians to torture captured enemies and civilians. It is recorded by a Teutonic chronicler that they had the habit of tying captured knights to their horses and having both of them burned alive, while sometimes

5439-416: The Order's higher dignitaries fell on the battlefield. The Polish–Lithuanian army then began the Siege of Marienburg ( Malbork ), the capital of the Order, but was unable to take Marienburg owing to the resistance of Heinrich von Plauen . When the First Peace of Thorn was signed in 1411, the Order managed to retain essentially all of its territories, although the Knights' reputation as invincible warriors

5550-431: The Order's remaining Prussian territories and assumed from his uncle Sigismund I the Old , King of Poland, the hereditary rights to the Duchy of Prussia as a personal vassal of the Polish Crown, the Prussian Homage . Ducal Prussia retained its currency, laws and faith. The aristocracy was not present in the Sejm. Although it had lost control of all of its Prussian lands, the Teutonic Order retained its territories within

5661-432: The Prince inherited the Kingdom, petitioned Pope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of the Papal See , rather than that of the King of Hungary. This was a grave mistake, as King Andrew, angered and alarmed at their growing power, responded in 1225 by expelling the Teutonic Knights, although he allowed the ethnically German commoners and peasants settled here by the Order to remain and these became part of

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5772-414: The Prussian Estates represented a massive political failure on the part of the Order". At first, the estates opposed the Order passively, by denying requests for additional taxes and support in Order wars with Poland ; by the 1440s Prussian estates acted openly in defiance of the Teutonic Order, rebelling against the knights and siding with Poland militarily (see Lizard Union , Prussian Confederation and

5883-456: The Prussian estates established the Lutheran Church in Ducal Prussia by deciding the Church Order . Nicolaus Copernicus , then canon of the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , addressed the Prussian estates with three memoranda, in fact little essays, on currency reform. Debasements continued to ruin Prussian finances, the groat had been debased by 1/5 to 1/6 of its prior bullion content. In 1517, 1519 and again in 1526 he suggested to return to

5994-414: The Sejm usually vetoed a monarch's plans for war, it was a notable argument for the democratic peace theory . The system was a precursor of the modern concepts of broader democracy and constitutional monarchy as well as federation . The szlachta citizens of the Commonwealth praised the right of resistance, the social contract, the liberty of the individual, the principle of government by consent,

6105-411: The Semigallians in 1290. The Order suppressed a major Estonian rebellion in 1343–1345, and in 1346 purchased the Duchy of Estonia from Denmark . The Teutonic Knights began to direct their campaigns against pagan Lithuania (see Lithuanian mythology ), due to the long existing conflicts in the region (including constant incursions into the Holy Roman Empire's territory by pagan raiding parties) and

6216-424: The Teutonic Knights and Poland. The Knights relinquished Kuyavia and Dobrzyń Land to Poland, but retained Chełmno Land and Pomerelia with Gdańsk (Germanized as Danzig ). In 1236, the Knights of Saint Thomas , an English order, adopted the rules of the Teutonic Order. A contingent of Teutonic Knights of indeterminate number is traditionally believed to have participated at the Battle of Legnica in 1241 during

6327-403: The Teutonic Knights assimilated the smaller Order of Dobrzyń , which had been established earlier by Christian , the first Bishop of Prussia. The conquest of Prussia was accomplished with much bloodshed over more than fifty years, during which native Prussians who remained unbaptised were subjugated, killed, or exiled. Fighting between the Knights and the Prussians was ferocious; chronicles of

6438-491: The Teutonic Knights use of Chełmno Land as a base for their campaign. This being a time of widespread crusading fervor throughout Western Europe, Hermann von Salza considered Prussia a good training ground for his knights for the wars against the Muslims in Outremer . With the Golden Bull of Rimini , Emperor Frederick II bestowed on the Order a special imperial privilege for the conquest and possession of Prussia, including Chełmno Land, with nominal papal sovereignty. In 1235

6549-432: The Teutonic Order , a Protestant chivalric order , is descended from the same medieval military order and also continues to award knighthoods and perform charitable work. The name of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem is in German : Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus der Heiligen Maria in Jerusalem and in Latin Ordo domus Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum . Thus

6660-405: The Teutonic Order was obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to the reigning Polish king within six months of taking office. The Grand Master became a prince and counselor of the Polish king and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–1521) , the Order was completely ousted from Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg converted to Lutheranism in 1525. He secularized

6771-436: The Teutonics Knights had built five castles, some of them made of stone. Their rapid expansion made the Hungarian nobility and clergy, who were previously uninterested in those regions, jealous and suspicious. Some nobles claimed these lands, but the Order refused to share them, ignoring the demands of the local bishop. After the Fifth Crusade , King Andrew returned to Hungary and found his kingdom full of resentment because of

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6882-414: The acquisition (or loss) of wealth and property, was fluid; and there was of course no monarchy or nobility in the United States. Others however criticize the Golden Liberty, pointing out it was limited only to the nobility, excluding peasants or townsfolk and gave no legal system to grant freedom and liberty to the majority of the population, failing them by failing to protect them from the excesses of

6993-399: The benefits of Golden Liberty , such as the right to elect the king . Royal Prussia, as a direct part of the Kingdom of Poland (and later Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ) had more influence on Polish politics and more privileges than Ducal Prussia, which remained a fief (for example, while nobles from the Royal Prussia had their own sejmiks , Sejm and Senate representatives, those from

7104-439: The circle of potential debtors were literally the same. In order to overcome the restrictions on selling manor estates to fulfil outstanding debts, the manor estate holders formed a corporation of mutually liable debtors. So solvent manor estate holders had to step in for over-indebted borrowers, thus transforming the manor estate holders into a corporation of collective liability. Covering over-indebted borrowers imposed hardship for

7215-403: The coins and expanded their circulation in order to finance the wars between Poland and Teutonic Prussia. However, this expansion disturbed the equilibrium of coins circulated to the volume of contractual obligations, only coming down due to a harsh depreciation of all existing nominally fixed contractual obligations by inflating all other non-fixed prices measured by these coins, ending only once

7326-410: The country's states in support of a national monarchy under King Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy , hitherto king of Sardinia . Notably, neither the Republic of Venice nor Italy had a liberum veto among their institutions. The szlachta ' s rights and privileges became proverbial : Szlachcic na zagrodzie równy wojewodzie —literally, "The noble on his estate is equal to

7437-450: The creditors of the holders. So the holders of feudal manor estates found it difficult to borrow against their estates. Therefore, in 1787 the West Prussian estates, and a year later the East Prussian estates, each took on the task of forming credit corporations: the Westpreussische Landschaft and the Ostpreussische Landschaft  [ de ] , respectively. Members of the Estates, then by status mostly noble landed manor holders, and

7548-489: The defeated Order renounced any claims to the territories of Gdańsk/Eastern Pomerania and Chełmno Land , which were reintegrated with Poland, and the region of Elbląg and Malbork, and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , which were also recognized as part of Poland, while retaining the eastern territories in historic Prussia, but as a fief and protectorate of Poland, also considered an integral part of "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland. From now on, every Grand Master of

7659-429: The duchy, based on inheritance from Przemysław II , but he was opposed by some Pomeranians nobles. They requested help from Brandenburg, which subsequently occupied all of Pomerelia except for the citadel of Gdańsk in 1308. Because Władysław was unable to come to the defense of Gdańsk, the Teutonic Knights, then led by Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen , were called to expel the Brandenburgers. The Order, under

7770-450: The duration of the Siege of Acre in 1190, which became the nucleus of the order; Pope Celestine III recognized it in 1192 by granting the monks Augustinian Rule . However, based on the model of the Knights Templar , it was transformed into a military order in 1198 and the head of the order became known as the Grand Master ( magister hospitalis ). It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity and defend

7881-465: The eastern Duchy of Prussia , sovereign after the Treaty of Wehlau in 1657 and upgraded to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701; then the western Royal Prussia, annexed to the former after the First Partition of Poland in 1772). Under the Hohenzollerns' absolutist rule the power of the Estates increasingly diminished. The West and East Prussian Estates, separately (the latter gathering after 1772 representatives of newly formed East Prussia , comprising

7992-533: The empire did not support the Order against Poland. In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism , becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany. The Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and

8103-551: The enormous French war contributions of thaler 140 million imposed after Prussia's defeat of 1806, and making up about an annual pre-war budget of the government. In 1807 the East Prussian Estates made a political bargain on accepting the king as a member within their credit corporation with his royal East Prussian demesnes , to be encumbered as security for the Pfandbriefe to be issued in his favour, which he

8214-584: The estates refused to peg the Prussian currency to the Polish (as proposed by Ludwig Dietz ), which even suffered a worse debasement than the Prussian. Under Polish sovereignty, Prussians, particularly those from Royal Prussia, saw their liberties confirmed and expanded; local cities prospered economically ( Gdańsk became the largest and richest city in the Commonwealth), and local nobility participated in

8325-403: The expenses and losses of the failed military campaign. When the nobles demanded that he cancel the concessions made to the Knights, he concluded that they had exceeded their task and that the agreement should be revised, but did not revert the concessions. However, Prince Béla, heir to the throne, was allied with the nobility. In 1224, the Teutonic Knights, seeing that they would have problems when

8436-506: The former Duchy of Prussia and the parts of former Royal Prussia west of the Vistula ), again played a role in the transformation from feudal traditional agriculture to agricultural business. The Silesian Wars of 1740-1763 had required high taxes, such that many Prussian tax-payers went into debt. Feudal manor estates were not free property sellable at the will of their holders or – in case of over-indebtedness – by way of execution prompted by

8547-632: The former House of Representatives building has served as the seat of the Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin (House of Representatives of Berlin). Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c.  1190 in Acre , Kingdom of Jerusalem . The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to

8658-415: The higher taxes in order to finance Napoléon's warfare through the compulsory war contributions to France. Serfdom was thus also abolished. Most remaining legal differences between the estates (classes) were abolished in 1810, when almost all Prussian subjects – former feudal lords, serfs , burghers (city dwellers), free peasants, Huguenots etc., turned into citizens of Prussia. The last excepted group -

8769-480: The incorporated territory were authorized by Casimir IV to mint Polish coins. Much of Prussia was devastated in the war, during the course of which the Order returned Neumark to Brandenburg in 1455 to raise funds for war. Because Marienburg Castle was handed over to mercenaries in lieu of their pay, and eventually passed to Poland, the Order moved its base to Königsberg in Sambia . In the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) ,

8880-422: The independent State of the Teutonic Order , adding continuously the conquered Prussians' territory, and subsequently conquered Livonia . Over time, the kings of Poland denounced the Order for expropriating their lands, specifically Chełmno Land and later the Polish lands of Pomerelia (also Pomorze Gdańskie or Pomerania), Kuyavia , and Dobrzyń Land . The Order theoretically lost its main purpose in Europe with

8991-405: The lack of a proper area of operation for the Knights, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre in 1291 and their later expulsion from Hungary. At first the knights moved their headquarters to Venice , from which they planned the recovery of Outremer; this plan was, however, soon abandoned, and the Order later moved its headquarters to Marienburg, so it could better focus its efforts on

9102-541: The lands of Prussia , Pomerelia , Samogitia , Courland , Livonia , Estonia , Gotland , Dagö , Ösel , and the Neumark , pawned by Brandenburg in 1402. In 1410, at the Battle of Grunwald a combined Polish–Lithuanian army, led by Władysław II Jagiełło and Vytautas , decisively defeated the Order in the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War . Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and most (50 out of 60) of

9213-560: The larger group of the Transylvanian Saxons. Lacking the military organization and experience of the Teutonic Knights, the Hungarians failed to replace them with adequate defence against the attacking Cumans. Soon, the steppe warriors would be a threat again. In 1226, Konrad I , Duke of Masovia in north-eastern Poland , appealed to the Knights to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic Old Prussians , allowing

9324-425: The law passed in 1418. However, especially the cities refused that. They had raised most of the funds for the warfares, and now lightened their debt burden by debasing their coins, thus passing on part of the burden to receivers of nominally fixed revenues, such as civic and ecclesiastical creditors and civic, feudal and ecclesiastical collectors of nominally fixed monetarised dues. So Copernicus' effort failed. At least

9435-559: The majority of brothers remained Catholic. The Teutonic Knights became tri-denominational, with Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed bailiwicks. The Grand Masters, often members of the great German families (and, after 1761, members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ), continued to preside over the Order's considerable holdings in Germany. Teutonic Knights from Germany, Austria, and Bohemia were used as battlefield commanders leading mercenaries for

9546-540: The margraves for 10,000 marks on 13 September 1309. Control of Pomerelia allowed the Order to connect their monastic state with the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. Crusading reinforcements and supplies could travel from the Imperial territory of Hither Pomerania through Pomerelia to Prussia, while Poland's access to the Baltic Sea was blocked. While Poland had mostly been an ally of the knights against

9657-488: The name Władysław II Jagiełło and becoming King of Poland. This created a personal union between the two countries and a potentially formidable opponent for the Teutonic Knights. The Order initially managed to play Władysław II Jagiełło and his cousin Vytautas against each other, but this strategy failed when Vytautas began to suspect that the Order was planning to annex parts of his territory. The baptism of Jogaila began

9768-531: The new Grand Master was unable to revive the Order's fortunes. After the Gollub War the Knights lost some small border regions and renounced all claims to Samogitia in the 1422 Treaty of Melno . Austrian and Bavarian knights feuded with those from the Rhineland , who likewise bickered with Low German -speaking Saxons , from whose ranks the Grand Master was usually chosen. The western Prussian lands of

9879-531: The new faith, while the ruling knights found it easier to govern the natives when they were semi-pagan and lawless. After fifty years of warfare and brutal conquest, the end result was that most of the Prussian natives were either killed or deported. The Order ruled Prussia under charters issued by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor as a sovereign monastic state , comparable to the arrangement of

9990-523: The next decades the Order focused on the subjugation of the Curonians and Semigallians . In 1260 it suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Durbe against Samogitians , and this inspired rebellions throughout Prussia and Livonia. After the Knights won a crucial victory in the Siege of Königsberg from 1262 to 1265, the war had reached a turning point. The Curonians were finally subjugated in 1267 and

10101-592: The nobility, resulting in the slow development of cities and the second serfdom among the peasants. The Commonwealth was called Noble's Paradise , sometimes— the Jewish Paradise , but also Purgatory for the Townsfolk (Burghers) and Hell for the Peasants . And even among the nobility ( szlachta ), the Golden Liberty became abused and twisted by the most powerful of them ( magnates ). However, this "

10212-480: The official conversion of Lithuania to Christianity. Although the crusading rationale for the Order's state ended when Prussia and Lithuania had become officially Christian, the Order's feuds and wars with Lithuania and Poland continued. The Lizard Union was created in 1397 by Prussian nobles in Chełmno Land to oppose the Order's policy. In 1407, the Teutonic Order reached its greatest territorial extent and included

10323-445: The pacta conventa, specific pledges agreed to by the king-elect. From then on, the king was effectively a partner with the noble class and was always supervised by a group of senators . The doctrine had ancient republican thought at its roots, which was then reapplied with varying success to an elective monarchy's political reality. The foundation of the Commonwealth's political system, the "Golden Liberty" ( Polish : Złota Wolność ,

10434-430: The pagan Prussians and Lithuanians, the capture of Pomerelia turned the kingdom into a determined enemy of the Order. The capture of Gdańsk marked a new phase in the history of the Teutonic Knights. The persecution and abolition of the powerful Knights Templar, which began in 1307, worried the Teutonic Knights, but control of Pomerelia allowed them to move their headquarters in 1309 from Venice to Marienburg (Malbork) on

10545-438: The political situation of the region and was the source of many rivalries between Lithuanians or Poles and Germans; the degree to which it impacted the mentalities of the time can be seen in the lyrical works of men such as the contemporary Austrian poet Peter Suchenwirt . Overall, the conflict lasted over 200 years (although with varying degrees of active hostility during that time), its front line extending along both banks of

10656-441: The region and Knight chroniclers, to 10,000 civilians, a number cited in a papal bull (of dubious provenance) that was used in a legal process installed to punish the Order for the event; the legal dispute went on for a time, but the Order was eventually absolved of the charges. In the Treaty of Soldin , the Teutonic Order purchased Brandenburg's supposed claim to the castles of Gdańsk, Świecie , and Tczew and their hinterlands from

10767-406: The region of Prussia. Because " Lithuania Propria " remained non-Christian until the end of the 14th century, much later than the rest of eastern Europe, the conflicts were dragged out over a longer time, and many Knights from western European countries, such as England and France , journeyed to Prussia to participate in the seasonal campaigns ( reyse ) against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1348,

10878-470: The seat of the Grand Masters in 1229, although they returned to Acre after losing Montfort to Muslim control in 1271. The Order received donations of land in the Holy Roman Empire (especially in present-day Germany and Italy ), Frankokratia , and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor , elevated his close friend Hermann von Salza to the status of Reichsfürst , or "Prince of

10989-607: The site of a destroyed Prussian settlement. After suffering a devastating defeat in the Battle of Saule , the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were absorbed by the Teutonic Knights in 1237. The Livonian branch subsequently became known as the Livonian Order . Attempts to expand into Rus' failed when the Knights suffered a major defeat in 1242 in the Battle of the Ice at the hands of Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod . Over

11100-469: The solvent manor-estate holders. This affected many opinions and even aroused appeals to abolish the feudal system of manor estate holding, while others demanded the re-establishment of pure feudalism without borrowing at all. In the Napoleonic era (ca 1799-1815) the East Prussian Estates gained some political influence again. King Frederick William III of Prussia needed to raise funds in order to pay

11211-507: The southern Livonian possessions of the Order to create the Duchy of Courland , also a vassal of Poland. After the loss of Prussia in 1525, the Teutonic Knights concentrated on their possessions in the Holy Roman Empire. Since they held no contiguous territory, they developed a three-tiered administrative system: holdings were combined into commanderies that were administered by a commander ( Komtur ). Several commanderies were combined to form

11322-403: The stronger countries of Europe, but the exception was characterized by a striking similarity to certain modern values. At a time that most European countries were headed toward centralization , absolute monarchy and religious and dynastic warfare, the Commonwealth experimented with decentralization , confederation and federation , democracy, religious tolerance and even pacifism . Since

11433-779: The term "Teutonic" echoes the German origins of the order ( Theutonicorum ) in its Latin name. German-speakers commonly refer to the Deutscher Orden (official short name, literally "German Order"), historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden ("German Order of Knights"), Deutschherrenorden ("Order of the German Lords"), Deutschritterorden ("Order of the German Knights"), Marienritter ("Knights of Mary "), Die Herren im weißen Mantel ("The lords in white capes"), etc. . The Teutonic Knights have been known as Zakon Krzyżacki in Polish ("Order of

11544-719: The two positions in 1531, creating the title Hoch- und Deutschmeister , which also had the rank of Prince of the Empire . A new Grand Magistery was established in Mergentheim in Württemberg , which was attacked during the German Peasants' War. The Order also helped Charles V against the Schmalkaldic League . After the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, membership in the Order was open to Protestants, although

11655-488: The value of self-reliance, all widespread concepts found in the modern, liberal democracies. Just like liberal democrats of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Polish noblemen were concerned about the power of the state. The Polish noblemen were strongly opposed to the very concept of the authoritarian state. Perhaps the closest parallels to Poland's 'Noble Democracy' can be found outside Europe altogether, in America, among

11766-743: The wake of the Revolutions of 1848 did Prussia receive its first constitution providing for the Prussian Landtag as the parliament of the kingdom. It consisted of two chambers, the Herrenhaus ( Prussian House of Lords ) and the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives). In 1899, the Prussian Landtag moved into a new building consisting of a complex of two structures, one for the House of Lords (as of 2015 used by

11877-450: The wars became more and more devastating to the borderlands, and as the policies and attitude of the King of Poland were more liberal towards the Prussian burghers and nobility than that of the Order, the rift between the Teutonic Knights and their subjects widened. The Estates drifted towards the Kingdom of Poland in their political alignment. Norman Housley noted that "The alienation of

11988-535: Was a political system in the Kingdom of Poland and, after the Union of Lublin (1569), in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Under that system, all nobles ( szlachta ), regardless of rank, economic status or their ethnic background were considered to have equal legal status and enjoyed extensive legal rights and privileges . The nobility controlled the legislature (the Sejm —the parliament ) and

12099-450: Was irreparably damaged. While Poland and Lithuania were growing in power, that of the Teutonic Knights dwindled through infighting. They were forced to impose high taxes to pay a substantial indemnity but did not give the cities sufficient requested representation in the administration of their state. The authoritarian and reforming Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen was forced from power and replaced by Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg , but

12210-508: Was obliged to respect citizens' rights specified in King Henry's Articles as well as in pacta conventa negotiated at the time of his election. The monarch's power was limited, in favour of the sizable noble class. Each new king had to subscribe to King Henry's Articles, which were the basis of Poland's political system and included almost unprecedented guarantees of religious tolerance . Over time, King Henry's Articles were merged with

12321-421: Was to sell to investors, thus raising credit funds. In return the Estates reached a wider representation of further parts of the population. The reformed body included two new groups: With representation in the estates the newly represented groups were also entitled to eventually raise credits, obliged to liability for credits of others, but simultaneously gained a say in the Estates assembly. On 9 October 1807

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