| From a field hospital in the Levant to a superpower in the Baltic, this talk explores the rise and fall of the medieval Teutonic Order |
| The Teutonic Knights, or Teutonic Order, were the last of the great military orders established in the twelfth century. Evolving into a powerful religious institution, they left a profound and enduring legacy, becoming one of the most pivotal forces in European history. In this talk we will explore the Order’s journey from a field hospital outside the walls of Acre during the Third Crusade to its remarkable rise as a major territorial ruler and power in northeastern Europe. Here, the rule of this remarkable religious corporation spanned three centuries and saw the construction of the largest castle in Europe as its headquarters. The Order’s decline in the fifteenth century was punctuated by a lengthy conflict with Poland-Lithuania and the secularization of its Prussian and Livonian branches during the Reformation. The medieval Order was subsequently re-imagined as the representative of German colonial power in the East by nationalists, an image that has only begun to fade in recent years. |
| Aleksander Pluskowski is Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Reading, UK, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge and was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Clare College. His research broadly focuses on the relationship between nature and culture in medieval Europe, and particularly within frontier societies. He has worked in the Baltic region for over a decade and his related books include The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: Holy War and Colonisation (Routledge 2012; second edition 2022), Environmental Colonization and the Baltic Crusader States (Brepols, 2019) The Teutonic Knights; Rise and Fall of a Religious Corporation (Reaktion 2024) and Black Cross: A History of the Baltic Crusades (Yale University Press, forthcoming). He also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Tartu in recognition of his services to Estonian archaeology. |
