The Teutonic Knights were powerful & ferocious advocates of holy war. Their history is suffused with crusading campaigning & struggle. Feared by their enemies but respected by medieval Christendom the knights & their Order maintained a firm hold over the Baltic & northern Germany & established a formidable regime which flourished across Central Europe for 300 years. This major new book surveys the gripping history of the knights & their Order & relates their rise to power; their struggles against Prussian pagans; the series of wars against Poland & Lithuania; the clash with Alexander Nevskys Russia; & the gradual stagnation of the order in the fourteenth century. The book is replete with dramatic episodes
- such as the battle on frozen Lake Peipus in 1242 or the disaster of Tannenberg
- but focuses primarily on the knights struggle to maintain power fend off incursions & raiding bands & to launch crusades against unbelieving foes. & it was the crusade which chiefly characterised & breathed life into this Holy Order. William Urbans narrative charts the rise & fall of the Order & in an accessible & engaging style throws light on a band of knights whose deeds & motives have long been misunderstood.