This brief article publicizes four little-known sources relevant to the history of the Teutonic Order’s first Grand Master, Heinrich Walpott von Bassenheim, for the purpose of notifying specialists and promoting further research. Continue reading
The Rhyme Chronicle of Livonia (Liulandische Reimchronik) is an account of the activities of the Teutonic Order . It was written around the end of the thirteenth century, and consists of 12017 lines of rhyming couplets written in Middle High German. It is the only major source of Baltic history for the years 1225 to 1290, since the only other chronicle, the one by Henry of Livonia, covers the period 1143 to 1225. Continue reading
Documents relating to the Order of the Knights of Christ of Livonia (Swordbrothers) and documents relating to the Teutonic order Continue reading
Invasion, Conquest, and the Creation of Livonia By Andrejs Plakans The Latvians: A Short History (Hoover Institution Press, 1995) The section is the second chapter of The Latvians: A Short History, by Andrejs Plakans, which was published by Hoover Institution Press in 1995. … Continue reading
Caste, Skill, and Training: The Evolution of Cohesion in European Armies from the Middle Ages to the Sixteenth Century Dennis E. Showalter The Journal of Military History: vol. 57 (1993) Abstract The Middle Ages were characterized by growing institutional sophistication, … Continue reading
The Crusade of the Teutonic Knights against Lithuania Reconsidered By Axel Ehlers Crusade and Conversion on the Baltic Frontier 1150–1500, edited by Alan V. Murray (Ashgate, 2001) Between the late thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries ‘another Hundred Years’ War’ raged between … Continue reading
Horses and Crossbows: Two Important Warfare Advantages of the Teutonic Order in Prussia Sven Ekdahl The Military Orders, Volume 2: Welfare and Warfare (1998) The thirteenth-century conquest of Livonia and Prussia by the Order of the Swordbrothers and its successor, … Continue reading
On July 15, 1410, one of the most important battles took in the later middle ages. Fought between Tannenberg and the nearby village of Grünwald, Polish and Lithuanian forces under Ladislaus II (Wladyslaw Jagiello) halted the eastward expansion of the … Continue reading
