Aleksander Pluskowski’s book is an overview of the history of the Teutonic Knights, a military monastic order founded in the late twelfth century in the Holy Land. The Order reached its zenith of power during the thirteenth and fourteenth century on a “frontier” of the crusading movement – the southern and eastern Baltic (present-day Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland), and this is the primary focus of Pluskowski’s book. This is not a new field of research for Pluskowski, whose previous works include The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade. Holy War and Colonisation (first published in 2013, with a second edition published in 2022), a two-volume series on the environmental aspects of conquest and colonization in the medieval Baltic region, titled Terra Sacra (published in 2019), in addition to several articles and book chapters.
The book’s methodology is straightforward and primarily chronological. Pluskowski successfully navigates the complicated political situations encountered by the Order in the two territories it oversaw: Prussia (northeastern Poland and parts of Lithuania) and Livonia (Latvia and Estonia). He is forced to make some concessions to the approach due to the different structures of rulership and administration in each one, but this is not a hindrance to the reader (pp. 54–55).
The book offers “a short introduction” to the Teutonic Order, tracing its beginnings, rise, and fall over the course of three centuries of theocratic rule in the Baltic. This rule only ended with the impact of the Reformation in both territories in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (p. 7). It is divided into ten chapters. The first two outline the origins and activities of the Order in the Holy Land, from its foundation to 1291 (pp. 9–19). The third addresses the brief, yet significant, presence of the Order in southeastern Europe, in the so-called Burzenland (Romanian Țara Bârsei, Hungarian Barcaság), defending the kingdom of Hungary’s border from 1211 to 1225 (pp. 42–52). Chapters 4–7 discuss the arrival and conquest of the southern and eastern Baltic lands by the Teutonic Order from 1226 (pp. 53–75), the establishment of its rulership there (pp. 76–92), the expression of this rule in the Order’s visual culture (i.e., its conventual castles) (pp. 93–116), and the seemingly endless crusade against Lithuania in the fourteenth century (pp. 117–33). Chapters 8–10 then address the decline of the Order in the fifteenth century (pp. 134–53), followed by the adoption of Protestantism and the effective end of its status as a crusading institution (pp. 154–68). The book concludes with a short afterword on the rise and fall of the knights (pp. 169–72).
Pluskowski’s book has several strengths. For one, it is a concise history of a very complicated organization, which also incorporates the most important scholarship in German, Polish, and English. This is not an easy feat to do at all. Moreover, his abilities and training as an archaeologist shine throughout the book. He does a service to the reader in how he contextualizes the historical developments alongside examples from the rich archaeological and architectural heritage in the Order’s territories (pp. 71, 113–16, and several other examples).
The book rests on the most important primary sources that one would expect to find in a book of this type: the narrative chronicles written by members of the Teutonic Knights in Livonia and Prussia, in addition to those which refer to the activities of the knights in the Holy Land. He also incorporates those texts which escape the attention of the older Anglophone works, such as the “book of offices” (Ämterbuch), to supplement his discussion of the material culture of the Order.
As with any study seeking to provide a general overview, some areas could be further supplemented by consulting more diverse historical sources. Charters and letters (extensively edited, collected, and digitized as Preußisches Urkundenbuch and Liv-, Esth- und Curländisches Urkundenbuch, respectively) would supplement the discussion of the role played by the Order in establishing towns (pp. 87–89) and the communication of its crusade ideology abroad. The most recent edition (published in 2017) of Wigand of Marburg’s New Prussian Chronicle (one of the most important sources for the Order’s campaigns against Lithuania in the late fourteenth century) appears to have been overlooked in favor of the older edition of Theodor Hirsch published in 1863 (not 1861). The recent (2007) edition of the Chronicle of Prussia of Peter of Dusburg, on the other hand, is used.
Pluskowski’s mastery of the historiography and archaeological evidence, however, outshines these minor criticisms. His overview of the administrative structure of the Order (pp. 78–85) is a strongpoint. The book is concise yet comprehensive, addressing practically all of the major events in the Order’s history. It contextualizes them against the political, social, and religious developments occurring within and outside of the region (i.e., in the Holy Roman Empire, Rome, and neighboring Poland). The maps, tables, and images are very helpful not only for situating the reader geographically but also demonstrating how the Order used art to communicate its historiographical tradition. This is most evident, in my opinion, in the photograph on pp. 58–59.
Pluskowski successfully incorporates and expands upon the extensive scholarly tradition on the history of the Teutonic Order in German and Polish research circles. In doing so, he makes this rich field of study more accessible. His book is a testament to the desire for such work on the Baltic crusades that often goes beyond that provided by the foundational works in English (some of which are over 50 years old). This book presents a remedy to those historians of the crusades and the military who point to linguistic barriers when it comes to incorporating the Baltic crusades into their work. Its content, scope, and clarity show that this should no longer be an issue and no longer suffice as an excuse.
