Various Secret Societies in Medieval Europe

KNIGHTLY ORDERS, in medieval Europe, societies, or brotherhoods, of knights sworn to chastity, poverty and religious discipline. Orders were formed both to achieve the ideals of chivalry and to advance Christianity by the performance of military and other services, e.g., the protection of pilgrims and holy places and warfare against infidels and heretics. The first such societies, the Hospitalers and the Templars, both formed in PALESTINE during the CRUSADES, were international in membership and interests. Subsequently, the LIVONIAN ORDERS, the TEUTONIC KNIGHTS, and various orders devoted to fighting the MOSLEMS in Spain and Portugal had more strictly national interests and memberships. The Knights Of Malta, also an international body, was a later continuation of the Hospitalers. Many of these orders, as they increased in size, wealth, and power, became involved in secular politics; as a result the temporal authorities were sometimes obliged to suppress them, as when PHILIP IV of France moved to crush the Templars.

After the close of the Middle Ages, many of the kings of Europe instituted secular orders of knighthood both to add chivalric luster to the royal courts and as a way of honoring members of the nobility and forming an aristocratic elite bound to the king. Among the most famous of these secular orders are England's Order of the Garter and Order of the Bath. In modern times, knightly orders, such as the Order of the British Empire, have been established as a means of honoring meritorious service to the state.

Bibiio.: Bere, I. de la, The Queen's Orders of Chivalry (1961); Lawrence- Archer, J.H., Orders of Chivalry (1887) ; Burke, J.B. , Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of all Nations (1858).

TEUTONIC KNIGHTS (too-tahn'-ik) or Teutonic Order, German religious-military order founded ab. 1190 at Jerusalem during the third CRUSADE. Patterned after the Templars and the Hospitalers, the new Order played only a small role in the affairs of the Frankish-Christian states which had been carved out in Palestine-Syria.

Around 1210 the Knights became involved in European affairs, and the Order reached the height of its influence and power during the 13th and l4th cent., when it conquered Prussia, converting the inhabitants to Christianity or replacing them with German colonists. By the end of this period, the Order, which after 1225 also included the LIVONIAN ORDER, with its cap. at Marienburg (Konigsberg after 1466), ruled a large domain along the coast of the Baltic as far as Russia. Following major defeats in the intermittent war with Poland (see TANNENBERG, BATTLES OF) in the l5th cent., the Order acknowledged Polish sovereignty. There followed a period of gradual but steady decline. In 1525, the Grand Master of the Order accepted PROTESTANTISM, and the former holdings of the Order in Prussia became a duchy under Polish protection. The Order's few remaining possessions in Germany proper were secularized in 1805. Biblio.: Krollmann, C., The Teutonic Order in Prussia (1938).

LIVONIAN ORDER (li-voh'-nee-un), Livonian Knights or Knights of the Swords, German KNGHTLY ORDER, founded in 1202 by the bishops of Riga to christianize the lands lying along the Baltic Coast, i.e., Livonia (N. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). In 1236, following their defeat at Siauliai by the Lithuanians, the Order became a branch of the TEUTONIC KNIGHTS, although it retained its autonomy in the Livonian Region. An attack by the Order on Novgorod led to its massive defeat by Alexander NEVSKY at Lake Peipus (1242), and in the years afterward the Order was steadily weakened by Russian and local opposition and by the Protestant Reformation. It was disbanded in 1561.

CRUSADES [from Span. cruzada, "marked with the Cross"], a series of military expeditions -- from the end of the 11th cent. to the middle of the 15th cent. -- which were undertaken by the Christians of Western Europe, under authorization of the Roman Catholic Church, to wrest the holy places of PALESTINE (especially the Holy Sepulchre at JERUSALEM) from Moslem control. Various psychological and economic factors within contemporary Europe help explain the origin of the Crusades, but the battle of Manzinert (1071) and the advent of the SELJUK TURKS provided the immediate impetus (see ALExUs I COMNENUS; GREGORY vn; MIDDLE AGES).

First Crusade (1095--99). Proclaimed at the Synod of CLERMONT by Pope URBAN II, who urged that Deus volt (God wills it), i.e., liberation of the Holy Sepulchre. He promised that participation in the Crusade would count as full penance for any sins against the Church, and, furthermore, that a general truce among the warring nations of Europe would protect people as well as property left behind. Count Raymond IV of Toulouse was the first to raise the cross as a sign of fealty to the Pope and was designated commander of the expedition. The concept of the Crusade spread rapidly throughout Europe, and even into Scandinavia, partly through the efforts of PETER THE HERMIT. For routes of first four crusades, see map on p. 396. The first columns departed in the spring of 1096. One army from France reached CONSTANTINOPLE within a few months, after having sacked the lands of the Bulgars. A German army made its way there after having robbed and massacred the Jews in the cities of the RHINELAND. These armies were transported by the Byzantine emperor Alexius to Asia Minor, where they were disastrously defeated by the Turks. Meanwhile, other armies were arriving in Constantinople, and Alexius, alarmed at the proportions the movement was reaching, began to fear that his own throne and empire might be in danger; he therefore demanded an oath of fealty from the European leaders. After successfully defeating the Turks, the Christians forces captured Antioch in 1097 and Jerusalem in 1099, where, after a massacre of the Moslem inhabitants, Godfrey of Bouillon was elected Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. This marked the beginning of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and of three other Latin principalities along the coast of Palestine-Syria (i.e., anc. Phoenicia).

Second Crusade (1l47--49). This crusade, preached by St, BERNARD oF CLAIRVAUX, was led by LOUIS VII of France and Emperor Conrad III. Because there was so much dissension between the various European contingents, the Crusade ended in dismal failure.

Third Crusade (1l89--92). Led by RICHARD I The Lion-Hearted, FREDERICK I (Barbarossa) and PHILIP II (Augustus), it was an attempt to recapture Jerusalem, which had fallen to SALADIN (1187). The Christian forces captured CYPRIS, ACRE, and other Palestinian coastal cities, and negotiated a three-year truce with Saladin that assured Christian pilgrims the right to visit the Holy Sepulchre.

Fourth Crusade (1202--04) Diverted from the Holy Land against Constantinople by the Venetians (see BYZANTINE EMPIRE), who were trade rivals of the Byzantines. It ended in the sacking of Constantinople and in the establishment of a Latin empire on Byzantine soil.

Fifth Crusade (1217--21). This crusade was aimed at subduing EGYPT, the center of Moslem power, but ended in total defeat for the Europeans.

Sixth Crusade (1228--29). This was probably the most peaceful, because it was undertaken as a quasi-holy pilgrimage by the German Emperor FREDERICK II (l 194--1250), who, after making a truce with the Moslems who had by then retaken much of the area, crowned himself king of Jerusalem. However, preoccupation with his affairs back in Europe precluded his doing anything to protect his "throne" when the Moslems later retook the city. The Sixth Crusade was also marked by the usual internecine quarrels among the Western leaders and led, indirectly, to the occupation of Jerusalem by Egyptian Moslems acting in concert with the Turks.

Seventh Crusade (1248--54), Essentially, this was a one-man endeavor, led by France's LOUIS Ix for the ill-fated purpose of subduing the Moslem stronghold of Egypt. After four years as an Egyptian captive, Louis was released and, after strengthening Christian fortifications in the Holy Land, he returned home.

Eighth Crusade (1270). It was also led by Louis IX, and was precipitated by the fall of Jaffa (see TEL AVIV-JAFFA) and ANTIOCH to the Moslems (l268). It was cut short by his death.

Ninth Crusade (1271--72). The last Crusade was the only one undertaken solely by the English; it was led by the future EDWARD I, and amounted to little more than the negotiating of a truce with the Moslems.

In 1291, the city of Acre -- the last stronghold of the Christians in the Holy Land -- fell to the Moslems, and no more crusades were undertaken, although a number were preached throughout the ensuing century. After two centuries of war, Jerusalem was still in the hands of ISLAM. The Western monarchs realized that the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to assure European peace through a common purpose of driving the "infidels" from the Holy Land had resulted only in internecine struggles among ambitious European leaders. The major significance of the Crusades for Europe lies in their infiuence upon feudal economic life and their stimulation of trade and cultural exchange between Latins, Greeks and Moslems. Thus they are the precursor of events of the RENAISSANCE. (See also CHILDREN'S CRUSADE.) Bibiio..- Runciman, S., A History of the Crusades (1951--54); Lamb, H., The Crusades.- Iron Men and Saints (1930); Oldenberg, Z., The Crusades (1967).