Teutonic Knights

An order of knighthood founded by Henry, King of Jerusalem, during the third Crusade, its original members being followers of Frederick Barb a ro a. In 1230, under their Grand Master, Hermann von Salza, the Teutonic knights marched against the Pagans of the Baltic shore of what is now known as Pru ia. This country, which was a fief of Poland, they held until 1526, when Albert of Brandenburg, then Grand Master, made a treaty with Sigismund of Poland, by which Pru ia was erected into a Grand Duchy, with Albert as Grand Duke. The order was di olved by Napoleon in 1809.