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This book provides a concise and incisive introduction to the Teutonic Knights, or Teutonic Order, the last of the great military orders established in the twelfth century. Evolving into a powerful religious institution, the Knights left a profound and enduring legacy. Aleksander Pluskowski traces the Order's journey from a field hospital outside the walls of Acre during the Third Crusade to its remarkable rise as a major territorial ruler and power in northeastern Europe. He charts the three centuries of theocratic rule by this remarkable religious corporation and examines the Order's notable accomplishments, as well as its failures. From constructing distinctive fortified convents, including the largest castle in Western Christendom as its headquarters, to the Order's decline in the fifteenth century due to a devastating war with Poland-Lithuania and the secularization of its Prussian and Livonian branches during the Reformation, The Teutonic Knights is a compelling look at a pivotal force in European history.