The Teutonic Order: everything you wanted to know

Welcome to the History Extra podcast. Fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. Emerging from the crusading endeavors in the Holy Land, the Teutonic Order was one of the great military orders established in the 12th century. Its influence spread far and wide, and its members negotiated with popes and emperors. Speaking to Emily Briffitt, Alex Pluskovsky explores how a humble field hospital went on to establish itself as one of the most significant religious corporations of medieval Europe.

Of all the medieval military orders, the Teutonic Order is up there amongst the most famous, alongside ones like the Templars, the Hospitallers. If you could sum up the Teutonic Order in 60 seconds or so, what would it be? Well, they start off as a field hospital during the Third Crusade at Acre in 1190. They are catering to German crusaders and they become militarized quite quickly within a decade. And they become part of, as you said, the Templars and Hospital as general defense of what is known as the Latin Easter Crusader states.

But soon after they become involved in other frontiers of medieval Christian Europe. And at that point they shift their focus to Eastern Europe, where they conquer and carve out large swathes of territory. through crusading and Christianizing the indigenous pagan Baltic population. And they establish these powerful states in what become known as Prussia and Livonia. And this leads to a new front of crusading that dominates the late medieval period in that region of Europe.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (49 minutes, 7,518 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.