Editing Teutonic Order (section)

===Prussia===
{{Main|Prussian Crusade}}
In 1226, [[Konrad I of Masovia|Konrad I]], Duke of [[Masovia]] in [[north-eastern Poland]], appealed to the Knights to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic [[Old Prussians]], allowing the Teutonic Knights use of [[Chełmno Land]] as a base for their campaign. This being a time of widespread crusading fervor throughout Western Europe, Hermann von Salza considered [[Prussia (region)|Prussia]] a good training ground for his knights for the wars against the [[Muslim]]s in [[Outremer]].<ref>Seward, p. 100</ref> With the [[Golden Bull of Rimini]], Emperor Frederick II bestowed on the Order a special imperial privilege for the conquest and possession of Prussia, including Chełmno Land, with nominal papal sovereignty. In 1235 the Teutonic Knights assimilated the smaller [[Order of Dobrzyń]], which had been established earlier by [[Christian of Oliva|Christian]], the first Bishop of Prussia.

[[File:Peter Janssen, Kaiser Friedrich II.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] allows the order to invade Prussia'', by [[Peter Janssen|P. Janssen]]]]

The [[conquest of Prussia]] was accomplished with much bloodshed over more than fifty years, during which native Prussians who remained unbaptised were subjugated, killed, or exiled. Fighting between the Knights and the Prussians was ferocious; chronicles of the Order state the Prussians would "roast captured brethren alive in their armour, like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local god".<ref>Seward, p. 104</ref>

The native nobility who submitted to the crusaders had many of their privileges confirmed by the [[Treaty of Christburg]]. After the [[Prussian uprisings]] of 1260–83, however, much of the Prussian nobility emigrated or were resettled, and many free Prussians lost their rights. The Prussian nobles who remained were more closely allied with the German landowners and were gradually assimilated.<ref>Christiansen, pp. 208–209</ref> Peasants in frontier regions, such as [[Sambia Peninsula|Samland]], had more privileges than those in more populated lands, such as [[Pomesania]].<ref>Christiansen, pp. 210–211</ref> The crusading knights often accepted [[baptism]] as a form of submission by the natives.<ref>Barraclough, p. 268</ref> Christianity along western lines slowly spread through Prussian culture. Bishops were reluctant to have pagan Prussian religious practices integrated into the new faith,<ref>Urban, p. 106</ref> while the ruling knights found it easier to govern the natives when they were semi-pagan and lawless.<ref>Christiansen, p. 211</ref> After fifty years of warfare and brutal conquest, the end result was that most of the Prussian natives were either killed or deported.<ref>''The German Hansa'' P. Dollinger, p. 34, 1999 Routledge {{ISBN?}}</ref>

[[File:Teutonic Order 1260.png|thumb|Map of the Teutonic state in 1260]]

The Order ruled Prussia under [[Golden Bull of Rimini|charters]] issued by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor as a [[sovereignty|sovereign]] [[monastic state of the Teutonic Knights|monastic state]], comparable to the arrangement of the Knights Hospitallers in [[Rhodes]] and later in [[Malta]].

To make up for losses from the [[Black Death|plague]] and to replace the partially exterminated native population, the Order encouraged [[immigration]] from the Holy Roman Empire (mostly [[Germans]], [[Flemish people|Flemish]], and [[Dutch people|Dutch]]) and from Masovia ([[Polish people|Poles]]), the later [[Masurians]]. These included nobles, burghers, and peasants, and the surviving Old Prussians were gradually assimilated through [[Germanization]]. The settlers founded numerous towns and cities on former Prussian settlements. The Order itself built a number of castles (''[[Ordensburg]]en'') from which it could defeat [[Prussian uprisings|uprisings of Old Prussians]], as well as continue its attacks on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, with which the Order was often at war during the 14th and 15th centuries. Major towns founded by the Order included [[Toruń|Thorn (Toruń)]], [[Chełmno|Kulm (Chełmno)]], [[Olsztyn|Allenstein (Olsztyn)]], [[Elbląg|Elbing (Elbląg)]], [[Klaipėda|Memel (Klaipėda)]], and [[Königsberg]], founded in 1255 in honor of King [[Otakar II of Bohemia]] on the site of a destroyed Prussian settlement.