Ruler: Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen.

The epitome of ruthless military efficiency, the Teutonic Knights became a military order in 1198, their insignia a black cross on a white background. Their original purpose was to protect Christians in the Holy Land but at its loss they moved their headquarters to Marienberg in 1309, gaining their own Baltic state at the same time the Hospitallers gained Rhodes. This may well have saved both orders from suppression - the fate of the Templars in 1314.

The Order's crusades against the Baltic pagans created a unique state governed by the Order. Only the Lithuanians remained independent: their hold on Samogitia splitting the Knights in two, the Livonian brethren at Riga under a subordinate master. Despite this, by the 1350s, the Order's lands stretched from Pomerania to Finland.

But as German settlers created towns along the coast, tensions grew between merchants who preferred to trade with heathens and the Knights who saw this as heresy, insisting on devoutly serving Christ, even to a martyr's death in battle.

The Great Schism of 1378 saw crusades preached against supporters of rival Popes at a time when princes were becoming less inclined to fulfil crusading vows in the Baltic. The future Henry IV of England came in 1390 and 1392 with plenty of gold and men but he was among the last.

Then Grand Duke Jagiello of Lithuania astutely married Jadwiga of Poland, turning Christian. With no heathen to fight, the Order could no longer justify its religious war, so no new crusade was preached in Europe when the combined forces of Poland-Lithuania killed over 400 brethren at Tannenberg in 1411. At the Council of Constance in 1415, Poland-Lithuania argued the Order must either demilitarise or move to the Balkans to fight the Turks. Some brethren did move to Wallachia but the Order lacked recruits and by 1450 there were barely 400 Prussian brethren left. Relentlessly hostile, Poland-Lithuania exploited angry settlers demanding independence and started a new war, culminating in the capture of Marienberg in 1457. The Order is still losing castles to siege or surprise; the situation looks desperate and the Grand Master can expect no help from the Livonian brethren, under pressure from Moscow and the Union of Kalmar, eager to reclaim Estonia.

(Thanks to Steve Bealing.)