Aleksander Pluskowski is Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Reading. His publications include Environment, Colonization, and the Baltic Crusader States (2019) and The Archaeology of the Prussian Crusade: Holy War and Colonisation (2nd edn, 2022).

Pluskowski’s The Teutonic Knights is a concise, soberly written and authoritative survey of the military order that fought in both the Holy Land and Europe’s eastern borderlands, becoming in the process one of the continent’s most powerful religious institutions . . . Pluskowski is especially good at describing the scores of castles that the Teutonic Knights built across north-eastern Europe. - Tony Barber, Financial TimesThis book provides a narrative account of the Teutonic Knights, a religious order created in 1190 for hospital work during the Crusades . . . The theocratic rule of the Teutonic Knights ended after 325 years, but they remain a significant factor in late medieval European history. Recommended. - ChoiceAleksander Pluskowski has pulled off a remarkable feat. Combining up-to-date international scholarship, detailed narrative and shrewd assessment of complex evidence with close analysis of the full range of economic, political, environmental, ideological, artistic and architectural contexts, his succinct account of the Teutonic Order provides a comprehensive new standard reference. - Christopher Tyerman, Professor Emeritus of the History of the Crusades, University of Oxford, and Emeritus Fellow, Hertford CollegeFluent, fresh and confident, this clever blend of history and archaeology brings the story of the Teutonic Knights sharply into focus. Pluskowski incisively steers us through the emergence, expansion and decline of this mighty organization, enabling us to appreciate its profound influence on the faith, politics and landscape of northeastern Europe. - Jonathan Phillips, Professor of the History of the Crusades, Royal Holloway, University of LondonAleksander Pluskowski has provided a concise, well-researched and highly readable account of the vicissitudes of the Teutonic Knights, from their establishment as a hospitaller military order in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, through its meteoric rise as a major political and military power in Prussia and Livonia, to its transformation and decline during the Reformation and eventual conversion into a religious, charitable organisation under the Holy Roman Empire. This book is a welcome addition to the limited English-language library on the Teutonic Order. - Adrian J. Boas, Professor Emeritus of Medieval Archaeology, University of Haifa, Israel

• Introduction1 The German Hospital of the Third Crusade: The Origins of the Teutonic Order2 Expansion and Loss in the Thirteenth Century: The Teutonic Order in the Holy Land3 A New Frontier: The Teutonic Order in Transylvania 4 Holy War and Conquest: The Teutonic Order's Crusades in Prussia and Livonia 5 Territorial Lords: The Teutonic Order's Rule in the Baltic 6 Power and Faith: The Teutonic Order's Fortified Convents 7 Crusading in the Wilderness: The Teutonic Order's Wars against Lithuania 8 Defeat and Decline in the Fifteenth Century 9 The Reformation and the End of the Teutonic Order's Rule in the Baltic10 The Rise and Fall of a Medieval Religious CorporationReferencesBibliographyAcknowledgementsPhoto Acknowledgements Index