The idea of Christian chivalry in the chronicles of the Teutonic Order
Abstract
This thesis has as its subject matter the chronicles
written by members of the Teutonic Order to describe and
Justify the crusades undertaken by the Order in Prussia and Lithuania in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It
argues that the full importance of this material has been
largely ignored or misunderstood by historians and literary
historians and hence that its contribution to crusading
ideology has not been fully appreciated. It is then argued
that the Kronike von Pruzinlant, the most widely disseminated
and influential of the chronicles, was written in response to
widespread criticism of the crusades and the military orders
at the end of the thirteenth and beginning, of the fourteenth
centuries, and played an important part in re-establishing
the crusading ideal at a time of crisis for the crusading
movement.
The first section examines the Kronike von Pruzinlant in
the context of crusading tradition and contemporary crusading
literature and aims to identify the Order's original contributions
to crusading ideology. The second section employs a diachronic
approach. It demonstrates the Kronike von Pruzinlant's
importance by contrasting it with an earlier chronicles the
Livlandische Reimchronik, and a later one, the Chronicle of
Wigand of Marburg. It also contrasts the two existing versions
of the Kronike von Pruzinlant, the Latin original and the
vernacular translation, examining the impact made by changes
in the vernacular version on the form and purpose of the chronicle.
The thesis concludes that the Order made significant
contributions to the development of crusading ideology in
the fourteenth century. Its development of these ideas
reflects its desire to come to terms with the criticisms and
difficulties facing the military orders as a whole at this
time and points forward to its establishment during the
fourteenth century as the foremost centre of crusading warfare in Europe.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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