The Monks of War

by Desmond Seward

  In 1440 junkers and burghers met at Marienwerder to found the Preussische Bund, which became a real state within a state, levying its own taxes. The Order was powerless to suppress the Bund, and the Hochmeister tried to reach a modus vivendi. This proved impossible, for he could not share political power with the Prussian nobility without undermining the whole concept of the Ordensstaat, while it was equally difficult to alleviate the burghers' troubles. An explosive situation developed. Hochmeister Ludwig von Erlichshausen appealed to Frederick III in 1453, and the latter solemnly declared the Bund dissolved. He could not enforce his decree.6 In February 1454, after the mysterious murder of their employer's ambassador, the Bund – which included twenty-one towns – renounced allegiance to the Hochmeister, and the country rose. Within two months fifty-six castles were in rebel hands and a ringleader of the revolt, a renegade knight, Hans von Baisen, journeyed to Cracow to offer the 'crown' of Prussia to Casimir IV. The real object was to win the anarchic freedom possessed by the Polish upper classes.

  King Casimir came to Prussia but, instead of a welcome, found a war which was to rage for thirteen years. The Ordensland tore itself to pieces, junker fighting junker, burgher warring with burgher. In Königsberg sailors and townsmen battled mercilessly in the narrow streets and along the quays, while the merchant princes of Danzig, bitter haters of the Order, sent its supporters to the galleys. Casimir had few troops. However, the Bund gave him plenty of money, as did the Danzig oligarchy, and he hired mercenaries, Czechs and Heyducks – wild Hungarians or Croats – who harried and burnt the wretched Ordensland.

  Yet the Order could still produce another Plauen, the Spittler Heinrich Reuss von Plauen, a cousin of the tragic Hochmeister.* In September 1454 he marched to the relief of Könitz, besieged by King Casimir with an army, 40,000 strong, of Poles, mercenaries and Prussian Leaguers. The Spittler had only 9,000 men, but narrowed the front by a skilful use of marshy ground and, finding a point where the enemy's light troops were exposed, charged in with 1,000 heavy cavalry. Casimir's army disintegrated and the king himself barely escaped, leaving his banner in the brethren's hands.

  There were now few sergeants and the ratio of brethren to levies or mercenaries in the squadrons was probably about the same as that of officers and senior non-commissioned officers to other ranks in a modern infantry regiment. Crossbowmen were being replaced by foot soldiers with hand-guns, and war carts were used by the Bohemian troops. There were none of the romantic adventurers of Winrich's day. Tannenberg had destroyed the Order's prestige, while the Lithuanian wars had ceased to be crusades. There was little point in travelling to northern Europe to obtain experience which could be found nearer home. Only the wolfish freelances came, with scavenging camp-followers, greedy for pay and plunder. This 'Thirteen Years War' was one of sieges and raids, but few pitched battles. Towns were sacked and burnt, villages destroyed, cornfields laid waste, peasants massacred in droves.

  The mercenaries, always open to a good offer, changed sides frequently. To pay them, the Hochmeister attempted to sell castles and manors, even towns, but without success. Landed property was no longer profitable and capital was scarce. Rents and taxation had ceased to exist. The German Landmeister, Ulrich von Lentersheim, came to fight at the Prussian brethren's side and gave some financial help, but his advances were soon swallowed up. The desperate Ludwig guaranteed his troops' pay with twenty towns and castles, which they promptly occupied. The Livonian Landmeister tried to buy back Marienburg but failed,7 and in 1457 the Bohemians sold it to Casimir. The miserable Hochmeister escaped in a small boat to Königsberg, whose sympathetic burghers sent him a barrel of beer but no money. The Spittler persuaded the loyal Burgomaster of Marienburg, Bartholomaus Blumen, to open the gates to him. Together and with only a small band they defended it desperately against the Poles, who surrounded the city and occupied the citadel. Finally in 1460 they were overwhelmed and Burgomaster Blumen was beheaded. But Plauen escaped to fight on.

  The brethren's defeat at Zarnowitz (Puck) in August 1462 by a smaller force has been described as the turning-point of the war.8 The composition of the Order's troops is of interest: 1,000 fully equipped heavy cavalry, 600 light cavalry, 1,300 militia and 400 foot soldiers. Much more important was the sea-battle the following year at the mouth of the Vistula. The brethren sent forty-four ships against the Danzigers, whose own fleet was paid for by the jewels of the merchants' ladies. But the Elbingers, the allies of Danzig, arrived and the Order lost all its ships and 1,500 men. It was a strategic disaster, for it blocked the water route into west Prussia. Yet the brethren still resisted without troops, without money, without hope, their fortresses holding out, with no possibility of relief, and falling one by one.

  When the Hochmeister finally surrendered in 1466 he had spent sixteen million Hungarian florins, and both sides had lost over 100,000 men. At the Second Peace of Thorun it was agreed that Poland should take Danzig and the western balleien, henceforth to be known as 'Royal' Prussia. The Order kept the east, while in future no fewer than half of the Teutonic Knights were to be Poles. The Hochmeister had to pay homage for his Prussian lands to the Polish king, a humiliating ceremony which the unhappy Ludwig performed in the Guildhall at Thorun, 'weeping, and with torn garments'. The Grand Commandery was now at Königsberg.

  The treaty divided the Order. It was difficult for the brethren outside Prussia to obey a Polish vassal who sat in the Sejm at the king's left hand. The Livonian Knights were confirmed in the habit of electing their own Landmeister, while the German Landmeister adopted the title Deutschmeister and became more independent. Livland remained formidable. In 1471 Ivan III, Grand-Prince of Moscow, annexed Novgorod, whereupon the brethren tried to seize Pskov as a counter-stroke, waiting until 1480 when Ivan was fully occupied by the last invasion of the Golden Horde. Landmeister Bernhard von den Borch led a large and well-equipped force9 through the snow and sacked the small town of Visgorod on 1 January 1480, returning at the end of the month to encircle Pskov with one army and systematically devastate the countryside with another. Bernhard retreated when a Muscovite army raided Livonia, but on 1 March he chased the men of Pskov off the ice of Lake Peipus and then sacked and burnt the town of Kobyle, killing nearly 4,000 inhabitants before withdrawing. The Landmeister's raids had profoundly shaken Pskov's morale. In August he returned without warning at the head of '100,000 men', threatening Pskov. The republic was desperate, but Bernhard again withdrew. Unfortunately the Golden Horde's invasion failed and Ivan was now free to protect Pskov.

  Prussian brethren were determined to regain their independence. In 1498, they elected a powerful prince as Hochmeister, Friedrich of Saxony, the elector's brother. Königsberg was transformed into a semi-regal court administered by Saxon officials, and the Hochmeister-Duke's wealth provided an illusory splendour. He refused to pay homage to the Polish king, demanding the return of west Prussia.

  By the end of the century Livland was ailing, split into three camps – bishops, towns and brethren – the latter distracted by feuds between Rhinelanders and Westphalians. Riga, Reval and Dorpat had lost their staple rights at Novgorod when Ivan III expelled the Hansa and all Germans. In any case the burghers of both Livland and Prussia had abandoned the Hansa after 1467. The Order always maintained good relations with the Tartars, sending ambassadors to Kazan and Astrakhan, but the Golden Horde was in its final decline. Ivan had married a Byzantine princess and Moscow was quickly becoming the third Rome. Its grand-prince wanted an outlet to the Baltic and threatened Narva from his fortress of Ivangorod. Yet Marienland was to enjoy an Indian summer, often called its Golden Age. Wolther von Plettenberg, born in Westphalia in 1450 and elected Landmeister in 1493, was a ruler of Kniprode's calibre. A handsome man of distinguished manners, a gallant soldier and a gifted diplomatist, he seems to have stepped from the Order's heroic age into its twilit dusk. He restricted admission in Livland to Westphalians and controlled the cities and bishops by playing one against another, taking care to cultivate a special relatio
nship with the Archbishop of Riga. Caspar Linde, archbishop from 1509 to 1524, was a close friend and sympathizer. Even burghers were grateful for Wolther's benevolent rule, which lasted nearly half a century.10

  8. Friedrich of Saxony, the last Hochmeister but one to reign in Prussia

  In 1499 Muscovy and Mengli Gerei, Khan of the Krim Tartars, declared war on Grand Duke Alexander of Lithuania, who allied with the Tartar Khan of the Volga, Sich Achmed, and the Order. In 1501 the Russians defeated and massacred the Lithuanian army, invading Livonia. Alexander sent no help and Sich Achmed was delayed. On 27 August, Plettenberg attacked the Russians alone on the Seritsa river. He had 8,000 foot and 4,000 cavalry. The Russians – Muscovites and the army of the Prince of Pskov – numbered 40,000. Using a murderous combination of artillery and heavy cavalry, Wolther practically wiped them out. The Landmeister fought like a devil, though twice surrounded and once beaten to his knees. According to the chronicler Balthasar Russow, his 12,000 soldiers killed most of the 40,000 Russians, the remainder fleeing to Pskov. But a severe outbreak of dysentery forced him to withdraw.

  In November 1501 the Russians returned: 100,000 Muscovites and 30,000 Tartars11 commanded by Ivan's best general, Prince Daniel Shchenya. They joined battle with the Order's main army, based on the fortress of Helmed outside Dorpat and, despite the Knights' superior artillery, annihilated them. Not even a messenger got through to warn Plettenberg. Then the Muscovites devastated eastern Marienland, 40,000 Livonians being killed or dragged into captivity. The Landmeister was undismayed. In the spring of 1502 he launched several swift raids into the Pskov country, culminating in September with the siege of Pskov itself. He retreated before the relieving Muscovite army, luring his pursuers into a deathtrap at Lake Smolino. Again he used cavalry and skilled gunners to terrible effect. Many brethren also died, but Plettenberg's army was allowed to withdraw without further challenge. Shortly afterwards, Grand Duke Alexander made peace with Ivan, and in May 1503 the Order's ambassadors concluded a fifty years' truce with the Russians. Russian and German chroniclers differ about the honours of the war, claiming the same battles as victories.12 Whatever the truth, the brethren did remarkably well to tie down a much larger army for so long and to emerge with their territory intact. The achievement is comparable to that of the Finns in the Winter War of 1940.

  In 1512 another prince of the empire was elected Hochmeister, the twenty-one-year-old Albrecht von Hohenzollern, Margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, poor, ambitious and without scruples. He refused to admit Poles to the Order and in 1517, after allying with Denmark and Grand-Prince Vassily III, demanded not only the return of Royal Prussia but also compensation for fifty years' occupation. Finally, in 1519, he attacked his uncle, King Sigismund of Poland, in a campaign of sieges, forays and burnings, but no pitched battles. Only the ravening Landsknechts profited, and in 1521 Albrecht, an indifferent general, agreed to a four years' truce.

  But a new foe, Protestantism, now confronted the Order. In 1523 Martin Luther wrote to Hochmeister Albrecht: 'Your Order is truly a strange order and especially because it was founded to fight against the infidels. For this reason it must make use of the worldly sword and must act in a worldly manner and yet it should be spiritual at the same time, should vow chastity, poverty and obedience and should keep these vows like the members of other monastic orders.' With habitual invective Dr Luther went on to describe the Order as a hermaphrodite institution. On Christmas Day 1523 the Bishop of Samland, George von Potenza – who was a member of the Order – publicly accepted Lutheranism in a sermon at Königsberg cathedral: 'This day Christ is born anew.' The doctrine had already spread among the burghers, even among the knights.

  Albrecht met Luther at Nuremberg during the Imperial Diet of 1524 and was converted. On 8 April 1525 the Hochmeister signed the Treaty of Cracow. Henceforth he held Prussia from the Polish king as a hereditary duchy. Next day he did homage to King Sigismund (his mother's brother) in Krakow marketplace.13 There was little opposition, for he had deliberately left vacant the offices of Grosskomtur and Ordensmarschall, and summoned only a quorum of the 55 Knights in Prussia to the last chapter at Königsberg. Erich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Komtur of Memel, was the sole commander who tried to resist. Others were unhappy but did nothing. Phillip von Kreuz, Komtur of Insterberg, wrote a Relatio in which he described the coup as 'a dirty business', comparing his brethren to the frogs who took a stork for their king in the fable of King Log; he admits that he himself acquiesced in order to keep possession of his commandery. A few Knights married, founding Prussian noble families, but others returned to Germany. Duke Albrecht reigned prosperously until his death in 1568 and his son until 1618, when their Hohenzollern cousins of Brandenburg inherited the Duchy of Prussia.

  Walther von Cronberg was elected Deutschmeister at Mergentheim in 1527 – the year after the Peasants' Revolt when this new Grand Commandery had been sacked by a rabble – then Hochmeister in 1530. The following year Charles V created the Hochund Deutschmeister a Prince of the Empire. The brethren gave the emperor help, if on a small scale, during the religious wars of the Schmalkaldic League. Plettenberg, the obvious choice, was not chosen, because of his Westphalian bias, certainly not because of a leaning towards Lutheranism as was suggested by one historian of the Order. He was indispensable in Riga and seventy-five years old. In 1526 Charles V made him a Prince of the Empire.

  Luther's teachings spread quickly among Livonian burghers, though not, apparently, among the brethren. To a man of Plettenberg's diplomatic temperament an understanding between Lutheranism and the papacy then seemed far from unlikely and he arranged public debates between Catholics and Lutherans. At the Diet of Wolmar in 1522 Lutheran burghers and even a few brethren protested against Luther's excommunication, and in 1524 there were anti-Catholic riots in Riga and Reval. Churches were desecrated, priests and religious expelled from the cities. In 1526, at the second Diet of Wolmar, the assembly asked their ruler to follow Hochmeister Albrecht's example by renouncing his cross and becoming Duke of Livonia. But Plettenberg refused, amicably enough, and his refusal was respected. There was always the shadow of Moscow. In 1533 Wolther, eighty-three years of age, died a good Catholic at his favourite castle of Wenden after a reign of forty-four years.14

  For twenty years the Landmeisters remained undisturbed,* but at last in 1557 Ivan IV the Terrible denounced the brethren as criminals 'who had deserted the Christian faith and burnt Russian ikons'. The tsar's army was more efficient than his grandfather's, and he had already conquered Tartar Kazan and Astrakhan. In January 1558 Prince Ivan Kurbsky invaded eastern Estonia, burning and slaying. Young people aged between ten and twenty were dragged off to the Tartar slave-markets, goaded on with iron rods; but, apart from these, every German was put to death horribly, the women having their breasts cut off, the men their limbs. No fewer than 10,000 were slaughtered before the gates of Dorpat. In May 1558 Kurbsky captured Narva; in July, Prince Shuisky stormed Dorpat. The Russians occupied twenty towns by September, but then retired for the winter, leaving garrisons.

  The ailing Furstenberg abdicated and the komtur of Dunaburg, Gotthard Kettler, was elected Landmeister. The last army of the. Ordensland marched out to war, to the music of trumpets and kettledrums, under the battle banner of the Blessed Virgin. Yet though brethren still wore the black cross piped with silver on their tunics, with a black enamelled silver Ritterkreuz hanging from each neck, and though everyone was ready to roar 'Gott mit uns', they had only 2,000 cavalry as well as a few arquebusiers and pikemen. Kettler took advantage of the winter weather to overrun several garrisons. Ivan reacted swiftly, and in January 1559 the Russians returned, in the snow, with 130,000 men. This time not even babies were spared.

  Twenty years later, Sir Jerome Horsey, travelling through Livonia on his way to Moscow for the Russia Company, spoke to eye-witnesses. He wrote: 'Oh, the lamentable outcries and cruel slaughters, drowning and burning, ravishing of women and maids, stripping them naked without mercy or regard of the frozen we
ather, tying and binding them by three or four at their horses' tails, dragging them some alive, some dead, all bloodying the ways and streets full of carcases of the aged men and women and infants.'15 Ivan, however, now feared an invasion by the Krim Tartars and gave the Order an armistice, demanding that the Landmeister come to sue for peace in person.

  When the Poles asked the tsar to end his war with the knights, Ivan replied, 'by the all powerful will of God since the days of Rurik, Great Prince of Russia, the Livonian lands have been part of the realm'.16 In 1560 the Russians invaded Livland once more, inflicting further atrocities and devastation. To add to the bloody confusion the wretched Estonian peasantry rose. The brethren, bankrupt, almost without troops, defended their fortresses grimly, to no avail. Fellin, the residence of von Furstenberg, was stormed by Prince Kurbsky in August, though garrisoned by a strong detachment of knights with a train of heavy artillery, and the former Landmeister was carried off to Moscow. Ivan seriously considered restoring him as puppet head of a vassal state. But it was too late. The golden age of Marienland was over in a smoking holocaust of the sort which four centuries later marked the end of the Third Reich.