Teutonic Knights

• March 5, 1198
  The Teutonic Knights, religious Catholic order, are established as a military order in a ceremony at Acre in Palestine
• 1226, March
  The Golden Bull of Rimini, issued by Emperor Frederick II, authorizes the Teutonic Knights to conquer and convert pagan Prussian tribes in the Baltic
• December 28, 1233
  Kulm law, a charter granted settlers civic freedoms, is issued by the Teutonic Knights as a part of their efforts to colonize Prussia
• April 5, 1242
  At the Battle on the Ice the Republic of Novgorod under 20-year-old Prince Alexander Nevsky defeat the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights halting the Northern Crusades directed against pagans and Eastern Orthodox Christians
• February 7, 1249
  Treaty of Christburg forces the pagan Prussian clans to recognize the rule of the Teutonic Knights, establishing German as the dominant culture and language
• 1255
  Königsberg is founded on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Bohemian King Otakar II, who came to help Teutonic Knights during their conquest of Prussia
• July 13, 1260
  Lithuanians defeat the joint forces of the Teutonic Knights from Prussia and Livonian Order from Livonia at the Battle of Durbe during the Livonian Crusade
• June 1, 1298
  The people of Riga with help of Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytenis defeat the order in the Battle of Turaida
• 1341
  The Livonian Order buy the Duchy of Estonia from King Valdemar IV of Denmark
• February 17, 1370
  Teutonic Knights beat forces of Grand Duchy of Lithuania at Battle of Rudau
• 1406
  Malbork Castle, the largest castle in the world by surface area, is completed by the Teutonic Knights in Marienburg, the administrative center of the Order in Prussia
• July 15, 1410
  Lithuanian-Polish forces defeat the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald in Prussia, thereby halting the Knights' eastward expansion along the Baltic and hastening their decline
• 1466
  Second Peace of Thorn ends the Thirteen Years' War, a conflict between the Prussian Confederation, allied with the Kingdom of Poland, and the State of the Teutonic Order, with win of Prussian Confederation
• April 10, 1525
  Albert von Brandenburg, a member of a branch of the House of Hohenzollern and the leader of the Teutonic Order, secularizes Order's remaining territories into the Duchy of Prussia and passes the first laws of the Protestant church, making Prussia a Protestant state
• 1809
  Napoleon strips the Teutonic Knights of their last holdings in Bad Mergentheim in Germany