The Teutonic Knights, supported by the Popes…
1260 CE
The Teutonic Knights, supported by the Popes and Christian Europe, have for some decades sought to conquer and convert pagan Prussians.
The conquest of Prussia by the Knights, which had begun in 1226, has been accompanied by much bloodshed over the past twenty-five years, during which native Prussians who remain unbaptized have been subjugated, killed, or exiled.
In the first ten years of the crusade five of the seven major Prussian clans had fallen under control of the less populous Knights.
However, Prussians continue to rise against their conquerors.
Fighting between the Knights and the Prussians has been ferocious; chronicles of the Order state the Prussians would "roast captured brethren alive in their armour, like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local god".
The First Prussian Uprising, which began in 1242 after the Teutonic Knights lost the Battle of the Ice, had had the unexpected support of the Christian Polish duke Świętopełk II of Pomerania.
with whom the Knights have had some economic tension.
The Prussians had been successful at first, reducing the Knights to only five of their strongest castles.
Conversely, Duke Świętopełk suffered a series of military defeats and was eventually forced to make peace with the Knights.
With Duke Świętopełk's support for the Prussians broken, a prelate of Pope Innocent IV then negotiated a peace treaty between the Prussians and the Knights.
The native nobility that had submitted to the crusaders had many of their privileges affirmed in the Treaty of Christburg, signed in 1249.
However, this treaty was never honored or enforced, especially after the Battle of Krücken at the end of 1249.
In 1252, the Knights had redoubled their crusading efforts against the pagan Prussians.
The second uprising, known historiographically as "The Great Prussian Uprising", is prompted by the 1260 Battle of Durbe.
This uprising, which begins in September, will last fourteen years: it is to be the longest, largest, and most threatening to the Teutonic Knights, who will again be reduced to five of their strongest castles.
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