Hermann von Salza

The Teutonic Knights, under the leadership of the grand master Hermann von Salza, begin transferring their main center of activity from the Holy Land to eastern Europe.

The order's first European enterprise starts in Hungary in 1211, when King Andrew II invites a group of the Teutonic Knights to protect his Transylvanian borderland against the Cumans by colonizing it and by converting its people to Christianity.

The Knights establish Kronstadt (modern Brasov), a city in the region of present central Romania on the northern slope of the Transylvanian Alps, in 1211.

Konrad, the Polish duke of Mazovia, hopes to strengthen Polish Latin-rite Christianity and Poland’s position in regard to its neighbors.

Konrad is the youngest son of High Duke Casimir II the Just of Poland and Helen of Znojmo, daughter of the Přemyslid duke Konrad II of Znojmo (ruler of the Znojmo Appanage in southern Moravia, part of Duchy of Bohemia).

His maternal grandmother was Maria of Serbia, apparently a daughter of the pre-Nemanjić župan Uroš I of Rascia.

After his father's death in 1194, Konrad had been brought up by his mother, who had acted as regent of Masovia.

He had received Masovia in 1199 and in 1205 also the adjacent lands of Kuyavia.

In that year, he and his brother, Duke Leszek I the White of Sandomierz, had had their greatest military victory at the Battle of Zawichost against Prince Roman the Great of Galicia–Volhynia.

The Ruthenian army had been crushed and Roman had been killed in battle.

The Rurik princess Agafia of Rus became his wife.

In order to enlarge his dominions, Konrad had unsuccessfully attempted to conquer the adjacent pagan lands of Chelmno in Prussia during a 1209 crusade with the consent of Pope Innocent III.

The monk Christian of Oliva had in 1215 been appointed a missionary bishop among the Old Prussians; his residence at Chelmno had been devastated by Prussian forces the next year.

Several further campaigns in 1219 and 1222 had failed, involving Konrad in a long-term border quarrel with the Prussian tribes.

The duke's ongoing attempts on Prussia have been answered by incursions across the borders of his Masovian lands, while Prussians are in the process of gaining back control over the disputed Chelmno Land and even threaten Konrad's residence at Plock Castle.

Subjected to constant Prussian raids and counter-raids, Konrad now wants to stabilize the north of his Duchy of Masovia in this fight over the border area of Chełmno.

Thus in 1226, Konrad, having difficulty with constant raids over his territory, invites the religious military order of the Teutonic Knights to fight the Prussians, as they already had supported the Kingdom of Hungary against the Cuman people in the Transylavanian Burzenland from 1211 to 1225.

When the Knights notified Hungary that the Order was firstly responsible to the pope, they had been expelled by the Hungarian king Andrew II.

Thus, in return for the Order's service, Grand Master Hermann von Salza wants to have its rights documented beforehand, by a deal with Konrad that is to be confirmed by the Holy Roman Emperor and the Roman Curia.

Frederick, responding to pressure by the new pope, organizes the Sixth Crusade.

In September 1227, when Frederick is at last ready to embark from Brindisi for the Holy Land, an epidemic breaks out among the crusaders, delaying the emperor's departure.

Even the master of the Teutonic Knights, Hermann of Salza, recommends that he return to the mainland to recuperate.

Frederick is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX on September 29 for failing to honor his crusading pledge.

During the delay, he receives envoys from the late Saladin's nephew Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt, who, threatened by the ambitious designs of his Ayyubid brothers, is disposed to negotiate.

The Emperor can claim only a regency for his infant son Conrad, however, as news of Isabella's death had arrived in Acre, where Frederick meets more opposition.

News of his excommunication had arrived as well, and many refuse to support him.

Dependent, therefore, on the Teutonic Knights, the organization formed by Germans who remained in the east after an expedition in 1197 and now under the direction of Hermann of Salza, and his own small contingent of German crusaders, he is forced to attempt what he can by diplomacy.

Complex negotiations, accordingly, are reopened with al-Kamil.

The treaty of 1229 concluded between the Ayyubid Sultanate and the Holy Roman Empire is unique in the history of the Crusades, and certainly a result of the impact of Frederick's personality on the Arab world, and not armed might.

The Ayyubids, by diplomacy alone and without major military confrontation, cede Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a corridor running to the sea to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Exception is made for the Temple area, the Dome of the Rock, and the Aqsa Mosque, which the Muslims retain.

Important pilgrimage sites, among them Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Lydda, and perhaps Nazareth, are restored to the Christians.

The peace is to last for ten years.

When Frederick, still under excommunication, enters the city, the Patriarch places it under interdict.

By way of response, the excommunicated emperor on March 18, 1229, crowns himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

As no priest is present, Frederick places a crown on his own head while one of the Teutonic Knights reads the ceremony.

Eschatological prophecies concerning his rule are now made, and the Emperor considers himself to be a messiah, a new David.

His entry into Jerusalem is compared with that of Christ on Palm Sunday (and, indeed, in a manifesto, the Emperor, too, compares himself to Christ).

The benefits of the treaty of 1229 are more apparent than real.

The areas ceded are not easily defensible, and Jerusalem soon becomes a prey to disorder.

Furthermore, the treaty is denounced by the devout of both faiths.

Papal troops have meanwhile penetrated into Frederick's Kingdom of Sicily.

Leaving agents in charge, Frederick hastily returns to Europe.

What follows in Jerusalem and Cyprus, however, is not orderly government by the Emperor's agents but civil war, for Frederick's imperial concept of government is totally opposed to the now well-established preeminence of the Jerusalem baronage.

John's forces, Frederick having departed in April from the island of Cyprus, defeat the remaining imperial bailiffs in a battle outside Nicosia on July 14, 1229, thus beginning the War of the Lombards.

The two groups of German "crusaders” that set forth, under papal approval, to Christianize the pagan Balts (very often by sending them to their deaths), have largely succeeded by 1230.

The Teutonic Knights now fully occupy the valley of the lower Vistula, courtesy of the Polish princes.

The Knights of the Sword occupy the valley of the lower Dvina River.

The imperial marshal, Richard Filangieri, is able to establish himself in Jerusalem and Tyre, which he had regained by treaty in 1229, but not in Beirut or the capital in Acre.

Frederick, as regent for his young son Conrad II of Jerusalem, has appointed five bailiffs to govern Cyprus, much to the displeasure of the local nobility.

This is greatly opposed by the Ibelin family and they, supported by the government of the king of Cyprus (a feudatory of Jerusalem) and of Jerusalem, make war on the five bailiffs.

Initially successful in controlling the chief fortresses of the island in the first half of 1232, one of the bailiffs, Aimery Barlais, conquers most of Cyprus save Dieudamour and Buffavento for the emperor.

The Ibelins respond by trying to bribe the Genoese into an alliance with them by offering them commercial privileges at Cypriot ports as well as land grants.

This fails, however.

The Ibelins and Cypriots assemble a meager force of two hundred and thirty-three mounted men as opposed to the massive Lombard force of two thousand horse.

Their army is divided into five battles.

Four are lined up under the command of Hugh of Ibelin, Anceau of Brie, Baldwin of Ibelin, and John of Caesarea.

Balian of Beirut, though he is supposed to be with the rearguard, lines up at the front beside Hugh and Anceau.

The rearguard is commanded by John I of Beirut and Henry of Cyprus.

The Lombard vanguard is led by Walter of Manepeau, who charges as far as the Ibelin rearguard before turning around and leading his men at the fourth battle under John of Caesarea.

They are repulsed and flee.

The second Lombard battle makes a successful charge at the force under Hugh's command, but the men of Anceau readily come to his rescue.

During the subsequent mêlée, Berart of Manepeau is dismounted by Anceau of Brie and seventeen comrades who dismount to help him are killed by sergeants on foot before he recovers.

The young Balian gains a reputation defending a pass from the Lombards.

In the end, the arrival of between fifty and sixty sergans à pié (foot sergeants) from the town of Agridi is critical to their success.

Following the battle, John of Beirut, with funds from Henry of Cyprus, hires thirteen Genoese galleys to aid in the siege of Kyrenia.