Original Manuscript Constitution, Signed (1 results)

Original handwritten document (in German and Latin), on vellum (parchment) in red and black ink, of the new charter of structure and reorganization for The Teutonic Knights. 2 parts, each halved, in 34 chapters (19 and 15), with 3 hand-colored plates, and decorative initials in red and black throughout. Original stitched vellum, warped and soiled, text with a few stains, bookplate (Hamilton College), else good condition. Collation: Manuscript. 4to. 66, (1), 3, 4, leaves, i.e. 148 pages. Laid in is a 17th century handwritten manuscript of 4 doublesided paper leaves ("Ermahnung so der LandtCommenthür den jungen Ritter vorhaltet"), a 2 1/2" X 3" chip from the bottom portion of the last leaf missing, not affecting text, else very good. Comparison suggests that our manuscript is the prime one (the only complete one), unique for its content. At least 2 other examples (Riant, and Archivalie: Ordensbuch) are recorded. The Riantmanuscript copy is also written in red and black ink, and also contains 3 color illustrations corresponding to ours, however, its pagination of 133 pages (plus a blank page?) is 7 leaves or 14 pages shorter than our work. In our copy the last 7 leaves are a list headed by Maximilian and containing the names of members of the order organized by locale (3 leaves), and the Registers for both the first and second parts of the work (4 leaves). The Archivalie: Ordensbuch manuscript (Dominica Oculi zu Mergentheim 1606) is called "Das Deutschordensbuch von 1606" (Hess. StA MR H 83). Their copy contains only 55 leaves and lacks the foldout plate. The first Crusade conquered Jerusalem in 1099 and the Knights Hospitallers (the Order of St. John) were charged with the city's care and defense. In 1129 the Knights Templar were sanctioned, and in 1143 the Pope instructed the Hospitallers to let Germans be the prior and brothers of the German hospital in Jerusalem, the first seed of the Teutonic Knights. All three Orders helped hold Crusader territory until Acre and Jerusalem were lost in 1187. In 1191 the 3rd Crusade recaptured both Acre and Jerusalem and the Teutonics were given a permanent site in Acre. Pope Clement III confirmed them as the "fratrum Theutonicorum ecclesiae S. Mariae Hiersolymitanae" in 1191 and, within a few years, the Order had developed as a Religious/Military institution comparable to the Knights Hospitallers and Knights Templars. The distinct German character of the Teutonics and the protection given to them by the Emperor and German rulers, enabled them to gradually assert a de facto independence from the 2 other Orders. It was Master Heinrich von Walpot (died 1200), who led the knights in their first decade. He began by drawing up the Order's first statutes, ready by 1199, which were confirmed by Innocent III in the Bull Sacrosancta romana of February 19, 1199, and the Teutonics numbers began to grow geometrically. The knights of the new confraternity had to be of German birth (although this rule was occasionally relaxed), a unique requirement among the Crusader Orders founded in the Holy Land. Their blue mantle, charged with a black cross, was worn over a white tunic, a uniform recognized by the Patriarch of Jerusalem and confirmed by the Pope in 1211. The first Imperial grant came from Otto IV, who gave the Order his protection in 1213, followed a year later by a further confirmation from Frederick II. These Imperial confirmations each treated the Teutonic Knights as independent from the Templars and Hospitallers and by the middle of the 14th century their independence was acknowledged by the Holy See. The waves of German knights and pilgrims who followed the Third Crusade brought the Teutonics considerable wealth, and new recruits, to the German Hospital. Never as numerous in the Holy Land as either the Hospitaller or Templar Orders, the Teutonic knights were nonetheless a formidable power. Walpot's successor, Otto von Kerpen, came from Bremen and the 3rd Master, Herman Bart, from Holstein, illustrating the broad distribution of the early knights. The most important early Master was the 4th, Herman von Salza (12091239), from near Meissen who, through his own efforts as a diplomat, considerably enhanced the prestige of the Order. His intercessions in the conflicts between Pope and Emperor earned him the favor of both, augmenting the knight's expanding wealth and possessions. By the middle of Salza's Magistery the Orders properties extended from Slovenia (then Styria), through Saxony (Thuringia), Hesse, Franconia, Bavaria and the Tyrol, with houses in Prague and Vienna. At his death the Orders estates extended as far as the Netherlands in the northwest of the Empire, southwest to France and Switzerland, further south in Spain and Sicily, and east to Prussia. Salza received a gold cross from the King of Jerusalem as the mark of his Mastership, following the distinguished conduct of the knights at the siege of Damietta in 1219. By an Imperial act of January 23, 1214, the Grand Master and his successors were granted membership of the Imperial Court, and as possessors of immediate fiefs they enjoyed a seat in the Imperial Diet with Princely rank. Immediate Princely rank was subsequently conferred on the Master of Germany. The Teutonic Knights now had a presence across mediaeval Europe enabling them to heavily influence local political events. Despite the limitation of membership to the German nobility, the spread of German rule into Italy, notably in Sicily under Henry VI and Frederick II Barbarossa, led to the establishment of the Order's convents in places far distant from Germany. The Saracens had ruled in Sicily until the Normans conquered it under the Hautevilles, but their dynasty collapsed and was replaced by the German Hohenstaufens. Sicilian property grants to the 3 great crusader Orders in the period 11901220 indicate that the Teutonic knights were greater beneficiaries of imperial favor than either the Templars or Hospitallers. They now were a forc.