The Teutonic Knights

A Military History

By: William Urban

Narrated by: Brian Troxell

The Teutonic Knights were powerful and ferocious advocates of holy war. Their history is suffused with crusading, campaigning, and struggle. Feared by their enemies but respected by medieval Christendom, the knights and their Order maintained a firm hold over the Baltic and Northern Germany and established a formidable regime that flourished across Central Europe for 300 years.

This major new book surveys the gripping history of the knights and their Order and relates their rise to power; their struggles against Prussian pagans; the series of wars against Poland and Lithuania; the clash with Alexander Nevsky's Russia; and the gradual stagnation of the order in the 14th century. The book is replete with dramatic episodes—such as the battle on frozen Lake Peipus in 1242, or the disaster of Tannenberg—but focuses primarily on the knights' struggle to maintain power, fend off incursions and raiding bands, and to launch crusades against unbelieving foes. And it was the crusade that chiefly characterized and breathed life into this Holy Order.

William Urban's narrative charts the rise and fall of the Order and, in an accessible and engaging style, throws light on a band of knights whose deeds and motives have long been misunderstood.

©2003 William Urban (P)2021 Scribd Audio

Best insight book of the Order

Great introspective of a place, people, government and Lands. The region had an lasting impact on all of Europe.

Detail, Details, Details

If you want to hear a very detailed history of the Teutonic Knights, this is the book for you!!

A word of warning: Get ready to drink from the firehouse. It took me a chapter or two to get into the flow of this book. It really requires you to concentrate. Names, places, and events come at you quickly.

This doesn't make this book bad by any means; it makes it even better. Now I have to go play Field of Glory: Kingdoms to see if I can duplicate their actions and rich history.

Well done to the author!!

Solid Medieval Work

Ranging from the easy to listen voice to the sophisticated, yet simplified matter of the German Order, this audio book is a solid representation of this medieval order. The only critic is that the names of the people may be disorienting, so listening carefully and looking up this Polish and Baltic leaders would be helpful.