Celibacy versus Love. A Contrastive Approach to the Absence of Women among Crusaders in Prussia (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/OM.2025.006Keywords
history, the Middle Ages, military orders, Prussia, women, Baltic crusades, Teutonic Order, chivalryAbstract
This essay examines the cultural ambience of the many crusaders who travelled to Prussia to fight alongside the Teutonic Order against Lithuania in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is noticeable that a significant number of crusaders to the Levant, especially monarchs and nobles, were accompanied by their wives; by contrast, there is almost no evidence that women went on crusade to Prussia. Some factors were undoubtedly practical, but the decisive reasons are more likely to be found in the social and cultural nature of crusading in Prussia: the celibate and spiritual character of the Teutonic Order, and the changing nature of crusading itself, in which secular, chivalric values were coming to have greater weight than in the earlier crusades to the Holy Land.
References
PRIMARY SOURCES:
Albert of Aachen. Historia Ierosolimitana: History of the Journey to Jerusalem. Edited and translated by Susan B. Edgington. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007.
The Chivalric Biography of Boucicaut, Jean II Le Meingre. Translated by Craig Taylor and Jane H. M. Taylor. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2016.
The Chronicle of Prussia by Nicolaus von Jeroschin: A History of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, 1190‒1331. Translated by Mary Fischer. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.
Expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land made by Henry Earl of Derby (afterwards King Henry IV) in the Years 1390‒1 and 1392‒3. Edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith. Westminster: Camden Society, 1894.
Guibert of Nogent. “Historia quae dicitur Gesta Dei per Francos.” In Recueil des Historiens des Croisades: Historiens Occidentaux, vol. 4, 119‒263. Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1879.
“Di Kronike von Pruzinlant des Nicolaus von Jeroschin.” Edited by Ernst Strehlke. In Scriptores rerum Prussicarum. Die Geschichtsquellen der preußischen Vorzeit, edited by Theodor Hirsch, Max Töppen, and Ernst Strehlke, vol. III, 291‒624. Leipzig: Hirzel, 1861.
“Die littauischen Wegeberichte”. Edited by Theodor Hirsch. In Scriptores rerum Prussicarum. Die Geschichtsquellen der preußischen Vorzeit, edited by Theodor Hirsch, Max Töppen, and Ernst Strehlke, vol. II, 662‒711. Leipzig: Hirzel, 1863.
Peter Suchenwirt. “Von Herzog Albrechts Ritterschaft.” Edited by Ernst Strehkle. In Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum. Die Geschichtsquellen der preußischen Vorzeit, edited by Theodor Hirsch, Max Töppen, and Ernst Strehlke, vol. II, 156‒169. Leipzig: Hirzel, 1863.
Petrus de Dusburgk. Chronica Terrae Prussiae. Edited by Jarosław Wenta and Sławomir Wyszomirski. Monumenta Poloniae Historica, n.s. 13. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 2007.
Die Statuten des Deutschen Ordens nach den ältesten Handschriften. Edited by Max Perlbach. Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1890.
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Achnitz, Wolfgang. “Die gestörte Hochzeit. Literatur und Geschichte in den Ehrenreden des vermeintlichen Herolds Peter Suchenwirt.” In Mittelalterliche Kultur und Literatur im Deutschordensstaat in Preussen: Leben und Nachleben, edited by Jarosław Wenta, Sieglinde Hartmann, and Gisela Vollmann-Profe, 483‒498. Sacra Bella Septentrionalia 1. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2008.
Boockmann, Hartmut. “Spielleute und Gaukler in den Rechnungen des Deutschordens-Hochmeisters.” In Feste und Feiern im Mittelalter, edited by Detlef Altenburg, Jörg Jarnut, and Hans-Hugo Steinhoff, 217‒227. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1991.
Brundage, James A. “Prostitution, Miscegenation and Sexual Purity in the First Crusade.” In Crusade and Settlement: Papers Read at the First Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East and presented to R. C. Smail, edited by Peter W. Edbury, 57‒65. Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press, 1985.
Bumke, Joachim. Höfische Kultur. Literatur und Gesellschaft im hohen Mittelalter. Vol. 1. Munich: DTV, 1986.
Cook, Albert S. “Beginning the Board in Prussia.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 14 (1915): 375‒388.
Du Boulay, Francis R. H. “Henry of Derby’s Expeditions to Prussia 1390‒1 and 1392.” In The Reign of Richard II: Essays in Honour of May McKisack, edited by F. R. H. Du Boulay and Caroline M. Barron, 153‒172. London: Athlone Press, 1971.
Evans, Michael R. Inventing Eleanor: The Medieval and Post-Medieval Image of Eleanor of Aquitaine. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Gärtner, Kurt. “Marienverehrung und Marienepik im Deutschen Orden.” In Mittelalterliche Kultur und Literatur im Deutschordensstaat in Preussen: Leben und Nachleben, edited by Jarosław Wenta, Sieglinde Hartmann, and Gisela Vollmann-Profe, 395‒410. Sacra Bella Septentrionalia 1. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2008.
Guard, Timothy. Chivalry, Kingship and Crusade: The English Experience in the Fourteenth Century. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2013.
Hamilton, Bernard. “Eleanor of Castile and the Crusading Movement.” Mediterranean Historical Review 10 (1995): 92‒103
Hechelhammer, Bodo. “Die Kreuzfahrerin: Sibylle von Anjou, Gräfin von Flandern (*1110, †1165).” In Kein Krieg ist heilig: Die Kreuzzüge, edited by Hans-Jürgen Kotzur, 229‒233. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2004.
Herrmann, Christofer. “Alltag und Lebensverhältnisse des Hochmeisters in der Marienburg in der ersten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts.” Ordines Militares Colloquia Torunensia Historica. Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders 29 (2024): 153‒176
Jähnig, Bernhart. “Festkalender und Heiligenverehrung beim Deutschen Orden in Preußen.” In Die Spiritualität der Ritterorden im Mittelalter, edited by Zenon Hubert Nowak, 177‒188. Ordines Militares Colloquia Torunensia Historica VII. Toruń: Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 1993.
Kaeuper, Richard W. Medieval Chivalry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Kwiatkowski, Krzysztof. “Christ ist erstanden… and Christians Win! Liturgy and the Sacralization of Armed Fight against Pagans as Determinants of the Identity of the Teutonic Order in Prussia.” In Sacred Space in the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, edited by Jarosław Wenta, 101‒127. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2013.
Leighton, Gregory “Did the Teutonic Order Create a Sacred Landscape in Thirteenth-Century Prussia?” Journal of Medieval History 44 (2018): 457‒483.
Leighton, Gregory. “Reysa in laudem Dei et virginis Marie contra paganos: The Experience of Crusading in Prussia during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.” Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung. Journal of East Central European Studies 69 (2020): 1‒25
Löffler, Anette. “Hohe Feste, niedere Feste. Der liturgische Festalltag in den Konventen des Deutschen Ordens.” Ordines Militares Colloquia Torunensia Historica. Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders 29 (2024): 41‒68.
Meehan, Patrick. “Recontextualizing Indigenous Knowledge on the Prussian-Lithuanian Frontier, ca. 1380‒1410.” In Recreating the Medieval Globe: Acts of Recycling, Revision and Relocation, edited by Joseph Shack and Hannah M. Weaver, 93‒199. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2020.
Murray, Alan V. The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Dynastic History, 1099‒1125. Oxford: Prosopographica & Genealogica, 2000.
Murray, Alan V. “The Devil among the Teutonic Knights: Temptations, Miracles and Spiritual Armour in the Chronicles of Peter von Dusburg and Nicolaus von Jeroschin.” In W służbie zabytków / In the Service of Monuments, edited by Janusz Hochleitner and Karol Polejowski, 29‒ 38. Malbork: Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku, 2017.
Murray, Alan V. “Hospitality, Heraldry and Honour: Crusading as Performance in Late Medieval Prussia.” In Penser les Croisades Tardives: Diversités, modalités, postérités, edited by Benjamin Weber and Stefan Stantchev. Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Midi [forthcoming 2026].
Murray, Alan V. “The Saracens of the Baltic: Pagan and Christian Lithuanians in the Perception of English and French Crusaders to Late Medieval Prussia.” Journal of Baltic Studies 41 (2010): 413–429.
Murray, Alan V. “Sex, Death and the Problem of Single Women in the Armies pf the First Crusade.” In Shipping, Trade and Crusade in the Medieval Mediterranean: Studies in Honour of John Pryor, edited by Ruthy Gertwagen and Elizabeth Jeffreys, 255‒270. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012.
Murray, Alan V. and Gregory Leighton. “The Continuous Crusade in Northeast Europe: Warfare in Livonia, Estonia, Prussia, and Lithuania, 1198–1411.” In The Routledge Handbook of Medieval Military Strategy, edited by John D. Hosler and Daniel P. Franke, 70‒82. Abingdon: Routledge, 2025.
Nicholson, Helen. “Saints Venerated in the Military Orders.” In Selbstbild und Selbstverständnis der geistlichen Ritterorden, edited by Roman Czaja and Jürgen Sarnowsky, 91‒113. Ordines Militares. Colloquia Torunensia Historica XIII. Toruń: Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 2005.
Paravicini, Werner. Die Preußenreisen des europäischen Adels. Vol. I‒II. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1989‒1995.
Paravicini, Werner. Adlig leben im 14. Jahrhundert. Weshalb sie fuhren: Die Preußenreisen des europäischen Adels. Vol. 3. Vestigia Prussica: Forschungen zur ost- und westpreußischen Landeschichte 2. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020.
Paravicini, Werner. Verlust und Dauer. Weshalb sie nicht mehr fuhren und was an die Stelle trat: Die Preußenreisen des europäischen Adels. Vol. 4. Vestigia Prussica: Forschungen zur ost- und westpreußischen Landeschichte 4. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2024.
Phillips, Joanna. “Crusader Masculinities in Bodily Crises: Incapacity and the Crusader Leader, 1095‒1274.” In Crusading and Masculinities, edited by Natasha R. Hodgson, Katherine J. Lewis, and Matthew M. Mesley, 149‒164. Abingdon: Routledge, 2019.
Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. New York: Viking, 2004.
Radoch, Marek. “Karły w służbie zakonu niemieckiego w Prusach.” In Pomerania ‒ Prussia ‒ Polonia. Rozprawy ofiarowane prof. Wiesławowi Długokęckiemu z okazji 65. urodzin, edited by Rafal Kubicki, 378–401. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, 2022.
Storey, Gabrielle. Berengaria of Navarre: Queen of England, Lord of Le Mans. Abingdon: Routledge, 2024.
Striegler, Stefan. Raumwahrnehmung und Orientierung im südöstlichen Ostseeraum vom 10. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert. Von der kognitiven zur physischen Karte. Berlin: J. B. Metzler, 2017.
Taylor, Craig. A Virtuous Knight: Defending Marshal Boucicaut (Jean II Le Meingre, 1366‒1421). York: York Medieval Press, 2019.
Toomaspoeg, Kristjan. “Between Ideal and Reality: Concubines, Prostitutes, and Dishonest Women in the Military Orders’ Everyday Lives – Some Considerations on an Old Issue.” Ordines Militares Colloquia Torunensia Historica. Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders 29 (2024): 69‒88.
Vander Elst, Stefan. “Chivalry, Crusade, and Romance on the Baltic Frontier.” Mediaeval Studies 73 (2011): 287‒328.
Wiechert, Gabriela. “Die Spiritualität des Deutschen Ordens in seiner mittelalterlichen Regel.” In Die Spiritualität der Ritterorden im Mittelalter, edited by Zenon Hubert Nowak, 131‒146. Ordines Militares. Colloquia Torunensia Historica VII. Toruń: Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, 1993.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Author, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu & Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
CC BY ND 4.0. The Creator/Contributor is the Licensor, who grants the Licensee a non-exclusive license to use the Work on the fields indicated in the License Agreement.
Stats
Number of views and downloads: 4
Number of citations: 0
