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What knights were there in medieval Europe?
Knight's heyday

The Knights appeared during the Crusades in the Middle Ages. It was a religious and military organization established by feudal lords in western Europe to defend the territory they occupied in the East.

After the First Crusade (1096- 1099), the Crusaders successively occupied the richest areas and the most prosperous industrial and commercial cities in the Eastern Mediterranean, and established four Crusader countries in this area. The occupied area extends from south to north 1200 km. Because this area is located on the coast, flat terrain, lack of natural barriers, easy to attack and difficult to defend, and may be attacked at any time, the Crusader countries are in turmoil under the threat of Muslims eyeing. Therefore, the Pope organized several monks and knights, which are the three famous knights in history, namely the Knights of Shantang, the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights. Its task is to suppress the resistance of the people in the Crusader countries, fight against the neighboring Muslim countries, and defend and expand the Crusader territory. These three knights quickly developed into an elite professional army, capable of fighting the enemy anywhere.

On the surface, in terms of form and nature, the Knights Order is a kind of monk gang, and its religious constraints are similar to those of monks. Most of these monks and knights are outlaws of the ruined aristocrats in western Europe. They organized themselves in the form of monasteries and devoted their lives to "defending Christianity". Members of the cult are not allowed to get married and have children, to seek wealth, to go against the will of their superiors (the Catholic Church), and not to shake their will to "devote themselves to Christianity" because they are obsessed with secular life.

Strict centralization is practiced within the Order. The top leader of each regiment is the "head", and the leader of the regiment under its jurisdiction is called the "head". Further down, there are commanders, stables and so on. Officers below the head of the regiment form a general assembly and are subordinate to the head of the regiment. The head of the regiment takes orders directly from the Pope and must obey his orders.

The Pope granted knights various privileges, the most important of which was that they were not under the jurisdiction of monks and secular rulers in the Crusader countries. Although the Archbishop of the Kingdom of Jerusalem is the Pope's ambassador, he has no right to command and dispatch the Knights.

In name, knights must abide by the three commandments of poverty, chastity and obedience. However, what knights miss and are busy with is to accumulate wealth. They simply can't do it. Moreover, the monks and feudal lords in the Crusader countries gave generous treatment to the knights in order to let the western Europeans occupy the eastern coast of the Mediterranean for a long time with their strength. Therefore, the lifestyle of knights is extremely secular.

Knights' way of collecting money

Western aristocratic pilgrims asked the knights to buy palaces, houses and land as their residences in the Crusader countries after arriving at the "Holy Land". After the pilgrimage, the property belongs to the knight. 1 168, the templar obtained 10000 Besson from the Hungarian ruler, of which 6000 Besson was used to buy 1 palace and four houses in Ake for the enjoyment of the Hungarian ruler after his arrival. /kloc-In the 20th century, the Templars also signed similar agreements with French and Czech princes and dignitaries. So is the Knights of Shantang. Before the death of King Henry II, Zeng Zeng gave him 42,000 silver marks and 500 goldmark as activities funds.

Knights also run businesses. Take the templar as an example. It has its own fleet, participates in trade in the Mediterranean region, and charges high fees to transport pilgrims to and from the East. At the same time, the Order also operates usury and banking business. Therefore, people at that time said that "there are many more books about the Covenant than religious books" in the hierarchy.

Another way for the Knights to make money is "robbery". This behavior is very common among knights. For example, in 1 153, the Crusader countries fought against the Egyptians. After conquering Askalon, the Templars first rushed into the city and sent 40 soldiers to guard the gap of the city wall to prevent other knights from entering, while the members went door to door to look for gold and silver.

The "secular cause" of the Knights was a great success. Decades later, the Knights not only have territory in the East, but also have a large number of territories in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic and Britain.

At the same time, the knights became more and more important in the Crusader countries, with many fortresses and castles. By the end of 12, the monastery had become a powerful political, economic and military force in the east and west. The number of members has also greatly increased. At the end of 12 century, only the Knights Templar had 15000 members.

Knights thrive and decline.

The official name of the Knights Templar is "Poor Christ and Solomon Templar". It was founded around118, and its members were mainly crusaders from France. The founder of this order originally lived in a corner of Jerusalem Palace, adjacent to the Church of the Savior, and its original site was an Arab Islamic mosque. It is said that this place used to be the temple of King Solomon. The name "Knights Templar" comes from this and is sometimes translated into "Knights Templar". Another way of saying it: It is said that King Baldwin II of Jerusalem at that time allocated a part of the courtyard in the Jewish Temple to French knights as their residence, hence the name.

There are three levels in this independent order: knight, sergeant and priest. Their symbol is a red cross. Privileges granted by the Pope, donations from monarchs and princes, and their plunder made them quickly gather a lot of wealth. However, as the saying goes, when all the colonies established in the East by feudal lords in Western Europe were wiped out at the end of 13, the Templars were forced to leave Palestine and move to France, Britain and Spain. Philip IV, who ruled France at that time, was in dire financial difficulties. Covet the property of the Templars, secretly conspire with Pope Clement V under his protection, accuse the Templars of heresy, and issue a secret order on September 1307 to arrest all the Templars in France. As a result, a large number of knights templar were tortured to death during the trial, and the organization of the knights templar also collapsed. 13 12, Pope Clement V ordered the formal dissolution of the Knights Templar.

The Teutonic Order is the latest of the three knights, but it is the most influential one. It was established in Palestine in 1 198. Mainly composed of German knights, wearing white coats and black crosses. The white cloak is painted with red swords and crosses. /kloc-At the beginning of the 3rd century, under the leadership of its leader von Salza, the organization moved its activity center from the Middle East to Eastern Europe. 1226, at the call of Conrad, Duke of Mazovia, Poland, the Teutonic Order went to Poland to attack the Prussians, Poland's old enemy. In the following 50 years, the Teutonic Order firmly controlled Prussia, thus forming a situation that contained Polish territory from both east and west and directly threatened Polish national security.

From the end of 14 to the beginning of 15, it was the heyday of the Teutonic Order. Not content with infiltrating Poland, it extended its hand of aggression to Lithuania, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. 1346, Teutonic knights seized Estonia from the Danes. In addition, the Teutonic Order has its own territory in southern Italy, Greece, Spain and France, with the largest territory in Germany.

14 10, Poland and Lithuania formed an alliance to March on the Teutonic Order occupying Polish territory. /kloc-in July of 0/5, the famous battle of Grinvald (called Battle of Tannengburg in German literature and translated into Battle of Tannengburg in Chinese) was held. The allied forces won the battle completely. Since then, the Teutonic Knights began to decline.

The prototype of Shantang Knights appeared around 1070 before the First Crusade. Its task is to do some "charity" work, such as protecting western Christians who come to the "holy land", providing accommodation for pilgrims, treating sick Christians and so on, hence the name. Its members gathered around the "St. John's Temple" in Jerusalem, so it was also called the "Knights of John".

However, after the end of the First Crusade, the purpose of Shantang Knights began to change. Its leaders decided that some members would continue to do charity work for hungry and sick pilgrims, but its central task was to build a well-trained and disciplined knight army, which gradually became a purely feudal knight military group and existed in Palestine for nearly 200 years. Its clothing is a black coat with a white cross, and later it was changed into a red coat.

/kloc-at the beginning of the 0/4th century, the Order had to move to Rhode Island in the eastern Mediterranean in 13 10. 1522, Ottoman Sultan Su Liman I launched a large-scale attack on Rhode Island in order to relieve the worries of invading Europe. Although the Knights only have more than 500 knights and more than 6,000 soldiers, they are fearless in the face of 200,000 strong enemies and have fought bravely for more than half a year. Although finally forced to surrender, the soldiers paid a heavy price of at least 50 thousand lives. Su Liman I admired the courage of the knights, so he chartered the enemy to leave the island safely on June 1 523+1October1.

1530, Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire agreed to hand over Malta Island and its nearby Gozo Island to the Knights of Shantang. As a result, the knights established their own country on the island of Malta, officially known as the "Knight State of Malta".

Since then, the Knights of Shantang have entered its heyday, and warships marked with Maltese octagonal crosses on their sails are rampant in the Mediterranean. In the18th century, the territory of the Order reached as far as St. Croix Island in the American West Indies. 1794, shortly after the independence of the United States, this knight country recognized it and established diplomatic relations with it. Malta was much bigger than the United States at that time. 1798, the French army led by Napoleon drove the Knights out of Malta on the way to Egypt. Once again, the Knights were reduced to the end of the world, and it was not until 1834 that they took root in Rome, Italy. Since then, they have turned to charity again, which has continued to this day, and changed its name to "Knights of Military Paramedics in Jerusalem, Rhode Island and St. John of Malta".

Today, the headquarters of the Knights Order is located in the Malta Building in the commercial street of Rome. Its symbol is the initials S.M.O.M Like the Vatican, this land belongs to them. Although the Knights Order has only dozens of official citizens and only this building covering an area of10.2 million square meters, it has established diplomatic relations with 87 countries in the world. At present, the mission operates dozens of Christian hospitals and clinics around the world, collecting membership fees and charitable donations; Issue your own passport, currency and stamps. However, in the world trade activities, people can't see the knight's currency "Scudo". Besides, knight stamps can only be used when sending letters to Burkina Faso in Africa and Macau in China. In fact, most of the money and stamps of the Knights Club have been purchased and collected by fans all over the world. Today's Knights are very rich, and their income comes from the battlefield rescue and disaster relief work it organized during wars and natural disasters. And it also has many planes, and of course it has to rent foreign airports, because the palm-sized site of the order itself is not as big as an ordinary airport. At present, the Order has more than 12000 knights in the world, including Spanish King Juan Carlos, former Italian Prime Minister Francisco Corsica and former US Treasury Secretary william simon.