Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chiyaley,
that he still * remained excommunicate , the Patriarch refused to perform , and the Templars and Hospitallers to attend the ceremony ; accompanied , therefore , by the Teutonic Knights and the officers of his train only , the emperor entered the holy city , proceeded to the Church of the Sepulchre , and himself taking the crown from the altar , placed it on his head with his own hands .
We now arrive at a period distinguished by the removal of a body of the Teutonic Knights to Europe . In the commencement of the thirteenth century the formidable name and victorious progress of a new conqueror of barbarian race first broke on the astonished world .
From the wide upland plains , beyond the great eastern desert , which extend to the' Chinese Wall , issued a race described as countless in number , and as morei-horridly inhuman in aspect and spirit , and more utterly devoid of all civilization , than any of the destroyers of mankind who had hitherto been let loose to desolate the earth . Their
earliest appearance m authentic history is under the general term of Mogols ; and they now appeared under the guidance of a leader who was called Zengis , or Genghis Khan , or " the mightiest of lords . " At thfe headof seven hundred thousand men he overran Persia , "Western
Asia , and India , returned to Persia , and dying there , bequeathed to his four sons the conquest of China . By Zingis ' s sons and their successors , Europe was overrun ; and by them , at the battle of Leignitz , in 1242 , the Duke of Suabia , at the head of the Teutonic Order and the Polish Palatines , was routed with tremendous slaughter .
The incursions of the barbarians into Europe kept its sovereigns in continual alarm ; and the national strength was rarely sufficient to repel their invasions . Conrad , Duke of Masovia ( in Poland ) being unable to defend his dominions against these invaders , called to his assistance the Teutonic Knights ; and accordingly a considerable body of the Order left the East to join him . They arrived in
1230 , and Conrad assigned them a large tract of land on the Yistula , where they Iniilt the cities of Thorn and Culm . The power of the Order gradually increased ; their territory became very rich and flourishing ; but the heavy war-taxes and the profusely prodigal magnificence of the Knights caused the nobles and the great towns to put themselves under the protection of Poland , and , by a treaty concluded at Thorn in 1466 , "West Prussia was ceded to Poland ,
retailing , however , its own constitution . The German empire , to which the territory of the Order was considered to belong , refused to recognize the treaty of Thorn , and the Knight ^ who retained possession of East Prussia also refused to do homage to the King of Poland , and chose Albert of Brandenburg , son of Frederick ,
margrave of Anspach and Baireuth , for their Grand Master , hoping , by the help of his house , to throw off their vassalage to Poland . The German empire failed to interfere in behalf of the Knights , and on the peace of 1525 , the Prussian territory of the Order was Acknowledged as a fief dependant on Poland , under the title of a Grand Duchy , Albert being the Grand Duke , and the male descendants of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Chiyaley,
that he still * remained excommunicate , the Patriarch refused to perform , and the Templars and Hospitallers to attend the ceremony ; accompanied , therefore , by the Teutonic Knights and the officers of his train only , the emperor entered the holy city , proceeded to the Church of the Sepulchre , and himself taking the crown from the altar , placed it on his head with his own hands .
We now arrive at a period distinguished by the removal of a body of the Teutonic Knights to Europe . In the commencement of the thirteenth century the formidable name and victorious progress of a new conqueror of barbarian race first broke on the astonished world .
From the wide upland plains , beyond the great eastern desert , which extend to the' Chinese Wall , issued a race described as countless in number , and as morei-horridly inhuman in aspect and spirit , and more utterly devoid of all civilization , than any of the destroyers of mankind who had hitherto been let loose to desolate the earth . Their
earliest appearance m authentic history is under the general term of Mogols ; and they now appeared under the guidance of a leader who was called Zengis , or Genghis Khan , or " the mightiest of lords . " At thfe headof seven hundred thousand men he overran Persia , "Western
Asia , and India , returned to Persia , and dying there , bequeathed to his four sons the conquest of China . By Zingis ' s sons and their successors , Europe was overrun ; and by them , at the battle of Leignitz , in 1242 , the Duke of Suabia , at the head of the Teutonic Order and the Polish Palatines , was routed with tremendous slaughter .
The incursions of the barbarians into Europe kept its sovereigns in continual alarm ; and the national strength was rarely sufficient to repel their invasions . Conrad , Duke of Masovia ( in Poland ) being unable to defend his dominions against these invaders , called to his assistance the Teutonic Knights ; and accordingly a considerable body of the Order left the East to join him . They arrived in
1230 , and Conrad assigned them a large tract of land on the Yistula , where they Iniilt the cities of Thorn and Culm . The power of the Order gradually increased ; their territory became very rich and flourishing ; but the heavy war-taxes and the profusely prodigal magnificence of the Knights caused the nobles and the great towns to put themselves under the protection of Poland , and , by a treaty concluded at Thorn in 1466 , "West Prussia was ceded to Poland ,
retailing , however , its own constitution . The German empire , to which the territory of the Order was considered to belong , refused to recognize the treaty of Thorn , and the Knight ^ who retained possession of East Prussia also refused to do homage to the King of Poland , and chose Albert of Brandenburg , son of Frederick ,
margrave of Anspach and Baireuth , for their Grand Master , hoping , by the help of his house , to throw off their vassalage to Poland . The German empire failed to interfere in behalf of the Knights , and on the peace of 1525 , the Prussian territory of the Order was Acknowledged as a fief dependant on Poland , under the title of a Grand Duchy , Albert being the Grand Duke , and the male descendants of