ABSTRACT
Historians have generally assumed that during the civil war, 1229-43, between the representatives of Emperor Frederick II and the barons of the Latin East (led by the Ibelin family), the Teutonic Knights were consistent supporters of the emperor. This analysis can be found in many modern surveys of the crusades as well as in specific works on the Ibelin-Lombard war.1 The purpose of this work is to refine this assumption and to suggest instead that the conduct of the Order can be divided into two periods. During the first, between 1229 and 1239, Grand Master Herman von Salza pursued a policy of overt neutrality whilst giving both sides the impression that he sympathized with their cause. In the second, with the advent of a new Grand Master, Conrad of Thüringia in 1239, and later Gerhard von Malberg in 1241, the Teutonic Knights became and remained partisans of the emperor in the Latin East until the end of the struggle.
