Werner von Orseln

Life of Werner von Orslen

Werner von Orseln (c. 1280 – 18 November 1330) was the 14th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order from 1324 until his murder in 1328.^[1][2][3]

Von Orseln hailed from a noble family of vogts (reeves) of the Counts of Falkenstein in Oberursel near Frankfurt. It is not known when he joined the Teutonic Order. He is first mentioned in 1312 holding the office of a Komtur at the Ordensburg of Ragnit (present-day Neman) near the border of the Order State with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1314, Grand Master Karl von Trier appointed von Orseln Grand Komtur at Malbork Castle. During a coup d'etat in the Monastic State, he supported the Grand Master and was exiled along with him. However, he returned in 1319 and he held the position of von Trier's resident in Prussia. He negotiated discussion and restored hierarchic discipline within the Order.

Upon the death of Karl von Trier, the Order's capitulum on 6 July 1324 chose von Orseln as the next Grand Master. Immediately after being elected, von Orseln was forced to start negotiations with King Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland over the contested lands of Pomerelia, which the Knights had annexed after the takeover of Gdańsk in 1308. The discussions did not produce any results, however, and the Teutonic Order started preparations for war with Poland. In 1325, according to Nicolaus von Jeroschine and his book The Chronicle of Prussia, Werner von Orslen would get his subordinates to build the castles of Gerdauen, Wartenburg, Guttstadt, and Plut.^[1] In 1326 the Grand Master formed an anti-Polish coalition at Brodnica, consisting of the Masovian dukes Siemowit II, Trojden I and Wenceslaus of Płock as well as of several Silesian Piasts and King John of Bohemia. The pretext to start the Polish–Teutonic War gave King Władysław I by the invasion of Płock in 1327. In retaliation, the Grand Master ordered the conquest of Polish Kujavia and Dobrzyń Land.

In the same year of 1327, Werner von Orslen would also command Hermann von Oppin, who was the leader of the Teutonic hospital at Elbing, to found a town on the lake of Maurin that would be called Mohrungen^[1]. In 1328, Headmaster Werner Von Orslen would be stabbed to death by Lord Johann of Endorf, who was also a brother of the Teutonic order, while Von Orslen was leaving the church of Marienburg in a procession^[1][3]. In Mary Fischer's translation of the Chronicle of Prussia, she claims that Orslen “Appears to have been murdered because of the strict measures he introduced to combat indiscipline”^[1]. While this claim may be true the Primary text, The Utrecht Chronicle by Johan Von Drongelen claims that instead the argument between von Drongelen and von Orslen was instead over the confiscation of two horses when he says, “He had two horses more than belonged to him on behalf of the order, and the grand master took them from him because of this Lord Johann turned sinful in an angry rage”^[3]. Whatever the reason, though, the result was the same with Von Drongelen waiting outside the Marienburg church and attacking Von Orslen with a blade of some kind and stabbing him to death, thus ending his career as Grandmaster.^{[1] [3]}

The Primary sources

The Text The Chronicle of Prussia by Nicolaus von Jeroschin is a great text for studying Werner von Orslen because of the solid aforementioned information on von Orslen, but is not without its drawbacks. Firstly, von Jeroschin was himself a member of the Teutonic Knights, who was most probably born around 1290 and died around 1341^[1]. These dates place von Jeroschin as a member of the Teutonic order not only during the life of Werner von Orseln but also as someone who easily could have met von Orseln during his tenure as the Grand master of the order, or at least as a man who could have easily been able to hear accounts of his life directly from people who knew him. This is undoubtedly a huge bonus when dealing with someone so far removed from modern times. However,as any good historian knows, being a direct part of the organization you’re writing about can easily come with certain biases, as he may not have been in a position to criticize the Teutonic order or most likely would not have had any intention of doing so in the first place. Another point that should be taken into mind when reading The Chronicle of Prussia is who exactly this text was originally written for, as that may help shed some light on the nature of the text and why it's written in the way mentioned in the previous paragraph. At the beginning of the translated volume by Mary Fischer, she lays out how basically this text was written originally as a way for normal German people and new knights/recruits to be able to read and learn about the deeds and accomplishments of the Teutonic knights^[1].  The other source used here that also helps to give solid insight into both Werner Von Orslen and the Teutonic Knights is The Utrecht Chronicle of the Teutonic Order. This text was written in the late 1400s, around 1490, by Johan van Drongelen, who was the commander of the Utrecht bailiwick, which is located in the modern-day Netherlands^[3]. This text differs from the previous text, The Chronicle of Prussia, as it was written during the late medieval decline of the Teutonic order, when a very large part of the lands held by the crusading order had already been ceded to Poland, and most of the active “crusading” of the order was long past. This text is also not based on firsthand knowledge like the previous text, but is instead a more scholarly work that is based on the writing of many previous authors of the Teutonic order from its earlier, more grandiose years^[3]. This fact helps to put the importance of this text into perspective, as the knowledge that it's based on is nowhere near as close and personal to the author as in the Chronicle of Prussia. However, the text does still contain plenty of solid insight into the Teutonic Knights' structure and the history of the grand masters, as the writer himself is once again a member of the order.  Once again, though, the issue of bias presents itself as it's unlikely that a member of the order during this time would disparage their own group's structure or practices. This, however, does not detract all that much from the good information that this book does give, unlike The Chronicle of Prussia, the Utrecht Chronicle tries to give a linear narrative of the history of all the grand masters of the Teutonic Order.^[3] This is helpful because the information on Werner von Orslen himself is deeper and more complex, with a better description of both his assassination and life in general^[3].