High Middle Ages

====Military orders====
{{Main|Military order (religious society)}}
In the context of the crusades, monastic military orders were founded that would become the template for the late medieval [[chivalric order]]s.

The [[Knights Templar]] were a Christian military order founded after the [[First Crusade]] to help protect [[Christian pilgrimage|Christian pilgrims]] from hostile locals and highway bandits. The order was deeply involved in banking, and in 1307 [[Philip IV of France|Philip the Fair]] (Philippine le Bel) had the entire order arrested in France and dismantled on charges of alleged heresy.

The [[Knights Hospitaller]] were originally a [[Christianity|Christian]] organization founded in [[Jerusalem]] in 1080 to provide care for poor, sick, or injured [[pilgrimage|pilgrims]] to the [[Holy Land]]. After Jerusalem was taken in the First Crusade, it became a [[religious order|religious]]/[[Military order (society)|military order]] that was charged with the care and defence of the [[Crusader states]]. After the Holy Lands were eventually taken by Muslim forces, it moved its operations to [[Rhodes]], and later [[Malta]].

The [[Teutonic Knights]] were a German religious order formed in 1190, in the city of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], to aid Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Lands and to operate hospitals for the sick and injured in [[Outremer]]. After Muslim forces captured the Holy Lands, the order moved to [[Transylvania]] in 1211 and later, after being expelled, invaded pagan [[Prussia]] with the intention of Christianizing the [[Baltic region]]. Yet, both before and after the Order's main pagan opponent, [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuania]], [[Christianization of Lithuania|converted]] to Christianity, the Order had already attacked other Christian nations such as [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorod]] and [[Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)|Poland]]. The Teutonic Knights' power hold, which became considerable, was broken in 1410, at the [[Battle of Grunwald]], where the Order suffered a devastating defeat against a joint Polish-Lithuanian army. After Grunwald, the Order declined in power until 1809 when it was officially dissolved.  There were ten crusades in total.