Prussian Homage

The Prussian Homage or Prussian Tribute (German: Preußische Huldigung; Polish: hołd pruski) was the formal investiture of Albert, Duke of Prussia (1490-1568), with his Duchy of Prussia as a fief of the Kingdom of Poland that took place on 10 April 1525 in the then capital of Kraków, Kingdom of Poland. This ended the rule of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, which became a secular Protestant state. Fighting in the Thirteen Years War of 1454-1466 and the Polish-Teutonic War (1519-1521) ended with an armistice. A year later in 1522, Albert, also the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and a member of the Royal dynasty of the House of Hohenzollern, became a Protestant, as did many other members of the Teutonic Order and Prussian nobles at the suggestion of Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546), to Albert. Luther was a former Roman Catholic monk, continued as a theological professor at the University of Wittenberg in the town of Wittenberg, Saxony and a monk in the Augustinian religious order. A reformer, author and eventual leader of Evangelical Lutheranism, espousing doctrine and theology since 1517, along with gathering many other supporters among laity, clergy, academics, and nobility, initiating the beginnings of Evangelical. He debated / argued with other reformers such as Swiss theologian Ulrich Zwingli, French / Swiss John Calvin or John Knox in the Kingdom of Scotland on their slightly different emphases of Reformed / Calvinism / Presbyterianism movements in the larger Protestantism of the Reformation in Western Christianity during the 16th century. Albert agreed that Prussia should submit to Poland and become officially a Protestant state. King Sigismund I the Old of Poland (1467-1548, reigned 1506-1548), (who happened to be Albert's uncle) accepted this, because it was better for Poland for strategic reasons rather than have the independent State of the Teutonic...