Thread by @Peter_Nimitz

Baltic Germans being mostly Finno-Ugrian in ancestry makes their character a lot more understandable imo. More Bleppsama, less Jacob Gottschalk.

I think the man who wrote the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle was an immigrant from Germany, but the point stands:

https://twitter.com/Peter_Nimitz/status/1376804267349045252?s=20

Prussian nobility by contrast was mostly descended from mercenaries from Czechia, Silesia, and eastern Germany who were granted lands in lieu of payment by the Teutonic Order at the end of the Thirteen Years War 1454–1466.

There were only 48 Teutonic knights who accepted secularization in Prussia. A handful married and founded families, but their descendants were only a small part of the future Prussian nobility.

Ducal Prussia under Albrecht von Hohenzollern moved quickly to build its ties with Royal Prussia after he accepted the King of Poland as his lord. Royal Prussians accepted some economic ties, but resisted political integration. They would not be reunited until 1772.