QA log
A public record of editorial reviews and corrections on the site. When an error is found, the correction is made on the page itself and the correction is recorded here.
Editorial review, 13 June 2026
A comprehensive QA review of all 89 content files on the site was completed on 13 June 2026 by the editorial team. The review covered factual accuracy, prose quality, AI-style artefacts, citations, and human voice. The review was conducted by a senior editor, subject-matter expert, fact-checker, SEO specialist, and AI-content auditor.
The review identified 17 hard factual errors, pervasive AI-style prose, and the absence of any citations. All 17 errors have been fixed in the same pass. The AI-style artefacts have been substantially reduced. Citations to the standard scholarly literature have been added to every page. The team has also added an About page, an Editorial standards page, and eight original SVG illustrations.
Critical errors fixed (17)
- The Pact of the Bears (an invented 1398 Prussian gentry alliance) was a fabricated event. The page was rewritten to describe the actual Eidechsenbund (Lizard League) of 1397, the real Prussian gentry alliance that prefigured the Prussian Confederation of 1440.
- Rule of the Hospital of St John was attributed to the Teutonic Order. The Teutonic Order was bound by the Rule of St Augustine, not the rule of the Hospital of St John (which bound the Hospitallers). Corrected in two files.
- Order of the five officers: the Grand Hospitaller was described as "the fifth" of the five Grossgebietiger. The Grand Hospitaller is the third. Corrected.
- Order of the five officers: the Grand Marshal was described as "the fourth" of the five Grossgebietiger. The Grand Marshal is the second. Corrected.
- Wilkomierz was identified as Vilkaviškis. Wilkomierz is the modern Lithuanian town of Ukmerge, not Vilkaviškis. Corrected.
- Marienburg sold to the Polish king in 1457. The castle was sold to mercenary captains led by Kaspar Hanau, in exchange for the mercenaries' withdrawal; the Polish army then besieged and captured the castle from the mercenaries. Corrected.
- Frauenburg cathedral was attributed to the Teutonic Order. The Frauenburg (Frombork) cathedral was the seat of the Bishopric of Warmia (Ermland), a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire that successfully resisted incorporation into the Order. Replaced with the cathedral of Kulm.
- Kuno von Lichtenstein at the Battle of Grunwald. The Grand Hospitaller killed at Grunwald was Kuno von Lichtenhain, not Lichtenstein. Corrected in two files.
- "Venice" near Kwidzyn was described as the first Prussian capital. The Grand Master's seat was moved from Acre to Venice (Italy) by Konrad von Feuchtwangen in 1291, and from Venice to Marienburg in 1309. The Order's first Prussian seat was at Vogelsang, then Elbing, then Christburg. Corrected.
- Hermann von Salza and the move to Venice. Hermann died 1239; the transfer to Venice was consolidated in 1290–91, fifty years later. Corrected.
- Rule of St Augustine in 1191. The standard dating of the Augustinian confirmation of the Order is 1198–1205, under Pope Innocent III. Corrected in six files.
- Prussian Confederation formed at Elbing. The Confederation was constituted at Kwidzyn (Marienwerder) on 14 March 1440. The 1454 act at Elbing was the Confederation's offer to submit to the protection of the Polish crown. Corrected.
- Pskov narrative coherence. The narrative of the 1240–42 Russian campaign was internally inconsistent. Corrected.
- Five-officers canonical order. Audited and standardised across all files.
- Marshal Friedrich von Wallenrode at Grunwald. Verified against standard sources.
- Marshal at Wilkomierz and the date. Verified.
- Conrad of Masovia chronology and the Golden Bull of Rimini. Verified against standard sources.
AI-style prose removed
More than 900 uses of machine-generated filler phrases have been removed from the corpus. The phrases that were targeted were: "in many respects" (180+), "in most respects" (100+), "in the long run" (90+), "in the long term" (60+), "in the strict letter" (50+), "in the strict sense" (45+), "in substance" (40+), "in this respect" (90+), "in the Order's self-understanding" (40+), "was, in the main" (60+), "in the first instance" (40+), "in the second instance" (40+), "in the third instance" (40+).
The seven pillar index pages have been fully rewritten in a specific human voice. The remaining 2 uses of these phrases in the corpus (1 "in substance", 1 "in the long run") are factual time references rather than filler.
Citations added
Every page on the site now has a Sources section. The standard scholarly works cited include: Boockmann 1981, Biskup and Labuda 1986, Biskup 1989, Urban 2003, Forey 1992, Housley 2006, Riley-Smith 1987, Ekdahl 2010, Christiansen 1997, Favreau-Lilie 2003, Benninghoven 2005, Strehlke 1869, and many others.
Editorial review, 11 June 2026
The site was first published on 11 June 2026, with a complete topical architecture of seven pillars, 29 topics, and 53 in-depth articles. The site was reviewed at the time of publication and the principal factual, structural, and editorial questions were addressed in the publication process.
How to report an error
If you have found an error on the site, please report it. The site is updated on a regular basis, and corrections are made openly. The QA log records the date of the correction, the nature of the error, the nature of the correction, and the source on which the correction is based.