Prussian Tribut
During the
Reformation endemic religious upheavals and wars occurred, and in
1525, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights,
Albert of Prussia, a member of a cadet branch of the house of
Hohenzollern, resigned his position, became a
Protestant and received the title "
Duke of Prussia" from the Polish king Sigismundus I the Elder in th act called
Prussian Tribut. In a deal partially brokered by
Martin Luther (under imperial
ban since
1521), Ducal Prussia became the first Protestant state, along the lines of the later religious
Peace of Augsburg.