Battle of Grunwald

15 July 1410

On the 15th of July, 1410, joint forces of Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led by Jagiełło (Jogaila) and Vytautas, defeated Teutonic Knights in the legendary battle of Grunwald.

 

Jan Matejko, Battle of Grunwald

 

The battle marked the end of the order’s expansion along the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea and the beginning of the decline of its power. Additionally, the defeat of the Teutonic Knights by a Polish-Lithuanian army is an event embedded in racial legend-seen as a tragic or triumphant moment in the epic struggle between the Germanic peoples and the Slavs. More prosaically, it marked the emergence of Poland-Lithuania as one of Europe’s most powerful states.

The Order of the Teutonic Knights, originally founded during the Crusades in the Holy Land, had become rulers of a state in Prussia. From there they mounted crusading campaigns against their non-Christian neighbors, including the Duchy of Lithuania. In 1386 Lithuania’s ruler converted to Christianity and married the queen of Poland, on her death becoming ruler of Poland as King Ladislav II Jagiellon. The Teutonic Knights contested the sincerity of Jagiellon’s conversion and, in 1409, their choleric Grand Master, Ulrich von Jungingen, declared war on Poland and Lithuania. He had underrated the joint power and unity of the newly conjoined states.

In the summer of 1410, an army led by King Jagiellon and Grand Duke Witold of Lithuania advanced upon the Teutonic Knights’ capital at Marienberg. The Teutonic Knights confronted the invaders between the villages of Grunwald and Tannenberg, in what is now northern Poland. Although outnumbered, the Knights were confident in the strength of their disciplined armored cavalry. The opposing lines were drawn up early in the morning, but until noon a standoff prevailed. Exposed to the summer sun, the Knights cooked inside their armor. An attempt to fire a pair of bombards—unwieldy siege cannon—against the Polish-Lithuanian troops had no effect. Grand Master von Jungingen, reduced to insults in his desperation to provoke his enemy to action, sent swords to Jagiellon and Witold with the ironic advice that they might find them useful if they ever fought a battle.

Eventually the fighting began, with swift success for the Teutonic Knights. Clashing with Lithuanian cavalry on the enemy right, the charging Knights swept them from the field. Returning from the pursuit, they then joined in the tougher fighting against the Poles on the PolishLithuanian left. Again the Knights gained the upper hand. King Jagiellon was narrowly saved from capture or death as von Jungingen led the charge in person. But at this crucial juncture the survivors of the Lithuanian cavalry returned to the battlefield and crashed into the rear of the Teutonic Knights. The Grand Master was killed by a lancethrust through the throat as the rest of the Knights made a fighting withdrawal to their camp. Their attempt to secure a defensive position behind wagons failed and many of them were cut down. By the end of the day most of the Teutonic Knights’ troops were either dead or prisoners.

Despite the scale of their victory, the Polish-Lithuanian army failed to take Marienberg and peace was made the following year on mild terms. The Teutonic Knights never regained their dominance, and Poland-Lithuania became the major power in eastern Europe. The victory is celebrated in the national histories of Lithuania, Poland, and Belrus. In the Soviet period it was also retrospectively claimed as a Russian triumph, because of the presence of some troops from Smolensk. When the Germans triumphed over the Russians in the early stages of World War I, they called the battle Tannenberg so they could claim revenge for the defeat after half a millennium.

Losses: Polish-Lithuanian, 5,000 dead of 39,000; Teutonic, 8,000 dead and 14,000 captured of 27,000.

The Teutons (Poland, 1960) – Battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg 1410