Battle of Grunwald 1410 - Northern Crusades DOCUMENTARY
King & Generals
On July 15th 1410
armies of the Polish-Lithuanian alliance and the Teutonic Order alongside the dozen nations supporting them
clashed on a field near Grunwald.
This battle shaped the fate of northern and eastern Europe and the people of these regions for the next few centuries.
Welcome to the great war of 1409 - 1411 between the Teutonic Order and the Polish-Lithuanian alliance.
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In 1025 Poland became a kingdom under Bolesław I "the Brave" of the Piast dynasty.
Bolesław was baptised and his realm was recognized by the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire.
Slowly the Poles adopted Christianity.
Baltic tribes living to the northeast of Poland were the last pagans of Europe
and that was creating tensions along the borders. That made the Baltics a perfect target for the next crusade.
Pope Innocent III was eager to increase his influence and in 1204
he sanctioned the foundation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword order in Riga, modern-day Latvia.
The order was comprised of warrior monks of German origin
and its goal was to conquer and baptize pagans of the Baltics.
But that wasn't enough and in 1226 the Polish duke of Masovia, Konrad,
invited the Teutonic order to protect his northeastern borders against the pagans.
The Teutonic order was founded in Jerusalem as a hospice brotherhood in 1143
to accommodate the German-speaking crusaders and pilgrims.
In 1198 it was transformed into a military order in Acre and was based on the model of the Knights Templar.
However Crusades into the Levant were on the decline and when Konrad asked for the order's assistance
they answered his call and got Chełmno land as a fief.
The Holy Roman Emperor decreed that Prussia was to be conquered by the order.
This decree did not name any other Baltic lands; however,
both the Teutonic and Livonian Orders considered conquering these and baptizing its population a sacred duty.
So while the former operated in Prussia the latter fought wars against the burgeoning Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
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In 1236 Lithuanian dukes decisively defeated the Livonian Order in the Battle of Saule.
The order was so decimated it had to join the Teutonic Order and become its vassal.
They continued incursions into Prussia and by the year 1274 the conquest was finalized.
However, their way into the Baltics was blocked off by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Most of Lithuania adopted Christianity by the end of the 14th century and that gradual Christianization
made the order's mission problematic as their initial goal was fulfilled. The Teutons were now just conquerors.
This strained relationships between the Order and the Polish Kingdom and resulted in two wars.
The war of 1308 to 1306 ended with the Teutonic takeover of the city of Danzig.
Poland also lost the second conflict in 1326 to 1332
which ended with a treaty that forced the Polish Kings to renounce their claims on Pomerania and Chełmno land.
Which meant that Poland did not have access to the Baltic Sea anymore.
In 1384 eleven-year-old Jadwiga of the Piast dynasty was crowned as a female King.
The Polish aristocracy were eager to strengthen the country through an alliance with the Great Duchy of Lithuania.
And they achieved that in 1385 through the union of Krewo when Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila married Jadwiga.
Jogaila adopted Christianity and became the founder of the Jagiellonian dynasty that ruled Poland for the next two centuries.
Jogaila's brother Skirgaila was designated as a regent of the Grand Duchy.
But he was unpopular with the people and Jogaila's cousin Vytautas used this opportunity to become the Grand Duke
which resulted in the Lithuanian civil war of 1389 to 1392.
Vytautas entered an alliance with the Teutons and ceded the region of Samogitia to the order in 1390.
In 1392, Jogaila finally agreed to name Vytautas the regent of the Grand Duchy.
Control of Samogitia meant that the order had a land corridor between its holdings in Prussia and Livonia.
Additionally the Samogitians were the last pagans in Europe
and baptizing them presented a chance to improve the prestige of the order.
Vytautas gave the region to the order in 1390, but the locals were not eager to adopt Christianity,
and they rebelled in 1409.
The Grand Duchy supported this rebellion politically right away.
When the order threatened to retaliate against Lithuania, Poland was forced to issue an ultimatum,
stating that they will defend their allies. That was a precarious situation:
The allies had more troops, but both Jogaila and Vytautas knew that if they started an offensive war,
the order might receive support from the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary.
They needed the Teutons to make the first move and that is what happened on August 6th 1409
as the Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen declared war.
The plan was to beat Poland quickly and then crush Lithuania, so the knights moved into greater Poland and Kuyavia.
Their troops burned the castle of Dobrin and capture Bobrowniki and Bydgoszcz.
The Poles were able to retaliate and take the latter back while the Samogitians attacked Meme.
At that point, the king of Bohemia Wenceslaus asked the belligerents to negotiate and they obliged.
A truce was signed in October and was set to expire on the 24th of June 1410.
The Order and the allies used that opportunity to prepare their forces and to conduct diplomacy.
The Order bribed Wenceslaus who was a mediator in this negotiation, to declare Samogitia the order's land.
They also paid king Sigismund of Hungary to attack Poland.
During the truce, Vytautas was able to obtain guarantees of neutrality from the Livonian Order.
In December of 1409, Jogaila and Vytautas reconvened in Brest to discuss their plans
and agreed that they would gather all their troops in northern Poland
and would move against the capital of the Order, Marienburg, as soon as the truce ended.
Von Jungingen had concentrated his forces in Schwetz, and the allies knew about that.
So to distract the knights, they organised raids along the borders with Prussia.
Polish-Lithuanian forces crossed the border on the 9th of July 1410,
but their attempts to maintain secrecy failed.
The Grand Master moved his forces to intercept the attack along the Drewenz river.
The two armies saw each other on opposing sides of the river on the 10th of July.
But Jogaila decided that it wasn't a good idea to move across the river in full view of the Order's forces.
The ally started moving to the east to be able to attack Marienburg without crossing any rivers.
Von Jungingen's forces mirrored their movement, crossing the Drewenz river
and moving to the east, parallel to the Polish-Lithuanian troops.
The two armies met on the 15th of July between the villages of Grunwald and Tannenberg.
Modern historians agree that the allied forces outnumbered the Teutonic Order at least four to three.
The commonly accepted number is 39,000 troops for the Polish-Lithuanian army
and 27,000 for the Teutons.
While the Order's army consisted of warriors of Germanic origin, the allied forces were international:
Russian vassals from Smolensk and other princedoms along with the Ruthenians, Moldovans, and Czechs,
led by the future command of the Hussite forces, Jan Žižka, were part of the Lithuanian army.
They were also joined by at least 3000 Tatars of the Golden Horde.
Heavy cavalry accounted for more than half of the Order's army,
and although they were outnumbered by the allied forces,
they had a clear advantage in training, equipment, and discipline.
The Order also had at least 5000 infantry and a few artillery bombards.
The Poles mirrored the Teutons, with their focus on heavy cavalry with added infantry and artillery,
while the Lithuanian army had lighter equipment, and its cavalry, especially the Tatar horsemen, were lightly armed.
Von Jungingen planned to attack the allies on the slope of the valley,
where his troops would be able to diminish the advantage of the enemy's numerical superiority.
However, Jogaila anticipated that plan and decided to stay within the limits of the forest.
Sources claimed that von Jungingen was angered
and sent emissaries with two swords to the king to shame and mock him for the delay.
The battle started at noon, and it was mainly a cavalry affair.
The battle began with the Lithuanian forces attacking from their right flank.
Tatar light cavalry was able to overpower the infantry and missile units of the Order.
However, when the orders heavy cavalry on the left wing counter-attacked, most of the Lithuanian forces retreated hastily.
To this day debates are ongoing as to whether this retreat was planned or not.
Some historians claim that the Lithuanian troops were not able to withstand the charge of the Order's knights and ran away.
Others think that this retreat was tactical and Vytautas was using the old nomad tactic of a feigned retreat.
In any case, most of the Allied right flank retreated with only troops from Smolensk joining the Polish forces.
Jogaila's army had a better time
as it was able to stop the advance of the right flank of the Order and made it retreat to the west.
When the left side of the Order's army stopped chasing Lithuanian forces and returned,
they found the right flank of their army in retreat and half encircled.
Sources portray the heroism of the Smolensk banners who, despite heavy losses,
fought off most of the left wing of the Teutonic forces until the Lithuanian army returned to the battlefield
and charged the Teutons from behind.
The Grand Master tried to change the fate of the battle
by retreating to lure allied forces in and then go for a double envelopment,
but Jogaila was able to undermine this maneuver by placing blockading troops to prevent outflanking.
On the contrary, his flanks were able to use their numerical advantage and surrounded most of the Order's remaining units.
The Grand Master and most of the Order's commanders died fighting in this encirclement.
The Order lost more than 20,000 troops in this battle with most of its elite dead.
The Polish-Lithuanian army moved towards the Order's capital Marienburg and reached it by the 22nd of July.
But the city was defended by the remainder of the Teutonic forces. The siege continued for weeks,
but the Livonian Order threatened to attack the allies, so they decided to retreat.
Possibility that Hungary might attack was increasing, and the allies decided to start negotiations.
A treaty was signed in the February of 1411 in Thorn.
Producerr; Editors;
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He writes and translates into several languages: Joachim Moczko