Battle of Tannenberg (1410)
The Battle of Tannenberg took place on 15 July 1410 between the united armies of Lithuania and Poland, aided by a Tartar army and Czech and other mercenaries (up to 39,000 men), under the leadership of the Lithuanian Jagiello, who by marriage was now King of Poland, and the less numerous army of the Teutonic Knights (11,000 to 27,000 men, although most sources speak of significantly fewer than 20,000 men, including 270 ordained Teutonic Knights).
History
The Samogitians, whose frequently disputed territory lay arguably in western Lithuania, rebelled against the Teutonic Order with the open support of Duke Vytautas of Lithuania. Samogitia effectively constituted a corridor between Teutonic Prussia and Teutonic Livonia and had been bitterly contested. Duke Jagiello of Lithuania had himself originally ceded Samogitian lands to the Order in 1382. The Order brutally suppressed the uprising. In 1404 the Order and Poland sought a peace treaty and Poland bought back the province of Dobrin (Dobrzyn) from the Order, who had agreed to the sale as a gesture of goodwill.
In the summer of 1409, the native Samogitians, however, started another rebellion. The Teutonic Order's spies reported that Duke Vytautas was urging the Samogitians to 'seize Königsberg and drown the Knights' and a crisis arrived when the Order seized Duke Jagiello's barges at Ragnit (in Prussia, on the Neiman or Memel river) which were transporting supplies and weapons to Samogitia[1] (All river traffic led to the Order's ports.)
Tannenberg
In response to this treachery, in August 1409 the Order declared war on Lithuania and Poland, who were now allies. But after a few indecisive actions an armistice was brokered by Wenceslas, King of Bohemia (who was paid the sum of 60,000 florins by the Order), and signed, and due to last until at least the 24th June 1410 when it would be reviewed. However Poland-Lithuania had decided upon renewal of the war against the Order and began a diplomatic effort across Europe for support. In January 1410, their diplomats met with King Henry IV of England in London, to be told by him that he would never support them as he was "a child of Prussia"![2] Schismatic Novogorod and Pskov, and even Moldavia, promised to send a unit of troops to aid Poland.
On 15 February 1410, Wenceslas, again in mediation, judged that if Dobrzyn was to go to Poland by the agreed purchase, then the Order should retain Samogitia. When Poland-Lithuania expressed dissatisfaction with this, Wenceslas openly threatened to side with the Teutonic Order, whose diplomats were reporting back to him on Poland's war plans. Sigismund, King of Hungary, now secretly negotiated with the Order. In return for 30,000 ducats he would attack Poland from the south when the truce expired in June. Meanwhile there were constant skirmishes with the Poles and Lithuanians.
Ready for action, Jagiello, now King of Poland by marriage, and his cousin Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, gathered all their strength, with, in addition, huge numbers of Czech and other mercenaries, schismatics, and even pagan Tartars to fight "the soldiers of Christ". The encounter of the two great armies, the Polish-Lithuanian twice the size of the Order's[3] took place on 15 July, 1410 at Tannenberg in Prussia. At first, it appeared things were going in favour of the Order, being highly trained in warfare, but the tide gradually turned in favour of the larger numbers and ended in the Order's disastrous rout. The Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen was among the slain. The victors drew nearer together.[4][5] According to the imposed Peace of Thorn treaty in 1411[6], the Order had to pay penal financial indemnities to the victors.
German casualties
The Teutonic Order's losses were heavy, especially in comparison to the medium, although not insignificant, losses of the enemy. What weighed most heavily, however, was the fact that of the 270 Teutonic Knights on the battlefield – depending on the source – between 203 and 211 were ⚔. The body of Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen was transferred to Marienburg on the fourth day after the battle.
Sources
- ↑ Turnbull, Stephen, Tannenberg 1410, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2003, p.18-21, ISBN: 978-1-84176-561-7
- ↑ Turnbull, 2003, p.20-1.
- ↑ MacDonogh, Giles, Prussia, London, 1994, p.22.
- ↑ Previté-Orton, 1952, p.1014-5.
- ↑ Turnbull, 2003
- ↑ "It has come to be felt that there is a moral taint about treaties signed under duress"...[making them] "morally discredited." Carr, Professor Edward Hallett, The Twenty Years' Crisis 1919 - 1939 Macmillan, London, 1939, "The Sanctity of Treaties", p.241-1.
