Battle Timeline
Events leading up to the battle
Poland was baptised in 966 AD and in 1025 it became a kingdom recognised by the Pope and Holy Roman Empire, the population slowly became christians. being surrounded by pagan tribes and kingdoms created tensions, in 1226 Konrad of Mazowia invited the German Teutonic order from Acre to help protect the borders from the neighbouring pagan tribes they received chelmno land as a fief, Shortly after the Holy Roman Empire decreed that the rest of the Prussian lands be conquered.
the teutonic order saw taking the lands and converting the populace as a sacred duty. by the year 1274 they had finished the task as the lands of Lithuania became christian.This strange situation led to two wars, one in 1306 to 1308 which the Teutons took over the region of Danzig. Poland also lost the conflict between 1326 - 1332 losing claims to their northern teritories. in 1385 Poland created a union with Lithuania creating a mighty alliance, Teritory under the order in Samogotia rebelled in 1409 and the Grand duchy of Lithuania sent aid.
The March into Prussia
The allies waited for the Teutons to make the first move otherwise the holy roman empire and Hungary would get invloved, this is what happened in august 1409 and the orders Grandmaster ordered an attack on Poland and moved into Greater Poland and burned the castle of Dobryn as well as raiding the surrounding villages.
The King of Bohemia asked the two forces to negotiate and a truce was signed until 1410. Jogailla and Vytautas met in Brest to gather their forces and make an attack on the Teuton lands in Prussia.
They agreed to place all of their forces in northern Poland and move on the capital of the order in Marienburg as soon as the truce ended, they organised raids on the border to distract the main Teuton force in Schwetz, The Poles crossed the border into Prussia on the 9th of July 1410 but they were discovered.
Preparation and Battle
On the morning of 15th July the two opposing forces met between the villages of Grunwald, Tannenberg(Stebark) and Ludwigsdorf(Lodwigowo) Poland known for its heavy cavalry were stationed on the left flank while the much lighter and faster Lithuanian cavalry made up the right flank and a mixture of mercenaries made up the center. The men were organised in three lines in a wedge shaped formation 20 men deep.
The Teutonic forces were the first to organise their armies concentrated their heavy cavalry against the Lithuanians hoping to provoke an attack the heavy German knights were wearing heaving armour in scorching sun for hours awaiting a move, they also attempted to use field artillery but some light rain dampened the gun powder.
Ulrich sent two swords to Vytautas and Jogailla to "assist" them in battle the swords were really meant as provocation and an insult.
Battle and Victory
The assault started with Vytautas supported by Polish soldiers on the left flank of the enemy suffering heavy losses they retreated and returned later on in the battle. while they were retreating there was heavy fighting on the Polish right flank Ulrich personally led 16 banners of men roughly one third of his whole army while Jogailla deployed all of his reserves to the fight and almost being killed but was saved by his secretary Zbigniew Olesnicki.
Towards the end of the battle the Lithuanians returned attackign Ulrich von Jungingen in the rear at this point the Teutons were outnumbered from all sides. Ulrich was killed by a lance through his neck, his killer is disputed. After his death the Teutonic forces began retreating.
The aftermath of the battle showed a resounding Polish-Lithuanian Victory, Numbers have been highly disputed but the commonly accepted number is 39,000 for the allies and 27,000 for the Teutons which lost around 20,000 men with 14,000 taken as prisoners, Poland and Lithuania lost around 2,000 soldiers including only 12 knights.