Lithuanian Knight at the battle of Grünwald, 1410 (MED0101)

The Battle of Grunwald, 1410

On 15 July 1410, near the villages of Grunwald and Tannenberg in Prussia, the Teutonic Order met the combined forces of Poland and Lithuania. It was one of the largest engagements fought in medieval Europe, and it ended with the destruction of the order’s field army and the death of its Grand Master, Ulrich von Jungingen. The order survived as a state for another century, but never recovered its military dominance in the Baltic.

The Lithuanian contingent

The knight in this painting comes from the army of Grand Duke Vytautas. Lithuania had been the last pagan state in Europe until 1387, which is precisely what had given the order its justification for a century of campaigning; after the Polish-Lithuanian union and Vytautas’s baptism that justification collapsed, and the war became openly territorial. Lithuanian equipment blended western mail and plate with steppe influences: lighter horse, composite bows alongside lances, and greater emphasis on mobility.

A retreat that was not a rout

The battle’s most argued episode is the withdrawal of the Lithuanian wing after the first clash. Contemporary Teutonic accounts read it as flight; later Polish and Lithuanian tradition describes a deliberate feigned retreat that drew part of the order’s cavalry into pursuit and broke its line. The truth is probably in between — an initial genuine collapse followed by a return to the field that proved decisive. What is certain is that the pursuing Teutonic units were destroyed piecemeal.

Why the order lost

The Teutonic army was not outfought in equipment or discipline: it was outnumbered and, crucially, committed its reserve too early. Von Jungingen led the final charge in person and was killed with most of the order’s senior officers, leaving no command structure to organise a withdrawal. Losses among the brother knights were catastrophic in a corps that recruited slowly.

What followed

The Peace of Thorn in 1411 imposed indemnities but few territorial losses, and Poland and Lithuania did not exploit the victory fully. The lasting effects were financial and political: the reparations forced the order into taxation that alienated its own Prussian towns and nobility, and fifty years later those subjects fought against it.