*** Welcome to piglix ***

Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War

Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War
Part of the Lithuanian Crusade
Jan Matejko, Bitwa pod Grunwaldem.jpg
Battle of Grunwald by Jan Matejko (1878)
Date June 1409 – February 1411
Location Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights
Result Peace of Thorn (1411)
Belligerents
Flag of the Teutonic Order.svg State of the Teutonic Order Alex K Kingdom of Poland-flag.svg Kingdom of Poland
Alex K Grundwald flags 1410-03.svg Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Commanders and leaders
Teuton flag.svg Ulrich von Jungingen 
Teuton flag.svg Heinrich von Plauen
POL Przemysł II 1295 COA.svg Władysław II Jagiełło
COA of Gediminaičiai dynasty Lithuania.svg Grand Duke Vytautas

The Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War or Great War occurred between 1409 and 1411, pitting the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights. Inspired by the local Samogitian uprising, the war began by Teutonic invasion of Poland in August 1409. As neither side was ready for a full-scale war, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia brokered a nine-month truce. After the truce expired in June 1410, the military-religious monks were decisively defeated in the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg), one of the largest battles in medieval Europe. Most of the Teutonic leadership was killed or taken prisoner. While defeated, the Teutonic Knights withstood the siege on their capital in Marienburg (Malbork) and suffered only minimal territorial losses in the Peace of Thorn (1411). Territorial disputes lasted until the Peace of Melno of 1422. However, the Knights never recovered their former power and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and economic decline in their lands. The war shifted the balance of power in Eastern Europe and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant power in the region.

In 1230, the Teutonic Knights, a crusading military order, moved to the Kulmerland (today within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship) and, upon the request of Konrad I, king of the Masovian Slavs, launched the Prussian Crusade against the pagan Prussian clans. With support from the Pope and Holy Roman Emperor, the Teutons conquered and converted the Prussians by the 1280s and shifted their attention to the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For about a hundred years the Knights fought the Lithuanian Crusade raiding the Lithuanian lands, particularly Samogitia as it separated the Knights in Prussia from their branch in Livonia. The border regions became uninhabited wilderness, but the Knights gained very little territory. The Lithuanians first gave up Samogitia during the Lithuanian Civil War (1381–84) in the Treaty of Dubysa. The territory was used as a bargaining chip to ensure Teutonic support for one of the sides in the internal power struggle.


...
Wikipedia

...