Battle of Grunwald: Encyclopedia II - Battle of Grunwald - After the Battle

Battle of Grunwald - After the Battle

The defeat of the Teutonic Order was resounding. According to Andrzej Nadolski about 8,000 Teuton soldiers were killed in the battle, and an additional 14,000 taken captive. Most of the approximately 250 members of the Order were also killed, including much of the Teutonic leadership. Apart from Ulrich von Jungingen himself, the Polish and Lithuanian forces killed also the Grand Marshal Friedrich von Wallenrode, Grand Komtur Kuno von Lichtenstein and Albrecht von Schwartzburg, the Grand Treasurer Thomas von Merheim. Komtur of Brandenburg, Markward von Salzbach and the mayor of Sambia Schaumburg were executed by order of Vytautas after the battle. The only higher officials to escape from the battle were Grand Hospital Master and Komtur of Elbing Werner von Tettinger. Such a slaughter of noble knights and personalities was quite unusual in Mediæval Europe. This was possible mostly due to the participation of the peasantry who joined latter stages of the battle, and took part in destruction of the surrounded Teutonic troops. Unlike the noblemen, the peasants did not receive any ransom for taking captives; they thus had less of an incentive to keep them alive. Among those taken captive were Kasimir V, duke of Stettin (Szczecin) , and Konrad the White, duke of Oels (Oleśnica).

After the battle Polish and Lithuanian forces stayed on the battlefield for three days. All notable officials were interred in separate graves, while the body of Ulrich von Jungingen was covered with royal coat and transported to Marienburg. The rest of the dead were gathered in several mass graves. There are different speculations as to why Jagiello decided to wait that long. After three days, the Polish-Lithuanian forces moved on to Marienburg and laid siege upon the castle, but the three days time was enough for the Teutons to organise the defence. After several weeks of siege, the Lithuanian Grand Duke withdrew from the war and it became clear that the siege would not be effective. The nobility from Lesser Poland also wanted to end the war before the harvest and the siege was lifted.

In the battle, both Polish and Lithuanian forces took several thousand captives. Most of the mercenaries were released shortly after the battle on the condition that they will return to Kraków on September 29, 1410. After that move, the king held most of the Teutonic officials, while the rest returned to Prussia to beg the Teutonic Order officials for their liberation and ransom payment. This proved to be a major drain of the Teutonic budget as an average rate for a knight was quite high. For instance, one of the mercenaries named Holbracht von Loym had to pay sixty times the number of 150 Prague groszes, that is almost 300 kilograms of pure silver, a value uncommon even in modern times. With his army defeated and the remnants of it composed mostly of ill-paid mercenaries, Heinrich von Plauen had little incentive to continue the fight, especially that most of the cities owned by the Teutons sworn their loyalty to the Polish king. Thus, after retaking Danzig from rebelious burghers, the peace negotiations were started.

The Peace of Thorn (Peace of Toruń) was concluded as a result of the Battle of Grunwald, in which Poland annexed the Dobriner Land ( Dobrzyń Land) and Lithuania recovered Samogitia. This is thought to be a diplomatic defeat for Poland and Lithuania as they pushed for attempts to dismantle the Teutonic Knights state altogether. However, while the Poles and Lithuanians were unable to translate their military victory to greater political gains, the indirect results of the battle were much worse for the Teutons. The massacre of Teutonic troops left them with few forces to defend their remaining territories. The Grand Masters from then on had to rely on mercenary troops, which proved too expensive for the Teutons' budget to sustain. Although Heinrich von Plauen, the successor to Ulrich von Jungingen, managed to save his state from complete breakdown, the opposition to his rule among the burghers, the knights and within the Order itself forced his ouster.

Eventually, the Teutons' internal conflicts and constant tax increases led to the uprising of the Prussian Confederation. The power of the Teutonic Knights waned as a result of this revolt, and the order never recovered. This decline led to a series of conflicts that culminated in the Thirteen Years' War, leading to the death of the victorious order.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "After the Battle", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki