The largest painting in Warsaw’s National Museum’s collection, measuring over four metres in height and nearly ten in width, Jan Matejko’s Battle of Grunwald, depicts the culmination of the Polish-Lithuanian victory. The battle was also later used in Nazi and Soviet propaganda campaigns, with Nazi Germany portraying their Lebensraum policies as a continuation of the Knights’ historical mission and Soviet historiography styling the battle as an ethnic struggle between Slavs and Germanics and as the medieval counterpart to the Battle of Stalingrad. Realizing its propaganda potential, Hindenburg named the victory the Battle of Tannenberg, despite it having actually taken place much closer to Allenstein, and framed it as revenge for the Polish–Lithuanian victory 500 years earlier. In August 1914, during World War I, German forces almost completely annihilated the Russian Second Army near the site of the Battle of Grunwald. One of the largest battles in medieval Europe, the Battle of Grunwald, known as the Battle of Tannenberg in German, is regarded as one of the most important victories in the histories of Poland and Lithuania, and has been used as a source of romantic legends and national pride, becoming a larger symbol of struggle against foreign invaders. As a result, the balance of power in Central and Eastern Europe shifted and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant political and military force in the region. The Teutonic Knights never regained their dominance and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and an economic downturn in the lands under their control. The significance of the Battle of Grunwald Jan Matejko’s Battle of Grunwald is the largest painting in Warsaw’s National Museum’s collection, measuring over four metres in height and nearly ten in width. Despite the scale of their victory, the Polish-Lithuanian army failed to take Marienberg and peace was made the following year. Grand Master von Jungingen was killed by a lancethrust through the throat as the rest of the Knights made a fighting withdrawal to their camp.īy the end of the day most of the Teutonic Knights’ troops were either dead or prisoners. Serving among the Moravian and Bohemian mercenaries fighting on the side of Poland and Lithuania, was probably Jan Žižka, future commander of the Hussite forces.Īlthough outnumbered, the Knights were confident in the strength of their disciplined armored cavalry and confronted the invaders between the villages of Grunwald and Tannenberg, in what is now northern Poland.īut under the boiling summer sun, the Knights cooked inside their armor and were eventually outnumbered by the mass of Polish knights and advancing Lithuanian cavalry. Underrating the joint power and unity of the newly conjoined states, the Teutonic Knights hoped to defeat Poland and Lithuania separately and began by invading Greater Poland.īut by December 1409, King Jagiełło of Poland and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania had agreed that their armies would unite into a single massive force and marched together towards Marienburg, capital of the Teutonic Knights, in the summer of 1410. Teutonic Knights defeated by the rising Polish-Lithuanian allianceīut the Teutonic Knights, supported by Hungarian King Sigismund, contested the sincerity of Jogaila’s conversion and, in 1409, their choleric Grand Master, Ulrich von Jungingen, declared war on Poland and Lithuania. He was crowned King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland, thus creating a personal union between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1386, Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania converted to Christianity and married Queen Jadwiga of Poland. By the end of the century, the Teutonic Knights had established control over Prussia from where they mounted more crusading campaigns against their non-Christian neighbors, including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Originally founded during the Crusades in the Holy Land, the Teutonic Order led a series of 13th-century campaigns to subdue the pagan Baltic Old Prussians. On July 15, 1410, the alliance between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania decisively defeated the Knights of the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald, which marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant political and military force in Central and Eastern Europe.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |