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Jahaila (King Yagailla) was 60 years old that day. He was senior to any of his commanders or to any enemy leaders, and together with his equally capable cousin Vitaut the Great, made a plan which would give them every possible advantage against the Teutons
The Poles had provided a formidable army of 18.000 knights, 11.000 retainers and 4000 foot soldiers, to which must be added 11.000 Lithuanian knights and less than 1.000 foot soldiers.There had only been less than 1.500 Tartars and about 6.000 Bohemians, Moravians and Moldavians who came to help the Polish Kingdom and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. But only a precious few were heavy cavalry. Most of the Lithuanian and Polish foot soldiers were armed with clubs, and their equipment was inferior to that of the Teutons.
The Teutons (Krzyzacy) could assemble that day 21.000 excellent heavy cavalrymen, 6000 massively armed infantry, and 5000 servants trained in battle, and better-armed than most of the Lithuanian and Polish foot soldiers. Most of these Teutons would be Teutonic Knights/Germans, but from all Western Europe knights had come to help their brothers against the "pagan" Lithuanians (some of them were indeed still pagans), and the Poles who dared to support the pagans instead of the Christians. English, French, Hungarians, Austrians, Bavarians, Thuringians, Bohemians, Luxembourgians, Flamands, Dutch and even some Poles would help the Teutonic Knights, but the Grand Master had expected more help from western Europe. The Teutons had 100 cannons capable of throwing balls larger than a head, while the Polish-Lithuanians had only 16 cannons.
The Poles and Lithuanians had another problem. The Germans had the best field leaders in the world - men tested in many battles with Lithuanians and Tartars. Ulrich von Jungingen as Grand Master, Frederick von Wallenrode as Grand Marshal, K. von Lichtenstein, one of the finest swordsmen of the century, as Grand Commander, and Albrecht von Schwarzenberg, a marshal serving as Commander of Supply. Each of these men wore a full suit of armour like most of the Teutons. This was of the chain-link type, and not the massive plates favoured by the Poles and Lithuanians. Each Crusader had a huge black cross upon the front of his white tunic, and all of them looked impressive enough with their huge horses and armour, to scare the enemy from a long distance.
Although outnumbered in bodies, (more than 50.000 Poles, Lithuanians and Allies to 32.000 Teutons - mostly Germans), the Teutons(Krzyzacy) were vastly superior in armour, horses, and experience and in battlefield leadership. This was going to be one of the most decisive battles of the world, and of all times - an immense clash of arms which would determine
The huge army of Poles and Lithuanians left Dabrowno before dark on 15 July, and by sunrise they had reached Lake Lubien. This time the Grand Master found the army of Jahaila(Yagailla) and Vitaut, and for second time planned to oppose the enemy, on Tuesday 15 July, at the villages of Grunwald, Stebark and Lodwigowo near Lake Lubien. The land around here was heavily forested with wood suitable for concealing the Polish-Lithuanian army.
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Field of Battle: On the left side, there were Poles, Bohemians, Moravians
and Moldavians, |
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| The Teutons were conventionally opposed to the Polish-Lithuanians. They just had a line of cannon and infantry at the front of their lines. Yagailla suddenly gave the signal to attack The Teutons' cannon only managed to fire twice against the mainly light, and of course quick, cavalry. Soon Vitaut's knights reached the line with very few casualties, since they were cleverly spaced so as not to be too close to each other, and brought chaos to the Teutons' infantry. |
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The knight spirit was full among the brave Lithuanians and Poles.
the two great leaders Vitaut the Great and Jahaila(Yagailla), surrounded by their splendid captains, moved to the battlefield and saw one enemy flag after another fall to the ground. 39 flags would be taken by the Poles, and 10 by the Lithuanians. The lucky 1400 Teutons who escaped only managed to take 7 flags with them, and for them it was a success taking at least these flags.
Later some of the prisoners were taken to identify
the bodies.
The body of their greatest hero from Lichtenstein
was there, Schwarzenberger's, Wallenrode's, and from the foreign knights
was Jaromir of Prague, Gabor of Buda, leader of Hungarians, Richard of York
and some others also. 
28000 Crusaders and their helpers had been
slain the previous day. Of 60 leaders
of the Order, more than 50 perished.
It was a complete defeat for the Teutonic
Knights, who will never recover after that important battle. 209 Crusader knights
died. Only 12 Polish knights were killed, along with a few other allied knights.
Of the Lithuanians and Polish foot soldiers, more than two thirds died, along
with over 100 Tartars. The total number of casualties in the Polish-Lithuanian
army is unknown, but it is almost certain that over 20.000 died to save their
beloved homeland from the barbarian Teutons.
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