Nicolaus of Renys

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Nicolaus von Renys (Polish: Mikołaj z Ryńska ; * around 1360; † May 1411 in Graudenz ) was a landed gentleman , knight and one of the leaders of the secular Lizard League , an oppositional movement of the Kulmischen landed gentry against the rule of the Teutonic Order in Prussia . He was best known for his role in the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410.

Life

Nicolaus von Renys, who came from the knighthood, was born around 1360. His wealthy family owned domains in the Kulmer Land, a border region between the Teutonic Order state and the Kingdom of Poland , whose nobility was traditionally close to the Kingdom of Poland because of family ties and economic aspects. The Polish historian Johannes Longinus describes him of German descent in his Banderia Prutenorum , whereas the historian Stephen Turnbull locates him as a “knight of Polish origin from the Rogala family”. This view is not shared by the Polish-American heraldist Leonard Suligowski.

Together with his brother Johannes and other members of the Kulm landed aristocracy, Renys founded the so-called "Lizard League " on February 24, 1397 (referred to at the time as Eydechsen ), which was primarily directed against the Teutonic Order's claim to power in the Kulmer Land, but officially as "Schutz und Trutzbündnis "was called the nobles. By Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen indeed confirmed covenant and its nominal leader, including Renys, who were in the sequence of pages Gebietiger and dignitaries suspiciously observing the Order extreme.

Battle of Tannenberg and Death

In the year 1409 a long-term armed conflict broke out between the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland and the allied Grand Duchy of Lithuania . In consequence of which was the entire Ordensland squad proclaimed and the kulmische nobility had to pull the army of the Order, together with followers in the spring 1410th The conflict escalated in early summer. The group of lizards under the banner of the Kulmer Land with its unofficial leader and standard bearer Nicolaus von Renys was assigned to the main army under Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen .

The banner of the Kulmer Land carried by Nicolaus von Renys. He lowered it, thereby causing the retreat of parts of the lizard band.

The armies met in the fields of Grünwalde and Tannenberg. Renys and his knights were with the reserve banners under the direct orders of the Grand Master. Whether Ulrich von Jungingen took this measure because of distrust of the Eydechsen or because of the numerical strength of the Kulmer state contingent remains unknown. In a critical phase of the battle, Jungingen decided to engage the reserve under his leadership. As he was preparing to attack, Renys abruptly lowered the state flag. This action traditionally meant a sign to withdraw. Parts of the lizard band then withdrew from the battlefield, which meant a significant weakening of the attack force of the counter-attack. While large parts of the Eydechsen , including Renys, escaped from the battlefield, the army of the Order suffered a crushing defeat. The Grand Master and many Knights of the Order fell. It will no longer be possible to clarify whether the lowering of the banner was a spontaneous act on the part of its wearer or a prearranged sign. Historians suspect a collusion among members of the federal government.

Due to the severe weakening of the order and the resulting administrative chaos, Nicolaus von Renys returned unmolested to his estates in the Kulmer Land. Only after the First Peace of Thorn on February 1, 1411 did the energetic new Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen focus on the disrupted domestic policy. Numerous castle bailiffs who surrendered after the battle as well as refugee knights were called to account. In the course of this, Nicolaus von Renys was also accused of treason in Graudenz and executed in May 1411. According to older sources, involvement in a conspiracy by the dissatisfied Komtur von Rehden , Georg von Wirsberg, for the purpose of removing the Grand Master and ceding the Kulmer Land to the Kingdom of Poland is suspected.

literature

Contemporary chronicles

  • Johannes Longinus (Jan Długosz): Banderia Prutenorum .
  • Jan Długosz: Annales seu Cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae (Chronicle of Poland, around 1445-1480).
  • Johann von Posilge : Chronicle of the State of Prussia (covers the period from 1350-1418); Since the chronicler presumably died around 1405, historians suspect a continuation of the work from an unknown source in the period up to 1418.

Source editions

  • Theodor Hirsch , Max Toeppen , Ernst Strehlke: Scriptores rerum Prussicarum . The historical sources of the Prussian prehistoric times up to the fall of the order. Volume 3–5, Leipzig 1861–1874.
  • Juozas Jurginis: H. Latvis, H. Vartbergė. Livonijos kronikos. , annotated translation by Chronicon Livoniae . Vilnius 1991.

Scientific literature

  • Sven Ekdahl: The Battle of Tannenberg 1410 . Source-critical investigations. Volume I: Introduction and sources. In: Berlin historical studies . tape 8 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, p. 175 ( limited preview in Google Book search). review
  • Stephen Turnbull: Tannenberg 1410 . Campaign 122. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2003, ISBN 1-84176-561-9 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Wolfgang Sonthofen: The German Order ; Weltbild, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89350-713-2
  • Dieter Zimmerling: The German Knight Order ; Econ, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-430-19959-X

Fiction

  • Ernst Wichert : Heinrich von Plauen . Historical novel from the German East. Schild-Verlag, Munich 1959 (2 volumes, reprint of the edition of the German Book Association Berlin, 1881)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Johannes Longinus (Jan Długosz): Banderia Prutenorum
  2. ↑ Stephen R. Turnbull: Tannenberg 1410: Disaster for the Teutonic Knights . Osprey Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1-84176-561-9 , pp. 79 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Suligowski, Leonard: A Translation from Symon Konarski's "0 Heraldyce I Heraldycznem Snobizmie" (On Heraldry and Heraldic Snobbery). Polish Genealogical Society of America, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on January 22, 2007 (English).
  4. ^ Dieter Zimmerling: The German order of knights. P. 255
  5. ^ Wolfgang Sonthofen: The German Order ; Weltbild, Augsburg 1995, p. 138.
  6. ^ Wolfgang Sonthofen: The German Order ; Weltbild, Augsburg 1995, p. 143.
  7. ↑ "... Item her Nitce von Renys eyn Bannerführer in the Colmischen Lande, the ford in the nesten streyt the banner net as eyn biddermann and he was the right obirwunde, zcu Grudencz was beheaded ..." in Chronicle of Johann von Polsilge ; Theodor Hirsch, Max Toeppen, Ernst Strehlke: Scriptores rerum Prussicarum. The historical sources of the Prussian prehistoric times up to the fall of the order . Volume 3, p. 486.
  8. ↑ Bundle of lizards . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 5, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1906, p.  434 .
  9. ^ Ernst Wichert : Heinrich von Plauen in the Gutenberg-DE project
personal data
SURNAME Nicolaus of Renys
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mikołaj z Ryńska
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian knight
DATE OF BIRTH around 1360
DATE OF DEATH May 1411
Place of death Graudenz