Battle of Konitz
| date | September 18, 1454 |
|---|---|
| place | Konitz, Pomeranian |
| output | Victory of the Teutonic Order |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Mercenary army: |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 12,000 riders 6,000 infantry |
Mercenary army: 9,000 horsemen 6,000 foot soldiers Konitz castle garrison: a few hundred men |
| losses | |
|
3,000 dead |
62 dead |
The Battle of Konitz took place on September 18, 1454 between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order near Konitz in Pomerania . The battle was a culmination of the Thirteen Years' War . The troops of the Teutonic Order won.
Background and history
The Teutonic Order had been at war with Lithuania since 1245 and, from the 14th century, also against Poland. He suffered a heavy defeat at Tannenberg in 1410 , and the peace treaties of Thorn in 1411 , Melnosee in 1422 and Brest in 1435 placed heavy and financial burdens on him. After the order had so far managed without tax collection, the Grand Master of Rusdorf was now forced to use the Prussian estates (the cities and the knighthood) to repay the war debts. This approach caused the estates to fear losing their influence and their legal status, and so on March 14, 1440, 19 cities and 53 knights founded the “Bund vor Violence”, also known as the “ Prussian Bund ”. Initially only intended as a protective alliance to protect one's own interests, negotiations with the Grand Masters Rusdorf and his successor Konrad von Erlichshausen took place in a peaceful atmosphere, although the federal statutes were not recognized. The relationship changed when Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen took office in 1450. The latter rejected all demands of the federal government and on December 1, 1453 obtained a legal verdict from Emperor Friedrich III. , with which the federal government was declared illegal and its dissolution was requested. This was the reason for the federal government to declare open war on the order. He saw the Grand Master's oath of loyalty to the estates as broken and offered various European rulers sovereignty over the religious state.
At the beginning of 1454 Casimir IV , King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, married Elisabeth von Habsburg , a second cousin of the emperor. During the wedding celebrations, representatives of the Prussian Confederation negotiated a military alliance to eliminate the rule of the order. Now the federal uprising began, which went down in history as the “ Thirteen Years War ” or “Prussian City War”. The Prussians achieved quick victories and soon had conquered the majority of the order castles. In the end, only the Marienburg Order Castle and the castles in Stuhm and Konitz were in the possession of the Order. The Order's Grand Spittler , Heinrich Reuss von Plauen , had taken it into his own hands to defend them . To strengthen his own troops he recruited mercenaries with combat experience from the Hussite Wars from Silesia and Moravia .
Line up and tactics
On September 9, 1454, King Casimir von Thorn set out for Konitz with his assembled army. He led the command himself, advised by his chancellor Jan Koniecpolski and the military leader Peter von Szczekociny. On September 17, 1454, the allied army reached the town and castle Konitz, where Heinrich Reuss von Plauen camped with only a small crew. Kasimir's scouts had reported to him that the Silesian-Moravian mercenary army under Bernhart von Zinnenberg (called Szumborski in Polish reports) and Duke Rudolf von Sagan would arrive there the next day . The mercenary army was 9,000 horsemen and 6,000 foot soldiers, while Kasimir had an army of the Polish aristocracy of 12,000 horsemen and 6,000 foot soldiers, including 2,000 mercenaries of the Prussian Confederation.
Instead of initially staying out of sight of Konitz and letting the mercenary army move into Konitz to lock it up and starve it there, Kasimir decided to advance to the walls of Konitz. He planned to attack the mercenary army when they arrived in front of the city with his outnumbered cavalry. He followed the traditional tactics of medieval knight armies, according to which open field battles were decided by a powerful attack by the cavalry. He therefore did not include the infantry and artillery he carried in his tactical plans for the battle that followed. He assumed that the troops of the Order would follow traditional battle plans, and assumed that the soldiers encamped in Konitz would limit themselves to defense and would not intervene in open combat.
course
On September 18, 1454 the mercenary army of the order arrived at Konitz. King Casimir ordered the enemy, tired from the march, to be attacked on the same day, but the formation of his large army in multi-level battle formation dragged on all day. This was probably due on the one hand to the poorly explored, partly swampy terrain, on the other hand to the inexperience of the aristocratic Polish sub-commanders positioned in the front row. Only in the evening did the allies finally attack; the well-equipped mercenaries had meanwhile formed a wagon castle .
At first everything went as expected, following the pattern of previous battles between the Allies and the Order. The Polish riders achieved their first success by killing their commander, Duke Rudolf von Sagan, in a battle with the Bohemian mercenary cavalry hurrying towards them, and capturing the military leader Bernhard von Zinnenberg. However, in view of the death of their duke, a detachment of 3,000 horsemen undertook a savage counterattack that pushed as far as the walls of Konitz. At that moment Heinrich Reuss von Plauen undertook a sortie with 200 knights of the order from the castle garrison of Konitz and surprisingly pushed against the rearmost division of the Poles, in which King Casimir was. This created disorder and confusion in the Polish army, which soon turned into panic. Casimir could not prevent his troops from fleeing in disorder. Von Zinnenberg was soon freed when the person who captured him was killed. The troops of the Order pursued the fleeing Poles and killed thousands of them, many of whom drowned while fleeing in panic in the nearby swamps.
consequences
The defeat of the Polish army was severe. 3,000 (details vary depending on the source) men were killed, including the commander Peter von Szczekociny and 135 voivods , captains, knights and nobles. 1,700 Poles, including some high dignitaries such as the royal chancellor , the marshal and the voivode of Pomerania , as well as more than 300 knights were captured by the order. King Casimir had only narrowly escaped this fate and escaped to Thorn . The army of the order lost only 60 men and two knights. The order mercenaries captured the Polish imperial flag, all heavy artillery and the 400 wagons of the Poles with all their luggage, money, provisions and weapons.
Trivia
According to an anecdote, Bernhard von Zinnenberg formally remained a prisoner of the Poles even after his victory, as he allegedly gave his knight's word of honor when he was captured not to attempt to escape.
literature
- Johannes Voigt: History of Prussia: from the oldest times to the fall of the rule of the Teutonic Order. Volume 8, Königsberg 1838.
Web links
- Stephen R. Turnbull: Tannenberg 1410. Disaster for the Teutonic Knights. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2003, ISBN 1841765619 (online here)
- The battle of Konitz. In: " Old Prussian Monthly " Vol. 19 Royal German Society Königsberg / Prussia (online here)