Battle of Grunwald

Grunwald [ˈɡrunvalt] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Grunwald, within Ostróda County, Warmian-Masurian... Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 26 kilometres south of Ostróda and 43 km south-west of the regional capital Olsztyn. The village has a population of 800. After the Battle of Grunwald , the Polish king Jagiello intended to erect a chapel on the battlefield near Grünfelde at „loco conflictus nostri dicto Grunenvelt“As he did win the battle, but not the war, the battle site remained under the control of the Teutonic Order, and they built a chapel dedicated to Mary instead. The chronicler Longinus later wrongly reported the name as Grunwald , and that name was used in Polish historiography. In 1945, Grünfelde was taken over by Poland. A museum and memorial site are located in the fields where the battle was fought, roughly in the middle of a triangle, with Stębark and Łodwigowo .
more

The Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War or Great War occurred between 1409 and 1411, pitting the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of... Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights. Inspired by the local Samogitian uprising, the war began by Teutonic invasion of Poland in August 1409. As neither side was ready for a full-scale war, Wenceslaus, King of the Romans, brokered a nine-month truce. After the truce expired in June 1410, the military-religious monks were decisively defeated in the Battle of Grunwald , one of the largest battles in medieval Europe. Most of the Teutonic leadership was killed or taken prisoner. While defeated, the Teutonic Knights withstood the siege on their capital in Marienburg and suffered only minimal territorial losses in the Peace of Thorn . Territorial disputes lasted until the Peace of Melno of 1422. However, the Knights never recovered their former power and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and economic decline in their lands. The war shifted the balance of power in Eastern Europe and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant power in the region.
more