Battle of Grunwald, 1410 ⚔️ The Downfall of the Teutonic Order ⚔️ DOCUMENTARY

🚩 Go to bit.ly/thld_cs_historymarche and use code HISTORYMARCHE to save 25% off today. Thanks to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring today’s video. 🚩 The Battle of Grunwald was one of medieval Europe's most bloodiest battles. Polish-Lithuanian victory broke the Teutonic Order, marking the end of the order's expansion along the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea and the beginning of the decline of its power. 🚩 Consider supporting our work on Patreon and enjoy early access ad-free videos for as little as $1: www.patreon.com/historymarche

Two interesting facts could be added. 8:33 The Polish army was too big to cross the river Vistula unnoticed. However Jagiello managed to do that and surprised Teutons. How? Months earlier he ordered to build parts of floating bridges on Polish territory, once they were ready they were floated down to Teuton lands. Instead of weeks needed to cut new logs and build bridges, everything was done in couple of hours! 11:33 Important notice here, full steel armored Teuton army waited in the devastating hot summer sun, while Polish/Lithuanian army enjoyed shade of the forest for couple of hours. Teutons sent emissaries with two naked swords to encourage Jagiello to start fighting earlier. He just thanked them for swords and was still waiting... till the time Teutons were tired.

I have a feeling that the narrative in this video is a bit rushed as it skipped over a few important details, like Poles swiftly crossing the Vistula river using a pontoon bridge which caught Teutons completely off guard. There is also no mention of the command structure of either side. The composition and size of the armies were largely omitted. The terms of the peace of Thorn were mostly glossed over as well. There are also a couple of minor and major mistakes like: 9:52 (...) stood the Lithuanians made mostly of light cavalry --- This must be the most often repeated mistake about this battle. Lithuanian cavalry wasn't "light" cavalry. They used less protective equipment because Lithuanians were poorer and had lesser access to good western plate armor. Thus you could say they were lightER than their Polish or Teutonic counterparts. That doesn't mean they acted as light cavalry. They still used a wide array of protective equipment. The only light cavalry in this battle were the Tatars. 11:55 Although not too efficient, the artillery fire was enough to provoke an attack by the Lithuanian cavalry --- First time ever I encounter such an interpretation of the events. Polish-Lithuanian Army was outside of the range of Teutonic bombards until it emerged from the woods and began the attack. 13:35 Czech mercenaries nearly broke and fled but were stopped by their commanders --- No, they DID flee but were stopped near the Polish camp, not by their commanders but by the Polish deputy chancellor Mikołaj Trąba. After being reprimanded by him, they returned to the battlefield. 15:22 The target of this attack was none other than the King himself --- Except Teutons didn't even know where Władysław was. He was not the intended target. The intended target was the flank of the Polish army. Teutons literally marched past the Polish King's retinue unknowing that they had a chance to kill or capture the enemy leader. All except one Teutonic Knight - Dypold von Kökeritz who recognized Władysław Jagiełło and left his banner to charge alone at the king. Suffice to say he did not succeed. 16:32 Ulrik found himself surrounded --- Nah, most likely he was already dead at this point. The Teutonic reserve led by Ulrik was met by the Great Banner of Cracow and sources claim most of the Teutonic leadership was killed in the initial clash. Finally, my biggest gripe. You show Teutonic infantry being deployed and taking part in the battle from the very beginning. The Battle of Grunwald was a cavalry battle. The infantry didn't play any role until storming the fortified camp of the Teutonic army. Which was also omitted in the video.

The biggest clue in the Lithuanian cavalry charge is that they had a Tartar prince among them. That final cavalry charge out of nowhere when the enemy is at the brink of perceived victory is a textbook steppe manoeuvre.

Jan Zizka was at Grünwald and Ajincourt before the Hussites even started. Crazy life this guy had…

I knew sooner or later this battle would be covered here. Thank you. Interesting to hear pronunciation of lithuanian and polish commanders. I think you did very well on those.

Grunwald was the probably the largest battle in medieval Europe's history.

Na Polské straně bojoval český rytíř Jan Sokol z Lamberka a neporazitelný vojevůdce Jan Žižka

The Teutonic-Polish-Lithuanian Wars are some of the most interesting conflicts in Eastern European history and I want to study it more in depth but it’s hard to find any good books that focus on this period exclusively. I appreciate you taking the time to make such a great video on this legendary battle!

The Battle of Grunwald!!! I’m amazed and ashamed that I never learned about this battle when I was a kid, reading my history books!! It was only when I went to Poland as an English teacher, and learned that it is the battle that every Polish person knows the date of (the equivalent of 1066 Battle of Hastings in England or 1314 Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland) It also actually helped me to teach the word “Battle” in the lower level classes: after one disastrous attempt to explain what the word meant (by trying to describe an abstract battle)…the next time I had to teach the word “battle” in a different class, I simply just wrote first 1410, then Grunwald…and they understood the word “Battle” immediately…

Respect to our Lithuanian heroes! Greetings from Poland:*

Oh my God this is great, my father gave me a book called "Knights of the cross" by polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz and it's a great book, historical novel and it ends with the battle of grunawld, great read.

If you have the opportunity to visit Malbork's castle (ancient Marienburg) in actual Poland, please just go, it's really amazing. Probably the best castle I have ever visited. And, as a French guy, I think it's a nice witness. Very easy access by train from Gdansk, about 1h to go.

Wow, the genuine timing on this. Just last night I recalled the moment I visited Poland and saw the battle of Grunwald renactment and now this comes out from my favorite war history channel 👍

Worth to mention that it was the biggest battle in medieval century

"Far too long have I rested in the shade. Now is the time to draw my dread blade." -Zawisza the Black

The fact that the Poles fought for 4 hours being fully surrounded is really impressive.

Teutonic Polish border on the initial map is pretty inaccurate. You have handed Teutons big parts of Mazovia :)

wow so happy i found this video! although im asian (Philippines) and nothing knows much about old european cultures but i gotta say im a very big fan of european medieval warfare! this story was very impressive to me but hey im not a violent person lol im just a big fan of medievals. i want more videos of this please! im so willing to listen!

That Smolensk guys were the real MVP's for standing their ground and avoid encirclement. Also, as it said previously, about Lithuanians retreat, it is said that Vytautas did faint retreat learning from battle against Mongols where he suffered great losses. It's more like "hit and run" tactics which worked and Teutonic knights chased them in to the woods. Being "light" cavalry (it's not exactly true, they had armor on themselves but not as heavy as Teutonic knights) they encircle them in forest terain and killed the chasers. After that, they regrouped to deal the final blow into Teutonic rear.