July 15, 1410

Battle of Grunwald

Polish–Lithuanian victory at the Battle of Grunwald

Two heralds rode out carrying bare swords — a taunt meant to shame the kings into attacking, and now one of Poland's most enduring national symbols.

Morning of 15 July 1410

On the morning of 15 July 1410 the forces of Władysław II Jagiełło and Vytautas faced the Teutonic Order between the villages of Grunwald, Stębark and Łodwigowo in Prussia.

Estimates of the armies differ. Nadolski gives about 20,000 Polish troops, 10,000 Lithuanian and 15,000 Teutonic; Biskup gives about 18,000 Polish cavalry plus several thousand infantry, 11,000 Lithuanian cavalry, and about 21,000 Teutonic cavalry plus several thousand infantry. No contemporary source supplies a dependable headcount.

After a morning standoff in the heat, Teutonic heralds brought two unsheathed swords to Jagiełło and Vytautas, challenging them to stop delaying and begin — an episode recorded by the later chronicler Jan Długosz.

The withdrawal nobody can classify

Vytautas's right wing, made up of Lithuanian, Ruthenian, Samogitian and Tatar units, attacked first and later withdrew. Teutonic units pursued it.

Whether that was a genuine rout or a deliberate feigned retreat remains disputed. Długosz described flight; other scholars read at least part of the movement as controlled.

Długosz wrote roughly six decades after the battle and was not an eyewitness.

By about seven in the evening

The fighting ran more than six hours, ending around 19:00. Jagiełło committed his reserves, the Teutonic reserve was surrounded, Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and the Order's senior officers were killed, and the Teutonic camp was taken. The battlefield museum's synthesis of the sources puts the Order's dead at 203 of roughly 250 members present.

The victors captured 51 Teutonic banners, which surviving evidence records being carried to Kraków and hung in the cathedral. The next day Jagiełło ordered von Jungingen's body covered in purple and sent to Malbork for burial.

Within days Prussian towns and castles began expelling Teutonic garrisons and submitting to Jagiełło — but Heinrich von Plauen, who had missed the battle, reached Malbork on 18 July and organised the defence that kept the field victory from destroying the Order.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

The armies' exact sizes are disputed; no contemporary source supplies a dependable full headcount.
The meaning of the Lithuanian withdrawal remains contested: Długosz described flight, while other scholars interpret at least part of it as a controlled feigned retreat.
Sven Ekdahl's source analysis and the 2014–2017 archaeological project challenge traditional maps of the battlefield. The precise deployment and principal fighting areas remain subjects of research.
Długosz's detailed account was written decades later. The near-contemporary Cronica conflictus is generally more valuable, but its authorship and eyewitness status are not completely settled.