Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

The battle has ended and the Teutonic Knights were defeated. I watched the one hour reenactment of the battle. I was at the same time envious and felt sorry for the people who were there.

I felt the first because it looked truly awesome. Over 2000 people came to take part in the show. When those thousands of knights started to fight it almost looked like an actual battle and not just group of people who do it for fun and try not to harm each other. Basically it was like a historic movie but live. And with better costumes (people who take part in this are very, very insistent on being as historically accurate as possible).

BBC has some photos from the event. Some more photos from the battle.
And some battle moments from euronews channel:



I felt sorry both for the 150 000 - 200 000 crowd gathered to watch this and the actors as today was the hottest day of summer so far (for the last week it's been hotter in Poland then here in North Carolina). It was 35^oC in the shade (95^oF as internet calculator informs me). Probably over 40^oC (104^oF) in the sun. And I don't even want to think how hot it was in those shiny, metal armors. lets just say that the Teutonic Knights Grand master was happy to die and as he said himself get out of that hell. The weather during actual battle was pretty similar and the real battle took about 12 hours. And Poles made Teutons wait in the sun. No wonder some knights fainted in the battlefield.

In present time he spectators also had to spent hours in the incredible traffic jams to get and then leave battle field (and AC is not very common in cars in Poland - especially older ones). Paramedics had a lot of work today and the signals of ambulances were drowning the battle noise from time to time. Still most people looked like they had fun and enjoyed the show.

Today is the 600th anniversary of battle of Grunwald; one of the biggest and most important battles of Medieval Europe.

The Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem was brought in to help convert Prussians - group of people who lived near Baltic Sea. After they subdued Prussians and took over they lands, they started to raid Lithuanians who were still pagan then. There were also border and trade conflicts with Poland. This led to Polish-Lithuanian union. Lithuania (or at least it's leaders) converted to Christianity and the Grand Duke Jogaila married the Queen of Poland so both countries were united under the same ruler. Or more precisely he became a co-King of Poland with his wife Jadwiga. Jadwiga was the rightful hair of Polish crown and, although the law stated the Queen couldn't rule by herself, it didn't say the King had to be male. So Jadwiga was crowned King of Poland and Jogaila was crowned as King along her. As Jogaila resided in Poland Lithuania was ruled by his brother Vytautas.

Unfortunately Jadwiga died in childbirth but her husband ruled Poland for many years after. During that time the relations between Poland and Lithuania and the Teutonic Order grew worse. Teutonic Knights even disputed sincerity of the conversion and used this to rally help from knights from rest of Europe. The tension finally resulted in war.

The Polish and Lithuanian armies met and then marched together toward the seat of Teutonic Knights Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen - the Malbork castle. The Knights decided to march against the incoming armies. The two forces met near village that is now known as Grunwald.

The Polish-Lithuanian forces were more numerous. The Teutonic order had more heavy knights and they were more skilled. The battle was one of the most important moments in history of the region. It was used in the national propaganda in all countries of the region from Russia to Germany. For Poles it's one of the defining moments in history. Our Agnicourt. Because we won.

This was the start of Golden Age. The Jagiellon dynasty started by Jogaila ruled over a country that stretched from Baltic to Black sea and was at that time biggest country in Europe.

The reenactment of the Battle happens every year on the Saturday nearest to the anniversary. What started as a few enthusiast getting together, now evolved into a full recreation of medieval battle with knights coming from all over Europe. This year the big event will take part on 17th and there going to be over 2000 people reenacting the battle. And thousands are expected to come and see it on site. Polish television will be transmitting the event. I hope some of it will land on TV Polonia's site. I want to see it too.