The Last Summoner

Teutonic Knights...Northern Crusaders...

The harsh winters of Prussia, Livonia and Lithuania in the Northern Baltic, forced the Teutonic Knights to adopt a different strategy than their southern brethren. The winters were so fierce that the infantry died on the march; the snow was so deep that the cavalry rode single file through trenches where the snow had been cut away. At times the snow was too thick to travel through...A mild winter could be worse: frozen rivers might not be strong enough to support horses or mud would make tracks impassable. 

The severe winters took a great toll on the horses.The waterlogged ground provided ill ground for pasture, producing sour and tough grass. Sodden and spongy hooves broke under heavy burdens, skin saturated in raw muddy conditions produced rain scald and mud fever.

The Order's Tresslerbuch documented the loss of 50 destriers (war-horses), trotters and other horses during one campaign in western Lithuania in the summer of 1402.

Excerpt from The Last Summoner (Starfire) by Nina Munteanu on the eve of the Battle of Grunwald:

"I have a message for you from your Hospital Grossmeister," Vivianne cut Marschalk off and kept her gaze directed at von Jungingen. "He begs you to please reconsider placing the horses on higher ground out of the bog." She held out the note with a deep bow and dropped her gaze to the ground. The heat of the day, trapped in her knight's garb, was starting to get oppressive.

"Oh, does he..." von Jungingen said in a rather surly tone...finally snatching the note and skimming its contents. "Since when does Werner use castle riffraff to deliver his commandments?" He'd obviously recognized her castle knight trappings..."Perhaps," the Hochmeister went on, "Werner should have sent the drunken baron to find him some higher ground, though I can't imagine him finding anything outside of a pot of beer--"

"My father isn't that--" She cut herself off too late. She'd blurted it out.

Von Jungingen stared at her then suddenly frowned. He abruptly reached forward and gruffly pulled off her bascinet, forcing her head forward with a hard snap. Eyes now flashing, he pushed off her mail hood. Dark curls of long hair cascaded over her shoulders. 

The Battle of Grunwald Trailer 2

The Battle of Grunwald Trailer

Recruitment to the Teutonic Knightly Order differed from other military orders mostly because of the ministeriales (Dientsmann=men of service), which meant servant. By the 1250s ministerialis made up over 75% of the Teutonic force, often coming from humble, artisan and serf backgrounds. Twelve percent of the brothers came from the upper aristocracy, 7% from knightly families and 4% from other classes. While essentially unfree serfs, the ministerialis began to enjoy recognition as noblemen, increasingly living in castles and entitled to 'judgement by their peers' and indulging in personal feuds. In medieval Germany they became a true 'aristocracy of service'. By the 14th Century--100 years before Vivianne's time and the Battle of Grunwald--the aristocratic status of German ministerialis was generally accepted and their bond of serfdom finally vanished. Many joined the Ritterschaft (class of knights) in Imperial Germany's many territorial principalities (including those within Prussia).

dungeon in Chateau de Chillon, near Montreux Switzerland

Chateau de Chillon was an epicenter for witch hunts in Switzerland during the 1400s through to 1500s and many "witches" were kept there. The Pays de Vaud was the site of major witch-hunts during that time. More than 2,000 "witches" were burned there. Chillon Castle became an important detention centre for individuals suspected of witchcraft, either awating trial or execution. Golden Anna was the last person in Europe to be condemned as a witch. She was executed in 1982 in the Protestant canton of Glarus, Switzerland.

The reflections of a Lady Knight, Poland in 1410:

...The age of the chivalrous knight was dissolving, Vivianne lamented. Too many lords, like her father, had resorted to hiring mercenaries to battle for them. The plague, incessant war, increasingly inhospitable winters and famine, loss of critical trade routes and great unrest had conspired to reduce the work force and corrupt the joy in the world.

It was an interesting and troubled age she was living in, Vivianne contemplated. A world of great mistrust and growing evil...

excerpt from The Last Summoner by Nina Munteanu

The Castle at Marienburg, Teutonic Prussian stronghold in 1410 

The Ironies and Intrigues of the Battle of Grunwald: Part 1 

The 1410 Battle of Grunwald was one of the largest and most significant battles in medieval history. Fought between the Polish and Lithuanian alliance against the Teutonic Order in what is currently Poland, the battle and ensuing events were, in fact, fraught with ironies and intrigue. The battle still conjures fierce nationalistic feelings on many fronts. As if to claim it as their own, it is referred to as Grunwald to the Polish, Tannenberg to the Germans and Zalgiris to the Lithuanians. 

The battle between Nazis and Russians in 1914 in the same location fuelled its use as a symbol of the struggle between Germans and Slavs and between Communism and National Socialism. It was as though this location hungered for fame and ironic notoriety. 

By some remarkable twist of irony, the 1410 Battle of Grunwald, while representing a decisive win for the Polish/Lithuanian alliance, was fought at the beginning of the conflict and not its end. This battle represents a 50-year war between the Teutonic Order and the united kingdom of Poland/Lithuania. But it was fought at the beginning of the conflict; not its end. Historian and scholar Stephen Turnbull tells us that “There can be few other examples in history of battle so decisively won and a subsequent campaign that so singularly failed to achieve its aims. Despite their crushing victory at Tannenberg, the Polish/Lithuanian army failed to capture Marienburg, key fortress and capital of the Teutonic state.”

They’d won the battle; now they had to win the war. And on the day after, on the morning of July 16th, 1410, the united kingdom of Poland and Lithuania could literally taste victory: thousands of the Teutonic Order’s troops and allies—including the Order’s best knights—lay dead alongside the corpse of their Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen. The Teutonic Order had been all but beaten. Over half of the Teutonic troops had been taken and virtually all of the Order’s high command were killed in the battle or executed soon after. All the alliance had to do was capture the Order’s Prussian headquarters at Marienburg, and wipe them out once and for all. Despite losing most of its knights and virtually all of her high command, the Teutonic Order was to survive. It survives to this day, though in very different form. 

Two days after its crushing win, the Polish/Lithuanian army marched at a slow pace to Marienburg. Too slow, as it turned out; it gave Heinrich von Plauen, the new Grand Master, a chance to reach Marienburg with some 2,000 men to defend the Prussian castle and associated Knights’ territories. It would be fifty years after Grunwald, when Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen signed the second Treaty of Thorn, finally accomplishing King Wladislaw Jagiello’s objective to collapse the Teutonic Order. The final blow came when the Grand Master, faced with having to pay his mercenary knights, pledged over 20 of his towns, including Marienburg itself, to the soldiers.  A hundred years later, in 1511, the military Order of the Teutonic Knights disappeared and became a secularized entity.

Prussia 800-1400 AD

Archangel by Polish illustrator Mariusz Kozik (Lacedemon) of Lublin City

"Polish knights, like their German and other neighbours, were expected to arm themselves and their retainers, the numbers of the latter depending upon a knight's wealth and the value of his territorial fief. The most numerous military followings were those of the so-called barones or barons, while the nobiles or middle-ranking knights led smaller forces; the retinues themselves were made up of warriors who did not usually own land. Alongside these landless fighting men were the 'created knights', maintained or organized by the advocati or mayors of Poland's increasing number of towns, and the sculteti, who were effectively village administrators or headmen.

The ruler had the right to call upon these knights at any time he considered it necessary, and would employ two distinct forms of mobilization. The first system of service was known as infra terram, which meant a summons in defence of the realm. The second was called extra terram, which, as its name indicates, meant campaigning outside the country."