Grunwald Swords - Battle of Grunwald

Battle of Grunwald

See also: Battle of Grunwald

The battle of Grunwald was part of the Great War fought during 1409–1411 between a Polish-Lithuanian coalition led by King Vladislaus II (Jogaila or Władysław Jagiełło) and Grand Duke Vytautas (Alexander) on one side and the Teutonic Order aided by West European knights and led by Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen on the other side. It was a decisive battle of the war and one of the largest in medieval Europe.

As both sides were preparing for the battle in the morning of 15 July 1410, two heralds carrying two unsheathed swords were announced to King Vladislaus. According to Jan Długosz's chronicle, they bore the coats of arms of their respective masters: a black eagle in a golden field of King Sigismund of the Romans, and a red griffin in a silver field of Duke Casimir V of Pomerania. The heralds had been sent by the grand master to Vladislaus and Vytautas, but since the latter was busy making his troops ready for the battle, it was only the king, accompanied by his closest aides, who received the envoys. The heralds spoke in German while the royal secretary, Jan Mężyk of Dąbrowa, served as an interpreter. They delivered, according to Długosz, the following message:

Your Majesty! The Grand Master Ulryk sends you and your brother (...) through us, the deputies standing here, two swords for help so that you, with him and his army, may delay less and may fight more boldly than you have shown, and also that you will not continue hiding and staying in the forest and groves, and will not postpone the battle. And if you believe that you have too little space to form your ranks, the Prussian master Ulryk, to entice you to battle, will withdraw from the plain which he took for his army, as far as you want, or you may instead choose any field of battle so that you do not postpone the battle any longer. —Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen's envoys, according to Jan Długosz, Annales...

As they spoke, Teutonic forces did, in fact, withdraw from previously occupied positions. The king accepted the swords and, according to the letter he later wrote to his wife, responded with the following words:

We accept the swords you send us, and in the name of Christ, before whom all stiff-necked pride must bow, we shall do battle. —King Vladislaus II, Letter to Queen Anna of Celje

While sending swords as a formal gesture challenging the enemy to battle was customary at that time, adding insults was not. Hence the envoys' speech was considered grossly boastful and impudent, as can be seen from a letter sent by Jan Hus to King Vladislaus where the Bohemian religious reformer praised the Polish-Lithuanian victory at Grunwald as a triumph of humility over pride.

Where, then, are the two swords of the enemies? They were indeed cut down with those swords with which they tried to terrify the humble! Behold, they sent you two swords, the swords of violence and of pride, and have lost many thousands of them, having been utterly defeated. —Jan Hus, Letter to King Vladislaus II, 1411