DIPLOMATIE UND SÖLDNERWERBUNG VOR DER SCHLACHT BEI ŽALGIRIS
DIPLOMACY AND RECRUITMENT OF MERCENARIES BEFORE THE BATTLE OF ŽALGIRIS

Summary/Abstract: During the months preceding the battle of Žalgiris (Tannenberg/Grunwald) the diplomatic activity of the countries involved was intense. After the suc¬cessful campaign of the Teutonic Order against Poland in 1409 an armistic was concluded on 8 October between Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and King Jagiełło (Jogaila) of Poland and the war was postponed until the end of St John’s Day in 1410. The truce did not include Grand Duke Vytautas and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. An arbitration had to be announced by King Venceslas of Bohemia on 9 February 1410 at the latest. In the meantime, in December 1409, Jagiełło and Vytautas met at Brest-Litowsk in order to discuss and prepare a campaign against Prussia after the end of the armistic. Ulrich von Jungingen for his part con-cluded a treaty against Poland with King Sigismund (or Sigmund) of Hungary, vicarius generalis of the Holy Roman Empire. According to a Prussian chronicler the arbitration of King Venceslas was pronounced in Prague on 8 February 1410. It was clearly in favour of the Teutonic Knights and was therefore not accepted by the Polish delegates who left the Bohemian capital in anger. Sigismund now decided to replace his brother Venceslas as a mediator and arranged a meeting with Vytautas in the Hungarian city of Käsmark (the German name; in Hungarian Késmárk, in Polish Kieżmark, today Kežmarok in Slovakia). He obviously tried to break up the Polish-Lithuanian union by offering the Lithuanian Grand Duke a king’s crown, but without success. He also got in contact with Jagiełło, who dwelled nearby in the town of Nowy Sącz on the Polish side of the border. The most important result of the negotiations in Käsmark was the decision to meet again in the Prussian city of Thorn (Polish: Toruń) in June, before the end of the truce betweeen Prussia and Poland. It was expected to be a most important meeting between the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the Lithuanian Grand Duke and the Kings of Poland and Hungary. Ulrich von Jungingen got this message by the king’s emissary on 11 May and immediately stopped the preparations for an intended surprise attack on Poland on 1 June. He had regarded such an attack as legitimate, because the Poles had rejected the arbitration by King Venceslas, and had for that purpose secretely recruited 1,800 mercenaries. Now his war machinery had been brought to a standstill by his mighty ally. However, neither the kings of Hungary and Poland, nor the grand duke of Lithuania appeared in Thorn, where Ulrich von Jungingen expected them to come in mid June. The most fateful consequence of the decision in Käsmark and the broken off preparations for a surprise attack on Poland on 1 June 1410 influenced the recruitment of mercenaries by the Order. The Grand Master had started a recruiting campaign, but stopped it immediately after receiving the message from Si¬gismund on 11 May.

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