The Battle of Chojnice (or Battle of Konitz) occurred on 18 September 1454 near the town of

Chojnice Chojnice (; , or ''Chòjnice''; german: Konitz or ''Conitz'') is a town in northern Poland with 39,423 inhabitants as of December 2021, near the Tuchola Forest. It is the capital of the Chojnice County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. History Pias ...

, between

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

during the Thirteen Years' War. The battle was won by the Teutonic Knights.

Background

The Teutonic army had around 9,000 cavalry and 6,000 infantry under Bernhard von Zinnenberg. The Polish army had 16,000 cavalry, a few thousand servants (who could and usually were used in battles), a few hundred infantry, plus 500 mercenaries and burghers from

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

and 2,000 mercenaries hired by the Prussian Confederacy, all under the command of King Casimir IV, advised by

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Jan Koniecpolski and Piotr of Szczekociny. The Polish commanders were counting on the battle being won by the Polish heavy cavalry, not caring much about either artillery or infantry. They had not thought that their opponents could change their traditional strategy, or that the Teutonic soldiers besieged in Chojnice could be anything more than spectators. Bernard von Zinnenberg, nonetheless, had planned a totally different kind of battle.

Battle

At the beginning everything went as expected, following the pattern of many other battles between the Poles and Teutonic Knights. The Polish cavalry charged, breaking the Teutonic lines, killing Duke Rudolf of Sagan and even capturing Bernhard von Zinnenberg. The Teutonic cavalry tried to break through the Polish lines and escape to Chojnice; however, infantry grouped at the Teutonic

Wagenburg A wagon fort, wagon fortress, or corral, often referred to as circling the wagons, is a temporary fortification made of wagons arranged into a rectangle, circle, or other shape and possibly joined with each other to produce an improvised milit ...

broke with tradition and offered a very good defense against the mounted troops. Then a sudden sally from Chojnice at the back of the Polish army caused panic. Bernhard von Zinnenberg managed to release himself and organised the pursuit; hundreds of Poles, including Piotr of Szczekociny, were killed during the rout or drowned in nearby marshland. The Polish King fought on with great personal courage and his knights had to force him to leave the battlefield.

Aftermath

The Polish defeat was complete. 3,000 bodies were left on the battlefield, 300 knights were captured by the Teutonic Knights, including three main commanders: Mikolaj Szarlejski, Łukasz Górka, and Vojtěch Kostka of Postupice. The Teutonic Knights lost only around 100 men. Bernhard von Zinnenberg, was however, formally a Polish prisoner, since he gave a knight's word.

References

Bibliography

* Jacek Knopek, Bogdan Kuffel: Bitwa pod Chojnicami 18 IX 1454 r. w tradycji historycznej i regionalnej. Chojnice: Biblioteka Chojnicka, 2004. {{coord, 53.700000, 17.566667, format=dms, display=title, type:event 1454 in Europe