Chapter 9 - The Teutonic-Hanseatic War, pt 1
Part 1: The Danzig Confederation
"The theretofore Imperial free cities within the lands of the Teutonic Order, having had their vassalage shifted from directly to Holy Roman Emperor now to the Order-State under Imperial Edict in 1415, now faced a dilemma. Previously, they had enjoyed significant protection and relative autonomy under the Hanseatic League, which bargained collectively with the Empire on behalf of the member cities for favorable trade conditions, tax exemptions, etc. They had payed taxes to the Order in war-time, but otherwise remained largely independent of the Order's administration. Now they owed allegiance solely to the Teutonic Order and its cadet branch, the Livonian Order in Terra Mariana. This worried the merchants and guilders, who called upon the Hanseatic diet in Lübeck to challenge the edict. This resulted in the League invoking the alliance of the old Confederation of Cologne---of the original confederation, only the Hanseatic members assented to the invocation, as well as new members: Hamburg, Visby, Danzig, Riga, Reval and Dorpat joined what became known as the Danzig Confederation, for the first Prussian city to call for the Edict's repeal."
- from "The Rise of the Modern Prussian State" (1)
Prelude to War
Hockmeister-Prinz Kuno von Lichtenstein, at the start of his tenure in early 1416, had hoped that the repeal of the war-tax provision and introduction of new protections under the Order would assuage the cities, but he had not counted out the possibility of a refutation of his policy. However, he had not anticipated an outright revolt by the League's member cities, much less the formation of a proper alliance against the Order. Now the Order, whose recent expansionism and record of past treatment of the Hanseatic cities within its lands painted for itself a not altogether flattering picture, becomes an easy target for the cities' angst and outrage at the Edict. Of course, Emperor Sigismund intervenes in short order, for the refutation was in actuality less a domestic upheaval within the Order-State but rather more so a direct affront to imperial authority.
The League is well-known for its history of directly and indirectly influencing imperial policy and authority within its member cities and abroad. They have in the past used military force with extreme prejudice in order to secure favorable trading rights and privileges, most recently against the Kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden and their privateer agents. However, now the full weight of the Empire and her chief regional proxy, the Teutonic Order, bears down upon them
(2).
Opening Moves
The conflict opens into hostilities in March of 1416 when the Confederation's member cities close their harbors and ports to imperial and Teutonic merchants and ships. In Prussia, Kuno receives the authority from the
Generalkapitel for a limited summons of the army. Banners from Prussia's commandries begin to converge, careful to avoid interception by rebels, near the loyalist capital of Königsberg.
The Teutonic fleet, moored at Danzig, is seized by the rebels. Not only removed from play, the fleet, its station and garrison caught off-guard and captured, becomes a major asset for the Confederation. The Order theretofore had fielded the largest single fleet in the Baltic---some fifty cogs and round ships of varying sizes, with which the Order had commanded the Baltic since the 1390s
(3). Now that fleet joins the Confederation's combined flotilla, and with it, supremacy in the Baltic. The Order is thus forced to wage a ground campaign.
April begins with the siege of Elbing, in Warmia province. So close to the Order's capital, and thus under significant pressure, it capitulates within the month. The seasonal rains only aid the sieging army, as a torrential downpour prevents Hanseatic fleet detachments, replete with supplies, from nearing the harbor. On April 29th, the city leadership surrenders to the Order---renunciation of and resignation from the Hanseatic League, pledging their full support of the Edict and swearing fealty to the Order-State. These terms are kind for an unconditional surrender---Kuno wishes, after all, to bring the cities to the Order's fold, not make enemies where he does not have to, and thus avoids the opportunity to 'make an example' of the first city to surrender.
The Livonian Order fares worse in its campaign to suppress the Hanseats within its lands. For the first year of the conflict, rebels in Riga, Reval and Dorpat, aided by the supply-bearing Hanseatic flotilla, would break and repel every Livonian siege attempt. On one occasion, in late June, Hanseatic forces in Riga sally out at the Livonians, bringing bombards to bear against them, and completely rout the latter. The surrounding towns eventually join the Hanseatic cause, them being sympathetic to their plight, which they see not as an affront to the Empire but rather as a fight for their existence as free cities. In this way, as the Livonian Order loses ground to the rebels, the Terra Mariana becomes a Hanseatic stronghold and symbol of resistance of imperial authority.
The Siege of Danzig
In Prussia, the Hanseats fare far worse, as the Teutonic army besieges the rebel cities along the Weichsel. Starved of supplies and reinforcements, as the Order controls the river south of Danzig, the Hanseatic garrisons at Kulm and Thorn eventually surrender, on the 14th and 30th of June, respectively. These cities suffer far worse at the Order's hands, and surrender under the same terms as those at the surrender of Elbing. Casualties to the Order's forces are significant, inflicted by disease and during assaults on both city's walled and well-defended centers, but not so high as to forbid further campaigning. It is, thus, with a sort of 'victor's high' that the remaining Teutonic force marches north on Danzig, joyful and singing, sure of their eventual triumph. The Hanseats there have had time to consolidate their hold of the city and prepare for a long siege. Having received word both of their brethren's successes in the northeast as well as defeats to the south, they steel themselves with resolve and determination.
On the sixth anniversary of the Order's victory at Grunwald, the Teutonic army announces the beginning of its siege of the Confederation's namesake city, and offers the defenders the same terms of surrender forced upon the defeated Elbingers---kind of the Order, and generous, but the Danzigers refuse. Thus begins a siege that would last the rest of the campaign season.
Danzig has 3,000 defenders at the beginning of the siege and a small wing of cavalry, numbering some 400. A further 4,000 Hanseatic infantry and crossbowmen will arrive via flotilla during its course.
The Teutonic army at the outset of the siege has twelve banners from as many commandries---a force of 3,500 men-at-arms, 3,000 crossbowmen, and a further thousand peasant levies and conscripts outfitted as spearmen and skirmishers comprise the infantry. Fifty-four knight-brothers and a further five hundred half-brothers, sergeants, squires, and mounted men-at-arms make up the cavalry component. Over the course of the siege, the Order will add a further eight banners (some 4,000 infantry and another 500 mounted cavalry) to these numbers.
Both forces bring artillery pieces to bear on one another: the defenders twelve bombards, and the Order eight. These are used to some effect by both sides, inflicting several casualties, and suppressed only by inclement weather. However, these crude bombards are used more for their intimidation factor than their actual damage-dealing potential. Noteworthy, though, is the role of the Teutonic bombardment in finally opening the city.
July ends with a stalemate. The defenders are too well-prepared and the Hanseatic flotilla keeps them well-supplied and reinforced. The Teutonic reinforcements are quick to arrive from loyalist towns and commandries south and east of the city. August, too, ends after multiple attempts by both sides to decide the matter, each enduring significant casualties, each failing to achieve anything meaningful or decisive. September brings more rain, and two more major attempts by Teutonic forces, their commanders growing impatient, particularly the increasingly frustrated and upset Hochmeister Kuno. With casualties beginning to mount, Kuno calls for increased reinforcement---five banners, re-routed from their original objective north in Livonia, to decide the matter. When this force arrives in early October, another massive assault on the city is mounted, with Kuno at its head.
The Battle of Danzig
The initial bombardment and assault on the main gate, at dawn on October 8th, proves successful in opening the city and gaining the gatehouse, but a counterattack pushes Teutonic forces back, across the bridge and outside the walls, under a hail of missiles. Spear-armed militias and guards, the stout defenders, form a shield wall at the mouth of the ruined gate, already ruined by bombard fire and set alight and burning by a Teutonic vanguard before they are surrounded and killed by the counterattacking Danzigers. Four knights are killed in this melee, alongside twenty or so sergeants and men-at-arms.
The mounted Knights attempt to charge the hastily-formed wall of men, but break off under sustained missile fire, unable to break the bristling formation. Kuno and his commanders are forced to regroup and change tactics mid-assault. The defenders meanwhile erect a barricade from the ruined gate and gatehouse to prevent further entry and charge attempts.
On the Teutonic left flank, under Marshal Albrecht von Schwartzburg, the Knights enjoy more success. Two hours into the battle, heavy infantry, followed by crossbows, gain a section of wall with bridges, ladders and ropes. This force pushes along the battlements, through the broken defenders there and toward the barricade, which has become the center of the defense. The right flank, led by the valiant Frederic von Wallenrode, slayer of Vytautas and hero of Grunwald, enjoys similar success and begins to clear defenders from bastions and battlements along the southern estuary They are repulsed, however, and sustain such casualties that the entire right flank falls back outside missile range. Frederic is wounded by bolts in his left shoulder and thigh, and his aides drag him to safety.
At mid-morning with the situation at the center grinding to a stalemate, Kuno, desperate to break the city, leads three thousand infantry and knights in a charge on the embattled right flank. This renewed assault breaks the beleaguered defenders and pushes into the city, overtaking the city on and south of the Mottlau
(4). His advance is only halted when he attempts to cross that river by crossbowmen and scratch companies of civilians, roused to action by the defenders, on the north bank. The bridges crossing the Mottlau are blocked or otherwise rendered inaccessible by these new defenders, and Kuno is forced to consolidate his captured, rather empty portion of the city and reconnect with the rest of his army to the west.
By mid-day, the Order's left, right and center finally link up and begin the final assault on the town center. Having finally gained the main gate from the tiring defenders, the Teutonic main battle, under the joint command of Marshal Heinrich von Plauen and Tomas von Merheim, pushes in through Danziger and Hanseat defenders alike. Kuno finally gains the northern bank of the Mottlau and continues north through the city. The Teutonic left consolidates and pushes south and east. The defenders and what remains of the citizenry, completely broken, fall back to the
Marienkirche at the town center
(5). Civilians are rushed inside the partially-built cathedral church while the Hanseatic remnants form up outside.
Kuno rides down the
Hauptstraße at the head of a much-battered Teutonic army in the early afternoon. The city is all but his. He is relieved to see the white flag of surrender flying over the poorly-assembled barricades outside the cathedral. The scene---the defenders standing or kneeling, leaning on each other for support, barely holding their pikes and spears erect, the cathedral rising above them; the sounds of wailing women and children echoing from the unfinished, tall windows of the church, all but crowding out the noise of hasty, desperate last orders and encouragements shouted by Hanseat commanders---moves him greatly and, exhausted, he almost falls off his horse, in tears.
The city's unconditional surrender is given by the city's surviving leadership and accepted by Kuno and his officers. The terms offered at the outset of the siege remain---Danzig formally accepts the Order's lordship and renounces its patrons, the Hanseatic League.
The War Continues
The defeat at Danzig is a severe blow to the Hanseatic war effort. The Danzig Confederation is immediately renamed the Baltic Confederation. This new incarnation would continue the war effort through the winter and into the next year...
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1) This source is, retroactively, the main fictional source from which this narrative is derived.
2) Closer and closer ties between the Emperor and the Order...the Order-State is being recognized as an official princely agent of the Emperor.
3) Estimated fleet size; the Order -did- have the biggest fleet in the Baltic OTL, pre-Grunwald.
4) The Motlawa River---Danzig/Gdansk sits on both rivers, but the Vistula/Weichsel is the main economic artery.
5) 'St. Mary's Church, Gdansk', construction commenced in 1379, hence it is here described as 'unfinished'.
6) Yes, I realize the map of Danzig/Gdansk featured here is a much more modern one (20th century I think). I also resized it, as the original is much larger. Sorry if it is hard to read.
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[Author's note: This felt really good to write, and I think this will be the style I write in from here on out. Thanks for bearing with me as I 'find myself' as far as the writing style/process goes. Enjoy!]
