WI: Teutonic Order annexed by the Commonwealth

Isaac Beach

Banned
Something that I cannot fathom and that is almost certainly a contribution to their eventual demise -though of course in a rather roundabout way- is why the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth failed to annex the Teutonic Order after the Battle of Grunwald, or any time thereafter such as the Treaty of Melno or at the Peace of Brześć Kujawski. They had like four or five chances to annex an emasculated and completely defeated enemy and never did. Before anything else; why?

That aside, what if it had been annexed? Under what circumstances would this need to occur and how would it affect the Commonwealth thereafter? Would it still falter and fall apart after the end of the Jagiellonian Dynasty or could this present enough butterflies for Poland to remain in existence in some form until the present day, perhaps even as a great power.
 
First, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth was founded in 1569 - before that, Poland and Lithuania were in personal union, they had a common ruler (king of Poland was also the Grand Duke of Lithuania).
Second, Poland and Lithuania were much too weak to completely annex the Order. Sure, they might have beaten it in battles, but the Order still controlled most of the castles and cities Prussia and both Poland and Lithuania were unable to field and mantain army strong enough to keep Prussia occupied and defeat every new army the Order might organize.
Third, Władysław II (Jagiełło / Jogaila) was relatively freshly baptized pagan; Lithuania was freshly baptized. Destruction of the monastic state by them might not be accepted by the Church and other Catholic kingdoms. IOTL at the Council of Constance Polish delegation had a lot of problems dealing with the Order's accusations against them, not entirely successfully.
Now, bigger territorial concessions form the Order would be possible, like taking Danzig, but complete destruction of the Order's state, was, IMHO, impossible.
Now, if we're talking about 1521, that was much more possible. Poland was strong enough to annex whole Prussia and it was seriously considered. Personally I believe that East Prussia would have been given a somewhat special status the Royal Prussia (Pomerelia) had, with limited autonomy. Evenually, however, I believe i would have been completely integrated with Poland.
Annexation of the Prussia then would be IMO, beneficial to Poland - many relatively wealthy towns and cities (especially Konigsberg); breaking Danzig's monopoly as main sea port of Poland; no rise of Kingdom of Prussia, which later was vital factor in the PLC downfal, etc. Nationality would not have been a factor, IMO - in 1454 it was mostly German burghers and knights in Prussia who rebelled against the Order and wanted to join Poland. Although it might be interesting to see eventual consequences in Prussian society; German noblemen of Prussia would have been invited to Polish Sejm and, obviously, would need to learn Polish and/or Latin. Would they have been Polonized? Not fully, but IMO they would have been treated just like another nation in the multinational Poland and later Commonwealth.
 
Have the Poles win the Battle of Chojnice in 1454. They had already found an agreement with the Prussian nobility and towns and divided the land into voievoidships.
The Order prevailed in Chojnice because of its post-Hussite mercenaries, while the ruszenie pospolite was famously underperforming. You`ll have to tweak that somehow.

If Prussia is completely annexed, the question is: What about Livonia?
For the PLC, it would have increased their presence in the Baltic and brought them into direct competition with the Kalmar kingdoms.
 

PhilippeO

Banned
Technically, after Prussian Homage, almost all land formerly owned by Tectonic Order did become part of Poland.
 
Not exactly. Being vassal of Poland was not the same as being part of Poland. It was, more or less, being officially Poland's satelite with significant autonomy. E.g. last dukes of Masovia, Stanisław and Janusz III were Polish vassals, but only after they died in 1524 (Stanisław) and 1526 (Janusz III), Masovia was incorporated into Poland.
 
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