THE LITHUANIAN UNION 99What actually happened is hard to say. Polish history books attribute the victory
to the Polish royal guard, who charged from their station round the King to
smash the Teutonic centre after the Lithuanians gave way. Russian sources
stress the role of the regiments from Smolensk who moved to the attack when
the Poles gave way. Most modern history books treat the Battle as a national, if
not a racial, contest between German and Slav - which of course it was not. In
German mythology, it was a catastrophe not revenged until the victory at
nearby Tannenberg in August 1914. In Soviet mythology, it is a precursor of the
Battle of Stalingrad. At all events, the Grand Master did not obtain a favourable
result. The headquarters of the Order had to be hurriedly moved to Konigsberg,
as the Marienburg was besieged. At the Treaty of Thorn, signed on 1 February
1411, existing frontiers were confirmed and free trade on the Vistula assured.
The Order made a conditional retreat from Samogitia. It was a very tame treaty
for such a famous battle.
In the middle of the century, the Thirteen Years War was fought over eastern
Pomerania, or as it had now been re-christened, West Prussia. In 1454, the lead-
ing cities of the province - Danzig, Thorn, Elbing - had revolted against the
Order, formed the Prussian League, and sought the protection of the Polish
King. An 'Act of Incorporation of Royal Prussia' was signed in Cracow on 6
March 1454. After one early disaster at Chojnice, the Polish army recovered,
occupied the Marienburg in 1457, and at Zarnowiec in 1462 threw its Knights
on to the defensive. The second Treaty of Thorn, signed on 19 October 1466,
partitioned the Teutonic State into two halves. The western half was to remain
within the Polish Kingdom as the autonomous province of Royal Prussia with
its own Diet. The eastern half, now called East Prussia, was to remain in the
control of the Order, but as a Polish fief. The Livonian Land of the Teutonic
State remained independent. In German History, this cruel 'Partition of Prussia'
which so affronted Carlyle, was to be used as an explanation of the Partitions of
Poland initiated by Frederick the Great in the eighteenth century.
Despite these preoccupations, the Jagiellonian states continued to expand in
other directions. The Lithuanians continued to march southwards and east-
wards. Despite his defeat on the Vorskla, Witold reached the mouth of the
Dnieper. In 1403, he took control of eastern Podolia. For their part, the Poles
moved into western Podolia, founding the Wojewodztwo of Podolia at
Kamieniec in 1430. Thus the fifteenth century saw Poland and Lithuania not
only gently expanding, but competing to expand into the same regions.
Over this same period, the Jagiellonian state assumed the missionary role of
the Teutonic Knights. In 1387, Wladyslaw-Jagiello went straight to Vilnius
from his wedding in Cracow, and decreed the abolition of the pagan gods. The
groves of sacred oaks were felled; the statue of Perkun overturned; the eternal
fire extinguished. Vilnius became 'Wilno'. The Bishopric of Wilno was founded,
with a vast endowment. Those lords who accepted the new faith were offered
their personal freedom. The common people were baptized in droves, everyone
at each mass ceremony receiving the same white smock and the same Christian