Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466)
| Thirteen Years’ War | |||||||||
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| Part of Polish–Teutonic Wars | |||||||||
The Polish melee infantry (right), crossbowmen (left) and some foot/dismounted knights (middle). | |||||||||
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The Thirteen Years' War (Polish: wojna trzynastoletnia; German: Dreizehnjähriger Krieg), also called the War of the Cities, was a conflict fought in 1454–1466 between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order.
After the enormous defeat suffered by the German Order at the hand of Poland-Lithuania in 1410 and the ensuing political, military and economic problems, the state was rife with internal conflict between the ruling Order and the native Prussian warlords, who shared concerns with assimilated Prussian and German townsfolk. Eventually this tension led to an uprising by the Prussian Confederation representing the local Prussian nobility and cities, who sought the protection of the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon. This essentially amounted to a switching of sides which the German Order immediately took as a mortal threat, and a war broke out between Poland and the Teutons.
The Thirteen Years' War ended in the victory of Poland and in the Second Peace of Toruń. The Teutonic Order became a Polish fief and its Grand Masters had to commit to homage to the Polish King within 6 months of acquiring power. This was honored for approximately the next two centuries with tensions rising seldomly during this period. The Teutonic Order also returned Eastern Pomerania to Poland after nearly 150 years and ceded the bishopric of Warmia, which together formed the so-called Royal Prussia, as both lands fell under direct rule of the Polish King. Tension quickly flared up afterward, and this was soon followed by the War of the Priests (1467–1479), a drawn-out dispute over the independence of Warmia, in which the Knights sought revision of the Peace. They yet again lost to Poland, which held onto its gains.