Sophia of Halshan
Queen of Poland
1405 CE to 1461 CE
Sophia of Halshany (Belarusian: Sofja Halšanskaja; Lithuanian: Sofija Alšėniškė; Polish: Zofia Holszańska) (c. 1405–1461), is a Lithuanian princess of Halshany, Queen of Poland from (1422–1434), and the last wife of Jogaila.
World
The Great Crossroads
View →Related Events
Showing 6 events out of 6 total
The Prussian Confederation had in 1452 asked Frederick for mediation in their conflict with the Teutonic Order.
Disagreeing with the confederacy, Frederick had banned it and had ordered it to obey the Teutonic Order on December 5, 1453.
Faced with this situation, the Prussians send envoys to Poland—although the Prussian Confederation, under the influence of Thorn and the Pomeranian and Culmerland nobility, has already sought contact with the Poles.
They receive support, especially from Greater Poland and from the party of Queen Sophia of Halshany, mother of King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland.
The Bishop of Kraków, Zbigniew Oleśnicki, opposes this support and try to prevent war.
Casimir asks the Prussian Confederation for a more formal petition.
The Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master on February 14, 1454.
Two days later, the confederacy starts its rebellion and soon almost all Prussia, except for Marienburg, Stuhm (Sztum), and …
…Konitz (Chojnice), are free from Teutonic rule.
Most of the captured Ordensburg castles are immediately destroyed.
The confederacy sends an official delegation to Poland, headed by Johannes von Baysen, on February 10, 1454.
The delegates, in Kraków by February 20, have asked Casimir to bring Prussia into the Polish kingdom.
After negotiating the exact conditions of incorporation, the king agrees and delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to Casimir on March 6, 1454.
On the same day, the king agrees to all the conditions of the Prussian delegates—for instance, Thorn has demanded the destruction of the Polish city of Nieszawa—giving wide privileges to the Prussian cities and nobility.
Three days later, Johannes von Baysen is named as the first governor of Prussia.
Casimir marries Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of the late King of the Romans Albert II of Habsburg by his late wife Elisabeth of Bohemia, on March 10.
Her distant relative Frederick of Habsburg, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1452, will reign as Frederick III until after Casimir's own death.
The marriage strengthens the ties between the house of Jagiello and the sovereigns of Hungary-Bohemia and puts Casimir at odds with the Holy Roman Emperor through internal Habsburg rivalry.
Elisabeth's brother is King Ladislaus the Posthumous.
Most of the Prussian estates, with the exception of the Bishopric of Warmia, pledge allegiance to their new ruler after April 15.
Poland sends the Grand Master a declaration of war, predated to February 22.
Both sides expect the war to end quickly.
Poland is in conflict with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1454: although Casimir IV is Grand Duke of Lithuania as well as King of Poland, Lithuania will send no aid during the war to Poland, and aside from a few ineffective raids, will not participate during the conflict.
There is also the threat of attack by the Grand Duchy of Moscow and by the Ottoman Empire, which had sacked Constantinople in 1453.
Elsewhere, the international situation is quite good for Poland, as no outside states are likely to intervene.
The southern border of Poland is more or less secure because of the weakness of the Bohemia resulting from the Hussite Wars.
Bohemia’s internal problems render it unable to directly intervene in the conflict.
The Hanseatic League sympathizes with the Prussian cities but backs the Teutonic Knights because the order grants them additional privileges.
The Livonian Order, embroiled in problems with Denmark, is unable to help the Teutonic Knights in Prussia.
Because of the conflict between Sweden and Denmark, both sides will stay more or less neutral in the coming conflict.
France and England are too weakened after the Hundred Years' War; England is soon to be embroiled in a civil war, the Wars of the Roses.
The Duke of Burgundy, Flanders, and the Netherlands, Philip the Good, is more interested in creating an independent Kingdom of Burgundy.
Pope Nicholas V's primary concern is dealing with the Ottoman Turks.
The Teutonic army has around nine thousand cavalry and six thousand infantry under Bernard Szumborski.
The Polish army has sixteen thousand cavalry, a few thousand servants (who can be and usually are used in battles), a few hundred infantry, plus five hundred mercenaries and burghers from Gdańsk and two thousand mercenaries hired by the Prussian Confederacy, all under the command of King Casimir IV, advised by chancellor Jan Koniecpolski and Piotr from Szczekociny.
The Polish commanders are counting on the battle of Chojnice 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 Szumborski, nonetheless, has planned a totally different kind of battle.
The Polish defeat is complete.
Three thousand bodies are left on the battlefield, three hundred knights are captured by the Teutons, including three main commanders: Mikolaj Szarlejski, Łukasz Górka, and Wojciech Kostka from Postupice.
The Teutonic Knights lose only around a hundred men.
Bernard Szumborski, is however, formally a Polish prisoner, since he had given a knight's word.
The battle proves that discipline and improved tactics, combined with a talented commander, can win against a larger, but more traditional army.
The Poles pay the price for ignoring terrain, infantry and artillery.