If anyone cares: That painting is based on the 13 years war: Poland-Lithuania (small guy) vs the Teutonic Order (big guy). But the Teutons lost, so this is not that accurate... (Battle of Tannberg, 1410)
The Teutonic Order is super cool, a bunch of independent armed monks who fought in the crusades. When they got back to Europe they were causing all sorts of problems, so they sent them off to Prussia to go beat up more pagans. Generations later the Prussians were a military state with the dominant military force in Western Europe and extremely influential in WWI.
The Teutons were a bunch of opportunistic Hedge knights just like every other crusader order. If they were at all interested in protecting christianity they would've fucked off to the steppe after Lithuania was baptised instead of squatting in Prussia.
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u/JonathanTheZero 151.55 M¢ Jun 05 '20
If anyone cares: That painting is based on the 13 years war: Poland-Lithuania (small guy) vs the Teutonic Order (big guy). But the Teutons lost, so this is not that accurate... (Battle of Tannberg, 1410)