page_title: Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466)
section_title: 1455 to 1460
hierarchical_section_title: Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) / Overview / 1455 to 1460
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kopie nach einer Vorlage aus dem Alten Rathaus in Anklam; Brustbild.
context_page_description: The Thirteen Years' War, also called the War of the Cities, was a conflict fought in 1454–1466 between the Prussian Confederation, allied with the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and the State of the Teutonic Order.
  The war began as an uprising by Prussian cities and local nobility to win independence from the Teutonic Knights. In 1454 Casimir IV married Elisabeth of Habsburg and the Prussian Confederation asked Poland's King Casimir IV Jagiellon for help and offered to accept the king as protector instead of the Teutonic Order. When the King assented, war broke out between supporters of the Prussian Confederation, backed by Poland, and backers of government by the Teutonic Knights.
  The Thirteen Years' War ended in the victory of the Prussian Confederation and Poland and in the Second Peace of Thorn. This was soon followed by the War of the Priests, a drawn-out dispute over the independence of the Prussian Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, in which the Knights also sought revision of the Peace of Thorn.
context_section_description: The first negotiations between the two sides, conducted from January 9 to January 10, 1455, were unsuccessful. The situation became difficult for Casimir. To pay his mercenaries he had to borrow from the clergy. He decided to give two cities as a fief to Eric II of Pomerania from Stolp (Słupsk), hoping it would secure northern Pomerania. To calm opposition, Casimir later went to Lithuania, where he was forced to stay until the summer of 1455.
  In that situation the Teutonic Knights were able to recover the eastern part of Prussia, including the Königsberg towns of Altstadt and Löbenicht on April 17, 1455. They were aided by rebellions in the cities, caused by new large war taxes. The last East Prussian town loyal to the Polish king, Kneiphof, was taken on June 14, 1455 after a long siege by the Teutonic Knights commanded by Heinrich Reuss von Plauen the Elder. The Poles suffered defeat after defeat, and they later also lost Warmia (Ermeland).
  However, the Grand Master was unable to pay his mercenaries and they took Marienburg, Dirschau, and Eylau (Iława) in May 1455. Mercenaries under the Bohemian Ulrich Czerwonka (or Oldrzych) immediately started negotiations with Poland to discuss selling the castles.
  The international situation also became significantly worse. On March 25, Emperor Frederick III banned the Prussian Confederation, forbidding trade with its members. On September 24, 1455, Pope Callixtus III warned that he would excommunicate the Prussian Confederation and all its allies unless they made peace with the Order. In June 1455 the Teutonic Knights gained a new ally, King Christian I of Denmark, who declared war against Poland and the Prussian Confederation. This meant nothing more than a disturbance in trade, however, since Denmark was still busy fighting with Sweden.
  Shocked by the loss of Kneiphof, Casimir, in debt and unable to hire new mercenaries, called another levée en masse. The Polish army moved slowly to Thorn, but military actions were halted briefly when the king finally agreed to mediation by Frederick II, Margrave of Brandenburg; all earlier propositions of mediation from different sides had been rejected. The elector, however, failed to negotiate a peace, because the Teutonic Knights, after recent successes, were unwilling to compromise. The Poles suggested that the Teutonic Order should leave Prussia and go elsewhere to fight with pagans; a location suggested earlier by Polish envoys to the Holy Roman Empire was Podolia, near the Tatars. Negotiations ended unsuccessfully on September 26, and the war continued.
  The new Polish army was larger than before, including soldiers from Red Ruthenia, small auxiliary forces of Lithuanian Tatars, and a few mercenaries from Silesia. It laid siege to Lessen, but Raweneck was able to defend the city. Additionally, when Casimir IV ordered a further march to Graudenz (Grudziądz), the nobility refused and instead decided to pay a new tax, which would allow the king to hire more mercenaries.
  After that, the situation did not change much. The Teutonic Knights were able to recover another city, Memel (Klaipėda), but their offensives in other directions were stopped by the burghers of Thorn and of Culmerland, and the leadership of Andrzej Tęczynski. In autumn 1455 the peasants of eastern Masuria, tired of the war, revolted against the Teutonic Knights but were defeated at Rhein (Ryn) on January 1, 1456. Land-based military actions were limited to raids and local skirmishes.
  In the maritime arena, Casimir urged Danzig to build a fleet that would be able to break sea connections between the Teutonic Order and its allies. In May 1456 privateers hired by Danzig captured Dutch ships, which caused conflict with Amsterdam and the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. In two weeks in August 1457, three ships from Danzig defeated a combined Danish-Livonian fleet of 16 ships near Bornholm.
  Earlier, in 1454, Jan Janski de Turze (pl:Jan z Jani) of the Clan of Ostoja had become the first Polish Voivode of Gdańsk and Pomerania. The Clan had been fighting the Teutonic side since the d
caption: Eric II, Duke of Pomerania
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