page_title: Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466)
section_title: Forces of belligerents
hierarchical_section_title: Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) / Forces of belligerents
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights between 1260 and 1410 Deutsch: Der Staat des Deutschen Ordens zwischen 1260 und 1410
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 main part of the Polish army of that period was conscripted. All noblemen, when called by the king, had to appear accompanied by their village-mayors and village-administrators. Cities gave wagons with horses, food, and service to them (including escorts). Units were divided into choragwie (standards) of two kinds: family, which were made by very large clans, and land which were from nobles from particular territory. Peasants also participated as infantrymen. The highest command belonged to the king. The total army could amount to 30,000 cavalry.
  From the beginning of the 15th century, the Polish Crown started to hire mercenaries, who usually fought under the flag of St. George (especially Bohemian (Czech) mercenaries). The flag was either a red cross on white, or a white cross on red; the latter was used only when two Bohemian units met on opposite sides of a battlefield and had to be differentiated. The concept of tabor, learned from the Bohemians, was an important tactic.
  The Poles had artillery, at first primitive cannons such as bombards. Pistols, or handguns, were used but were ineffective. More important were crossbows, which, when properly used, could cause large losses.
  The army of the Prussian estates consisted of conscripts and small units provided by cities (around 750 people per unit). In total they could provide about 16,000 soldiers, plus a few thousand armed peasant infantry. They also had more artillery than the Polish army.
  The Prussian cities were also able to raise a small navy, partially from armed trade ships, partially from hired privateers from other cities.
  The Teutonic Order in 1454 lost most of its arsenals, but later it was able to raise armies from loyal knights (free Prussians) and peasants. However, most of its forces were hired mercenaries, mainly from Germany and Bohemia.
caption: The Teutonic state in 1410
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