Tannenberg lost them 8,000 knights. That's worse than Agincourt which devastated the French nobility. If France couldn't recover even having 10 kids each, then that's certainly a kick in the nuts to a monastic order.

I'm familiar with it but haven't watched it

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5u7tN3v6zuQ/Ut4Mp1fcOLI/AAAAAAAAXE8/MzkhawAjSmU/s1600/Nevsky+4.png

the correct name for the 1410 battle is Grunwald.

as there was a WW1 engagement in the same area too.

that is referred as Tannenberg

Durbe, another famous battle cost Livonians 150 knights. Knights alone. now add 10 retainers to them.

each.

I remember that name from Kingdom Come Deliverance

funny thing, Hussites declared Vytautas to be the king of Czechia.

I'd rather lose 150 than 8,000

You can at least hire mercenaries to replace 150

or use local auxilliaries.

You lose 8,000 monastic knights you're done

You ain't coming back from that

but still, at the time Livonian order, was pretty much fucked, so that battle was a killing blow to them

they never recovered from that.

They did tried to send reinforcements to the teutons centuries later during the iirc 13 years war between Poland and Teutons, but the reinforcement force was massacred in Samogitia, because ofc they were.

as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were a small order, mainly created to protect the Hansa Union merchants.

spreading the word of Christ was secondary objective to them.

and according to the texts we have, they showed less faggotry and douchebaggery than Teutons.

Alson not only the rank and file knights were killed in Grunwald @Ragnarok , but pretty much their whole entire leadership.

Only a single Komtur survived.

and managed to defend Marienburg, or Malbork if you're polish.

Well I mean you can move people up if need be. But a knight is something extremely hard to replace. Equipment alone was expensive.

but then again, the united GDL and Polish army that besieged it wasn't a siege army, as in they had no siege engineers

And when the bulk of your army is based on feudal levy... you can't get a knight from that. A farmer can't do that shit

the plan was "ok we won, hey I know let's go besiege their capital" and people just rolled with it.

A komtur can be replaced with another senior knight with administrative experience.

not without training.

but yeah, off the bat, they're shit.

just pitchforks and spiked grainflails.

But a knight himself, took around 14 years to make. Half as a page, half as a squire. And since the only people having sex are farmers, well, you're not making new knights

Teutons made cavalry auxiliaries, the afromentioned grosse and kleine freier.

from civvie land owners.

and free peasants.

if you're considered a grosse, you're in the heavy cavalry

if you're a kleine, you're in light cavalry.

Two decades or so from birth before you could really call him a knight, and the cost of horses and equipment. Plus you're asking for someone to take vows

but certainly no knight material.

Yeah, Grunwald sealed their fate. They did tried to fuck with poland when Sigismund the Old was on the throne, but that resulted only in them bending the knee and becoming polish vassals.