“Luck rules every human endeavour, especially war.”
Livy (Roman Historian)
In Conqueror’s Blade: Knightfall, every battle fought by the Order of the Sword is won or lost due to three factors: strategy, strength, and luck. The latter of these is possibly the most important and rings true for real-world wars, too.
The Order’s historical counterparts, the Teutonic Knights, also encountered some ill-fated battles. Friday the 13th is considered unlucky by the superstitious, and these battles were certainly ruinous for the Teutonic Order.
The Grim Battle of Grunwald
The Battle of Grunwald in 1410 was a decisive victory for the Polish-Lithuanians. In fact, the Teutonic Order’s loss was so significant that they never again held the same amount of power. King Władysław II Jagiełło, supreme commander of the Polish-Lithuanian forces, brought between 16,000 and 39,000 soldiers to the battle, outnumbering the 11,000 to 27,000 men that Grandmaster Ulrich von Jungingen commanded. The battle was one of the largest in medieval Europe and is considered one of the most important victories in Polish-Lithuanian history.
During the battle, up to 211 out of 270 brothers were killed, and several were imprisoned. This significantly damaged the Teutonic Order’s might, and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and negatively affected the economy in the lands they controlled.
A diagram showing what is thought to have happened in the final phase of the battle.
Unlucky Thirteen (Years War)
The Thirteen Years War (or War of the Cities) of the 1460s was directly influenced by the Battle of Grunwald. After the substantial Teutonic defeat, tensions arising from the conflicts between the ruling Order and Prussian warlords led to an uprising, and a war broke out between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order.
The war ended in victory for Poland, and the Teutonic Order became a Polish fief, and Eastern Pomerania was returned to Poland.
The Origins of this Bad Omen
There are many schools of thought regarding how Friday the 13th became known as unlucky. One of these is biblical and poses that the reason for this date’s ominous nature dates back to the thirteen guests who attended the Last Supper (Jesus and his twelve disciples) and that having thirteen guests at a table is a bad omen.
The events of Friday, October 13th, 1307 could be another reason why this date is thought to be unlucky. On this day, King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of members of the Knights Templar, and either imprisoned or executed them.
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