Class 6: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (5)
It's the battle where the Lithuanian Grand Duke,
who is now king of Poland, and can now marshal an army
which includes people from Rus' and Poland,
as well as Lithuania, where he decisively
defeats the Teutonic Knights.
And the reason why it's remembered, or one of the reasons,
if you go to central park, which you will, right?
You're in New Haven, you're gonna go to central park, right?
It's not far away.
There's a statue of Jogaila, Jagiello, holding two swords.
And one of them is his.
And the other one is the one which was given to him
by the grand master of the Teutonic Knights,
according to legend at least,
at the beginning of the battle on the logic of,
you're going to need this.
And so that little bit of like Teutonic arrogance
got remembered down the centuries.
And so the notion of Jagiello going to battle
with the two swords, and of course the Lithuanians,
the Poles, the Slavs winning is something which
made a big mark in history.
Okay, we're gonna leave you there.
We're gonna pick up with this Polish, Lithuanian,
Ruthenian synthesis next time around.
But we're also gonna try to explain how we get to Russia.
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