The book by historian Wolfgang Akunov reveals the history of the long-term armed conflict between the military-spiritual Teutonic Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland (XIII-XVI centuries). The main focus is on the so-called. The Great War (1310–1411) between the order, Lithuania and Poland, which ended with the defeat of the order army in the Battle of Grunwald on July 15, 1410, followed by the unsuccessful siege of the order capital of Marienburg (Malborg) for the victors, the First and Second Peace of Torun, 13 years the war between the order, its secular subjects and Poland and the further history of the order, up to the transformation of the Prussian state in 1525 into the secular Duchy of Prussia, a vassal to Poland - the embryo of the future Prussian Kingdom of the Hohenzollerns. Personal courage glorified the Teutonic knights, but they fought for what was historically doomed business.