Battle of the Durbe
| date | July 13, 1260 |
|---|---|
| place | Durbe / Latvia |
| output | Lithuanians victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Order of the Teutonic Knights and Allies |
Lithuanians , especially Shamaites |
| Commander | |
|
Landmeister |
|
| Troop strength | |
| around 3000 men,
including about 200 knights |
approx. 4000 men,
mostly mounted |
| losses | |
|
150 knights killed, plus 15 knights captured, infantile losses unknown |
unknown |
The Battle of the Durbe was a battle on July 13, 1260 between the Teutonic Order under the Landmeister of Livonia Burkhard von Hornhausen and Order Marshal Heinrich Botel and local auxiliary troops against the troops of the Lithuanian Duke Mindaugas , who himself was not involved in the battle.
The army of the order was defeated completely and with great losses. The battle is the starting point for the Great Prussian Uprising from 1261 to 1272.
prehistory
Pagan Lithuanians, coming from Shamaites , invaded the eastern districts of Poland from the summer of 1260 , then turned to the north in order to put a stop to the Teutonic Order, which had already conquered considerable lands in formerly Prussian territory and was increasingly advancing into Lithuanian territory territories. A contingent of the Teutonic Knights along with mounted servants and foot soldiers, as well as contingents of local cures and Prussians advanced towards the intruders. In the run-up to the armed conflict, there were disputes between the Kurds and the Prussians within the order's army. The former were presumably forced into the military service of the order. Subsequently, the cures were exclusively assigned security tasks.
battle
On July 13, 1260 about four thousand mounted Lithuanians and just as many warriors of the order faced each other not far from a ford of the river Durbe and in the immediate vicinity of the village of the same name Durbe . The order of battle of the Teutonic Knights corresponded to that of the High Middle Ages, according to which heavily armored horsemen formed the core of the army. The much larger part of the army fulfilled the task of securing the riders and, after the immediate meeting, pursuing the fleeing enemy. Around two hundred knights in armor of the Teutonic Order formed the core troop, flanked by the light riders of the allied Prussians. The rearguard of the order's armed forces were formed by the regiments of the cures and other infantry, which had been unruly in the run-up to the battle.
The Lithuanians, a ford of the Durbe as a retreat in the rear, attacked violently and were repulsed. The army of the order pursued the fleeing. At this critical moment, however, the bitter cures attacked the army from behind. So the riders were finally put under pressure, the even hard-pressed Order Marshal Heinrich Botel could no longer master the situation. Some of the warriors fled, the greater part were slain in bitter fighting. One hundred and fifty knights fell, including the Führer, Landmeister Burkhard von Hornhausen and the Order Marshal of the Teutonic Order, and some knights were captured by the Lithuanians. Immediately after the battle they withdrew into the interior of Lithuania with their booty and trophies without any further fighting.
consequences
The army of the Teutonic Order was completely destroyed. Ultimately, the losses among the nobles from the Prussian region who were loyal to the Teutonic Order were particularly heavy. The Prussians subsequently revolted in the face of the heavy defeat against their always foreign sovereign. The campaign culminated in a rampant uprising by the oppressed Prussians and Kurds, which put an end to the expansion of the Teutonic Order for decades. The defeat in the Battle of the Durbe remained the worst defeat of the Teutonic Order until the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410. Since the consequences of the battle could be overcome in difficult and changeable battles, the nimbus of the invincibility of the Teutonic Order remained until 1410.
See also
literature
- Hans Prutz : The spiritual orders of knights, their position on the ecclesiastical, political, social and economic development of the Middle Ages , Berlin 1908 (reprint Berlin 1977).
- Wolfgang Sonthofen: The German Order . Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1995
- Dieter Zimmerling: The German order of knights . ECON Verlag, Munich 1998