Battle of Schaulen (1236)
| date | September 22, 1236 |
|---|---|
| place | at Janiūnai at Schaulen |
| output | Victory of the Shemaites |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Master of the Order Volkwin von Naumburg † |
|
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | unknown |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
high |
The Battle of Schaulen was fought on September 22nd, 1236 between associations of the Livonian Brotherhood of the Sword and the indigenous non-Christian Schemites and Livonians ( Grand Duchy of Lithuania ) in the Baltic States . The Sword Brothers suffered a crushing defeat, which led to their being absorbed into the Teutonic Order as the Livonian Order in 1237.
The Knights of the Brothers of the Sword, led by their master, Volkwin von Naumburg , found themselves in a desperate situation in the thirties of the 13th century; their financial situation was tight and therefore their clout decreased increasingly.
course
In 1236 Volkwin, with the support of Prince von Pleskau, pursued some Shemites to the south in their settlement area in Lower Lithuania . Accompanied by a large contingent of Holstein crusaders from the Kingdom of Denmark , the knights raided some villages. On the retreat to the north, however, they met a unit of Baltic Shemites and Lithuanians at a ford , who opposed them. The Holsteiners feared losing their horses in the swampy terrain and refused to fight on foot. Therefore the knights had to build a night camp.
The following morning, an association consisting of Shemaites under the leadership of Prince Vykinta and Lithuanians under the leadership of Prince Mindauga attacked the Sword Brothers from the west. Their lightly armed local allies abandoned them and fled the battlefield, while the heavily armored knights and crusaders were inferior on the swampy terrain and almost completely destroyed. Volkwin was also killed. Those who managed to escape were killed by the Zemgals on the way to Riga .
Place of the event
The Livonian Chronicle of Hermann von Wartberge referred to the site of the battle as in terram Sauleorum , "in the land of the spectators ". Today's Lithuanian town of Šiauliai ( Schaulen ) and today's small Latvian town of Vecsaule (near Bauska ), about 85 km apart, mark a limited area in which the battle should have taken place. The presumed current place is mentioned Jauniūnai in the Rajongemeinde Joniškis .
See also
this and that
- Saule / saulė stands for the sun in both Latvian and Lithuanian .
- The battle is therefore sometimes referred to as the sun battle .
- The Latvian folk metal band Skyforger has dedicated an entire album to battle with Kauja pie Saules .
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