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Battle Of Skuodas
The Battle of Skuodas or Schoden was a medieval battle fought in ca. 1259 near Skuodas in present-day Lithuania during the Lithuanian Crusade. The Samogitian army of 3,000 invaded Courland and on their way back defeated the Livonian Order, killing 33 knights and many more low-rank soldiers. In terms of knights killed, it was the eighth largest defeat of the Livonian Order in the 13th century. This victory led to a Semigallian insurrection against the Livonian crusaders, which lasted from 1259 to 1272. Background In 1251, Mindaugas, pagan Grand Duke of Lithuania, concluded a peace treaty with the Livonian Order: he was to be baptized and crowned as King of Lithuania in return for portions of Samogitia, Nadruva, and Dainava. Mindaugas was crowned on 6 July 1253 and the promised lands were transferred to the Order. The Order built the Memel Castle (Klaipėda) on the border with Samogitia to serve as the basis for further expansion. After Samogitians unsuccessfully attacked the new c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithuanian Crusade
The Lithuanian Crusade was a series of economic Christianity and colonialism, Christian colonization campaigns by the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order under the pretext of forcibly Christianization, Christianizing the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Livonian Order occupied Riga in 1202 and the Teutonic Order conquered Culmerland in the 1230s. They first conquered other neighboring Baltic tribes—Curonians, Semigallians, Latgalians, Selonians, and Old Prussians—in the Livonian Crusade and Prussian Crusade. The first raid against the Lithuanians and Samogitians was in 1208. From then on, the orders played a key role in Lithuanian politics, but they were not a direct threat until the 1280s. By that time, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was already a centralized state and could mount defenses. For the next century, the order organized annual colonialism, colonialist (raids) into Samogitian and Lithuanian lands, without great success but at immense human cost. Border regions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Memel (1257)
The Battle of Memel was fought between the Samogitians and the Livonian Order in 1257 near Memel (now Klaipėda in Lithuania). When Mindaugas, King of Lithuania, transferred most of Samogitia to the Livonian Order in 1257, Duke Alminas was elected as the Samogitian leader and organized resistance. In 1253, the Germans built the Memel Castle on the Curonian land in the strategically important spot where Dangė River meets the Curonian Lagoon. The new castle threatened Curonians and Samogitians. In 1256, Master of the Livonian land, Anno von Sangershausen, was elected as the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. In his previous position he has replaced by the former komtur of the Königsberg Castle, Burchard Hornhauzen, who was almost immediately faced with a serious challenge – a Samogitian army which invaded the Memel area. Hornhauzen hurriedly gathered about a thousand soldiers (over 40 knights and about 500 Curonians and an unknown number of ordinary order's warriors ) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Durbe
The Battle of Durbe ( lv, Durbes kauja, lt, Durbės mūšis, german: Schlacht an der Durbe) was a medieval battle fought near Durbe, east of Liepāja, in present-day Latvia during the Livonian Crusade. On 13 July 1260, the Samogitians soundly defeated the joint forces of the Teutonic Knights from Prussia and Livonian Order from Livonia. Some 150 knights were killed, including Livonian Master Burchard von Hornhausen and Prussian Land Marshal Henrik Botel. It was by far the largest defeat of the knights in the 13th century: in the second-largest, the Battle of Aizkraukle, 71 knights were killed. The battle inspired the Great Prussian Uprising (ended in 1274) and the rebellions of the Semigallians (surrendered in 1290), the Couronians (surrendered in 1267), and the Oeselians (surrendered in 1261). The battle undid two decades of Livonian conquests and it took some thirty years for the Livonian Order to restore its control. Background The Livonian Order had been fighting the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jurbarkas
Jurbarkas (; Samogitian dialect, Samogitian: ''Jorbarks'', known also by several #Etymology, alternative names) is a List of cities in Lithuania, city in Tauragė County, in Samogitia, Lithuania. Jurbarkas is located in the historic land of Karšuva. It is on the right-hand shore of the Neman (river), Nemunas at its confluence (geography), confluence with the tributaries Mituva and Imsrė. The town became an important road junction after a bridge was built over the Nemunas in 1978. Etymology The name Jurbarkas is derived from the Ordensburg, Ordensburg castle, ''Georgenburg'', built in the 13th century. Jurbarkas has also been known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include: in Samogitian dialect, Samogitian ''Jorbarks'', in German language, German ''Georgenburg'', ''Jurgenburg'', and ''Eurburg'', in Polish language, Polish, ''Jurbork'', and in Yiddish language, Yiddish יורבורג ('' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dobele
Dobele (; german: Doblen) is a town in the cultural region Zemgale in Latvia, and is located near the center of Latvia on the banks of the river Bērze. It received town rights in 1917 whilst being a part of the German occupied Courland Governorate during the First World War. As of 2020, the population was 8,856. Name origin In a German document from 1254 a place name ''Dubelene'' or ''Dubelone'' has been used. Later the names ''Doblene'', ''Doblenen'' and ''Doblen'' also have been used for this inhabited location. The original place name can be reconstructed as ''Dobelene'' or ''Dobeliene'', but its origins are linked to the place name ''duobe'' (pit or delve) and ''duobele'' (dip, dimple). Most likely, the reconstructed place name ''Dobelene'' meant 'populated area in a dimple'. History Dobele is first mentioned in historical sources in 1254; however, at that time it was only a wooden fortress which was destroyed during the Semigallian War of Independence (1279–1290), the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tērvete
Tērvete (liv. ''Terwenden'', german: Hofzumberge) is a village in Tērvete Parish, Dobele Municipality in the Semigallia region of Latvia. It is famous for the historic hillfort built for the kings of Western Semigallia (Zemgale) in the Middle Ages. History According to popular legend the Semigallians, Semigallian king Nameisis made a ring called the "namejs" so he could be identified by his family. But his enemies got hold of this information and sought the ring to kill the king (during a war) to have victories. The villagers also created these rings in order to protect the King. And for this reason Namejs is a popular ring for Latvians. In 1287, the Semigallian castle was destroyed by the Livonian Order. In 1335, the wooden castle ''Hof zum Berg'' Kalnamuiža was built by the Order of Livonia near to the site of the former Semigallian fortifications, destroyed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Lithuanian forces in 1345. A second legend describes the story of the German crusade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semigallians
Semigallians ( Latvian ''Zemgaļi''; lt, Žiemgaliai, also ''Zemgalians, Semigalls, Semigalians'') were the Baltic tribe that lived in the southcentral part of contemporary Latvia and northern Lithuania. They are noted for their long resistance (1219–1290) against the German crusaders and Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades. Semigallians had close linguistic and cultural ties with Samogitians. Name The name of Semigallia appears in contemporary records as ''Seimgala'', ''Zimgola'' and ''Sem'' 'e'''gallen''. The -gal element means "border", while the first syllable corresponds to ''ziem'' ("north") or ''zem'' ("low"). So the Semigallians were the "people of the northern borderlands" or "people of the low borderlands", i.e. the lower parts of the Mūša and Lielupe river valleys. History During the Viking Age, the Semigallians were involved in battles with Swedish Vikings over control of the lower part of the Daugava waterway. In ''Gesta Danorum'' the Danish chron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pitched Battle
A pitched battle or set-piece battle is a battle in which opposing forces each anticipate the setting of the battle, and each chooses to commit to it. Either side may have the option to disengage before the battle starts or shortly thereafter. A pitched battle is not a chance encounter such as a meeting engagement, or where one side is forced to fight at a time not of its choosing such as happens in a siege or an ambush. Pitched battles are usually carefully planned, to maximize one's strengths against an opponent's weaknesses, and use a full range of deceptions, feints, and other manoeuvres. They are also planned to take advantage of terrain favourable to one's force. Forces strong in cavalry for example will not select swamp, forest, or mountain terrain for the planned struggle. For example, Carthaginian general Hannibal selected relatively flat ground near the village of Cannae for his great confrontation with the Romans, not the rocky terrain of the high Apennines. Likewise, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burchard Von Hornhausen
Burkhard von Hornhausen (* before 1252; † July 13 1260 in the Battle of Durbe The Battle of Durbe ( lv, Durbes kauja, lt, Durbės mūšis, german: Schlacht an der Durbe) was a medieval battle fought near Durbe, east of Liepāja, in present-day Latvia during the Livonian Crusade. On 13 July 1260, the Samogitians sound ...) was from 1257 to 1260 Landmeister in Livonia of the Teutonic Order. He was the first commander and directed the construction of the Königsberg Castle.Walter James Wyatt The History of Prussia. From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Tracing the Origin and Development of Her Military Organization' 1876 Burkhard von Hornhausen appeared in Prussia around 1252. In 1254 he became Commander of the Samland and was the first Commander of the Königsberg Castle (1255–1256) and from January 18, 1255 to 1257 Vice-Landmeister of Prussia. In 1257 Burkhard became Landmeister Livonia. In 1255 he and his troops joined the Ottokar II of Bohemia and took ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livonian Rhymed Chronicle
The ''Livonian Rhymed Chronicle'' (german: Livländische Reimchronik) is a chronicle written in Middle High German by an anonymous author. It covers the period 1180 – 1343 and contains a wealth of detail about Livonia — modern South Estonia and Latvia. The old Chronicle The ''Rhymed Chronicle'' was composed to be read to the crusading knights of the Livonian Order during their meals. Its primary function was to inspire the knights and legitimise the northern Crusades. As such, it is infused with elements of romance and exaggerated for the purpose of drama. However, this is debated by A. Murray. He suggests that during mealtimes the knights were read sections of the Bible or the word of God, so that they could 'receive spiritual as well as corporal nourishment'. There was little of this in the ''Chronicle''. There is also the fact that the ''Chronicle'' is written in high German, and the majority of the knights who were in Livonia at that time would have spoken low German. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuldīga
Kuldīga () (german: Goldingen) is a town in the Courland region of Latvia, in the western part of the country. It is the center of Kuldīga Municipality with a population of approximately 13,500. Kuldīga was first mentioned in 1242. It joined the Hanseatic League in 1368. In the 17th century, Kuldīga (along with Jelgava (''Mitau'')) was one of the capitals of the Courland, Duchy of Courland from 1596 to 1616. Kuldīga is an ancient town in Latvia's western region of Courland, Kurzeme with distinctive architecture, which is a candidate for inclusion in the list of the UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Catherine is believed to be the patron saint of Kuldīga, and the oldest church of the town is named after St Catherine. The foundation of the building was laid as early as in 1252. The church has been remodeled a number of times. The small River Alekšupīte runs through the very centre of the Kuldīga old town, along the walls of the houses. The Old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edvardas Gudavičius
Edvardas Gudavičius (6 September 1929 – 27 January 2020) was a Lithuanian historian. He was known as one of the best historians in Lithuania specializing in the early history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1953, he graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute with a degree in engineering. Gudavičius started his career as a mechanic at one of the factories in Kaunas, but in 1958 moved to Vilnius. In 1962, he enrolled to Vilnius State University of Vincas Kapsukas seeking a degree in history. In 1991, he earned the title of professor. He was a full member of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. To the wider public he was mostly known for his work together with Alfredas Bumblauskas Alfredas Bumblauskas (born 18 November 1956) is a professor at Vilnius University and one of the best known Lithuanian historians. After graduating from Žemaitė school in Telšiai, he enrolled in Vilnius University in 1974. Bumblauskas receiv ... on the long-running TV show ''Būtovės slėp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
