The Second Baltic Crusade

The incursion into Galicia and Volin by the Catholic king­doms had been halted but the Latin expansion along the Baltic coast continued, and would soon come in Conflictwith the Or­thodox Slavic principalities of the north.

News of the extensive territories of northeastern Europe with their low populations were first brought back to the Ger­mans by traders. The end of the Slavic pagan resistance and naval dominance of the Baltic came to an end in 1168 when the Danish IcingValdemar I captured Arkona on Rugen Island, and the Abodrite prince became his feudal vassal. Also Lubeck fell into German hands and very quickly became the chief trad­ing port and the gateway to the Dvina River on the east Baltic Coast.

The Danes were also interested in the east Baltic, and in 1171, encouraged by Valdemar I, Pope Alexander III announced that a Crusade could be held against the pagan Fins in what is today northwestern Russia, Finland and Estonia. By 1161 West­phalian merchants had begun to visit the mouth of the Dvina River to deal in salt and cloth, sailing in the so-called cogships which could carry a cargo of 80 tons.

With regular trade established the merchants began to penetrate inland where they traded, and stayed so long that with pagan permission they built a fortified dwelling on a hill by the Dvina that became known as Uxkull. The first German settle­ment on the east Baltic coast was built with Livonian permission, and with the establishment of trade relations a Roman Catholic mission soon followed, for the conversion of the Livonians, and to prepare the ground for future German settlers. The first mis­sion was led by an Augustinian canon called Meinhart, who ar­rived in Uxkull in about 1181 and was soon appointed bishop by the Archbishop of Bremen Hartwig II, indicating the Church had bigger plans for the region than just being confined to a trading post. Meinhart s means for spreading the faith were at first peaceful enough, resorting to bribery if the need arose. Sal­vation was the end which justified any means thought to work. Noticing the hostility between the local Livonian and the neigh­boring Lithuanian tribes, Meinhart struck a deal with the local Livonian chiefs. He would build them a stone fortification in return for conversion to Roman Catholicism. The agreement didn’t work for long since once the Livonians took possession of the stone fort they quickly returned to their traditional reli­gion.

Meinhart died in 1196 and was succeeded by Berthold of Loccum who followed his predecessor with attempts to convert the Livonians with presents and even introduced religious plays to impress the pagans. No sales pitch seemed to work and briberies were to no avail, and after a year he returned to Ger­many. The Pope was right; nothing would work short of physi­cal force, and in 1195 Archbishop Hartwig persuaded Pope Celestine III to proclaim a Crusade to Livonia, which was con­firmed by Innocent III in 1198. The same year Bishop Berthold sailed back to the Dvina with Saxon Crusaders and began to attack and destroy Livonian settlements when they refused to accept Roman Catholicism. It is not known how many pagans converted, but not a significant number since the invasion was abruptly terminated, when while leading a force Berthold was ambushed and killed and the Crusaders decided to return to Germany. The spread of Christianity, however, was not the pur­pose of the Crusade as was professed. Some of the indigenous Livonians (Latvians) had already converted voluntarily to Greek Orthodoxy, and their churches were destroyed along with the pagan temples.²⁴

Real advances began to be made when Hartwig appointed his nephew Albert of Buxtehude (Buxhoeved) as bishop to re­place Berthold. Albert began to recruit Crusaders and a few years later with 500 men and 23 ships he sailed to the Dvina. His first act was to move his seat from Uxkull to a more defen­sible and strategic location between the Dvina and the Rige rivers, which formed a natural moat on three sides of the walled city he built called Riga. By now a decision had been made to conquer the east Baltic territories, and following a fire in 1215 Riga was expanded to accommodate more men-at-arms, mer­chants and colonists, who began to arrive in the occupied land.

In the following years Albert worked tirelessly for what became a family enterprise involving his brother, cousin and brother- in-law, a continuation of the ^aOstsiedlung^w movement to Ger­manize all lands east of the Elbe River.

Aprominent and well-documented role in the Third Cru­sade of the Middle East was played by military orders of monks, and this was even more so the case in the east Baltic Crusades of the early 13th century. The first order to be born was the German Knights of the Catholic Order of Livonia, better known as the Order of the Sword or simply the Sword Brothers, fol­lowed by the Knights of Dobrzyn (Dobrin) from the Christian­ized Slavic lands. Formed by Bishop Albert at Riga to man the fort, the knights lacked the independence of the Templars or the Hospitalers and were directly under the orders of the Bishop, whom they swore to serve and protect. Albert s author­ity was further increased when the Holy Roman Emperor granted him secular powers by recognizing him as a territorial prince. The German Crusader enclave of Livonia was beginning to take shape, particularly when in 1212 Prince Vladimir of Polotsk conceded his tribute rights over the local Livonian tribes to Bishop Albert, in return for a military alliance and free passage for Polotsk merchants down the Dvina River to the sea. The new trade with Riga benefited the Slav Principality and it was a sign of recognition of Crusader supremacy, which they had gained in the lower Dvina region.

The Sword Brothers led by Bishop Albert’s brother Her­mann, also a bishop, next turned to another region which paid tribute to Pskov, the land of the Chuds (Estonian Finns). The territory lay to the west of Lake Peipus (Chud) and had been conquered by Iaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, who had a fort built at Iuriev (Tartu, Dorpat) to control the area. In 1224 the fortifi­cation came under siege by Bishop Hermann and soon fell, with the whole garrison massacred except for a sole survivor who carried the news to Pskov. Iuriev or Tartu as it became known was nominally under a Chud elder called Vetseke but had a gar­rison from Pskov. Its sack was a clear signal to Novgorod that the Crusade would not stop at the domination of the local pagan population.

The days of the Sword Brothers, however, were numbered. The Lithuanian tribes south of the Dvina River were still defiant, and in the summer of 1236 a large Crusader army to­gether with reinforcements from Pskov under the leadership of the Grand MasterValequin set out into Lithuanian territory. Theywere met at Siaulia (Saule) near Bauskabythe Samogitian tribesmen and a major battle took place. The marshy terrain evened out the odds in favor of the Lithuanians who could not match the Crusaders’ crossbows, heavy armor and ironclad mounted knights. After heavy fighting the Crusader army was crushed, with half of the Sword Brothers lying dead on the bat­tlefield including a Master of the Order, Folkwin. Both German and Novgorod chronicles left a record of the stunning defeat:

The same year (1237) the Nemtsi (Germans) came from beyond the sea to Riga, and they joined the people of Riga and of Pskov (and) they waged war against the Lithuanians and campaigned actively; but the Lithuanians united and started fighting them. There was a great battle and the Lithuanians defeated the people of Pskov and the Nemtsi....”²⁶

The defeat was a major setback for the northern Crusade, and all territory south of the Dvina River was re-occupied by the Lithuanian forces.

Following the defeat at Siaulia the surviving Sword Broth­ers were absorbed by a larger military order that had been brought in during 1226 to fight the pagan Prussians. This was “The Order of the Hospital of St. Mary of the Germans of Jerusalem,” or the “Teutonic Knights” for short as they became known, modeled on the Templars of Jerusalem. Although they were nominally placed under Bishop Christian the Teutonic Knights were a virtually independent body, answerable only to the Pope.

There were now three separate Catholic powers facing the Baltic pagans: Bishop HermanVon Buxtehude, KingValdemar of Denmark, and the Teutonic Order led by the Grand Master Herman Balk. When disagreements began to arise over territory the Pope stepped in, and in 1234 Bishop Hermans authority was restricted to Tartu and the surrounding area. Also in 1238 following the disaster at Siaulia, Estonia was assigned to Den­mark’s sphere of influence, and all of Livonia north of the Dvina went to the Order. Seemingly satisfied with beneficial trade agreements, both Novgorod and Pskov accepted the loss of Tartu (Iuriev) and the lower Dvina region to the Crusaders and nothing seemed to point to the future conflict which erupted several years later. The Roman Catholic intrusion on the east Baltic coast and the differences between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches did not at first interfere with the two faiths in mixed communities. Thus Canon Meinhard had been allowed to set up a Catholic mission on the lower Dvina which had been subject to Orthodox influence for some time. Also, when the citizens of Pskov thought Prince Iaroslav was going to attack they entered into an alliance with the Teutonic Order in Riga.²⁷ The Roman Catholic Church was intent on domi­nance and in 1222 Pope Honorius III declared that the Ortho­dox rite was not to be allowed in any lands under Catholic con­trol. Two years later when Iuriev was captured and made a Catholic Sec the bishop was instructed to begin mission work in Greek Orthodox areas.

Conflict between Novgorod and the Teutonic Order in Rigawas inevitable, especially when in 1226 the citizens of Nov­gorod invited IaroslavVsevolodich of Pereiaslav to be prince. The warlike Iaroslavhad made a name for himself by defeating what was considered to be a large force of 7,000 Lithuanian warriors who were devastating the outskirts of Novgorod, Toropets, Smolensk and Polotsk. After being expelled by the citizens of Novgorod in a disagreement Iaroslav was soon invited back on condition he respect “Novgorod liberties.” In 1232 he took an army from Novgorod and attacked Chernihiv causing much damage, and after defeating another Lithuanian force and a raiding Chud (Estonian) war party Iaroslav turned his attention to the German Crusaders. In the winter of 1234 he marched against Tartu, where a battle took place on the river Amozhiva. Some of the Germans fell through the frozen ice of the river and drowned and the remaining force Withdrewbehind the safety of Tartu’s walls. Not possessing large siege equipment, Iaroslav proceeded to loot and burn the surrounding coun­tryside in the traditional manner, until the besieged city “peti­tioned Prince Iaroslavwho made peace with them, and returned to Novgorod.”

The attack on Tartu was Novgorod’s response to Roman Catholic pressure on the Greek Orthodoxpopulation, and was followed by Prince Iaroslav s obstruction of Catholic missions in Finland. Constantinople had already fallen to the Catholic armies of the Fourth Crusade and it was felt that northeastern Europe would be next. Friendly persuasion failed to convince Novgorod to abandon Greek Orthodoxy, and in 1237 Pope Gregory IX decided to use force—his favorite method of per­suasion.²⁸ The attack on Slavic Orthodox territory came in 1240 from two directions—the Swedes landed in the north on the Neva River and the Teutonic Knights to the south along the Dvina.

Prince Iaroslav was conducting a power struggle with Mikhail of Chernihiv for control of Kyiv and in 1236 had ap­pointed his oldest son Alexander as Prince of Novgorod. InJuly 1240 Alexander was informed that a Crusader army from Swe­den had landed on the south shore of the Neva River with the clear intention to block Novgorod shipping. The Swedish army was led by Earl Karl Birger and Bishop Thomas of Uppsala who had been organizing missionary work in southern Finland, and included Norwegians, Finnish tribesmen and a contingent of Teutonic Knights. As described in the Novgorod Chronicle: “The Swedes came with their rulers and with their bishops and halted on the Neva at the mouth of the Izhora (river), wishing to take possession of Ladoga, or in one word of Novgorod and the whole Novgorod land.”

After receiving reports of the enemy’s strength and move­ments from his Finnish scouts, Alexander decided to attack at dawn. Bursting into the Crusaders’ camp, Alexanders men quickly overcame their first line of defense and after a short and bloody battle Birger’s army was destroyed. The Earlwas appar­ently wounded in a duel with Alexander and barely escaped with his life. As recorded in the Novgorod Chronicle: “Again the most kind and merciful God, lover of men, preserved and protected us from the foreigners.... He (Alexander) went against them... on the 15 th day of July... and there was a great slaughter of Swedes.” Following the victory on the Neva, Alexander was given the honorary title of “Nevsky,” by which he was known until his death in 1263.

The battle against the Swedes was only the first Alexander Nevsky would have to fight. By now the German Crusaders were firmly established along the Baltic coast and had gained influence amongst the Novgorod and Pskov merchants. Nov­gorod had more than 30,000 inhabitants and was ruled by the popular “Veche” or citizens’ gatherings. The actions and ex­penses of the appointed prince and of his “druzhina” comrades were closely regulated, and neither could own land in the prin­cipality or trade with the Germans. Princes were not trusted and were also prohibited from establishing their headquarters within the city walls. Novgorod was a commercial republic whose ships plied the waters of the Baltic from the Swedish in­land of Gotland to Poland, northern Germany and Denmark. Trade had become a lucrative activity, too lucrative to be inter­rupted by Crusades or other conflicts, and German and Swedish merchants were a common sight in Novgorod and enjoyed a privileged status and a large degree of autonomy. Novgorod had two influential upper classes, big landowners and wealthy merchants, with the latter heavily involved in trade with the Catholic Crusader powers.

The Germans in particular had strong sympathies among the Novgorod big merchants who stood to lose much valuable trade so long as hostilities lasted. When Alexander returned from the Neva following his victory he found that he was no longer welcome, and taking his “druzhina” and family he re­turned to Pereiaslav. In the meantime things were not going well for Novgorod, and in spite of their defeat on the Neva the Crusaders continued to carve out territory. Koporye in the land of the Finnish Vod tribe on the Gulf of Finland was occupied and a stone castle was built to secure the territory. Further to the south, Tesov and the village of Sablia—which lay only 30 km from Novgorod—were also captured. In a coordinated move a second army of Teutonic Knights—Danes and local auxiliaries, “many noble heroes... and the King’s men (of the Danish crown) also came with a fine force....”²⁹ Theywere allied with IaroslavVladimirovich, the former prince of Pskov, who was in exile amongst the Crusaders, and their first target was Izborsk, a Novgorod fortress situated to the southwest of the city. A 600-man force from Pskov tried to retake the fort and was defeated, and the Crusader army marched on Pskov, which was left largely defenseless. The battle is described in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle whose author was probably a member of the Order.

Those from Pskov were unhappy about the news (capture of Izborsk). This is the name of a neighboring town in Rus whose inhabitants were extremely evil. None of them stayed behind but rather all participated in the expedition and grimly stormed Is- borg, with many bright cuirasses and helmets shining like glass. There were many crossbowmen among them. When they came upon the Brothers’ army (the Teutonic Knights) they attacked and the Brothers and the (Danish) King’s men boldly charged towards them. The Germans hacked great wounds and the Rusins suffered terribly. Eight hundred of them fell on the bat­tlefield.... The others took to flight and were pursued relent­lessly....³°

The Crusaders camped outside of Pskov and plundered the area for a week, burning many villages and Greek Orthodox monasteries, with their books and icons. With a reduced defense force the city had no choice but to open its gates, but it had become clear in Novgorod that besides trade the Cru­saders were also interested in conquering the Novgorod lands. The pro-German merchants lost their support in the “Veche” gatherings and a delegation was sent to Great Prince Iaroslav with the request that his son Alexander be sent back to them. After refusing the first invitation Alexander relented and set out for Novgorod with his “druzhina” comrades, where upon arrival he promptly hung the leaders of the pro- Crusader mer­chants.

Not waiting to be attacked in Novgorod, the newly arrived prince took his “druzhina,” the city militia, and “some Karel and Izhora (Finnish) people” (who were Novgorod’s allies) and set out into the country of the Vod. By the autumn of 1241 Koporye with the newly built Crusader stone castle was in Alexander’s hands. German and Danish prisoners were sent to Novgorod for ransom and others were set free, but the Vod and Chud peo­ple were hanged as betrayers of their alliance with the princes of Novgorod. Reinforced by his brother Prince Andrey of Suzdal, Alexander Nevsky appeared before the walls of Pskov in the winter of 1242 with a strong force. The city was defended by a German and Danish skeleton crew commanded by two Teutonic Knights, as well as the Pskov militia which had joined the Crusaders, but who now switched its allegiance to Alex­ander. The gates were opened and Pskov fell to the joint Nov­gorod-Suzdal force and Alexander Nevsky decided to take the war to the Crusaders. The marshes and waterways were frozen and the two brothers began to head west towards the Baltic Sea, crossing the Velika River, and spreading across Crusader terri­tory began to burn and pillage the countryside.

The Crusaders responded by raising an army in German Livonia and Danish Estonia under the command of Bishop Her­man von Buxhoeved of Tartu consisting of auxiliary troops, retinues of German colonial vassals, urban militias, and several hundred Scandinavian and Teutonic Order knights, a force of some 3,000 infantry and cavalry. Alexander’s army was roughly of the same size, with the cavalry consisting of light lancers and mounted archers, but without the heavy armored knights as was the practice in western armies.³¹ The first clash between the Crusaders and Alexander Nevsky’s men occurred by a bridge, where a Novgorod advance party led by the city mayor s brother Domash Tverdislavich was ambushed and destroyed. Domash was killed trying to rescue some of his trapped men, and the survivors made it back to the main camp to bring news of the approaching enemy. With insufficient forces to mount a counter-attack, Alexander Nevsky decided to turn back to the narrow channel which joins Lake Peipus and Lake Pskovwhere he could take up defensive positions on more favorable ground.³² The exact route taken by Alexander s army and the pursuing Crusaders is not known, but we can piece together the main highlights of the great battle using chroniclers from both sides.

The Crusaders were following in pursuit and Alexander Nevsky decided to give battle in a location of his choosing. We know from the Novgorod Chronicle that ^uKniaz (Prince) Alexander and all the men of Novgorod drew up their forces on Lake Chud (Peipus) at Uzmen by the Vorony Kamen (Raven Rock).” Alexander drew up his ranks on the higher grounds of the opposite shoreline, which forced the Crusaders to attack across the open ice. Bishop Herman had formed up his ironclad knights in the classic German “boar s head” forma­tion to penetrate Alexander’s center, split his army and destroy each half Separatelyby the advancing infantry. As described in the Novgorod Chronicle:

An army of Nemtsy [Germans and Danes] and Chud [Estonians] came upon them [at sunrise] and they fought their way through his [Alexander’s] army in a wedge. And there was a great battle with the Nemtsy and Chud, with the crash of shattering spears and the sound of clashing swords, so that even the frozen sea moved and the ice could not be seen for all was covered with blood.

To blunt the charge of the armored knights Alexander would have ordered a counter-charge by his druzhina, “with the crash of shattering spears” followed by the “clashing swords,” as the two bodies met. Mounted archers figured prominently in the prince s army, and before the Crusaders’ cavalry crashed into Alexander’s men it would have been met by a deadly hail of arrows, as recorded in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle:

... they [the Crusaders] decided to attack the Rusins. The latter had many archers and the battle began with their bold assault on the [Danish] King’s men. The Brothers’ [Teutonic Order] ban­ners were soon flying in the midst of the archers and the swords were heard cutting helmets apart. Many on both sides fell dead on the grass.³³

The Novgorod center held for a time, but began to give way as it absorbed the onslaught of the Crusaders’ heavy cav­alry and the massed infantry which followed. As the infan­try ranks retreated Alexander gave the signal for both reinforced flanks to begin to encircle the enemy. Most of the Estonian aux­iliaries managed to avoid the encirclement, but hemmed in on all sides the Crusader force was destroyed and the survivors pursued for several kilometers over the ice. The Novgorod Chronicle:

And there was a great slaughter of Nemtsi and Chud... (Estoni­ans)... and God helped Prince Alexander, and the Nemtsi fell there, and the Chud gave way, and they fought with them during the pursuit on the ice seven “versts” (just over seven kilometers) short of the Subol (western) shore. And there fell a countless number of Chud and 400 of the Nemtsi and they took 50 (pris­oners)... to Novgorod. And they fought on 5 April 1242 on a Saturday....

Following the peace negotiations, the Crusaders had to surrender all conquered Novgorod territory including the for­tification of Izborsk. Alexander Nevsky’s Victorywas a signifi­cant event in the history of Eastern Europe and prevented a Roman Catholic dominance of the region. The young prince showed himself to be a superior strategist and went on to dem­onstrate his prowess, this time against the rising strength of the Lithuanian tribes. When Lithuanians launched an invasion of Novgorod territory around Torzhok they were met by Alex­ander Nevsky at the head of troops from Novgorod, Pskov, Tver and Dimitrov and in two great battles at Zhizhitsa, and at Usvi- aty, the Lithuanian army was destroyed with nine chieftains killed in the fighting.

The battle of Lake Peipus was not the last conflict between Orthodox Slavic city states and the Catholic colonists on the Baltic. The northern part of the Baltic coast from Revel (Tallin) to the Narva River was in Danish hands, while the southern stretch was occupied by the Teutonic Knights. In 1267 Nov­gorod decided to attack the Crusaders in Estonia, the main ob­jective being the new Danish castle at Rakovar (Rakvere), built in 1252, which was threatening Novgorod shipping. The expe­dition was too weak and ill equipped to make much progress and was forced to withdraw. The following year a larger force from Novgorod, reinforced by detachments from Tver, Smo­lensk and Pskov and led by Alexander Nevsky’s son Dimitry of Pereiaslav, set out again to attack Rakovar. This time the force was equipped with siege machinery and was large enough to surround the entire perimeter of the castle walls.

The operation against the Danes was conducted during January and February of 1268 but it, too, failed to take the castle, when a relieving force of the Teutonic Order and auxiliary troops arrived on the scene. Using their standard wedge forma­tion the Teutonic Knights struck the Novgorod and Pskov reg­iments and shattered their ranks, while a second “boar’s head” wedge emerged from cover and attacked the Novgorod camp and transport. Leftwithout reinforcements the main besieging force was attacked on its flanks and surrounded but could not be overcome by the Knights’ onslaught. The fighting raged for the entire day and it was only as evening fell that Dimitry s men overcame the Teutonic Knights and their men. The Order had suffered another major defeat at the hands of Novgorod.

The hero of the battle was the refugee Lithuanian Prince Dovmont (Daumantas) of Pskov, who played a prominent part in the battle, and when the Teutonic Knights broke into flight he pursued them all the way to the Baltic coast.³⁴ Prince Dov- mont would prove himself once again when after the battle of Rakovar, a German Crusader force of a thousand men invaded a frontier settlement belonging to Pskov. Gathering a detach­ment of men Dovmont attacked the superior German force which was busy looting on the Miropovna River, on 23 April 1268 (St. George s Day) and defeated them.³⁵

Matters did not rest there, and in the following year the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Otto von Rodenstein gath­ered an army of 18,000 men and set off once more against Pskov, both by land and by water, bringing heavy siege catapults. The fort at Izborskwas taken as before, and by the end of June the Grand Master was ready to attack Pskov. A heavy assault was beaten off on the city walls and the Crusaders settled down to a siege, with the energetic Prince Dovmont leading several sor­ties and reportedly wounding Grand Master Rodenstein in combat. Word came that a relief column was advancing from Novgorod and on 8 July the siege was abandoned. The failure to capture Pskovbrought to an end any further major attempts by the Crusaders to conquer Novgorod territory.