From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Livonian Confederation in 1260, showing the site for the Battle of Saule.

The Battle of Saule (German: Schlacht von Schaulen, Lithuanian: Saulės mūšis or Šiaulių mūšis, Latvian: Saules kauja) was fought on September 22, 1236 between the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and pagan Samogitians. Some 60 or 50 knights were killed, including the Livonian Master; it was the earliest large-scale defeat suffered by the orders in Baltic lands.^[1] The Livonian Order, the first Catholic military order established in the Baltic lands, was soundly defeated and its remnants accepted incorporation into the Teutonic Order in 1237. The battle inspired Curonians, Semigallians, and Selonians, Baltic tribes previously conquered by the Livonian Order, to rebel. Some thirty years' worth of conquests on the left bank of Daugava were lost.^[2]

The Livonian Order was established in 1202 in Riga to conquer and convert pagan Baltic tribes to Christianity. By the 1230s under leadership of Master Volquin, the Order was coping with strained financial resources, decreasing manpower, and ill reputation.^[3] The Order was in conflict with the pope and the Holy Roman Empire, two of its biggest supporters, over Estonia.^[4] In fall of 1236 a party of crusaders arrived from Holstein; it demanded to be led into a battle.^[4] Master Volquin led a war party with the assistance of the prince of Pskov^[3] southward into pagan Samogitia. Earlier in the year the Order obtained a papal bull announcing crusade against pagan Lithuania and Samogitia.^[5]

The knights raided some settlements of the Samogitians. On the knights' return to the north, however, they encountered a determined group of Samogitians at a river crossing. Unwilling to risk losing their horses in the swampland, the Holsteiners refused to fight on foot, forcing the knights to camp for the night.^[3] The next morning, on the day of Saint Maurice, main pagan forces composed of Samogitians, probably led by Duke Vykintas, and Lithuanians arrived to the camp. Lightly-armed native forces under the command of the Brothers fled from the battle, while the knights with heavy armors, including Volquin, were slain. Those crusaders and knights who tried to flee to Riga were allegedly killed by Semigallians.^[6]

The exact place where the battle took place is not known. The Chronicum Livoniae by Hermann de Wartberge says the battle was fought in terram Sauleorum. This may be near Šiauliai in Lithuania (German: Schaulen, Latvian: Saule) or, less likely, near the small town of Vecsaule near Bauska in what is today southern Latvia.^[5] Saule/Saulė means "the Sun" in both Latvian and Lithuanian languages.