On 13 July 1260, at Durbe in Courland, in present-day western Latvia, a Samogitian army defeated the Livonian Order and the Teutonic Order's forces from Prussia after the Curonians in the Orders' army abandoned them; the Livonian master and the marshal of Prussia fell with about 150 brethren. Also on 13 July: Roundway Down, 1643.
Battle of Durbe
13 July 1260 · 766 years ago
A crusade against Samogitia
In 1259, writes Peter of Dusburg, the Livonian master Burchard von Hornhausen had a castle built "in terra Carsovie in monte sancti Georgii", in the land of Karšuva on St George's hill, by the brothers of Livonia and Prussia at equal cost and labor (our translation). The historian Tomas Baranauskas also dates Georgenburg to 1259 and places it in Samogitia, in the land of Karšuva; the Samogitians soon besieged it, and supplying its garrison became a real challenge for the Order.1
In 1260, Dusburg writes, the brothers of Livonia and Prussia gathered "cum validis exercitibus", with strong armies, to bring supplies to the brothers of the castle of St George. Baranauskas describes forces of unprecedented size. With the Livonians came Danish troops from northern Estonia, and Heinrich Botel, marshal of the Order's land of Prussia, brought the Prussian brethren with conquered Prussians. The Rhymed Chronicle and Baranauskas both mention a band of 30 brothers newly arrived from Germany, and the armies gathered at Memel (Klaipėda). In the Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia, Edvardas Gudavičius calls it the Teutonic Order's first direct part in the Livonian Order's war with the Lithuanians.2
Gudavičius names Danish and Swedish units led by a Swedish prince, Karl; a necrology of the Order's house at Altenbiesen, quoted by the editor Ernst Strehlke, calls him "dominus Karolus dux de Sweden"; Baranauskas identifies him as Karl Ulfsson, son of the former Swedish jarl Ulf Fase. Gudavičius estimates, with the caveat "it is thought", that the Orders and their allies had several thousand men (our translation).3
The battle
Near the castle, Dusburg writes, a messenger reported that "IIII milia Lethovinorum", 4,000 Lithuanians, had ravaged part of Courland and were carrying off women and children. Gudavičius, with the same caveat, puts the Samogitians at about 4,000, Baranauskas at 4,000. The Rhymed Chronicle calls the enemy "Lettowen", Lithuanians; telling of their earlier attack on Doben, it adds "die Sameiten sint genant", who are called Samogitians (our translation). The master turned to meet them in Courland, write the Rhymed Chronicle and Baranauskas, and the Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia agrees.4
Dusburg gives the Curonians a motive: before the battle they humbly asked that, if God gave the Christians victory, their captured women and children be returned to them free; the brothers were inclined to agree, but the common people of Prussia and Livonia refused, citing the custom of war.5
That refusal, Dusburg writes, so angered the Curonians that "dum fratres inciperent Lethowinos impugnare, ipsi tanquam apostate a tergo Cristianos hostiliter invaserunt": when the brothers began to attack the Lithuanians, they fell on the Christians from behind like apostates (our translation); the Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia, too, has some of the Curonians attack the Orders' army from the rear. The Rhymed Chronicle gives no such motive. It says the Curonians had planned beforehand not to fight, reasoning that if the brothers lost their lives and the field, "sô wolle wir sunder hêrren wesen", then we shall be without lords (our translation). When the Estonians saw them go, it adds, they hurried away with them; the encyclopedia also has the Estonians retreat. Gudavičius adds that the Orders' contingents quarrelled and had no single commander.6
Dusburg dates the battle "in die beate Margarethe", on the day of blessed Margaret, and Hermann von Wartberge "in die beate Margarete anno 1260" (our translation). Their editors in the Scriptores rerum Prussicarum, Max Toeppen and Ernst Strehlke, print 13 July in the margins; Gudavičius and Baranauskas give 13 July 1260.7
Left alone on the field
As nearly all the common people of both lands left the field, Dusburg writes, some Prussian nobles stayed with the brothers. In the Rhymed Chronicle the brothers and the good Sambians, left alone in their need, were surrounded, and many a man died “zû Dorben ûf dem velde breit”, at Dorben on the broad field, before he could come to arms (our translation). The Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia, too, has the Samogitians encircle the Orders' army, kill many and pursue those who fled.8
Counting the dead
Dusburg names among the fallen Burchard, master of Livonia, and Heinrich Botel, marshal of Prussia, with 150 brothers, "et de populo dei tanta multitudo, quod eorum numerum non audivi": and of God's people so great a multitude that I have not heard their number (our translation). The Rhymed Chronicle says the master died "mit anderhalb hundert brûderen sîn", with a hundred and fifty of his brothers, and many a pilgrim with them (our translation). Wartberge's chronicle, as printed, has Burchard killed with "II C", two hundred, brothers; Strehlke notes a stroke through the c in one manuscript, reads one and a half hundred, 150, and calls the 150 of Dusburg and the Rhymed Chronicle a round number.9
The Altenbiesen necrology counts 136 brothers killed with the master, and Karl "cum tota familia sua", with his whole household (our translation). Baranauskas gives about 150 to 170 knights of the Order and calls these the Order's heaviest losses until Grunwald in 1410. Gudavičius gives about 150, with many other soldiers, and counts Karl and his unit among the dead.10
Where exactly?
The Rhymed Chronicle sets the slaughter at Dorben on the broad field, Dusburg "in campo juxta fluvium Durbin", in a field by the river Durbin, and the Prussian annal of the Canon of Samland "circa flumen Durben", around the river Durben (our translation). Gudavičius places the battle by Lake Durbe. Baranauskas traces the lake placing to Oskar Kienitz in 1849, notes that the sources mention neither a lake nor a castle, and proposes the Durbe river north of the lake, perhaps near Dunalka.11
The Baltic in revolt
The Order's garrison in Georgenburg had to be withdrawn. Gudavičius and Baranauskas both write that the battle set off risings of the Curonians and the Prussians and turned the Lithuanian ruler Mindaugas against the Order; Gudavičius names the Great Prussian Uprising and dates Mindaugas's break with the Livonian Order to 1261. Gudavičius concludes that Durbe halted the Order's advance east until the 1270s and gave the Lithuanian state time to grow stronger. An earlier defeat of the crusading knights in the east is told in our article on the Battle on the Ice.12
Also on this day
Battle of Shubra Khit
13 July 1798 · 228 years ago
Marching on Cairo during the French invasion of Egypt, Napoleon's army met Mamluk cavalry at the Nile village of Shubra Khit, while rival flotillas fought on the river. French firepower broke the Mamluk charges, and the army went on toward the Pyramids.
1643: Royalist horse under Lord Wilmot, with Prince Maurice, routed Sir William Waller's Parliamentarian army on Roundway Down above Devizes, where Waller had been besieging Sir Ralph Hopton's Cornish foot. Clarendon writes that Wilmot appeared "on the Wednesday about noon"; his editor W. Dunn Macray prints "Thursday, July 13" in the margin, and Charles Chadwyck Healey, editor of Hopton's narrative, and S. R. Gardiner also give 13 July. Clarendon credits Wilmot with 1,500 horse against "full two thousand horse, five hundred dragoons, and near three thousand foot", and counts above 600 of the enemy slain, 900 prisoners and eight brass guns taken. Colonel Slingsby, a Royalist in Devizes, counts Waller's foot, left on the hill, at about 1,800, of whom above 600 were slain, and nine brass guns taken.13
