Battle of Erömäe 1560
The battle of Erömäe — Schlacht bei Erömäe in the German sources, the battle on the Ermes in the Russian sources — was fought on 2 August 1560 in the eastern Baltic, between a force of the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order and a Russian army under the command of Prince Pyotr Shuisky. The engagement was a Russian victory of the first order: the Livonian field army was destroyed, the Master of the Livonian branch, Wilhelm von Fürstenberg, was taken prisoner, and most of the senior knight-brothers of the Livonian branch were killed. The battle is, in the wider history of the Livonian War, the decisive military turning point, the engagement at which the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order lost its capacity to defend its territories by force of arms.
The Strategic Context
The battle was fought in the third year of the Livonian War of 1558–1583. The Russian invasion of 1558 had stripped the Livonian branch of its eastern territories, including Dorpat, Narva, and Wesenberg. The Order’s remaining territories — in southern Livonia, in Courland, and in Semigallia — were exposed both to Russian attack and to the encroachment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which had emerged as the principal beneficiary of the dissolution.
The Order’s strategic position, in 1560, was deteriorating rapidly. The Order’s financial resources were exhausted, the Order’s allies in the Holy Roman Empire had been slow to provide the military support that the Order required, and the Order’s diplomacy had, in the previous two years, been an uncoordinated series of attempts to negotiate separate truces — an approach that had simply invited the Russian exploitation of the resulting divisions. The Order’s field army, although still a substantial force, was increasingly the only instrument by which the Order could defend its remaining territories.
The Order’s Master, Wilhelm von Fürstenberg, was a relatively new appointment. He had been elected Master in 1559, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian occupation of most of the Order’s eastern territories, and he had inherited, in effect, a principality in the process of dissolution. Fürstenberg was an experienced soldier and diplomat, and he was determined, in 1560, to mount a major field engagement against the Russian forces in the eastern Baltic.
The March to Erömäe
Fürstenberg’s plan, in the summer of 1560, was to march a substantial field army into the eastern Baltic and to engage the Russian forces that had been operating from the occupied fortress of Dorpat. The Livonian field army that marched to Erömäe was, by the standards of the Livonian branch, a substantial force. The army included the Master himself, the senior knight-brothers of the Livonian branch, and a substantial body of mercenary troops that had been recruited in the previous year.
The Russian forces that awaited the Livonian army at Erömäe were, the superior of the Livonian forces. The Russian army was commanded by Prince Pyotr Shuisky, an experienced soldier who had been operating in the eastern Baltic for several years. The Russian army included a substantial body of cavalry, a substantial body of infantry armed with firearms, and a substantial body of auxiliary troops recruited from the Russian borderlands. The Russian army was, in addition, well supplied and well positioned.
The Battle
The battle was fought on 2 August 1560. The principal sources for the battle are the Livonian chronicles and the Russian chronicles, which give substantially different accounts of the engagement. The Livonian sources emphasise the treachery of certain Livonian auxiliaries, who are alleged to have deserted to the Russian side during the battle. The Russian sources emphasise the superiority of the Russian tactics and the determination of the Russian attack.
The battle was, a conventional field engagement. The Livonian army deployed in a strong defensive position, with the cavalry on the wings and the infantry in the centre. The Russian army attacked the Livonian position in a series of coordinated assaults, and the Livonian army, despite its strong defensive position, was unable to withstand the Russian pressure. The battle was decided, in most accounts, by the defection of the Livonian auxiliaries, who abandoned their positions at a critical moment and exposed the Livonian flank to the Russian attack.
The result was a Russian victory of the first order. The Livonian field army was destroyed: most of the senior knight-brothers of the Livonian branch were killed, and the Master himself, Wilhelm von Fürstenberg, was taken prisoner. The Master was subsequently released by the Russians in exchange for a substantial ransom, but the political damage of the defeat was irreparable.
The Aftermath
The immediate consequence of the battle of Erömäe was the Russian occupation of the remaining Livonian territories in the eastern Baltic. The Russian forces, emboldened by the victory, advanced into the Livonian heartland and occupied a substantial portion of the Order’s remaining territories. The Order’s political position, already weak, was now desperate.
The longer-term consequence of the battle was the dissolution of the Livonian Confederation. The battle had removed the Order’s capacity to defend its territories by force of arms, and the remaining members of the Confederation were now obliged to seek the protection of one of the great powers. The archbishop of Riga entered into a secret treaty with Poland-Lithuania. The bishopric of Ösel-Wiek was sold to Denmark. The city of Reval and the Estonian nobility submitted to Sweden. The Order itself was dissolved in 1561, and its remaining territories were formed into the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a secular principality in vassalage to Poland-Lithuania under the last Master, Gotthard Kettler.
The battle of Erömäe is, in the modern historiography, regarded as the decisive military turning point of the Livonian War. The battle is also, in the longer history of the Teutonic Order, the engagement at which the Order’s medieval constitutional form proved to be inadequate to the conditions of the early modern state system.
Sources
- Frost, Robert I. The Northern Wars: War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558–1721. Harlow: Longman, 2000.
- Kirchmayer, Josef. Der Untergang des Deutschen Ordens in Livland. Hildesheim: Olms, 2001.
- Urban, William. The Livonian Crusade. Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1981.
Related Reading
For the broader context of the war in which the battle was fought, see the parent overview of the Livonian branch and the cluster on the Livonian War of 1558–1583. For the political dissolution that the battle made possible, see the article on the fall of the Livonian Order. For the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, the secular rump of the dissolved Order, see the article on the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and the cluster on Courland and the legacy of Livonia. The Livonian Confederation that the battle destroyed is treated in the cluster on the Livonian Confederation. The Order’s military doctrine, in the period leading up to Erömäe, is examined in the pillar on military affairs.