Battle of Saule 1236
The battle of Saule — Schlacht bei Schoden in German, Saulės mūšis in Lithuanian — was fought on 22 September 1236 in western Lithuania, between a force of the Brotherhood of the Sword and a combined Lithuanian-Samogitian army. The battle was a Lithuanian victory of the first order. The Master of the Brotherhood, Volkwin, was killed, together with most of the senior knight-brothers. The brotherhood’s military capacity was effectively destroyed, and the surviving brethren were unable to defend the brotherhood’s territories.
The battle of Saule is, in the wider history of the Teutonic Order, an important chapter. The battle was the catastrophe that ended the Brotherhood of the Sword’s effective history. The battle was the event that led, within a year, to the merger of the Brotherhood of the Sword with the Teutonic Order, and to the creation of the Livonian branch.
The Strategic Context
The battle of Saule was fought in the context of a long-running campaign by the Brotherhood of the Sword against the Samogitians, a Baltic tribe inhabiting the region between Livonia and Prussia. The Samogitians had been converted to Christianity in 1230, in the course of a campaign conducted by the Brotherhood of the Sword, but the conversion had been a forced and a partial one, and the Samogitians had been in revolt against the Latin church since 1230.
The brotherhood’s campaign against the Samogitians was a defensive one. The Samogitians had been raiding Livonian territory with increasing frequency, and the brotherhood’s leadership was determined to mount a major punitive expedition into Samogitia. The expedition was, in effect, an attempt to demonstrate the brotherhood’s continuing military capacity and to restore the credibility of the brotherhood’s authority in the region.
The March into Samogitia
The brotherhood’s expedition into Samogitia, in the summer of 1236, was led by the Master, Volkwin, and included the senior knight-brothers of the brotherhood and a substantial body of auxiliary troops recruited from the Latin church’s possessions in Livonia. The expedition was, by the standards of the brotherhood, a substantial force, and it was intended to operate as a punitive expedition against the Samogitian rebels.
The expedition marched from the brotherhood’s principal base in Riga, crossed the Daugava, and advanced into Samogitia. The march was a difficult one, conducted in difficult country, and the expedition’s lines of communication were, exposed to Samogitian attack.
The Lithuanian and Samogitian forces that awaited the brotherhood’s expedition at Saule were, the superior of the brotherhood’s force. The Lithuanian army was commanded by Duke Vykintas, a Lithuanian nobleman who had been involved in the Samogitian revolt, and it included a substantial body of Samogitian troops and a substantial body of Lithuanian regular troops. The Lithuanian and Samogitian forces were, in addition, fighting on familiar ground, and they were, in a strong tactical position.
The Battle
The battle was fought on 22 September 1236. The principal sources are the Livonian chronicles and the Lithuanian chronicles, which give substantially different accounts of the engagement. The Livonian sources emphasise the treachery of certain Samogitian auxiliaries, who are alleged to have deserted to the Lithuanian side during the battle. The Lithuanian sources emphasise the superiority of the Lithuanian tactics and the determination of the Lithuanian attack.
The battle was, a conventional field engagement. The brotherhood’s force deployed in a strong defensive position, with the cavalry on the wings and the infantry in the centre. The Lithuanian and Samogitian forces attacked the brotherhood’s position in a series of coordinated assaults, and the brotherhood’s force, despite its strong defensive position, was unable to withstand the Lithuanian pressure. The battle was decided, in most accounts, by the defection of the Samogitian auxiliaries, who abandoned their positions at a critical moment and exposed the brotherhood’s flank to the Lithuanian attack.
The result was a Lithuanian victory of the first order. The brotherhood’s force was destroyed: most of the senior knight-brothers were killed, and the Master, Volkwin, was among the dead. The brotherhood’s military capacity was effectively destroyed, and the surviving brethren were unable to defend the brotherhood’s territories.
The Aftermath
The immediate consequence of the battle of Saule was the collapse of the brotherhood’s authority in Livonia. The surviving brethren, recognising that the brotherhood could not continue as an independent order, applied for incorporation into the Teutonic Order. The application was supported by the Bishop of Riga and by the German merchants of Riga, and it was approved by Pope Gregory IX, in the bull Omnis terrae, on 12 May 1237.
The terms of the merger were generous to the surviving brethren. The Teutonic Order accepted the surviving members of the brotherhood as full members, with the right to retain the principal commanderies of the brotherhood and to be governed initially by their own officers. The Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order, as the new formation was called, was to be governed by a Master, the Landmeister of Livonia, elected by the chapter of the Livonian knight-brothers and confirmed by the Grand Master at Marienburg.
The longer-term consequence of the battle was a major setback for the Latin church’s position in the eastern Baltic. The Samogitians, encouraged by the victory, repudiated the Latin church and resumed their raids on Livonia. The Order’s territories in southern Livonia were exposed to Lithuanian attack, and the Order’s principal ally in the region, the Bishop of Riga, was unable to provide the military support that the Order required.
The battle of Saule is, in the modern historiography, regarded as one of the most important engagements of the thirteenth-century Baltic. The battle was the first major defeat of a military-religious order in the Baltic, and it prefigured the much more famous defeats of the Teutonic Order at Durbe in 1260 and at Tannenberg in 1410.
Sources
- Benninghoven, Friedrich. Der Orden der Schwertbrüder: Fratres Milicie Christi de Livonia. Cologne: Böhlau, 2005.
- Favreau-Lilie, Marie-Luise. Die Ritterbrüder im livländischen Zweig des Deutschen Ordens. Cologne: Böhlau, 2003.
- Hjorth, Poul, ed. Henrici Cronicon Lyvoniae. Copenhagen: Copenhagen University, 1962.
Related Reading
For the brotherhood whose military capacity was destroyed at Saule, see the article on the Sword Brothers founded in 1202 and the parent cluster on the Sword Brothers. For the Livonian branch that the brotherhood became after Saule, see the parent overview of the Livonian branch. The Order’s principal military disasters in the Baltic — the battle of Durbe in 1260 and the battle on the Ice in 1242 — are treated in the pillar on military affairs. The grand master who negotiated the merger that followed Saule, Hermann von Salza, is treated in the article on Hermann von Salza. The Order’s Prussian counterpart, with which the Livonian branch maintained close relations, is treated in the history of the Teutonic state in Prussia.