The Livonian Order has been fighting the…
1260 CE
The Livonian Order has been fighting the Samogitians, a pagan Baltic tribe of western Lithuania, since 1253, when Mindaugas was crowned as King of Lithuania and transferred parts of Samogitia to the Order.
In 1257, a two-year truce had been made, but the Samogitians were eager to fight again and had defeated the knights in the Battle of Skuodas in 1259, which success had encouraged the rebellion of a more northerly tribe, the Semigallians of Zemgale, in what is today south central Latvia.
When the armies of the Teutonic and Livonian Orders and their allies met in Memel Castle, they learned that the Samogitians were raiding Courland.
The knights decide to march towards present-day Latvia and stop the Samogitians.
The enemies meet at the Durbe Lake on July 13, 1260.
When the battle begins, local Curonians and Estonians abandon the knights because the knights would not agree to free any Curonians captured from the Samogitian camp.
After this treason, the knights are surrounded and suffer heavy losses: some one hundred and fifty Knights perish along with hundreds of secular knights or low-rank soldiers.
This is to be the largest defeat suffered by the Teutonic Knights in the thirteenth century.
Numerous rebellions against the Teutonic Order across all Baltic lands will follow, including the Great Prussian Insurrection, which is to last from 1260 to 1274.
Parts of Zemgale and Courland will regain independence, and it will be some thirty years before the Livonian Order restores its control over the region.