Kuressaare Saaremaa Estonia

The territory of Saaremaa has been inhabited for at least five thousand years, according to archaeological finds.

Sagas mention numerous skirmishes between the Finnish-speaking islanders, called Oesilians, and Vikings.

Saaremaa is the wealthiest county of ancient Estonia and the home of notorious Estonian pirates, sometimes called the Eastern Vikings.

From the twelfth century, chroniclers' descriptions of Estonian, Oeselian and Curonian raids along the coasts of Sweden and Denmark become more frequent.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Oesilians ravaging the area that is now southern Sweden, then belonging to Denmark.

In 1206, Denmark’s King Valdemar II and Archbishop Andreas Sunonis raid Saaremaa Island in present Estonia, forcing the islanders to submit.

The Danes build a fortress, but finding no volunteers to man it, they burn it down themselves and leave the island.

The Sword Brethren had conquered the last indigenous stronghold on the Estonian island of Saaremaa in 1227.

After the conquest, all the remaining local pagans of Estonia are ostensibly Christianized.

An ecclesiastical state, Terra Mariana, has been established.

The conquerors exercises control through a network of strategically located castles.

The surviving Sword-Brothers, after the disastrous Battle of Saule, merge in 1237 with the Teutonic Order of Prussia and became known as the Livonian Order.

The Livonian Knights make an agreement in 1238 with the Danish king Valdemar II, whereby the Danes regain Estonia.

The Knights gain the Baltic coast between Vistula and Danish Estonia.

Oeselians in Ösel (the islands of Saaremaa and Muhumaa) renounce Christianity on July 24, 1344, one day before St. Jacob’s Day, kill all the resident Germans, and drown the priests in the sea.

On the same day they assemble around the Castle of the Livonian Order in Pöide.

The castle surrenders after an eight-day siege.

The vogt of the castle along with his garrison of Livonian Knights, as well as all the other Germans in the castle, are promised free passage.

Regardless, all the defenders of the castle are killed after they had come through the gates.

Saaremaa and Muhumaa remain in Estonian hands until the winter.

As soon as the sea between the islands and the continent is frozen, the Master of the Order with fresh reinforcements from Prussia crosses the sea and invades Saaremaa.

The German army loots and burns all the villages they come across and finally lay siege on Purtsa Fortress, one of the largest Estonian strongholds on the island.

In the winter of 1344, one day before Shrove Tuesday, the knights penetrate the stronghold after tearing down one of the battlements.

According to Wigand of Marburg, two thousand people are killed in the fortress.

Germans lose five hundred killed.

The Oeselian king Vesse is captured, tortured, and then executed.

Nevertheless, Saaremaa remains free and staunchly anti-Christian as the German army is forced to cross back to the continent before the sea ice melts in the spring and the roads become impenetrable for the returning reinforcements from Prussia.

The Christian army returns in the winter of 1345 to Saaremaa, where it lays waste to the northern districts by looting and burning for eight days.

Eventually Oeselians ask for peace.

The two sides reach an agreement and the army of the Livonian Order leaves Saaremaa after the Oeselians had reluctantly agreed to giving hostages and tearing down the fortress of Maasilinn.

The rebellion in Ösel has lasted for two years.

With the conditional surrender of Ösel, St. George's Night Uprising is finally over.

...Ösel and ...

The Battle of Osel Island, fought near the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) on May 24, 1719, leads to a victory for the Russian captain Naum Senyavin, whose forces capture three enemy vessels, sustaining as few as eighteen casualties.

It is the first Russian naval victory that does not involve ramming or boarding actions.

The Muhu archipelago, lying in the Baltic Sea, is separated from the mainland to the east by Muhu Strait.

The archipelago's three main islands are Saaremaa, the largest, in the south; Hiiumaa in the north; and Muhu, the smallest, in the east nearest the mainland.

The islands, owned by the Brothers of the Sword in the early thirteenth century and the Teutonic Knights from 1237, had been settled by Germans and Swedes.

The archipelago had come under the rule of Denmark in 1560 and Sweden in 1582; Russia takes possession in 1721.

The Swedish open-sea fleet had sailed from Karlskrona on June 9, 1788, with Duke Charles of Södermanland as its commander.

On June 21, the fleet meets a Russian squadron off Saaremaa island and after chasing the Russians down tries to provoke a conflict by demanding Russians render honors to the Swedes from which Russians had been exempted in the previous peace treaties.

Vice Admiral Wilhelm von Dessin, who commands the small Russian squadron, agrees to render honors to the Duke Charles but not to the Swedish flag and manages to defuse the threatening situation and continue towards Copenhagen

Since the Swedish want to avoid initiating the conflict they have lost their chance to provoke the Russians into war and are left empty-handed.