Durbe, Battle of
1260 CE
The Battle of Durbe is a medieval battle fought near Durbe, 23 km east of Liepāja, in present-day Latvia during the Livonian Crusade.
On July 13, 1260, the Samogitians soundly defeat the joint forces of the Teutonic Knights from Prussia and Livonian Order from Livonia.
150 knights are killed, including Livonian Master Burchard von Hornhausen and Prussian Land Marshal Henrik Botel.
It is by far the largest defeat of the knights in the 13th century: in the second-largest, the Battle of Aizkraukle, 71 knights are killed.
The battle inspires the Great Prussian Uprising (ending in 1274), the rebellion of the Semigallians (surrendering in 1290), the Couronians (surrendering in 1267), and the Oeselians (surrendering in 1261).
The battle undoes some 20 years of Livonian conquest and it takes some thirty years for the Livonian Order to restore its control.
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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.