Battle of Saule
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The Battle of Saule (German: Schlacht von Schaulen, Lithuanian: Saulės Mūšis, Latvian: Saules kauja) was fought on September 22, 1236 between the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and pagan Samogitians. Having been defeated, the remnants of the Livonian Brethren accepted incorporation into the Teutonic Order in 1237.
[edit] Background
The Livonian Knights, led by Master Volquin, were in desperate straits by the 1230s with strained financial resources and decreasing manpower. In 1236 Volquin led a war party with the assistance of the prince of Pskov[citation needed] southward into pagan Samogitia.
[edit] Events of the battle
Accompanied by headstrong seasonal crusaders from Holstein, the knights raided some settlements of the Žemaičiai, or Samogitians, who had fled beforehand. On the knights' return trek to the north, however, they encountered a determined group of Samogitians at a river crossing. Unwilling to risk losing their horses in the swampland, the Holsteiners refused to fight on foot, forcing the knights to camp for the night.
The next morning a pagan force composed of Samogitians led by Duke Vykintas and Lithuanians led by Duke Mindaugas struck at the western army. Lightly-armed native forces under the command of the Brothers fled from the battle, while the burdened knights and crusaders, including Volquin, were slain. Those crusaders and knights who tried to flee to Riga were allegedly killed by Semigallians.[1]
The Chronicum Livoniae by Hermann de Wartberge says the battle was fought in terram Sauleorum. The exact place where the battle took place is not known - it was only said that it was in terram Sauleorum. This may be near Šiauliai in Lithuania (German: Schaulen, in Latvian: Saule) or, less likely, near the small town of Vecsaule in what is today southern Latvia. Saule/Saulė means "the Sun" in Latvian and Lithuanian.
Latvian folk metal band Skyforger recorded a song entitled Kauja pie Saules about the battle.
