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previous: Chapter 1 This webpage reproduces a chapter of The Story of Lithuania By Thomas G. Chase printed by Stratford House, Inc. New York, 1946 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Chapter 3

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 p11  Chapter II

(The numbers link directly to the sections.)

The exact date at which the unification of Lithuania took place cannot be given with certainty. Lithuanian territories, as those of the other Aistian peoples, even during the early years of the thirteenth century, were divided among a number of local leaders, minor tribal chiefs, and petty princes. This fact is evident from the treaty of 1220 with Volhynia,⁠1 in which the name of the first Lithuanian King, Mindaugas, appeared as one of the contracting parties; but this pact can also be regarded as a sign of the approaching centralization of authority and the institution of a monarchical rule. According to the Livonian Chronicles and the Volhynian Annals, Mindaugas, having inherited his father's already large possessions, proceeded to enhance them at the expense of his peers. In 1235 his influence had grown to such a degree that Daniel of Volhynia, seeking assistance against the aggressive Conrad of Masovia, appealed to him as the recognized ruler of Lithuania.

1. The Victory at Saule

One significant event, which marked the beginning of Mindaugas' reign, was the crushing of the Knights of the Sword by the Lithuanians.

After the death of Bishop Albert, the Sword Bearers not only sought to liberate themselves entirely from the jurisdiction of the  p12 Bishop of Riga and assume the government of Livonia, but they launched a vigorous campaign to subdue the remaining Letts south of the Dvina and attempted to invade Lithuania. In 1229 they succeeded in attacking and defeating the Lithuanian forces. Soon afterwards they proclaimed a holy war against the pagans of the Baltic. Having received an excellent response from the men of Christian Europe, the Knights and their visiting guests, under the leader­ship of the Grand Master, Valequin, engaged the Lithuanians in an important battle at Saule⁠2 near Bauska in 1236. Their troops, however, were completely routed and almost totally destroyed. Two immediate consequences of this Lithuanian victory were: the uprising of the Zemgals and the Kurs against their German oppressors, and the federation of the Livonian Order, no longer able to carry on an independent existence, with the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. The latter appointed Hermann von Balke to act as their deputy and as the first Landmeister in Livonia. Mindaugas' subsequent efforts to annex Courland culminated in the disastrous defeat of 1242 at the German stronghold of Amboten.

2. The Mongol Peril

The Mongols of Chingiz (Jenghiz) Khan appeared for the first time on the steppes of southern Europe in 1222, routed the opposing forces of the Ruthenians, and ravaged Great Bulgaria. In 1235, Ugadai, Chingiz' successor, dispatched Batu to conquer the territory between the Ural and the Dnieper. As a result, the Eastern Slav principalities of Ryazan, Moscow, Vladimir, Kaluga in the north, Kiev and Volhynia in the south, were devastated and enslaved in rapid order during the years 1237‑1240. In 1241 the Tatars even pend as far westward as Poland and Hungary. Batu then retired to the lower Volga, quartered his Golden Horde (Western Kipchaks) at Sarai, and remained rather conveniently situated to maintain the dominating authority that his expeditions had won in the Eastern Slav lands.

 p13  In an attempt to minimize the Tatar peril to Lithuania and to prevent his immediate Slav neighbors from falling under the merciless yoke of the Mongols, Mindaugas proceeded to expand his state eastward. Without much difficulty he recovered the areas of Naugardukas, Volkoviskas and Slanimas, which had been lost by the Yatvegian branch of the Aistians during the twelfth century, and entrusted their administration to his son Vaisvilkas. In 1239 the Lithuanians occupied Polock and captured Smolensk. Nevertheless, they were soon driven out of Smolensk by Yaroslav, who, ruling in Vladimir on the Kliasma, had acknowledged his vassalage to Batu and had in turn received from him the title of Grand Duke, which formerly had belonged to the master of Kiev. In 1242 the Lithuanians were defeated by Alexander Nevsky in the region of Novgorod, but five years later were victorious near Pskov. Similarly, a rather bitter contest had ensued between Lithuania and Volhynia, whose princes, Daniel and Basil, refused to abandon their claims to the old Yatvegian lands near the upper Nemunas; but, in 1247, Daniel temporarily came to terms with Mindaugas and obtained aid from the latter against Ratislav of Halicz (Galicia).

3. The Coronation of Mindaugas

In 1247 Mindaugas commissioned Tautvila and Erdvila⁠3 to march against Smolensk and to create their own government in the Eastern Slav areas. In 1248 these two influential Samogitian princes success­fully pushed beyond the Dnieper and even defeated Michael Yaroslav of Suzdal. Being unable to hold their positions, they attempted to retreat to Lithuania. Since Mindaugas absolutely refused to receive them, they sought refuge in Volhynia, where they formed a league against him. They enlisted the assistance of the Volhynians, the Livonian Order, the Teutonic Knights, and through the services of their uncle Vikantas, even gained the cooperation of some of the Samogitians and Yatvegians.

 p14  The Volhynians struck the first blow from the south by occupying Naugardukas, Volkoviskas and Slanimas. Tautvila journeyed to Riga at the head of a Ruthenian army, became a Christian and expressed his desire to supplant Mindaugas. The Livonian Order then invaded Lithuania from the north, devastated the district of Naliskiai, and ravaged Samogitia.

Faced by a rather serious situation, Mindaugas secretly extended an invitation to the Livonian Landmeister, Andrew von Stirland, to visit Lithuania and discuss the possibilities of peace. The immediate results of the conference were: the Lithuanian ruler agreed to accept Christianity, to convert his nation, and exacted from his guest the promise of a royal crown. Consequently, early in 1251 Mindaugas with his wife Martha and a large number of Lithuanians were baptized at the fortress Voruta. The coronation ceremony took place two years later, and Christian, the priest who had instructed Mindaugas, was consecrated bishop and appointed by Pope Innocent IV as the head of the separate ecclesiastical province of Lithuania.

As a Christian King, Mindaugas intensified his efforts to consolidate the foundations of the Lithuanian state. Quickly he compelled the Volhynians to relinquish the territories they had seized in 1249‑50. He cooperated with the Knights of the Sword in their attempted invasion of Pskov (1253). The following year he recovered the duchy of Polock, which had been lost during the crisis preceding his Christianization, and afterwards appointed Tautvila (with whom he was finally reconciled) as its governor. In 1255 Mindaugas obtained the approval of Pope Alexander IV to crown one of his sons⁠4 as his successor to the Kingdom of Lithuania. His occupation of Vitebsk, Minsk and two towns in the Smolensk region, however, exposed him to the vengeance of the Tatars, for the latter had previously reduced these eastern areas to the status of vassals. And in 1259, the date of another Mongol invasion of Europe, Lithuania was not spared by the forces of the Golden Horde, who at that time ravaged and plundered the Yatvegian lands as well as the major part of Mindaugas' domains.

 p15  4. The Aistian Uprisings

Faithful as Mindaugas sought to remain to his treaty with the Livonian Order (1250), nevertheless, the concerted action of all the Aistian peoples against the aggression of the would-be crusaders compelled him to abandon his conciliatory policy.

Within twelve years the Teutonic Knights had succeeded in systematically conquering all the Old Prussian tribes with the exception of the Sambians, the Nadrovians, and the Skalovians on the right bank of the Pregel River. Aided by the vast resources of Christian Europe, they suppressed the general and apparently desperate uprising of the Old Prussians, which began in 1242 and ended some ten years later, with the partial subjugation of the Sambians. Swientopelk of Pomerania was the only Polish prince, who seemed to realize the seriousness of the threat the Germans had brought to the Baltic and attempted to oppose it. In the meanwhile, the Livonian Order had firmly entrenched itself in Courland (1245‑50) and had even obtained territorial concessions from Bishop Christian, upon whom Mindaugas had bestowed extensive lands in Samogitia to provide for his support. As a consequence, the Knights of the Sword immediately manifested a renewed and an intense interest in the creation of an overland junction through the Lithuanian Lowland with the Knights of the Cross in Old Prussia.

In 1252, the Sword Bearers, in an effort to cut off the Samogitians from the Baltic and to disrupt their trade relations with the Sambians living on the Prussian peninsula, erected a fortress at Klaipeda (Memel). Four years later the Sambians made an un­success­ful attempt to oust the Teutons from Klaipeda, while the Samogitians attacked the German fortifications in Courland. Landmeister Hanno von Sangerhausen immediately retaliated with punitive expeditions into Samogitia and Sambia. During the two year truce, which had been agreed upon by the Lithuania Lowlanders and the Order of the Sword in 1257, the latter enlisted recruits from Bohemia, Poland, Moravia and Pomerania. Nevertheless, in 1259, they were decisively defeated at Skuodas by the  p16 Samogitians, who on this occasion were assisted by a number of volunteers from among the Lithuanian Highlanders. The Lettish Zemgals then revolted against the Livonian Knights. And early in 1260, aided by the uprising of the Kurs, the Samogitians inflicted another serious defeat on the commons at Durbe in Courland. In 1261 a force of Lithuanian Highlanders, sympathetic with the cause of the Samogitians, gained a similar victory at the Teutons' stronghold of Lenevarden.

With these events a general rebellion (1260) of all the Aistian peoples previously vanquished by the crusaders broke out in Old Prussia and Livonia. It was at this moment that the Samogitian prince, Treniota, induced Mindaugas to yield to the popular opinion of his own subjects and to pledge his support to the Aistians against the Germans. And in 1262 Mindaugas denounced his treaty with the Livonian Order and declared war. That same year, having formed an alliance with the Republic of Novgorod, which was interested in wresting Estonian territories from the Knights, Mindaugas marched against Wenden (Cesis). Troops from Novgorod later attacked Dorpat (Tartu). The following year Treniota defeated the Sword Bearers at Dunamunde (Ust-Dvinsk), and the combined armies of the Lithuanians and Yatvegians invaded Old Prussia, Masovia, and Volhynia. When towards the end of 1263, Mindaugas proceeded to dispatch Lithuanian troops to the East against Bryansk quite contrary to the wishes of Treniota and Daumantas, the latter assassinated him and his two sons, Ruklys and Rupeikis.

5. Aistian Losses

After Mindaugas' death the uprising of the Aistians failed to attain any further significant results. Although Treniota (1263‑64) sought to cooperate to the fullest possible extent with the Old Prussians and the Letts, his rule perdured scarcely more than a year. Mindaugas' son, Vaisvilkas (1265‑68), then left the monastery of the Eastern Orthodox Church to which he had retired, and became the Grand Duke of Lithuania. He immediately withdrew all aid  p17 from the revolting Old Prussians and Letts, reestablished relations with the Teutons and Volhynians, and even suppressed by force the opposition manifested by the Lithuanians against his policies. In 1268 he resigned his position in Lithuania in favor of his brother-in‑law, Svarnas of Volhynia, who was assassinated during the very next year.

It was evident that too much valuable time had already been lost when Traidenis (1270‑82) espoused the Aistian cause against the Germans in 1270. The Kurs and the other Lettish tribes (except some of the Zemgals) had been repressed by the Livonian Order. The Knights of the Cross had officially launched a campaign of extermination against the Old Prussians; having reduced Sambia to a desert, they overpowered the Natangians and the Varmians in 1273, and brought the Bartonians to terms in 1274. Traidenis' frequent incursions against the crusaders in Old Prussia failed to stem the tide of the Teutons' offensive against the still independent Nadrovians and Skalovians. The latter were finally overcome in 1280. The Lithuanian ruler worked zealously to settle the Old Prussian refugees, who had fled from the Knights, along the Volhynian frontier south of the Nemunas, and to prevent the annihilation of the Yatvegian branch of the Aistians.

In 1254, the Volhynians, the Poles, and the Teutonic Knights had entered into a tripartite pact concerning the conquest of the Yatvegians. They agreed to divide the spoils in this manner: the Knights were to receive title to two‑thirds of the vanquished territory, while the Masovians and the Volhynians were to share one-third. Some twenty-nine years, however, elapsed before decisive results were attained. The campaign of 1254 sponsored by Ziemovit of Masovia, Boleslas of Cracow, and Daniel of Volhynia proved futile, for the Yatvegians allied with Lithuanian volunteers retaliated during the following year and success­fully ravaged the vicinity of Lublin. Neither did Boleslas' victory in 1264, nor the invasions of Poland by Grand Duke Traidenis, alter the situation in any way. Finally, in 1282, Leszek the Black of Cracow crushed the Yatvegians near the Nemunas and thereby extinguished their independent existence in the south. In 1280 the Teutonic  p18 Knights opened their campaign against Sudavia,⁠5 bordering on Old Prussia. Within three years they succeeded in demolishing and conquering this district, section by section, in spite of the constant aid rendered the Yatvegians by the Lithuanians. This warfare transferred that entire area into a desolate wilderness. Its inhabitants were either massacred or evacuated to Sambia; others emigrated to Lithuania. And of the four groups of Aistians, the Lithuanians alone, while still moulding their own political state, remained free, although threatened from the left by the Order of the Cross and from the right by the Order of the Sword.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 cf.  p7.

2 It is not clear whether the battle took place at Saule near Bauska in Lettish Semigallia or at Siauliai in Lithuania.

3 Daniel of Volhynia was married to their sister. Erdvila had taken one of Mindaugas' sisters to wife.

4 Undoubtedly either Ruklys or Rupeikis, for Vaisvilkas had retired to a monastery of the Orthodox Church.

5 cf. p3, footnote 2.

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