Battle on the Ice

Coordinates: 58°14′N 27°30′E / 58.233°N 27.500°E / 58.233; 27.500
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern.
For other battles on ice, see List of military operations on ice.
Battle on the Ice
Part of the Northern Crusades and the Livonian campaign against Rus'

Depiction of the battle in the late 16th century illuminated manuscript Life of Alexander Nevsky
Date5 April 1242
Location
Lake Peipus, between Estonia and Russia
Result

Novgorodian victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of Denmark

Novgorod Republic
Grand Duchy of Vladimir

Commanders and leaders
Andreas von Velven
Andrey Yaroslavich
Strength

2,600:[1]

  • 1,000 Estonian infantry;
  • 800 Danish and German knights;
  • 400 Germans;
  • 300 Danes;
  • 100 Teutonic knights.[2]

5,000:[1]

  • 2,000 militia;
  • 1,400 tribesmen;
  • 1,000 druzhina;
  • 600 horse archers.[2]
Casualties and losses

Livonian Rhymed Chronicle:
20 knights killed
6 knights captured

Novgorod First Chronicle:

400 Germans killed
50 Germans imprisoned
"Countless" Estonians killed[3]		 No exact figures

The Battle on the Ice,[a] alternatively known as the Battle of Lake Peipus (German: Schlacht auf dem Peipussee; Russian: битва на Чудском озере, romanized: bitva na Chudskom ozere), took place on 5 April 1242. It was fought largely on the frozen Lake Peipus between the united forces of the Republic of Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, and the forces of the Livonian Order and Bishopric of Dorpat, led by Bishop Hermann of Dorpat.

The battle was significant because its outcome determined whether Western Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox Christianity would dominate in the region. In the end, the battle represented a significant defeat for the Catholic forces during the Northern Crusades and brought an end to their campaigns against the Orthodox Novgorod Republic and other Russian territories for the next century.[4]

The significance and likely the scale of the battle was exaggerated in later Russian sources, which hailed it as one of the great Russian victories of the Middle Ages.[5] The event portrayed in Sergei Eisenstein's historical drama film, Alexander Nevsky (1938), later created a popular but inaccurate image of the battle.

The Novgorodian victory is commemorated today in Russia as one of the Days of Military Honour.

Background

Medieval Livonia

In 1237, the Swedes received papal authorization to launch a crusade, and in 1240, new campaigns began in the easternmost part of the Baltic region.[6] After a successful campaign into Tavastia, the Swedes advanced further east until they were stopped by a Novgorodian army led by Prince Alexander Yaroslavich who had defeated the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in July 1240 and received the nickname Nevsky.[7]

Although the missionaries and Crusaders had attempted to establish peaceful relations with the

Votia, a tributary of Novgorod.[10][11] This triggered the counterattack from Novgorod in 1241.[12] The delayed response was a result of the internal strife in Novgorod.[13]

Hoping to exploit Novgorod's weakness in the wake of the Mongol and Swedish invasions, the

Teutonic Knights attacked the neighboring Novgorod Republic and occupied Pskov, Izborsk, and Koporye in the autumn of 1240.[8] When they approached Novgorod itself, the local citizens recalled to the city 20-year-old Prince Alexander Nevsky, whom they had banished to Pereslavl earlier that year.[14]

In regards to the pagans still living between Pskov and Novgorod and the Latin Christian settlements in Finland, Estonia and Livonia ("the land between christianized Estonia and Russia, meaning Votia, Neva, Izhoria, and Karelia"),[b] a treaty was concluded in 1241 at Riga between the bishop of Ösel–Wiek and the Teutonic Order, which stipulated that the bishop was granted spiritual superiority in the newly conquered territories.[16] The treaty indicated that the crusaders were well aware of the existence of these pagans.[15]

During the campaign of 1241, Alexander managed to retake Pskov and Koporye from the crusaders,

Ugaunians then met with Alexander's forces on 5 April 1242,[13]
by the narrow strait (Lake Lämmijärv or Teploe) that connects the north and south parts of Lake Peipus (Lake Peipus proper with Lake Pskovskoye).

Battle

On 5 April 1242 Alexander, intending to fight in a place of his own choosing, retreated in an attempt to draw the often over-confident Crusaders onto the frozen lake.

Andrei's bodyguards (druzhina), totalling around 1,000, plus 2,000 militia of Novgorod, 1,400 Finno-Ugrian tribesmen, and 600 horse archers.[2]

Battle on the Ice (20th century work)

The Teutonic knights and crusaders charged across the lake and reached the enemy, but were held up by the infantry of the Novgorod militia.[14] This caused the momentum of the crusader attack to slow. The battle was fierce, with the allied Russians fighting the Teutonic and crusader troops on the frozen surface of the lake. After a little more than two hours of close quarters fighting, Alexander ordered the left and right wings of his army (including cavalry) to enter the battle.[14] The Teutonic and crusader troops by that time were exhausted from the constant struggle on the slippery surface of the frozen lake. The Crusaders started to retreat in disarray deeper onto the ice, and the appearance of the fresh Novgorod cavalry made them retreat in panic.

It is commonly said that "the Teutonic knights and crusaders attempted to rally and regroup at the far side of the lake, however, the thin ice began to give way and cracked under the weight of their heavy armour, and many knights and crusaders drowned"; but Donald Ostrowski writes in his article Alexander Nevskii's "Battle on the Ice": The Creation of a Legend that accounts of ice breaking and knights drowning are a relatively recent embellishment to the original historical story.[19] He cites a large number of scholars who have written about the battle, Karamzin, Solovyev, Petrushevskii, Khitrov, Platonov, Grekov, Vernadsky, Razin, Myakotin, Pashuto, Fennell, and Kirpichnikov, none of whom mention the ice breaking up or anyone drowning when discussing the battle on the ice.[19] After analysing all the sources Ostrowski concludes that the part about ice breaking and drowning appeared first in the 1938 film Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eisenstein.[19]

Casualties

Battle of the Ice anniversary, 750 years. Miniature sheet of Russia, 1992

According to the Livonian Order's Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, written in the late 1340s:

The [Russians] had many archers, and the battle began with their bold assault on the king's men [Danes]. The brothers' banners were soon flying in the midst of the archers, and swords were heard cutting helmets apart. Many from both sides fell dead on the grass. Then the Brothers' army was completely surrounded, for the Russians had so many troops that there were easily sixty men for every one German knight. The Brothers fought well enough, but they were nonetheless cut down. Some of those from Dorpat escaped from the battle, and it was their salvation that they fled. Twenty brothers lay dead and six were captured.[20]

According to the Novgorod First Chronicle:

Prince Alexander and all the men of Novgorod drew up their forces by the lake, at Uzmen, by the Raven's Rock; and the Germans and the Estonians rode at them, driving themselves like a wedge through their army. And there was a great slaughter of Germans and Estonians... they fought with them during the pursuit on the ice seven versts short of the Subol [north-western] shore. And there fell a countless number of Estonians, and 400 of the Germans, and they took fifty with their hands and they took them to Novgorod.[21]

Historical legacy

Summer view of Lake Peipus from the Estonian shore

The legacy of the battle, and its decisiveness, came because it halted the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Order,[22] and established a permanent border line through the Narva River and Lake Peipus dividing Eastern Orthodoxy from Western Catholicism.[23] The knights' defeat at the hands of Alexander's forces prevented the crusaders from retaking Pskov, the linchpin of their eastern crusade. The Novgorodians succeeded in defending Russian territory, and the crusaders never mounted another serious challenge eastward. Alexander was canonised as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church in 1574.[24]

Some historians have argued that the launch of the campaigns in the eastern Baltic at the same time were part of a coordinated campaign; Finnish historian Gustav A. Donner argued in 1929 that a joint campaign was organized by William of Modena and originated in the Roman Curia.[25] This interpretation was taken up by Russian historians such as Igor Pavlovich Shaskol'skii and a number of Western European historians.[25] More recent historians have rejected the idea of a coordinated attack between the Swedes, Danes and Germans, as well as a papal master plan due to a lack of decisive evidence.[25] Some scholars have instead considered the Swedish attack on the Neva River to be part of the continuation of rivalry between the Russians and Swedes for supremacy in Finland and Karelia.[26] Anti Selart also mentions that the papal bulls from 1240 to 1243 do not mention warfare against Russians, but against non-Christians.[27] Selart also argues that the crusades were not an attempt to conquer Russia, but still constituted an attack on the territory of Novgorod and its interests.[28]

The event was glorified in Sergei Eisenstein's patriotic historical drama film Alexander Nevsky, released in 1938.[29] The movie, bearing propagandist allegories of the Teutonic Knights as Nazi Germans, with the Teutonic infantry wearing modified World War I German Stahlhelm helmets, has created a popular image of the battle often mistaken for the real events.[29] In particular, the image of knights dying by breaking the ice and drowning originates from the film.[19] Sergei Prokofiev turned his score for the film into a concert cantata of the same title, the longest movement of which is "The Battle on the Ice".[30]

During

originally introduced by Catherine I of Russia
in 1725) given for outstanding bravery and excellent service to the country.

In 1983, a

papal bulls of Gregory IX, promulgated in 1233 and 1237, which called for a crusade to protect Christianity in Finland against her neighbours. The first bull explicitly mentions Russia. The kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and the Teutonic Order built up an alliance in June 1238, under the auspices of the Danish king Valdemar II. They assembled the largest western cavalry force of their time. Another point mentioned by Uzhankov is the 1243 treaty between Novgorod and the Teutonic Order, where the knights abandoned all claims to Russian lands. Uzhankov also emphasizes, with respect to the scale of battle, that for each knight deployed on the field there were eight to 30 combatants, counting squires, archers and servants (though at his stated ratios, that would still make the Teutonic losses number at most a few hundred).[32]

Notes

  1. ^ German: Schlacht auf dem Eise; Russian: Ледовое побоище, romanized: Ledovoye poboishche; Estonian: Jäälahing.
  2. ^ "inter Estoniamiam conversam et Rutiam, in terris videlicet Watlande, Nouve, Ingriae et Carelae, de quibus spes erat conversionis ad fidem Christi".[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "Histoire Russe." Volume 33. University Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 2006. p. 300.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9781855325531
    .
  3. ^ The Chronicle of Novgorod (PDF). London. 1914. p. 87.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ISBN 978-0-85229-961-6
    .
  5. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 218, ...later to become hailed as one of the great Russian victories of the Middle Ages... scale of the battle was, however, most likely exaggerated in the later Russian sources, as was indeed its significance.
  6. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, pp. 216–217, In 1240 new campaigns were launched... first was organized by the Swedes... obtained papal authorization in 1237.
  7. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, pp. 216–217, The Russian victory was later depicted as an event of great national importance and Prince Alexander was given the sobriquet "Nevskii".
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780511811074
    .
  9. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 216, The missions in the eastern Baltic constituted a threat to the Russians of Novgorod and Pskov, their tributary peoples and their interests in the region.
  10. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 220, The campaigns to the River Neva and into Votia were... crusades aiming at expanding the Catholic Church... the campaign against Izborsk and Pskov was a purely political undertaking... the co-operation between the exiled Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich of Pskov and the men from the bishopric of Dorpat.
  11. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, pp. 218, In the winter of 1240–41, a group of Latin Christians invaded Votia, the lands north-east of Lake Peipus which were tributary to Novgorod.
  12. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 218, The Novgorodian counterattack came in 1241.
  13. ^ a b c d e Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 218.
  14. ^
    JSTOR 24664445
    – via JSTOR.
  15. ^ a b Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 220.
  16. ^ Murray 2017, p. 164.
  17. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 218, After pleas from Novgorod Alexander returned in 1241 and marched against Kopor'e. Having conquered the fortress and captured the remaining Latin Christians, he executed those local Votians who had cooperated with the invaders.
  18. ^ Murray 2017, p. 164, These conquests were lost in 1241–42, when the Russians destroyed Kopor'e.
  19. ^
    ISSN 0094-288X
    .
  20. ISBN 978-1-85367-535-5
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-14-193736-6
    .
  22. ISBN 0300101287
    , p. 198.
  23. ISBN 0674004736
    , p. 65.
  24. ^ a b "Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
  25. ^ a b c Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 219.
  26. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, p. 219, some scholars therefore regard the Swedish attack on the River Neva as merely a continuation of the Russo-Swedish rivalry.
  27. ^ Fonnesberg-Schmidt 2007, pp. 219–220, Selart stresses, none of the papal bulls of 1240–43 mention warfare against the Russians. They only refer to the fight against non-Christians and to mission among pagans.
  28. ISBN 978-1-315-25880-5
    .
  29. ^
    ISBN 9781838711023
    .
  30. ^ Danilevsky, Igor (22 May 2015). Ледовое побоище (in Russian). Postnauka. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  31. ^ a b c John Fennell, The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200–1304, (London: Longman, 1983), 106.[ISBN missing]
  32. ^ Александр Ужанков. Меж двух зол. Исторический выбор Александра Невского (Alexander Uzhankov. Between two evils. The historical choice of Alexander Nevsky) (in Russian)

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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