Vyachko: Difference between revisions
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==Early relations with the Crusaders== |
==Early relations with the Crusaders== |
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At the time in the beginning of the 13th century, when [[Germans]] led by [[Albert of Buxhoeveden]] and the [[Northern Crusades|crusading]] [[Livonia]]n [[Livonian Brothers of the Sword|Order]] began to establish themselves on the shores of the [[Gulf of Riga]], Vetseke ruled the fortress of Kukenoys (modern [[Koknese]], Latvia) some 100 |
At the time in the beginning of the 13th century, when [[Germans]] led by [[Albert of Buxhoeveden]] and the [[Northern Crusades|crusading]] [[Livonia]]n [[Livonian Brothers of the Sword|Order]] began to establish themselves on the shores of the [[Gulf of Riga]], Vetseke ruled the fortress of Kukenoys (modern [[Koknese]], Latvia) some 100 km southeast. Although his principality is believed to have been subject to [[Polotsk]], senior princes did nothing to help him withstand neither the Knights’ nor the Lithuanians’ pressure. According to the [[Chronicle of Henry of Livonia]], it was indeed in return for protection against [[Lithuanians]] that Vetseke offered half of his land and the fort to Albert in 1205 (''...offerens sibi terre et castri sui medietatem''). Albert accepted the offer and promised to send Vetseke weapons and men.<ref>Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. ''Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae.'' p. 70. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.</ref> |
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In 1208, Koknese was captured by the [[Livonian people|Livonians]] of [[Lielvārde]] in retaliation of Vetseke’s raids. Vetseke and all his wealth were captured and the king himself cast in chains. However, Daniel, the knight of Lielvārde (Danielus de Lenewarde), upon hearing the news of Vetseke’s capture immediately notified bishop Albert. <ref>Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. ''Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae.'' p. 80. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.</ref> The bishop then “ordered the fort to be restored to the king and all his wealth to be given back to him”. He then summoned Vetseke to Riga where he honored him with gifts of many horses and suits of precious garments. The bishop then sent Vetseke back along with “twenty strong men with arms, knights with their mounts, ballistarii, and masons to strengthen the fort and hold it against the Lithuanians”, just as he had promised three years earlier<ref>{{cite book |title=The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia |last=Brundage |first=James |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2003 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location= |isbn=978-0-231-12888-9 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=UtRs1QecqIsC&pg=PA68 |page=76 }} </ref> |
In 1208, Koknese was captured by the [[Livonian people|Livonians]] of [[Lielvārde]] in retaliation of Vetseke’s raids. Vetseke and all his wealth were captured and the king himself cast in chains. However, Daniel, the knight of Lielvārde (Danielus de Lenewarde), upon hearing the news of Vetseke’s capture immediately notified bishop Albert. <ref>Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. ''Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae.'' p. 80. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.</ref> The bishop then “ordered the fort to be restored to the king and all his wealth to be given back to him”. He then summoned Vetseke to Riga where he honored him with gifts of many horses and suits of precious garments. The bishop then sent Vetseke back along with “twenty strong men with arms, knights with their mounts, ballistarii, and masons to strengthen the fort and hold it against the Lithuanians”, just as he had promised three years earlier<ref>{{cite book |title=The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia |last=Brundage |first=James |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2003 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location= |isbn=978-0-231-12888-9 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=UtRs1QecqIsC&pg=PA68 |page=76 }} </ref> |
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Revision as of 13:59, 11 August 2011
Vetseke, the king of Koknese (Latin: Rex Vesceka de Kukenois; Russian: Вячко[1]), Prince Vyachko of Koknese,[2] or Vetseke of Kokenhusen[3] was a prince in present-day Latvia, a vassal of Polotsk, who tried to establish himself as a local ruler first in Latvia and then in Estonia, and fought against the expansionism of the Livonian Knights at the turn of the 13th century.
Identity of Vyachko/Vetseke
According to Russian sources, his name is the Old Novgorod dialect form of Vyacheslav and his father is supposed to have been a Rurikid Prince of Drutsk.[citation needed]
Another interpretation, based on evidence from the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, is that Vetseke was a local élite, perhaps a Livonian, who converted to Orthodox Christianity and became a vassal of Polotsk, whereupon he changed his name to the East Slavic Vyachko. This interpreation is supported by the fact that Chronicle says the population of Koknese included Balts (Latgallians and Selonians), and even a German colony, in addition to the East Slavic element.[4]
Early relations with the Crusaders
At the time in the beginning of the 13th century, when Germans led by Albert of Buxhoeveden and the crusading Livonian Order began to establish themselves on the shores of the Gulf of Riga, Vetseke ruled the fortress of Kukenoys (modern Koknese, Latvia) some 100 km southeast. Although his principality is believed to have been subject to Polotsk, senior princes did nothing to help him withstand neither the Knights’ nor the Lithuanians’ pressure. According to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, it was indeed in return for protection against Lithuanians that Vetseke offered half of his land and the fort to Albert in 1205 (...offerens sibi terre et castri sui medietatem). Albert accepted the offer and promised to send Vetseke weapons and men.[5]
In 1208, Koknese was captured by the Livonians of Lielvārde in retaliation of Vetseke’s raids. Vetseke and all his wealth were captured and the king himself cast in chains. However, Daniel, the knight of Lielvārde (Danielus de Lenewarde), upon hearing the news of Vetseke’s capture immediately notified bishop Albert. [6] The bishop then “ordered the fort to be restored to the king and all his wealth to be given back to him”. He then summoned Vetseke to Riga where he honored him with gifts of many horses and suits of precious garments. The bishop then sent Vetseke back along with “twenty strong men with arms, knights with their mounts, ballistarii, and masons to strengthen the fort and hold it against the Lithuanians”, just as he had promised three years earlier[7]
After sending Vetseke back to Koknese bishop Albert prepared to leave on a customary annual trip to Germany in order to recruit new crusaders to replace the ones whose pilgrimage was completed. Knowing that only a few defenders had remained in Riga, Vetseke had the support troops and artisans sent by Albert murdered and then “sent the best German horses, ballistas, coats of mail, and similar things” to Grand Prince Vladimir of Polotsk, “with an urgent request that he call together an army and come as quickly as possible to take Riga, in which he said few men remained, the best having been killed by him and the others having gone away with the bishop”.[8] The Grand Prince, whom the chronicler describes as an “excessively credulous king”, responded by gathering an army in anticipation of the expedition. However, in the meanwhile the leaving crusader army had been detained in Dünamünde by a contrary wind. After receiving word of Vetseke’s treachery and the massacre at Koknese from the few survivors who had reached Riga, the flotilla turned back and returned to the city. Upon hearing the news that a grand army of crusaders and native Livonians has gathered in Riga, the Russians became afraid, “divided the arms and horses of the Germans among themselves, set fire to the fort of Koknese and fled, each one on his own way”. King Vetseke, however, “since he had acted evilly, departed for Russia, never to return thenceforth to his kingdom”.[9] The crusader army, being deprived of an opportunity to gather loot from Koknese, took revenge on the local Latvian population nominally subject to Koknese by killing many Latgallians and Selonians who had nowhere else to escape and were thus seeking hiding places in the woods.[10] By 1209 Koknese had been taken over by the Order and the formal sovereignty of Polotsk was finally revoked in 1215.
Vetseke and the defense of Tartu
In 1223, there was a general anti-Christian uprising in all Estonia. All Germans and Danes who fell in the hands of the Estonians were put to sword and some of the priests ritually sacrificed to pagan gods. Estonians reoccupied all the fortresses after the German garrisons had been killed. In order to secure the initial military success, mercenary Russian troops were invited from Novgorod and Pskov and stationed in several key fortresses, such as Viljandi and Tartu.[11] Vetseke, who had lost his earlier dominion to the crusader and Livonian army, was given two hundred men and money by the Novgorod Republic so that he could establish himself in Tarbatu (present-day Tartu) or any other place “that he could conquer for himself”.[12] In the nationalist Russian historiography, the fact of making payments for military help has been often presented as the Estonians willingly subjugating themselves to Vetseke and paying him tax. The Soviet historiography, on the other hand, traditionally interpreted the Russian-Estonian cooperation in the defense of Tartu as a sign of friendship between the two brotherly nations against a common enemy – the German colonizers.
By 1224, Tartu remained the last center of the anti-Christian resistance in South-Estonia. In addition to the local population from Ugandi, many diehard freedom fighters had gathered there from Sakala and other neighboring provinces (vicinas omnes provincias). The crusaders laid siege to Tartu after Easter in 1224 but were forced to leave after only five days of fighting. Then the bishops sent a delegation to Vetseke and asked him to give up the “heathen rebels” in the fortress and leave them, but he chose to stay because the “Novgorodians and Russian princes had promised him the fortress and the surrounding lands” if he could conquer them for himself.[13] On August 15, 1224, the crusader army, reinforced with a large number of Christian Latvian and Livonian troops, returned with all its might to Tarbatu. The second siege of Tartu of 1224 lasted many days and nights. Vetseke and his 200 Christian Russians were again offered free passage through the crusader camp, but Vetseke, expecting a relief army from Novgorod, refused. All the defenders of Tarbatu, including women, were killed in the final onslaught by the Knights when the fortress finally fell. According to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, Vetseke along with his Russians tried to put up a separate resistance in one of the fortifications, but were all dragged out and killed. Of all the defenders of Tarbatu, only one Russian from Suzdal was left alive. He was given clothes and a good horse and sent back to Novgorod. The relief troops from Novgorod had already reached Pskov when they received the news from Tartu whereupon they decided to cancel the expedition and make peace with the Germans.[14]
See also
References
- ^ Bojtár, Endre (1999). Foreword to the Past. Central European University Press. ISBN 978-963-9116-42-9.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Also spelled as Kuikenos
- ^ Brundage, James (2003). The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Columbia University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-231-12888-9.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Šterns, Indriķis (2002). Latvijas vēsture 1180–1290: Krustakari (in Latvian). Riga: Latvijas vēstures institūta apgāds. p. 182. ISBN 9984-601-88-9. OCLC 53125658. On the Baltic population of Koknese, cf. Brundage, op. cit., p. 78f.
- ^ Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. p. 70. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.
- ^ Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. p. 80. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.
- ^ Brundage, James (2003). The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Columbia University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-231-12888-9.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Brundage, James (2003). The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Columbia University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-231-12888-9.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Brundage, James (2003). The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. Columbia University Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-231-12888-9.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. p. 84. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.
- ^ Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. p. 234. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.
- ^ Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. p. 242. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.
- ^ Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. p. 246. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.
- ^ Tarvel, Enn (ed.). 1982. Henriku Liivimaa kroonika. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. p. 248-254. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat.