Rakovor battle. Forgotten victory
The Battle of Rakovor took place on February 18 1268 between the united army of North-Eastern Russia on the one hand and the forces of the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order, the Catholic bishops of the eastern Baltic and the Danish king on the other.
Few of those who are not professional historians are more aware of the battle of the seaside than it was "once upon a time." Meanwhile, this is one of the biggest battles for the whole history medieval Europe, both in the number of participants and in the number of soldiers killed in it. Despite the fact that the crusade campaign of the Russian army and the battle itself is thoroughly and scrupulously described both in Russian and in German sources, despite the extreme bitterness of the battle itself, the brightness and originality of the personalities of its participants from one side and the other. To unknown reasons, this event has so far been most regrettably ignored by popularizers of Russian history. In fiction, the description of the crustacean campaign and the battle was met only in the story of Mr. M. Balashov, "Mr. Novgorod," and all other genres of popular art ignore this event completely. The text that follows is an expression of my personal opinion about the events of the seaside campaign, which does not always coincide with the “canonical”, both in terms of the course and outcome of the battle itself, and in terms of assessing the political situation on the eve and after.
After the almost simultaneous death of Alexander Nevsky and the Lithuanian king Mindovg in 1263, the union of Vladimir Russia and Lithuania began to take shape against the Teutonic Order, which had firmly established itself in the Eastern Baltic by that time and seriously threatened the very existence of the latter.
In the Lithuanian state after the death of Mindaugas, military clashes between his heirs and comrades began, as a result of which most of them died, for example, Nalshan prince Dovmont (Daumantas), was forced to leave his homeland and with his family and squad went to Pskov, where he was accepted to serve as governor. In general, the young Lithuanian state, having lost its central authority, again fell apart into separate principalities and did not manifest itself in the foreign policy arena for a long time, limiting itself to the defense of its own land and occasional forays into its neighbors. However, these raids did not pursue political goals.
Russia, unlike Lithuania, after the death of Alexander Nevsky escaped serious strife. Novgorod meekly accepted the reign of Yaroslav Yaroslavovich, who became Grand Prince Vladimir, several successful campaigns of the Pskov voivode Dovmont, baptized under an Orthodox rite under the name of Timofey, to Lithuania (1265 - 1266) completely eliminated the Lithuanian threat to the western borders of Russia. The most serious danger in the north for Russia now presented the Catholic enclave on the lands of Livonia and Latgale (modern Estonia and Latvia).
The structure of this enclave was rather complicated. The north of Livonia was occupied by the citizens of the king of Denmark, “the king's men”, they owned the cities of Revel (Kolyvan, Tallinn) and Wesenberg (Rakovor, Rakvere), as well as all the lands from the River Narva to the Gulf of Riga along the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland to a depth of 50 km. In central and southern Livonia, as well as Latgale, the possessions of the Order and the Livonian archbishops, the nominal head of which was the Riga archbishop, represented a fair cross-section. For example, Riga, Derpt (Yuriev, Tartu), Odenpe (Bear Head, Otepää), Hapsal (Hapsalu) with the surroundings belonged to the Archbishop, and Venden (Cēsis), Fellin (Viljandi) and other areas belonged to the Order. Conflicts periodically arose between the Danes and the Order, as well as between the Order and the Archbishop, even reaching armed clashes, but by the middle of the 1260-s these contradictions were overcome and all three political forces were able to come out in a united front. It would be, at least, strange if the enclave did not take advantage of this circumstance and did not try to expand its borders to the east.
From the time of the seizure of the Yuriev crusaders in 1226, renamed by the invaders to Dorpat or Dorpat, they repeatedly attempted to subordinate to their influence the lands lying east of Lake Peipsi and the River Narva, that is, the territory occupied by the Izor and Vid tribes, by that time, mainly already Christianized according to the Orthodox rite. However, each time they encountered even if sometimes disorganized, but always stubborn and fierce resistance of their Eastern Orthodox neighbors - Veliky Novgorod and its outpost on the western borders - Pskov. In cases where the princes of Vladimirskaya Rus came to the aid of these cities, the crusader enterprises ended with severe military defeats (the battle of Yuriev 1234, the Battle of the Ice 1242, etc.). Therefore, another attempt to promote its influence to the east was particularly tricky and thoroughly prepared.
When and where exactly - in the office of the Riga Archbishop or Order, a plan was created to inflict a military defeat on Novgorod by provoking its conflict with the Danes and the subsequent intervention in this conflict remains a mystery. If we proceed from the one whose role in the implementation of this plan was the most active, then the Order should be its initiator. However, the handwriting itself, the style with which this plan was conceived, is more characteristic of the papal office. Be that as it may, the plan was created, agreed upon and approved by all interested parties. Its essence was that the Danish side, as the most militarily weak, provoked Novgorod with its aggressive actions to a military campaign with limited forces in northern Livonia. In Livonia, the Novgorodians will be waiting for the combined forces of the enclave, the inevitable defeat of the Novgorod army's core will follow, then, while the Novgorod community comes to life and gathers new forces, a series of lightning-fast seizures of fortified points in the territory east of Narva and Lake Peipsi follows.
The formal reason for the conflict was the intensified oppression of Novgorod merchants in Revel, the capital of the “land of the king”. There were also pirate attacks on merchant ships in the Gulf of Finland. For Novgorod, trade was the main source of income, so the Novgorod community reacted very painfully to such events. Internal disagreements in such cases faded into the background, the community consolidated, demanding an immediate and tough reaction from their leaders.
So it happened at the end of 1267, the Novgorodians began to prepare for the march. The Grand Duke Yaroslav Yaroslavovich tried to take advantage of these circumstances and wanted to lead the army gathered by the Novgorodians to Polotsk, who planned to subordinate to his influence. Under the pressure of the Grand Duke's viceroy, Prince Yuriy Andreevich, the united squads set out on a march in the direction of Polotsk, but a few days from Novgorod, the Novgorod squad set up a spontaneous assembly. Novgorodians declared to the viceroy of the Grand Duke that they would not go to Polotsk or to Lithuania. It must be assumed that Yuriy Andreevich was extremely dissatisfied with such a turn of affairs, but the Novgorod commanders still managed to convince the princely viceroy to join his squad to the general campaign, the goal of which, on the same veche, were elected, militarily defenseless Racovor and Revel. The Russians swallowed the bait, carefully thrown by the Order and Riga.
The Russian army was not prepared for the assault on a well-fortified stone castle, which at the time was Racovor. The Russians devastated the neighborhood, stepped up to the castle, but having lost when they tried to take the city in an unexpected assault, "outcast, Seven people retreated. For a successful systematic assault, appropriate siege devices were needed, which the Russian army, which was originally going to plunder the Polotsk and Lithuanian lands, did not have enough. Russian retreated, the army returned to Novgorod.
The unexpected change in the direction of the campaign, the absence of wagons with siege technology and, as a result, the high speed of movement, as well as the fact that the Russian army practically did not linger under Rakovor - all of this played an unexpectedly saving role for the Russians - the Catholics did not have time to intercept the Russian army. It seemed that the carefully verified plan of the enclave had broken down, but right there from Novgorod from the permanent trade missions there to Livonia began to receive reports about the upcoming new campaign against Racovor and Revel. The plan did not fail, it was simply delayed.
In the second campaign on Racovor, the participation of much larger forces was planned. In Novgorod, hard forged weapon, in the courtyard of the Novgorod archbishop masters mounted siege equipment. Novgorodians managed to convince the Grand Duke Yaroslav Yaroslavovich of the necessity and advantage of the campaign in Livonia. Other princes of the land of Vladimir also decided to take part in the campaign: Dmitry Alexandrovich Pereyaslavsky (son of Alexander Nevsky), Svyatoslav and Mikhail Yaroslavichi (sons of the Grand Duke) with the Tver squad, Yury Andreyevich (son of Andrei Yaroslavovich, brother of Nevsky), as well as Prince Dovmont with Pskov squad. Without the direct approval of the Grand Duke, such a coalition could not have taken place, of course. In addition, as the participants of the campaign, the princes Konstantin and Yaropolk were named in the chronicles, but with confidence about their origin one can only say that they were Rurikovich. The strength was going to be very impressive.
At the height of the charges, ambassadors from the Riga Archbishop arrive in Novgorod asking for peace in exchange for non-participation in the hostilities of Novgorod against the Danes. "And sending ambassadors to Nemtsi, Rigans, Veljazhans, Yuryevtsi, and seizing non-Cities, with flattering words: “we have peace with you, shake off Kolyvanians and shake things, and we don’t pester them with the cross”. And kissing the ambassadors of the cross; and tamo ezdiv Lazor Moiseevich led all of them to the cross, nobleman, and God forbid, so as not to help them with a scoop and shell;". (quote from the chronicle). The leaders of the Novgorod community were not naive people and suspected ambassadors of insincerity. To ensure the integrity of their intentions, the plenipotentiary of the Boyar community, Lazar Moiseyevich, was sent to Riga, who was supposed to take the oath of the highest leadership of the Order and the Riga Archdiocese, which he successfully completed. Meanwhile, troops were being forced into northern Livonia from all the lands controlled by the enclave. The trap for the Russians was ready to shut.
23 January 1268 Russian army in full force with the wagon train and siege devices left Novgorod, soon the Russians crossed the Narva and entered into the Livonian possession of the Danish king. This time the Russians were not in a hurry, divided into three columns, they systematically and purposefully engaged in the devastation of the hostile territory, slowly and inevitably approaching the first goal of their campaign - Racovor.
The chronicle describes in detail the episode with the discovery by the Russians of a cave in which local residents sheltered. For three days the Russian army stood near this cave, not wanting to storm it, until "master of evil"Failed to put water in the cave. How this operation was carried out and where this cave could have been is not reliably known. We only know that "chud"From the cave"beat up"And Russians"iskekosh ih", And Novgorod, the prey discovered in this cave, was given to Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich. There are no natural caves in northern Estonia that could fit more 20-30 people. The fact that the Russian army spent on the siege and plunder of the shelter, in which barely two dozen people could hide, indicates that the Russians really were in no hurry and approached the process of plundering of northern Livonia very thoroughly.
The Russian army advanced along the hostile territory, without encountering any resistance, the forces were so great that the military campaign seemed like a jaunt. Nevertheless, it was likely that the leaders of the campaign reached the information that the enemy army had gone into the field and was preparing to give battle, because immediately before the fighting the army was again gathered into a single fist.
About where exactly the battle took place, historians still argue. The chronicle says that the meeting with the united army of the enclave occurred on the Kegole river. This toponym has not survived to date, most researchers relate it to the small river Kunda near Rakvere. However, there is another opinion on this issue, which seems to me more justified. This refers to the hypothesis that the seaside battle took place on the 9 km northeast of Kunda - on the Pada river near the village of Makholm (the modern Viru-Nigula village). In the literature there are various arguments in favor of one, and in favor of another place. It seems decisive to me the argument that it was the crossing of the Pad that was the most convenient place to wait for the approach of the Russian army. Northern Estonia is still replete with intermittent marshes and wooded hills that are difficult to cross. The only convenient place for laying a permanent road, as it was before, is still the coastal strip along the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, along which the Tallinn-Narva highway still runs. Before crossing the Pada river, this road comes out of a kind of “catwalk”, several kilometers wide, bounded by forest and marshland from the south, and from the north by the Gulf of Finland and passing this place when moving from the east towards Rakvere is very problematic. Moreover, after crossing Padha, the road turns south, moving away from the coast, and thus waiting for the enemy army would have to disperse their forces in reconnaissance and guard duty on a broad front, while waiting for the enemy near Maholm, the commander could to concentrate in this place the bulk of the troops, without dispersing forces.
In addition, it is in Maholme (Viru-Nigula) on the banks of the Pada that the ruins of one of the most ancient stone churches in northern Estonia - the chapel of St. Mary's According to archaeological research, the time of its foundation is the second half of the 13th century. Many researchers, in my opinion, not unreasonably, believe that this chapel was built in memory of those killed in the shell battle on the hill, under which, in fact, this battle took place.
So, in the morning of 18 in February, 1268 of the Russian army turned the camp in full and moved towards the village of Makholm to cross the Padu. About 20 kilometers are left to Rakovor. Horse reconnaissance has already reported that on the west bank of the Pad there is an enemy army in a quantity that clearly exceeds the capabilities "Kolyvan German”, But the Russians' confidence in their numerical superiority, as well as the agreements with Riga and the Order held together by a kistochel, gave significant reasons for optimism. Russian command decided to give battle. Shelves were made, armor vzlity, sulitsy impaled, bows stretched. The trap slammed shut.
What felt Novgorod Novgorod Kondrat and posadnik Mikhail Fedorovich when they saw the combined army of the whole army lined up on the banks of the Pad,German lands"? What did the Russian princes think, Litvin Dovmont? One thing is for sure: despite the fact that the presence in the enemy army "nobles of god","vlizhan","Yuriev people", All the rest, whose leaders still a month ago"kissed the cross»Not to participate in hostilities, it was for them, of course, unexpectedly, there was no confusion in the Russian army.
The Germans and Danes occupied the western bank of the Pada, standing on a hillside, on top of which, probably, the commander was located. The flat slope, gently descending into the valley, was very convenient for attacking heavy knightly cavalry. It was decided to let the Russians cross the river, and then attack from the top down. A swampy stream flows along the west bank of the Pada in this place and now it became the natural separator of the two troops before the battle. The shores of this small stream became the place where two huge troops collided. Old-timers Viru-Nigula still call him "evil" or "bloody" ...
There is no reliable information about the number of troops that participated in the squabble battle. The Livonian rhymed chronicle speaks of thirty thousand Russians and sixty times smaller (that is, five hundred) allied armies. Both the first and second figures are more than serious doubts. Without going into the details of the discussion about the number of troops participating in the battle, I would say that the most plausible to me seems to be the opinion that both Russian and German troops numbered about fifteen to twenty thousand people.
The basis of the military order of the enclave troops were knights of the Teutonic Order, who entered the battlefield in their favorite construction - a wedge or a "pig", which indicates the offensive nature of the battle from the Germans. The right flank of the "pigs" was defended by the Danes, the archbishop's troops and the militia lined up on the left. The general leadership of the enclave army was carried out by the Yuryev (Derpt) bishop Alexander.
Russian army was built as follows. On the right flank, Pereiaslav squad of Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich, behind it, closer to the center, Pskov squad of Prince Dovmont, in the center - the Novgorod regiment and vicegerent squad of Prince Yury Andreyevich, on the left flank stood the squad of Tver princes. Thus, the most numerous Novgorod regiment stood up against the "pig". The main problem of the Russian army was that it lacked unity of command. Dmitry Aleksandrovich was the eldest among the princes, but he was young and not so experienced. Prince Dovmont was distinguished by his mature age and great experience, but he could not claim leadership, by virtue of his position — in fact, he was just the commander of the Pskov detachment and he was not Ryurikovich. Prince Yuri Andreevich - the Grand Duke's viceroy did not enjoy authority among his comrades-in-arms, while the leaders of the Novgorod community did not have princely dignity and could not command the princes. As a result, the Russian detachments acted without obeying a single plan, which, as we shall see, had a pernicious effect on the outcome of the battle.
The battle began with the attack of the German "pig", which fell on the center of the Novgorod regiment. At the same time, both flank of the Allied forces were attacked by Tver and Pereyaslav regiments. The army of the Dorpat bishop joined the Pskov detachment. The Novgorod regiment had the heaviest of all - an armored wedge of knightly cavalry developed a tremendous force when struck by a short circuit. Apparently, Novgorod, familiar with this system firsthand, deeply echeloned their order of battle, which gave it additional stability. Nevertheless, the pressure on the Novgorod regiment was so severe that at some point the regimental structure disintegrated, panic began, Prince Yuriy Andreevich, along with his retinue, succumbed to panic and fled from the battlefield. The defeat of the Novgorod regiment seemed inevitable, but at this moment Prince Dmitriy Alexandrovich proved himself to be the most commendable - he abandoned the pursuit of the broken Livonian militia, gathered around him how many soldiers could and made a swift attack on the flank of the advancing German wedge. The fact that such an attack was possible, given the initial position of the regiments, suggests that by that time the militia and the episcopal detachment had already been defeated and fled from the battlefield, freeing Dmitry for the attack. Indirectly, the author of the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle also testifies to the rapid defeat of the bishop's regiment, mentioning the death of his leader, Bishop Alexander, at the very beginning of the battle. Probably, far from the whole Pereyaslav squad was involved in the attack on the “pig”; its main part, apparently, was fascinated by the pursuit of the retreating, Prince Dmitry was able to collect only a small part, which saved the “pig” from complete annihilation. Nevertheless, the German system hesitated, which allowed the Novgorod regiment to regroup and continue organized resistance.
Reflecting the attack Pereyaslavskaya squad, the Teutons continued the attack on the Novgorod regiment. The battle began to acquire a protracted nature, its epicenter was moving one way and then the other, someone running forward, someone backward, attacks were rolling in waves one on another. The Danish detachment shuddered and fled from the battlefield, the Tver squad rushed to pursue it.
By the end of daylight hours a few hours after the start of the battle, the Novgorod regiment finally crumbled, however, the Teutons were so tired that there could be no talk of pursuing retreating Russians. The Teutons confined themselves to an attack on a Russian wagon train, which they managed to capture. Perhaps it was the key moment of the whole march, since it was in the wagon train that the siege devices intended for the assault of Racovor and Revel were located. There is no doubt that these devices were immediately destroyed.
With the onset of dusk, the princely militia began to return, pursuing the defeated detachments of the Danes, Livonians and Germans, assembled again, regrouped and the Novgorod regiment was ready for attack. In the daytime battle, the Novgorod posadnik Mikhail Fedorovich was killed, another fifteen of Novgorodvyatyh husbands”, Listed in the chronicle by name, the thousand Kondrat went missing. The surviving commanders offered to carry out a night attack and discourage a convoy from the Teutons, but the council decided to attack in the morning. At night, the Teutons, aware of their extremely dangerous position, left. The Russians did not pursue them.
The battle of Rakovor is over. For three more days, the Russian army, emphasizing its victory, stood on the battlefield - they picked up the wounded, buried the dead, collected trophies. It is unlikely that the losses of the Russians were too great - in the medieval battle “face to face” the main losses were borne by the loser during the pursuit of its winners, and not during the direct “showdown”. The Russian troops from the battlefield under Racovor did not run, which cannot be said of the majority of their opponents "and drove them to the city in three ways, seven miles away, because neither urine nor horses cause a dead body"(Quote from the chronicle), that is, the horses of the Russian soldiers could not move because of the abundance of corpses lying on the ground. About the continuation of the campaign, the speech probably did not go, as the Russian wagon train was defeated, and with it the engineering devices necessary for the siege were lost, which could not be restored on the spot, otherwise why should they be taken from Novgorod. Without the storming of Rakovor, the campaign lost all meaning, turned, in fact, into a repetition of the autumn sortie. Not satisfied with the results achieved, only Prince Dovmont, who with his retinue continued the march, "and take their land to the sea and go to Pomorie and paki return, fulfill your land full"(Quote from the chronicle). Some modern researchers believe (and, perhaps, not entirely groundless) that there was no additional attack by Dovmont, and the chronicle record refers to the seashell campaign itself as part of the whole Russian army, but their position does not convince me personally. Dovmont proved to be a fearless and tireless warrior, an outstanding strategist and tactician, with his small but mobile and experienced team of people hardened in numerous campaigns and battles, the backbone of which came from Lithuania, personally loyal to his leader, he could afford to go through fire and sword over unprotected enemy territory. An indirect confirmation of the fact that the attack of Dovmont did take place, can be the fact that the return campaign of the Teutonic Order to Russia in June 1268 was aimed at Pskov.
Each of the parties involved in the battle attributes the victory to himself. German sources talk about the five thousand Russians killed, but how could they count them if the battlefield was left for the Russians, who left it no sooner than they buried all the dead? Let's leave it on the conscience of the chronicler. The only reason for which a conditional victory could be awarded to the enclave is the refusal of the Russians from the assault on Rakovor and the termination of their march. All the other data we have — the flight of most of the Catholic army, the enormous losses among the Danes, the Bishop’s army and the Livonian militia, although organized but still retreating to the order of the order from the battlefield, which was left for the Russians, the Dovmont raid — all this shows about the victory of the Russian weapons.
In order to finally put an end to the question of the winner in the shell battle, it is necessary to analyze the events that took place after it. An event of this magnitude could not but have consequences that would not have been marked by the pen of the chronicler.
After returning from the march, the Russian army was disbanded. Dmitry Alexandrovich, and the other princes went their ways, taking with them the squads. In Novgorod only the Grand-Duke vicar remained — Prince Yuriy Andreevich, who had fled from the battlefield. There are not any military preparations in Novgorod not one source does not mention, complete peace reigned in the Novgorod land.
Absolutely the opposite picture we see in the lands of the Teutonic Order. Already from the beginning of spring small raids by Germans on the territory controlled by Pskov begin - the Germans are robbing border villages, taking people away "in full". One of these raids ended in a battle on the Miropovna River, during which Prince Dovmont defeated a significantly larger detachment of Germans in numbers. Under the cover of petty raids, the Order collects all possible forces and already in the early summer of the same 1268, organizes a tremendous campaign against Pskov, motivating it with the necessity of “revenge” for the squad battle. What kind of revenge can we talk about, if, in their own words, the Germans won the battle? For this campaign, the Order collects all the forces that were available at that time with him in the eastern Baltic States. According to the testimony of the same chronicler, the author of the Livonian rhymed chronicle, a total of eighteen thousand people were assembled, led by the master Otto von Lutherberg himself, who died two years later in a battle on the ice near Caruzen (Carusin). If the internally Teutons considered themselves to be the victors under Rakovor, whence such a thirst for revenge?
German chroniclers, in order to emphasize the valor and martial skill of the knights brothers, almost always deliberately underestimated the number of their own troops and overestimated the number of enemy troops. It is possible that speaking of the size of their units, the Germans specifically mentioned only the number of cavalry soldiers, “forgetting” to count the militia and auxiliary troops, who, nevertheless, took an active part in the battles. Estimating the number of troops that went to 1268 at the end of May on the campaign against Pskov, the Germans themselves call a huge figure for that time - eighteen thousand. Let me remind you that according to the same chronicler in the squash battle, the German army was only one and a half thousand fighters. These figures, in the first and in the second case, cannot be completely credible, but where does this inconsistency come from — in one case, the number of troops can be catastrophically underestimated, and in the other with a manic pride of writing the numbers and magnificence of the troops gathered on the march? It can be explained only by one thing: the Rakora company ended in a difficult battle, and the Pskov company — a retreat and truce after several skirmishes and attacks by the Pskov people over the city walls. The reader of the chronicle should have understood that in the first case the Germans defeated a huge army with insignificant forces, and in the second they did not even reach the battle, because the Russians were frightened by Teutonic power. However, first things first.
The defense of Pskov in 1268 deserves a separate description, it can only be noted here that even such a big business did not bring any success to the Order. After a ten-day siege, hearing about the approach of the Novgorod squad, which is not going to help the Pskovs, the Teutons retreated across the Great River and concluded a truce with Prince Yury, who came to the aid of the Pskovites, "in full will of Novgorod". From where did the Novgorodians, who were defeated by the Novgorodians, after three and a half months, took such an army, at whose approach the Teutons (eighteen thousand, by the way!) Did not dare to remain on the eastern Great Bank and retreated? In February, the Teutons "won" under Rakovor over the aggregate army of Russian princes, and in June, having a much larger army, did not accept the battle with the forces of only Novgorod and Pskov, which, by the way, under Rakovor, among other things, they had just "defeated" . Let's try to explain this contradiction.
According to the Livonian chronicler, Livonian and Latgalian militia were recruited into the order of the army, and someSailors"(Nine thousand, half the troops from where they came from, historians are still guessing), but"men of the king”, That is, the Danes, as well as knightly detachments and militias from the papal regions (Riga, Yuryev, etc.) are not mentioned as participants of the campaign. Why were they not there? The answer is simple. Most of the combat-ready men from these areas remained "dead body"On the field near the Makholm near Rakovor, there was simply no one to fight near Pskov. And such a combined composition of the Order of the army is due to the fact that it was recruited to everyone who can carry weapons, regardless of their fighting qualities, just for volume. Two years later, in an attempt to interrupt the Lithuanian raid, on the battle of Karuzen, his last battle, Otto von Lutherberg was unable to recruit two thousand soldiers, although he was preparing for a serious battle.
Obviously, the aim of the march to Pskov was not to achieve any military or political goals, but simply to bluff, demonstrate “power”, try to convince the Russians that the Order could still oppose them. The Order was not really going to fight. Forces were not. Successful battles conducted by Dovmont against the Germans in April and June 1268 - on the river Miropovne and near Pskov, where Dovmont struck the Crusaders two painful defeats, one during the pursuit of the retreating with the booty, the second during the sally during the siege. It should be noted that both on Miropovna and near Pskov, the German detachments had a multiple number advantage.
And the last. After the unsuccessful siege of Pskov, a long negotiation process began between Novgorod and representatives of the enclave, which resulted in the signing of a peace treaty. The text of this treaty has not been preserved, but the chronicles betray its essence: “And having seen Nemts, having sent the ambassadors with a prayer: “we bow down to all your will, Norovs of all retreat, but do not spill blood”; and tacos of Novgorod, fortunately, taking the world to their will"(Quote from the chronicle). That is, representatives of the Catholic enclave under this treaty refused to further expand eastward across the Narva River in exchange for the cessation of hostilities. This world was not broken until the 1299 year.
Let us remember once again the sequence of the main events after the end of the Crow Porsche march: the victory of the Russians in a small battle with the German detachment on Miropovna in April, the German demonstrative march on Pskov, which did not pursue any military or political goals, ended with a retreat at the sight of the Novgorod squad (in June) , peace negotiations and the conclusion of a peace treaty on "all the will of Novgorod(February 1269) and lasting peace. In my opinion, the sequence of these events clearly indicates the absence after the Battle of the Battle of the Germans and Danes of opportunities for serious armed resistance.
Thus, following the results of the Battle of the Seashore and the events that followed it, we can confidently state that on the banks of the Pada River 18 February 1268, the Russian army won a difficult but indisputable victory that stopped the crusading expansion in the eastern Baltic more than thirty years.
Information