Battle of the Siritsa River 1501
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1501 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Russia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Grand Principality of Moscow, Livonian confederation | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 57.5858, 27.8817 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Siritsa River (also Seritsa) took place on 27 August 1501 between the forces of the Livonian Order under Grand Master Wolter von Plettenberg on the one side and the forces of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and Pskov Republic on the other. The Russian forces were soundly defeated.
Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia pursued expansionist policies, which strained Moscow's relations with Livonia. In 1492, Moscow built Ivangorod Fortress opposite of Narva and two years later closed down the Hanseatic office in Novgorod. Hanseatic merchants, most of them Livonians, were imprisoned. The trade through Tallinn and Tartu diminished significantly. During the Russo-Swedish War (1495–1497), Sweden captured Ivangorod and offered it to Livonia, an offer which was refused. Moscow perceived that as a Swedish–Livonian alliance. As negotiations failed, Livonia began preparing for war. In May 1500, a war broke out between Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. On 17 May 1501, Livonia and Lithuania concluded a ten-year alliance in Vilnius. In August 1501, von Plettenberg led a Livonian army, reinforced with 3,000 mercenaries from Lübeck, towards Pskov.
The armies met on 27 August 1501 on the Siritsa River, 10 km south from Izborsk, on the western approaches to Pskov. The Pskovian regiment attacked the Livonians first but was thrown back.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Siritsa River (revision 1370602304), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars
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- Siege of Polotsk 1518
All 6 battles of the Muscovite-Lithuanian Wars →
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