Battle of Turaida 1298
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
About the battle
The Battle of Turaida or Treiden (also known as the Battle on Aa) was fought on June 1, 1298, on the banks of the Gauja River (German: Livländische Aa) near the Turaida Castle (Treiden). The Livonian Order was decisively defeated by the residents of Riga allied with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the command of Vytenis.
In 1296, a civil war broke out in Terra Mariana between the burghers of Riga and the Livonian Order. Johannes III von Schwerin, Archbishop of Riga, unsuccessfully attempted to mediate the dispute. As the conflict grew, Johannes III joined the cause of the Riga residents, but was defeated and taken prisoner. In March 1298, Riga concluded an alliance with pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was a subject of a Catholic crusade by the Teutonic Knights and Livonian Order.
The Lithuanians, commanded by Grand Duke Vytenis, invaded Livonia and besieged Karkhus (Karksi). Once the castle fell, the Lithuanians looted, massacred, and took many prisoners. The defensive Livonian forces engaged the Lithuanians on the Gauja River. At first, it seemed that the knights were winning the battle, but Vytenis vigorously counterattacked with reinforcements from the Archbishop and dealt a decisive defeat. Livonian Grand Master Bruno and komtur of Fellin were killed.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Turaida (revision 1370591773), 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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