Durbės mūšio strategijos ir taktikos kontekstai

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Durbės mūšis; Kalavijuočių ordinas; Karai; Vokiečių Ordinas (Teutonic Order; Kryžiuočių ordinas); 13 amžius; Lietuvos karalius Mindaugas; Livonija (Livonia); Livonijos ordino magistras Burchardas Homhauzenas; Mūšiai; Petras Dusburgietis; Prūsija; Vokiečių Ordinas (Teutonic Order; Kryžiuočių ordinas); Henrikas Botelis; Žemaitija (Samogitia); Žemaičių karo vadas kunigaikštis Algminas; Battle of Durbe; Battles; King of Lithuania Mindaugas; Lithuanian XIII c. history; Livonia; Livonian Order; Marshal of the Teutonic Order Henrik Botel; Master of the Livonian Order Burchard von Hornhausen; Peter of Dusburg; Prussia; Samogitia; Samogitian warlord duke Algminas; Wars.

ENThe aim of this article is to highlight the strategical and tactical features of the battle of Durben by making recourse to a comparative approach. Such an approach enables us to uncover common and specific features of this battle which took place on the 13th June 1260 and involved the Žemaitians (Samogitians) on the one hand and the troops of the Teutonic Order and of its allies and native subjects on the other. With regard to the level of the strategical execution of the 1260 military campaign on the part of the Žemaitians, it is to be observed that the latter managed to take over the initiative from the Teutonic knights by invading Curonia. This move compelled the Teutonic army to hastily change the direction of its advance and caused additional friction among local militiamen. A common feature of the battle of Durben, that makes it comparable to other engagements in which Žemaitians (and other Lithuanians) participated in the course of the thirteenth century, is primarily to be seen in its defensive character. The Žemaitians waited for the approaching enemy in their well-picked position by the lake of Durbe (in Curonia, present-day Latvia) in which heavily armoured knights could not use their advantage as shock troops to the full.After the Teutonic troops proved unable to dislodge and disperse the Žemaitians from their defensive positions, the latter mounted an encircling maneuvre, which succeeded all the more so because the native troops of Curonians and Estonians began to flee from the battlefield and abandoned their Teutonic masters to their fate. The latter and their Prussian subjects offered tough resistance for a while, but in the end they were overwhelmed and on their flight suffered huge casualties from their Žemaitian pursuers. As regards the Lithuanian art of war in the thirteenth century, the battle of Durben offers first strong evidence of so effective a cooperation between horse and foot. What is remarkable is that the Lithuanians in the wake of the battle of Durbe seem to have acquired some more experience in how to engage the Teutonic knights in direct confrontations with them as can be grasped from the descriptions of the battles of Lielwarde (1261), Dünamünde (1263) and Aizkraukle (1279). [From the publication]