Battle of the Sun

The Battle of Saule/Schaulen) or Battle of the Sun ({lang-lt|Saulės Mūšis}}, or Kauja pie Saules took place on September 22,1236. The Chronicum Livoniae by Hermann de Wartberge says the battle was fought in terram Sauleorum. The exact place were the battle was held is not known - it was only said that it was in terram Sauleorum. The mentioned place might be or near the Šiauliai in Lithuiania (in German: Schaulen, in Latvian: Saule) or near the small place Vecsaule in southern part of nowadays Latvia. (Saule means "sun" in Latvian.)

The knights of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, led by Master Volquin, were in desperate straits by the 1230s with strained financial resources and decreasing manpower. In 1236 Volquin led a war party with the assistance of the prince of Pskov southward into pagan Samogitia. Accompanied by headstrong seasonal crusaders from Holstein, the knights raided some settlements of the Žemaičiai, or Samogitians, who had fled beforehand. On the knights' return trek to the north, however, they encountered a determined group of Samogitians at a river crossing. Unwilling to risk losing their horses in the swampland, the Holsteiners refused to fight on foot, forcing the knights to camp for the night. The next morning a pagan force composed of Samogitians led by Duke Vykintas and Lithuanians led by Duke Mindaugas struck at the western army. Lightly-armed native forces under the command of the Brothers fled from the battle, while the burdened knights and crusaders, including Volquin, were slain.Those crusaders and knights who tried to flee to Riga was killed by Semigallians, however it is not shure known if Semigallians took part in the battle.

After this battle the remnants of the Livonian Brethren accepted incorporation into the Teutonic Order in 1237.