THE COASTAL BALTS

The Balts probably have the bloodiest history of any of the groups covered by this gallery, due in large part to their early conflicts with the Germanic peoples (first to seventh centuries CE), their resistance to Slavic, Scandinavian, and German colonization (ca. 600-1198 CE), and the conquest of most of the Balts by the forces that participated in the Northern Crusades (ca. 1198-1290 CE). They lived along the southeastern and eastern littoral of the Baltic Sea, in what is today the northeastern Baltic coast of Poland (the Prussians), western Lithuania (the Zemaitijans), eastern Lithuania (the Aukstaitijans), western Latvia (the Curonians), southern Latvia (the Semigallians and Selonians), and eastern Latvia (the Latgallians). I also include within this section two groups that were Finns by language but Balts by socio-economic development, material culture, and military culture—the Livonians of northern Latvia, and the Estonians of what is today Estonia (who lived to the north of the Livonians). I have divided the Balts into two broad groups—the Coastal Balts and the Highland Balts—which are based on modern perceived differences between the language, material culture, history, and socio-political development of these peoples, upon which the military traditions of these peoples were in part based, but I think it is important to note that the modern preoccupation with categorization was not much a part of the worldview of these peoples. None of these peoples had much of a sense of any shared ethnic identity—this seems only to have gradually developed as a result of the crusades—and although we can identify broad regional cultural-linguistic patterns, most of the members of the societies discussed herein would have self-identified as members of a clan or kin-group and tribe rather than as members of any particular ethnic or culture group (as far as we know, the Balts had no name by which they identified themselves as a distinct ethnic group). It is really only with the rise of Lithuania as a distinct state that stood in opposition to the expansion of the Baltic Crusader States, Poland, and Russia, and the segregation of defeated Baltic peoples within the crusader states, that we begin to see the development of a broader sense of native Balt identity—the conquered Livonians, Curonians, Semigallians, Selonians, Estonians, and Latgallians in Medieval Livonia gradually came to be lumped together as "Letts" by their crusader overlords; while the ethnyms of the Estonians and Prussians were initially exonymic toponyms (i.e., geographers from literate cultures who were not Estonian or Prussian applied names to the regions in which these peoples lived and simply called the people who lived there after the name of the locale, e.g., the people who live in Prussia are called Prussians); and as I mentioned on the gallery page, the name of Lithuania was initially a hydronym that referred to the territory of the dukedom of a particular Aukstaitijan duke—Mindaugas—that gradually came to be applied to all of the territories that he and his political heirs united under their authority as grand dukes, and many of the various groups that ultimately came to live under the political hegemony of the Lithuanian grand dukes—Zemaitijians, Aukstaitijans, Semigallians, Bartians, Yotvingians, West Slavs, East Slavs, Germans, and Tatars—only vaguely recognized their "common identity" as "Lithuanians." 

 

Coastal Balt Socio-Political Institutions

The subgroup of the Coastal Balts includes the lowland tribes of the Prussians (Prusai), also known as the Old Prussians in order to distinguish them from several later Germanized and Slavicized Prussian states, that inhabited the coastal regions of what is today northeastern Poland, between the lower Vistula and Neris rivers, as well as the lowland tribes that inhabited the coastal regions of what is today Latvia—the Curonians and Semigallians—and their Finnic neighbors in northern Latvia (the Livonians) and Estonia (the Estonians). From about 600 to 1000 CE, the Coastal Balts were primarily agro-pastoralist peoples living in dispersed tribal groups, each averaging between five and eight kin-groups or clans whose homesteads (Old Prussian, buttan) were usually clustered in a hamlet or village (O.P., kaims) that had been carved out of the forest. The term kaims seems to have referred only to the hamlet/village, including the houses and other buildings of each community clustered within a palisaded enclosure, while the term lauks was used to refer both to the tribal group itself (i.e., meaning something like "tribe") and its territory (i.e., meaning something like "land of [tribal name]"). Most of the Coastal Balts practiced slash-and-burn agriculture in which a section of forest was chopped down, the stumps and undergrowth burned away, and the land then plowed and used to grow domesticated crops (mainly vegetables, barley, and rye) for as long as the soil remained fertile. Small-scale animal husbandry was practiced (mainly cattle, pigs, and chickens), but hunting (aurochs, deer, wild boar, and waterfowl), freshwater and saltwater fishing, and foraging were often as important as agriculture. When soil fertility dropped, the land was allowed to revert to wilderness and another nearby section of forest was converted to use. The heavily forested topography of the coastal regions was also broken by large expanses of marsh/swamp/bog, lakes/ponds, and numerous rivers and streams. This meant that the villages (kaims) and tribal lands (lauks) were often isolated from one another, each generally located within relatively small islands of cultivable forest, with water-borne traffic the most practical means of communication and trade between most tribes (although in winter, skis and sleighs improved overland transportation and military campaigning). At the beginning of the period covered by this gallery (ca. 600-800 BCE), social hierarchy was virtually nonexistent, with the heads of each clan (O.P., buttataws) in each given community forming a tribal assembly (O.P., wayde) that served as a kind of governing body. These communities also sometimes raided each other, and therefore also had need of defense (hence, the palisaded kaims), and thus each tribe also had a tribal militia (O.P., karya) led by a tribal chief (O.P., konagis). The konagis was something like a war-leader, elected by the wayde to oversee the construction and maintenance of tribal defenses (like palisades, staked river obstacles, and watchtowers) and to lead the tribal militia both in defense of the tribe and in raiding neighboring tribes. They may also have served as cult leaders dedicated to the propitiation of local deities, presiding over sacrifices (including war prisoners), festivals, and other sacred occasions (many of the chieftains/kings of the Balts were said to be sorcerers, seers, and/or pagan priests by Christian missionaries and crusaders). Unfortunately, the poor state of evidence for the culture of the Coastal Balts, including spotty knowledge regarding the differences between the dialects of some of the different groups (e.g., the Prussians, Curonians, and Semigallians all spoke different dialects of the Balt language group, while the Balticized Finns of Livonia and Estonia spoke Finno-Ugric dialects), makes it difficult to know for certain whether there were significant cultural differences between these groups or to correlate what we think we know about them with modern archeological discoveries. The situation is further complicated by the often incomplete information provided in historical accounts. So, for example, we know that the Livonians and Estonians referred to their tribal territories as kilegunde rather than lauks, which is explained by the difference in languages, but archeology has revealed that the settlement patterns of Livonian and Estonian kilegunde were virtually identical to Prussian lauks, and this same settlement pattern predominated in the lands of the Curonians and Semigallians, although history has not recorded what these people called their settlements or tribal territories (Old Curonian and Semigallian are among the extinct languages of the Balts that were also never written down). Similarly, the Old Prussian (singular, konagis, plural, konagi) and Lithuanian (singular, kunigas, plural, kunigai) terms for their tribal chiefs are obviously etymologically linked, and both are believed to have been derived from the Old Norse term for a king (koningr), although in the context of Balt culture what seems to have been meant was something more akin to "priest-chief [of a tribe]" rather than "king" (since these were generally parochial leaders). For this reason, modern English translations tend to use the term "duke" for konagis/kunigas because that is the closest approximation in Medieval English-language titular, although the parallels are definitely not perfect. Konagi/Kunigai started out as very parochial tribal chiefs (ca. 600-800 CE), elected by the tribal assembly from among the clan leaders of each tribe, but as the socio-political hierarchy became more complex under the influence of the Vikings/Varangians (ca. 800-1000 CE), only those chiefs who were successful in war were able to remain chiefs—becoming chiefs of what were essentially pan-tribal federations or great tribes—and their subordinates at the parochial level were the clan leaders that constituted the tribal assemblies. Finally, under the influence of the nascent Scandinavian kingdoms, the Medieval states of Poland and Russia, and the Baltic Crusader States (ca. 1000-1300 CE), the growing centralization of the Balt polities further transformed the socio-political position of the konagi/kunigai into something that we would more-readily recognize as being akin to the Medieval western European concept of a duke (i.e., a semi-autonomous vassal of a regional overlord with military, financial, and administrative rights and responsibilities), although it is only in Lithuania that we see the completion of the process of social stratification and the development of a complex military-political hierarchy after about 1300 CE (all the other Balt groups having been conquered by the crusaders by 1290 CE). Nevertheless, although we are forced into a degree of speculation in describing the Coastal Balts as a homogenous group, and the correlation between different terms in different languages or dialects is often tentative, we can actually develop some pretty good inferential models, as I've done here.

 

By about 800 CE, we see the emergence of regional federations amongst the Coastal Balts as particularly successful tribes were able to expand their villages into palisaded towns (mestan) and to expand their tribal territories over a wider area that included and eclipsed less successful tribes (these great tribes/federations were called tauto). The new towns (mestan) that were the primary urban centers of the tribal federations (tauto) differed from the villages (kaims) of the minor subordinate tribes (lauks) primarily in size—they could house over twenty clans (as opposed to 5-8 in the lauks)—although the increasing presence of foreign merchants, mercenaries, and slaves, as well as an increasingly affluent indigenous class of traders and craftsmen, would also have set these towns apart. Generally, the town or one of the towns of any given tribal federation served as the capital of its priest-chief (konagis), and was garrisoned by his retinue (kragis), although in times of war the town could serve as a refuge for the people of the minor subordinate tribes whose palisaded settlements (kaims) could withstand raiders but not a siege by an army. As mentioned above, the increasing influence of the Vikings/Varangians led to greater social stratification and the gradual transformation of what it meant to be a konagis. By about 800 CE, the meaning of the term konagis shifted from "chief" to "lord," and the term seems increasingly to refer to the emerging class of warlords who had elevated their social position through war and trade to become something much more like a nobility on the Scandinavian model (i.e., they owned a larger share of tribal land, had households that included slaves and retainers, and the exclusive right to sit on the tribal council of the great tribe, which chose chiefs from among its own members). Subordinate tribes were still governed by an assembly of local clan chiefs, and these tribes could still contribute a militia of tribal warriors to any army called up by their konagis, but they were increasingly referred to as kumetis (O.P., "peasants")(the unfree/slaves were called drelle, which is probably related to the Old Norse trell). The primary fighting force of each konagis now became the fellowship of more-or-less full-time warriors in the kragis (retinue). These shared the largesse of their lord (we do not know the exact mechanisms), helped him collect taxes from the peasantry (usually in goods, not coin) and from resident merchants (usually in goods and coin), and to seize booty in raids (once again, one is struck by the parallels with Scandinavian society, which saw the evolution at this time of the similar huskarlar class of armed retainers). By about 1000 CE, there were eleven recognized tribal federations in what would become known as Prussia—Pomesania, Warmia, Pogesania, Natangia, Sambia, Nadruvia, Bartia, Skalvia, Sudovia, Galindia, and Kulmia—although two of these—Sudovia and Galindia—are herein discussed in the Highland Balts section (see button below).

 

The Curonians lived along the shores of the eastern Baltic, from western Lithuania in the south (the coastal areas of Zemaitija) to western Latvia in the north (the Courland Peninsula). Their language is now extinct, and little-attested in contemporary historical sources. They are considered Balts by most modern ethnologists and linguists, and had very similar socio-political and military institutions to those discussed above in relation to Prussia (and the evolution of those institutions), although it is recognized that they and their Finnic neighbors (the Livonians and Estonians) influenced each other to a high degree. There were eight Curonian regional federations in existence by about 1000 CE—Vanemane, Ventava, Bandava, Piemare, Dovsare/Duvsare, Megava, Pilsaten, and Ceklis. The Curonians were known as great sailors and warriors, and they fought the Vikings/Varangians for control of the eastern Baltic (ca. 750-1187 CE), even raiding coastal Sweden and Denmark and establishing colonies in coastal Sweden and the islands of Gotland and Bornholm, before falling to German crusaders during the Livonian Crusade (ca. 1242-1267 CE)—Courland was thereafter made a part of Medieval Livonia (see my Baltic Crusader States gallery). The Semigallians lived to the east of the Curonians, along the southern banks of the lower Daugava River and the southern shores of the Gulf of Riga. By 1000 CE, there were seven Semigallian regional federations—Upmale, Dobele, Sparnene, Dobe, Rakte, Silene, and Tervete. Unlike the Curonians, the Semigallians were not greatly known as sailors and/or raiders, being instead mainly fresh-water fisherfolk and woodsmen, although like the Curonians they are often treated as being a Balto-Finnic group since they too experienced a high degree of cultural interaction with the neighboring Livonian peoples (like the Curonians, however, their language is extinct and only partly attested in historical sources). The Semigallians fought off a number of incursions into their territories by the Varangians and defeated a major invasion by the early Russian Principality of Polotsk (ca. 1106 CE), but despite a long and valiant struggle against the German crusaders that participated in the Livonian Crusade (ca. 1219-1290 CE), the Semigallians were defeated and had their territories annexed into Medieval Livonia. However, the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle claims that 100,000 Semigallians fled this conquest and re-settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (primarily in Zemaitija). The Rhymed Chronicle is, however, prone to exaggeration, and modern historians point out that the entire Semigallian population probably numbered around 100,000—pre-crusade—and we know that the vicissitudes of the crusade led to a large number of deaths and the capture of Semigallians who were enserfed, so the chronicle's claim should be taken to mean "a large [unspecified] number." The Livonians also lived to the east of the Curonians, on the other side of the Gulf of Riga (which separates the Curonian Peninsula from the mainland), in-between the Gulf of Riga to the west and the Peipus-Pskov lakes region to the east. As mentioned in several places in this gallery, the Livonians are classed ethnically and linguistically as Finns (the last-known speaker of the Livonian language died in 2013), although archeologists and historians tend to emphasize the high degree of cultural assimilation between them and the Coastal Balts (especially the Curonians and Semigallians). There were five tribal federations that dominated Livonia prior to the Livonian Crusade—Daugave (after which the Daugava river is named), Satazele, Turaida, Idumeja, and Metsepole. The Livonians were the first of the peoples in the eastern Baltic to be targeted by the western crusaders (ca. 1198-1209 CE)—several peaceful missions were sent from Germany in the twelfth century, and "many" converts were made, but with the prominent exception of the chief of Turaida (a man named Caupo), most of these early Livonian converts ultimately apostatized and killed the missionaries in their midst. The German prelates responsible for these missions appealed to the Catholic Pope and the Holy Roman emperor for help, a crusade was organized, and with the aid of Caupo of Turaida the rest of Livonia was brutally conquered (it was so severely depopulated by the crusade that captives from later conquests had to be forced to resettle as serfs in the region in order to bring its land back under agricultural production). The success of the Livonian Crusade (ca. 1198-1209) led the crusaders to expand the scope of the crusade to include the Estonians (ca. 1208-1261), the Semigallians (ca. 1219-1290), and the Curonians (ca. 1242-1267). The Estonians lived to the north of the Livonians, along the southern littoral of the Gulf of Finland, between the Baltic Sea to the west and the Neva River to the east (which connects Lake Peipus with the Gulf of Finland), as well as the islands of the West Estonian Archipelago (Saarema, Hiiuma, Muhu, and Vormsi). Like the Livonians, the Estonians are considered to have been a Balto-Finnic group who, by the time of the Livonian Crusade, had coalesced into 13 tribal federations—Saaremaa, Laanemaa, Revala, Harju, Alempois, Sakala, Ugandi, Nurmekund, Mohu, Jogentagana, Vaiga, Jarva, and Virumaa. The crusade in Estonia was initially carried out as a joint operation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword (a crusading order of mostly German knights established in Livonia), who attacked the Estonians overland from Livonia (and made amphibious assaults on the islands), and king Valdemar II of Denmark (1202-1241 CE), who made an amphibious landing near the Revala federation's principal town—Lindanise—and then went on to conquer the Revala, Harju, Jarva, and Virumaa. Danish settlement was always concentrated in these regions, which became the Duchy of Estonia, while German colonization generally prevailed everywhere else in Estonia (and was made part of Medieval Livonia). As happened to the Livonian language, the Estonian language survived and continued to evolve among the conquered population—in Medieval Livonia, Livonian, Curonian, and Latgallian were combined with strong Lithuanian linguistic influence in the development of Medieval Lettish, the language of the conquered Balts and Balto-Finns, which is the ancestor of the Latvian language, while the native Estonian language came to be strongly influenced by the language of the Danish and German conquerers (and later Russian conquerers), and remains the primary language of Estonia today (largely as the result of a conscious effort by the native Estonians to re-assert their language and culture during the Estophile Enlightenment Period, ca. 1750-1840 CE, and after the Estonian War of Independence from Russia, ca. 1918-1920 CE).

 

As mentioned above, the Prussians lived along the southeastern Baltic littoral between the Vistula and Neris rivers. The lands of the Prussians extended inland to the southern edge of the Baltic Highlands, which form a natural border between the coastal wetlands and the North European Plain. Although modern ethnologists and linguists generally include some highland tribes in the Old Prussian ethno-linguistic group, I have divided the Prussian tribes into two groups—the coastal Prussians (the Kulmians, Pomesanians, Pogesanians, Warmians, Bartians, Natangians, Sambians, Nadruvians, and Skalvians), who are treated as part of the Coastal Balts group, and the highland Prussians (the Galindians and Sudovians, often known collectively as Yotvingians), who are treated as part of the Highland Balts group. Peaceful Christian missions to convert the Prussians to Christianity carried out during the tenth and eleventh centuries, mainly by German and Polish missionaries, failed to attract significant converts, and what few Prussians converted often apostatized (several missionaries were martyred). As happened with the Livonians, Estonians, Semigallians, and Curonians, this seems to have fed the fires of crusade in the Baltics. Boleslaw I of Krakow (967-1025 CE) and Konrad I of Masovia/Mazovia (1187-1247 CE) followed these missions with several military incursions aimed at conquering and forcefully converting various Prussian tribes, but these military missions were as unsuccessful as the peaceful missions that preceded them. In the early thirteenth century, another push into Prussia by Konrad was repelled, and the following year the Prussians launched a major retaliatory raid on Mazovia that devastated the duchy. Konrad appealed to the Pope for aid, and the Pope declared a Prussian Crusade (1217-1247 CE) that was to be a joint operation of the Teutonic Order (a crusading order of mainly German knights), the Holy Roman Empire (a Medieval German state), and Konrad of Mazovia (although Konrad fell out with the Teutonic Order pretty quickly and thus only participated in the initial stages of the conquest). The successful conclusion of this crusade after 30 years of hard fighting led to the foundation of the State of the Teutonic Order (1230-1525 CE).