Ice battle: the scheme and the course of the battle

The Battle of the Ice is one of the greatest battles in Russian history, during which the Prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, repulsed the Knights of the Livonian Order on Lake Peipsi. For many centuries, historians have been arguing about the details of this battle. Some moments remain unclear, including how the Ice Slaughter was taking place. The scheme and reconstruction of the details of this battle will allow us to reveal the mystery over the riddles of history connected with the great battle.

Background to the conflict

Beginning in 1237, when the Pope announced the beginning of another crusade in the lands of the eastern Baltic, between Russian principalities on the one hand, and Sweden, Denmark and the German Livonian Order, on the other, there was a constant tension, which from time to time developed into military operations.

So, in 1240, Swedish knights led by Jarl Birger landed at the mouth of the Neva, but the Novgorod army under the command of Prince Alexander Nevsky defeated them in a decisive battle.

In the same year, the Livonian Order undertook an offensive operation against the Russian lands. His troops took Izborsk and Pskov. Assessing the danger, the Novgorod council in 1241 called back Alexander to reign, although only recently expelled him. The prince assembled his squad and moved against the Livonians. In March 1242 he managed to free Pskov. Alexander moved his troops to the possessions of the Order, in the direction of the Dorpatian bishopric, where the crusaders collected considerable forces. The parties prepared themselves for the decisive battle.

Opponents met on April 5, 1242 on Lake Peipsi, then still covered with ice. That's why the battle later became known as the Battle of the Ice. The lake at that time was frozen deep enough to withstand the heavily armed soldiers.

The forces of the parties

The Russian army was quite a scattered composition. But the backbone of it, of course, was the Novgorod squad. In addition, the army included the so-called "grassroots regiments", which led the boyars. The total strength of the Russian squad is estimated by historians in 15-17 thousand people.

The Livonians army was also disagreeable. The battle skeleton of it was made up of heavily armed knights of the military monastic Order , led by the master Andreas von Velven, who, however, did not take part in the battle itself. Also in the army were the Danish allies and the militia of the city of Durpat, which included a significant number of Estonians. The total strength of the Livonian army is estimated at 10-12 thousand people.

Course of battle

Historical sources left us with rather stingy information about how the battle unfolded. The ice slaughter began when the archers of the Novgorod army stepped forward and covered the city with a hail of arrows. But the latter managed, using a military structure called "pig", crush the shooting and smash the center of Russian forces.

Seeing this situation, Alexander Nevsky ordered to cover Livonians from the flanks. The knights were taken in ticks. Began their total extermination of the Russian squad. The auxiliary troops of the Order, seeing that their main forces are defeated, fled. The Novgorod squad pursued the fleeing for more than seven kilometers. The battle ended in the complete victory of the Russian forces.

Such was the story of the Battle of the Ice.

Battle Scheme

Not without reason in the domestic textbooks on military affairs a worthy place was occupied by the Ice slaughter. The scheme below is a clear demonstration of the commander's gift of Alexander Nevsky and serves as an example of a well-conducted combat operation.

On the map, we clearly see the initial breakthrough of the Livonian army into the ranks of the Russian squad. Also shown is the encirclement of the knights and the subsequent escape of the auxiliary forces of the Order, which ended the Battle of the Ice. The scheme allows you to build these events into a single chain and greatly facilitates the reconstruction of events occurring during the battle.

Consequences of the Battle

After the Novgorod army won a complete victory over the forces of the Crusaders, in which Alexander Nevsky's considerable merit, a peace agreement was signed, in which the Livonian Order completely renounced its recent acquisitions on the territory of the Russian lands. The prisoners were also exchanged.

The defeat suffered by the Order in the Battle of the Ice was so serious that he licked the wounds for ten years and did not even think about a new invasion of the Russian lands.

No less significant is the victory of Alexander Nevsky in the general historical context. It was then that the fate of our lands was decided and the actual end of the aggression of the German crusaders in the eastern direction was put. Of course, after that the Order tried to tear off a piece of Russian land more than once, but never the invasion took such a large scale character.

Misconceptions and stereotypes associated with the battle

There is a notion that in many respects in the battle on Lake Peipsi the Russian army was helped by ice, which could not withstand the heaviness of the heavily armed German knights and began to sink under them. In fact, there is no historical confirmation of this fact. Moreover, according to the latest research, the weight of the equipment of the German knights and Russian knights involved in the battle was approximately equal.

German crusaders in the view of many people, which are primarily inspired by the cinema, are heavily armored in helmets, often decorated with horns. In fact, the Order's regulations forbade the use of helmeted ornaments. So, in principle, there could not be any horns for Livonians.

Results

Thus, we found out that one of the most important and iconic battles in Russian history was the Battle of the Ice. The battle scheme allowed us to visually reproduce its course and determine the main reason for the defeat of the knights - a reassessment of their forces, when they rushed headlong into the attack.