History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 270. Episode 273, the Baltic Crusades, the Levonian Crusade Part 49, the Great Estonian Insurection, part 2.

Hello again.

Last week we examined the beginning

of the Great Estonian Ins, a major uprising of the peasants of

Estonia which commenced in April of 1343. Now by the end of last week's episode, Master Bertchard of the Lovanian chapter of the

Teutonic Order had met with four leaders from the rebellion to talk terms which ended up

resulting in the deaths of those four leaders. Now the obvious next move for the Teutonic Knights to take, according to Master

Birchard, would be to send groups of Knights out into the Estonian countryside to kill the now

leaderless revolting Estonian peasants. But this was easier said than done. Yes, the men under Master Bertrand's command were better trained and better equipped than their peasant counterparts, but the peasants held two important advantages.

The first advantage they held was the benefit of local knowledge and of local support,

meaning that they knew the layout of the countryside better than the Teutonic Knights,

knew about all the good ambush points and hiding places, and knew

of places of safety to which they could flee if necessary. The second factor they had on their side was one of

numerical advantage. There were lots of peasants, heaps of them in fact, and groups of peasants numbering 100

men or more were able to gather and surround small groups of Teutonic Knights.

Admittedly, due to the superior armour, weaponry and training of the Knights,

these encounters tended to end badly for the peasants. the pressing forward with the rebellion until outside help arrived. In other words, they didn't need to defeat the

Teutonic Knights, they just needed to remain undefeated themselves until their calls for

assistance from Finland, Novgorod and Lithuania were answered. The difficulties in doing this, however, were placed into stark focus

when a force of 200 peasants attacked the Teutonic force being led by Master

Birchard. The Teutonic Knights easily fought off this attack and killed most of the attackers.

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