The Estonians

Who rules

Name

None named for 1200

Title

No ruler. Each land (maakond) and each parish (kihelkond) is led by its elders (vanem; Latin seniores) with the assembly of its free men

Since

not applicable

Born

not applicable

Family

No ruling house. Henry of Livonia, who writes from 1200 onwards, first names Estonian elders in the war years after 1208: Lembitu of Sakala is first named in 1211 (a raid across the Ümera on Rubene), with Meme later named as a fellow elder of Sakala. No elder of any Estonian land is named for 1199 or 1200, so this map has no Estonian lord records.

Confidence

medium

Henry of Livonia as reported in Wikipedia (Lembitu, en and et; Muinasmaakond, et; Ancient Estonia).

Overlord

None on 1 January 1200. There are claims only. The Rus' count Ugandi as a land that owes them tribute: Yaroslav the Wise built Yuryev at Tartu in 1030 and the Rus' took tribute from the Ugaunians, possibly until the Sosols burned it in 1061; the Novgorodians took Otepää in 1116 and Tartu in 1133 or 1134; and under Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich they took and burned Tartu in the winter of 1191-1192, while his retinue with the Pskovians burned Otepää in the summer of 1192.

Each time they went home. In the 1190s a fleet of Germans and Gotlanders led by the Swedish jarl Birger Brosa, bound for Courland, was driven onto the coast of eastern Estonia and forced its people to pay tribute; and King Canute VI of Denmark is said to have led crusades against the Estonians in 1194 and 1196-1197. No land is known to be paying tribute to anyone that winter (not pinned).

What the realm holds

• Saaremaa with Muhu (Saaremaa)
• Läänemaa with Hiiumaa and Vormsi (Läänemaa)
• Rävala with Lindanise (Rävala)
• Harjumaa with Varbola and Raikküla (Harjumaa)
• Virumaa to the Narva (Virumaa)
• Järvamaa (Järvamaa)
• Alempois (Alempois)
• Nurmekund (Nurmekund)
• Mõhu (Mõhu)
• Vaiga with Jogentagana and Soopoolitse (Vaiga)
• Sakala with Viljandi and Lõhavere (Sakala)
• Ugandi with Otepää and Tartu (Ugandi)

How it was acquired

The lands took shape round their hillfort districts in the late Iron Age (11th and 12th centuries). No conquest or marriage has ever joined them under one hand.

Allies and rivals

No standing alliances. The Oeselians share the sea with the Curonians and raided alongside them (the Danish fleet fought Estonian and Curonian raiders at Öland in 1170: Saxo, as reported in en.wikipedia, Oeselians). The coastal lands trade with the Gotlanders and with the German and Gotland merchants who sail past to Novgorod. Rivals: the Rus' of Novgorod and Pskov, who claim Ugandi; the Danes and Swedes, whose coasts the Oeselians raid and whose fleets have struck back; the Latgalians of Tālava, with whom the Ugaunians feud (open war in the 1210s).

The Livs of Metsepole and Idumea to the south are neighbours, not allies, that winter.

The realm that morning

Every Estonian land is free and pagan and rules itself. No Rus', Danish, Swedish or German garrison stands on Estonian ground: the last Rus' campaign (1191-1192) burned Tartu and Otepää and withdrew, and no fighting and no peace with Novgorod or Pskov is recorded since. The sea is closed by winter and the summer raiding is over. On the Daugava the Livonian mission has lost its bishop (Berthold, killed by the Livs on 24 July 1198) and his successor Albert is recruiting in Germany.

Nothing shows any land paying tribute that winter (not pinned), and no land has a single leader.

Wealth

Grain (rye and barley) and cattle on the limestone plains of the north and on the islands; furs, wax and honey from the forests; fish and seal; iron smelted from bog ore; captives and booty from raids. The harbours of the north coast, Lindanise on Tallinn bay first among them, lie on the sea road from Gotland to the Neva and Novgorod, and Estonians trade with Gotlanders, Germans and Rus'. Silver came in as Islamic and western coin: most Estonian hoards date from the 11th and 12th centuries (en.wikipedia, Ancient Estonia).

Military

Each parish defends its hillfort of earth and timber; a few have limestone walls (Varbola's ring wall is about 580 m round and 8 to 10 m high: en.wikipedia, Varbola Stronghold). The land's host (malev) gathers under its elders for raids, in winter over the frozen bogs and rivers and in summer by sea. The Oeselians keep war fleets: the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle describes their warships as carrying about 30 men under a carved dragon or snake prow and a square sail.

No numbers are recorded for 1200.

Threats

• Novgorod and Pskov: they claim tribute from Ugandi and campaign into it (1191-1192 the last; the next comes in 1210); in 1191 Novgorod's prince agreed with the Polotsk princes to campaign each winter against the Lithuanians or the Chud
• Denmark: crusades of 1194 and 1196-1197 by later accounts; landings on Saaremaa in 1206 and at Lindanise in 1219 are later
• Sweden: the fleet of Germans and Gotlanders under Jarl Birger Brosa forced tribute on the eastern coast in the 1190s; a Swedish army takes Lihula in 1220 (later)
• The Germans on the Daugava: Bishop Albert sails in 1200 and founds Riga in 1201; the crusade against the Estonians begins in 1208
• Feuds between the lands, and with the Latgalians of Tālava

Law and courts

No written law and no common ruler. Political questions are settled by the elders of each parish or hillfort district (et.wikipedia, Muinasmaakond); the elders of a land meet when war, peace, raids or hostages are at stake. Henry of Livonia names Raikküla (Raigele) in Harjumaa as the village where the people of the surrounding lands gathered every year (en.wikipedia, Harjumaa (ancient county)). Henry calls a land or a parish provincia, sometimes terra, and a parish kilegunda; the Danish census of the 13th century lists the northern parishes (kiligund) with their villages.

Feuds are settled by killing or by compensation; hostages and oaths bind a truce. The elders lead their land's host (malev) in war.

Coinage

None of their own. Silver passes by weight, as foreign coin and ornaments: Islamic dirhams earlier, then German, English and Scandinavian pennies, hoarded in great numbers in the 11th and 12th centuries (en.wikipedia, Ancient Estonia).

Castles and markets

No towns. Each parish has its hillfort; the strongest are Varbola in Harjumaa (a stone ring wall with a trading centre inside), Otepää and Tarbatu (Tartu) in Ugandi, Viljandi and Lõhavere in Sakala, Lihula and Soontagana in Läänemaa, Lindanise in Rävala, Tarvanpää (Rakvere) in Virumaa, and Valjala and Muhu on the islands. Trade gathers at Varbola, at the Tarbatu crossing of the Emajõgi and at the harbours of the north coast.

No tolls are recorded.

Treaties and feuds

No treaty is known to be in force with any neighbour. en.wikipedia (Northern Crusades) counts thirteen Rus', Danish and Swedish attacks on Estonia in the century and a half before the crusade, and Estonian raids on Denmark and Sweden in return. The feud with Novgorod and Pskov over Ugandi is unsettled: the whole Chud land attacked Pskov in the 1170s, in 1190 the Pskovians ambushed seven boatloads of coastal Estonians who had portaged round the Narva rapids and let none escape, and in 1191-1192 Novgorod and Pskov burned Tartu and Otepää (the Novgorod chronicle, as read in the Novgorod research, nov); no fighting and no peace is recorded since; the summer raiding against the Danish and Swedish coasts is a standing habit, not a war with a beginning; the Ugaunians feud with the Latgalians of Tālava.

Frontiers

No raiding belt is drawn for this people. No raid by or against the Estonians is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200: the last Rus' campaign into Ugandi was in 1191-1192, and the sea raids are a summer affair.

Faith

Pagan. Henry of Livonia names Tharapita as the great god of the Oeselians, born on a hill in Virumaa from which he flew to Saaremaa. The Estonians keep holy groves and springs, cast lots to learn the will of their gods, and burn or bury their dead with grave goods. The Latin Church tried once: in the later 1160s Archbishop Eskil of Lund consecrated a monk, Fulco, as bishop of the Estonians, with an Estonian-born monk, Nicholas, to help him, and Pope Alexander III authorised war on the pagan Estonians in his crusade bull of 1171 (Non parum animus noster); nothing shows a Latin mission at work among them in 1200, and the Church map has no record here.

The Orthodox Church reached Tartu while Yuryev was Rus' (1030-1061); Orthodox baptism is next imposed on the Ugaunians in 1210.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. January to March 1200No campaign by or against the Estonians is recorded for this winter. Winter is the Rus' season for raids into Ugandi over frozen rivers and bogs, as in 1191-1192.Depends on: Novgorod's own affairs: Yaroslav Vladimirovich, who led the campaign of 1191-1192, was withdrawn by Vsevolod III in 1199, and Vsevolod's three-year-old son Sviatoslav is enthroned at Novgorod on 1 January 1200 itself (Novgorod research, nov-sviatoslav); Lithuanian raiders strike the Lovat in 1200 Stopped by: An Estonian raid on Pskov's land would invite a reprisal
2. May to September 1200 (sailing season)Oeselian and coastal Estonian ships raid the Danish and Swedish coasts and trade along the sea road. No raid of 1200 is recorded; the next dated one is in 1203 (Henry of Livonia).Depends on: The fleets sailing as in other years Stopped by: A Danish or Swedish fleet in the eastern Baltic
3. Summer 1200Bishop Albert of Livonia sails into the Daugava with crusaders recruited in Germany and Gotland (Church map, Üxküll) and founds Riga in 1201. A new Christian power stands on the Estonians' southern flank.Depends on: Albert's recruiting and a safe crossing Stopped by: The Livs closing the river, a storm, or Albert's death
4. Summer 1200German and Gotland merchants trade on the Daugava and along the Estonian coast to Novgorod, and Ugaunians trade with the Germans. An old robbery of German merchants by Ugaunians, still unpaid when the Germans demand compensation in 1207, may fall in these years (not pinned).Depends on: Peace on the trade roads Stopped by: A robbery or a killing on the road

Later, on the likely course

1. 1208 to 1227 (after this year)The Germans of Riga and the Latgalians of Tālava open war on Ugandi and Sakala in 1208 and burn Otepää. The conquest runs to 1227, with Novgorod (1210, 1211 or 1212, 1217, 1223), Denmark (1206, 1219) and Sweden (1220) also in the field.Depends on: Riga's founding and growth Stopped by: A united Estonian defence, or the failure of Albert's crusade

Where the sources disagree

• Otepää: the Novgorod research (nov, reading the Novgorod chronicle) has it burned by Yaroslav's retinue and the Pskovians in the summer of 1192; en.wikipedia (Ugandi County) dates its capture to 1193. This record follows the chronicle reading.
• Southern line: the assignment gives the Estonian lands as reaching the Salaca and the upper Gauja; the Livonian research (liv) draws the Livs of Metsepole and the Salaca up to Ainaži and Tālava up to Rūjiena and Valka. This record follows the liv line so that the two do not overlap; the strip between the Salaca and the modern border (Rūjiena is Ruhja in Estonian) may have been Estonian in part. The GM may rule.
• campaign notes on the Church: they say nothing on Estonia; their line that Albert of Buxhoeveden was consecrated bishop of Livonia in 1199 fits this record. No discrepancy.
• Scandinavia map (Denmark) gives Canute VI's crusade against the Estonians in 1197 as fact; en.wikipedia (Canute VI of Denmark) cites only Arild Huitfeldt's chronicle of the 1590s for it, and en.wikipedia (Northern Crusades) gives crusades in 1194 and 1196-1197. The dates and scale are uncertain; nothing Danish is held in Estonia in 1200 on any reading.
• Scandinavia map (Esbern Snare) puts the 1170 fight with Curonian and Estonian raiders off Muhu; Saxo, as reported in en.wikipedia (Oeselians), puts the Danish battle of 1170 at Öland. Worth checking which the campaign follows.
• en.wikipedia (Varbola Stronghold) dates Novgorod's siege of Varbola to 1211; et.wikipedia (Lembitu) argues for 1212. Later than 1200 either way.

Evidence: No source describes the Estonians in 1199 or 1200. Henry of Livonia's detailed account of them begins in 1208; the Novgorod chronicle gives only campaigns; Saxo, the Swedish and Danish sources and the papal letters give glimpses; the Danish census of the 13th century lists the northern parishes. The pattern of lands and parishes is reconstructed backwards from the 1210s to the 1240s.

On the map: The outline follows the later Estonian borders, with the Setu country west of Pechory added; in the south it follows the northern edges drawn by the Livonian research (liv) for Metsepole, Tālava and Atzele, which leave Valga, Valka and Rūjiena to the Latgalians and Ainaži to the Livs. Ruhnu is left out. In 1200 the edges were forests, bogs, lakes and the sea, not lines.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronicle of Novgorod (kept year by year; the Synodal manuscript written in the 13th and 14th centuries). Novgorod's own record, kept at St Sophia. Read online
• The Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission. Read online
• The birch-bark letters (11th to 15th centuries). Excavated letters and notes on birch bark, dated by the layer they lie in. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• Charter book of Livonia, Estonia and Courland, volume 1, 1093 to 1300 (documents of 1093 to 1300, edited 1853). The documents of the Livonian mission: Innocent III's bull of 5 October 1199 calling for a crusade to protect the Livonian church, the privileges for Bishop Albert, Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen's acts for the see of Üxküll, and the later charters that settle who held what on the Düna.
• The law of the Gotlanders; The saga of the Gotlanders (Guta lag about 1220, Guta saga about 1220 to 1275; manuscript of about 1350). The law and the short history of the self-governing island. Read online