The Samogitians

Who rules

Name

not pinned: no Samogitian is named before the treaty of 1219, which lists Erdvilas and Vykintas as 'the Samogitian dukes'

Title

dukes and elders of the Samogitian lands; no ruler of all Samogitia

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

Erdvilas and Vykintas (1219) show that Samogitia had its own ducal families; Vykintas was still leading Samogitia in the 1250s, so in 1200 he was young at most. Their forebears are not named.

Confidence

low

The 1219 treaty is the first written mention of the Samogitians as a people with dukes. Their lands (Raseiniai, Betygala, Ariogala, Laukuva, Kražiai, Karšuva and others) are named in Mindaugas's grants to the Livonian Order of 1253-1259. For 1200 nothing is known beyond archaeology.

What the realm holds

• Upper Samogitia: the Samogitian upland with Medvėgalis, Šatrija, Medininkai (Varniai), Tverai, Kražiai and Laukuva
• the Dubysa lands: Raseiniai, Betygala and Ariogala
• Karšuva: the land between the Jūra and the Neman towards the Skalvians
• the Šiauliai land on the edge of the Semigallian plain

How it was acquired

Ancestral land. The Samogitian lands are first named as a group in 1219.

Allies and rivals

The Lithuanians: kin and allies, though Samogitia keeps its own dukes and will long resist Lithuanian overlords. The Curonians to the west (the Ceklis and Lamata lands) and the Semigallians to the north: Baltic neighbours with whom relations in 1200 are not recorded. The Skalvians and other Prussians across the Jūra and the Neman: neighbours. The Germans: not yet a presence.

The realm that morning

Self-governing lands under their dukes and elders, with no overlord and no tribute paid to anyone. The Nevėžis divides them from Lithuania proper and Upytė; the Curonians hold the coast and the lands west of the upper Minija and the Venta; the Semigallians hold the plain north of Šiauliai; the Skalvians (the Prussians' ground on the Poland and Hungary map) hold the lower Neman. No raid on or by the Samogitians is pinned to the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Farming (rye, barley, flax), cattle and horses; furs, wax and honey from the forests; trade with the Curonian coast and down the Neman. No coin; silver by weight.

Military

The dukes' mounted retinues and the levies of the lands; earth and timber hillforts on steep natural hills, the strongest at Medvėgalis (first named in 1316) and Šatrija. Samogitian forts and fighters will hold off the German orders for almost two centuries, but nothing is recorded of them in 1200.

Threats

• none pressing in 1200; the German crusade on the Daugava begins during 1200 and reaches the Samogitian borders only in the 1230s (the battle of Saulė, 1236)

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. 1200-1201 (later)Bishop Albert's arrival on the Daugava and the founding of Riga begin the German pressure on the Baltic lands; Samogitia is untouched for a generation.Depends on: Albert's expedition of 1200 Stopped by: its failure

Later, on the likely course

1. 1219 (later)The Samogitian dukes Erdvilas and Vykintas join the Lithuanian dukes in the peace with the widow and sons of Roman of Volhynia.Depends on: the Lithuanian-Volhynian wars after 1205 Stopped by: any change in the southern balance

Places of note

• Medvėgalis hillfort: the highest Samogitian hillfort, about 8 km north-west of Kaltinėnai and 12 km south of Varniai (first named 1316)
• Šatrija hill: hillfort of the upland near Luokė

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: No written source names Samogitia before 1219; its lands are known from the 1253-1259 grants and from 14th-century German war reports. The record describes 1200 from archaeology and from later sources read backwards with care.

On the map: The western edge against the Curonians and the northern edge against the Semigallians are conventions; the Šiauliai land and Karšuva may have been distinct lands rather than Samogitian ones in 1200.