European Kingdoms

Couronians (Balts)
Incorporating the Kurshes

Indo-Europeans - Baltic Tribes (Intro) Anatolian Tribes Balkans Tribes Baltic Tribes Celtic Tribes Germanic Tribes Italic Tribes Indo-Iranian/Aryan Tribes Slavic Tribes Tocharians (Intro)

The European region which today is known as the Baltic States sits at the junction in Eastern Europe with Northern Europe. While the southern two states of Lithuania and Latvia are counted as Eastern European, Estonia is more typically grouped with its Northern European cousins.

The Couronians (or Curonians or Kurshes), were a Western Balt tribe which lived on what is now the north-western corner of Latvia, immediately to the south of the Estonian island of Saaremaa, and to the west of the powerful Samogitians. They are referred to as Cori or Chori in the Scandinavian sagas, which mention the wars between the Vikings and Couronia (known as Kurland to German chroniclers) starting in the seventh century AD. By the twelfth century the people of both Saaremaa and Courland had built up a strong seafaring tradition and were actively involved in raiding to the west. Denmark's irritation at such attacks on its territory resulted in several retaliatory attacks against the Balts.

According to Henry of Livonia, writing his Chronicle at the start of the thirteenth century, a lesser tribe called the Vindi also inhabited territory in Courland. They were clearly non-Slavic or Balt in nature and their name is preserved in the River Windau (Latvia's River Venta), with the town of Windau (the Latvian Ventspils) at its mouth. At the start of the second millennium, there are two countries or people occupying this region, called Ventava (the Ventspils area) and Vanema to their east. There seems to be little doubt that these were the northernmost remnants of a Belgic people called the Venedi who once dominated the entire eastern bank of the Vistula.

(Additional information from The History of the Baltic Countries, Zigmantas Kiaupa, Ain Mäesalu, Ago Pajur, & Gvido Straube (Eds, Estonia 2008) (see the Sources page for Northern Europe), from Eric's Chronicle, from the 15th Yearbook of the Estonian Learned Society in Sweden, 2010-2014 (Eesti Teadusliku Seltsi Rootsis aastaraamat XV. 2010-2014), Ants Anderson (Ed, Stockholm, 2015), and from External Link: The Balts, Marija Gimbutas (1963, previously available online thanks to Gabriella at Vaidilute, but still available as a PDF - click or tap on link to download or access it).)

c.AD 50 - 150

The arrival on the southern Baltic coastline of the Gothic people in the first and second centuries AD has a great impact on the Baltic population there. The strongest tribe of the western Baltic bloc which had previously manifested itself in face and pot-covered urn graves of the Face-Urn culture eventually disintegrates due to this and the preceding Celtic expansion. The other Baltic tribes have been less touched by outside influences and conservatively preserved their local character.

The ancestors of the Galindians, Lets, Lithuanians, Natangians, Sambians, and Semigallians continue throughout the entire Early Iron Age to build stone cists in which they place urns of a family or kin, covering them with an earth barrow secured by a stone pavement from above and stone rings around. While available, Middle and Late La Tène fibulae are also imported and imitated. In marked contrast to Celtic and Germanic graves, however, weapons are extremely rare in Baltic graves. The inland Prussian tribes seem to live a rather peaceful life.

Other Baltic tribes are now developing their own distinctive burial rites. Sudovians build stone barrows, Couronians place their dead in stone circles or rectangular walls, while their neighbours in central Lithuania use flat graves supporting tree-trunk coffins with stones. The differentiation of local burial rites from around this time permits modern scholars the chance of perceiving tribal borders between the various Baltic tribes, which thereafter remain unchanged in this region until the coming of the Germans. Until then, there is no evidence of migrations, shifts of population, or invasions of the Baltic lands by foreign peoples.

650

By now Swedes have established the stronghold of Seeburg (near modern Grobina) in Courland. This is succeeded by a trading post which survives until the beginning of the ninth century, when the invaders are defeated by the local population.

Modern Kurzeme (ancient Courland) forms the westernmost region of Latvia, but in the medieval period it was home to a powerful tribe of Balts called the Couronians

c.660s - 680s

The Icelandic and Norwegian sagas, recorded in the thirteenth century although they hark back to prehistoric songs, commemorate the successes of King Ivar Vidfamne of the Swedes. Ivar is said to conquer 'Kurland, Saxland, and Eisland', and all the countries in the east to Gardarike in Karelia (Hervarar Saga). His successor, Harald Hildetand, re-establishes Viking rule in those territories. Swedish expansion along the eastern Baltic coasts in the period between 650-750 is confirmed by archaeologically-attested colonies.

The numerous Baltic tribes are currently ruled by powerful chieftains and landlords, a system which remains in place until the beginning of recorded history in the region. Among the Baltic tribes the Prussians and Couronians continue to play leading roles. In the previous century or so, the Lets have expanded their territory to cover much of northern Latvia, replacing the previously dominant Finno-Ugric tribes there, the early Estonians.

c.750

As mentioned by the Norna-Gests Þáttr Saga, the king of the Swedes, Sigurd Ring, fights off a heavy raid by Couronians and Kvens into the southernmost region of Swedish lands.

853 - 855

The Danes launch a campaign against the Couronians. However, as part of the feared 'Eastern Vikings', the Couronians fight the Danes in a sea battle, defeating them and enslaving half their number.

Two years later, in his work, Vita Sancti Anscharii, Rimbert, a disciple of Archbishop Ansgar of the Bremen-Hamburg diocese mentions two towns in connection with ongoing warfare against the Swedes, those of Saeborg and Apulia. During the war, thousands of warriors are said to assemble in the hill forts above these towns: 7,000 in Saeborg and 15,000 in Apulia. The numbers must be exaggerated, but the existence of sizeable towns from which to recruit many men is not.

Rimbert also provides a detailed description of the wars waged by Danes and Swedes against the Couronians in the middle of the ninth century. When Rimbert mentions the Couronians for the first time, he writes: 'A tribe, called Chori, living far from them [Swedes], was earlier subdued by the Swedes, but it was a long time ago, when they revolted and liberated themselves from the yoke'. Then he mentions that at the time when Archbishop Ansgar visits the Swedish homeland for the second time, somewhat after 850, the Danes undertake a military expedition by sea to Couronia, but suffer a crushing defeat. Half the Danes are killed, half their ships are captured, and the Couronians gained a large war booty of gold, silver and weapons.

c.866 - 894

Couronian leader.

c.870s

Again in Vita Sancti Anscharii, which is completed in 876, Rimbert finds five 'states' in the land of the Couronians, although in his Latin he terms them kingdoms. They are more like tribal states which perhaps operate as a confederation in times of external threat.

1049 - 1051

The Couronians - Baltic or Eastern Vikings - have become the most restless and the richest of all the Balts during this period. That the Couronians are attacking the Danes and that its coasts in winter and in summer have to be guarded against them and other Vikings from the east is attested by the Heimskringla of Snorre Sturleson, set down during the reign of the Norwegian King Harald Hardrade around this time. Snorre Sturleson mentions in his Ynglinga-saga that under the Danish kings, Svein and Magnus, a special sermon against Couronian pirates is introduced in Danish churches.

1070

The chronicle of Adam of Bremen describes Couronian religious habits: 'All their houses are full of pagan soothsayers, diviners, and necromancers, who are even arrayed in a monastic habit. Oracular responses are sought there from all parts of the world, especially by Spaniards and Greeks'. The priests are wise old men who are chosen by the people and held in greatest respect. Adam also reports the existence of a church in Kurland (Couronia), erected by a merchant as early as the second half of the eleventh century. The monk Hiltinus is appointed bishop to the Baltic by the archbishop of Bremen in about this year. The mission can hardly be considered a success, however, as Adam's two-year mission ends in his death.

By about AD 1000 the final locations of the Baltic tribes were well known by the Germans who were beginning their attempts to subdue and control them, although the work would take a few centuries to complete and the Lithuanians would never be conquered by them (click or tap on map to view full sized)

1170

Denmark is fast rising as a great military and merchant power, and it is in its interest to end the occasional Estonian and Couronian pirate attacks that threatened its Baltic trade. To that end, a Danish fleets now makes an attack against Estonia. The fighting lasts for three days, but the pirate threat is clearly not contained, as later events prove.

c.1185

Sverris saga says that King Sverre's brother, Erik, spends three years around 1185 looting Estonian coastal areas and then sails back to Svitjod in Svealand, to King Knut Eriksson of the Swedes, to whom he is related. Svitjod would seem to be Sigtuna, the most important centre in Svealand.

1187

The 'pagans of the Eastern Sea' (Estonians of Saaremaa, Couronians, and Sambians (Zembs) of Old Prussia) conquer Sigtuna, the most important town of the Swedes, which they then burn down. The Swedish Eric's Chronicle of 1335 blames the Finnish Karelians for the attack. More recently, Professor Kustaa Vilkuna has suggested that the raid is in revenge for Sigtuna's merchants having intruded upon Kven fisheries on the River Kemijoki and the hunting grounds of the Karelians. The medieval naming of a settlement in the village of Liedakkala by the River Kemijoki as 'Sihtuuna' may be additional confirmation of this.

Two ships were filled with Viking warriors who were killed in battle between AD 700-750, as uncovered by archaeologists on the island of Saaremaa in 2008 and proof of a Viking raid more than a century before the Vikings are thought to have been able to sail across such distances

c.1200

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a clearly non-Slavic tribe called the Vindi (German Winden, English Wends). They live in Courland and Livonia, clearly the northernmost remnants of the Venedi. The tribe's name is preserved in the River Windau (in Latvian this is the Venta), which has the town of Windau (the Latvian Ventspils) at its mouth. It is also preserved in Wenden, the old name for the town of Cēsis in Livonia.

late 1100s on

The Balts have come a long way towards producing contemporarily-modern feudal states. The largest or most powerful castle with a town has become the military and administrative centre for the tribal district. Five 'states' had already existed in the Couronian lands to be chronicled in the 870s by Rimbert. Now, at the beginning of the thirteenth century there are eight 'states' or districts with their own centres, each of which has several villages ('castellatura'). A similar pattern of separate districts pertains for all the other Baltic tribes. The more powerful feudal 'kings' extend their rule over two, three, four, or more districts. These 'kings' or chieftains possess the largest of all the castles. The most influential of them are called 'rex' or 'dux' or 'princeps' by chroniclers. The chronicles enumerate the names of the chieftains and even those of their subordinates. Power and land ownership are inherited.

The hierarchical structure of chieftainship is illustrated by the Chronicle of Volynia, which relates how twenty-one Lithuanian dukes come to sign the treaty of 1219 between Lithuania and the Rus of Halych-Volynia. Of these, five - the most powerful amongst their number - are 'grand dukes', while the other sixteen are dukes of minor importance. From this it may be deduced that Lithuania is now ruled by a confederation of the most powerful chieftains. It is quite possible that such a system of government is also in existence in the other Baltic states and has been for some time.

c.1200 - 1230

Semigallian leader.

fl 1230

Couronian leader. Accepted Christianity.

1230 - 1234

King Lamikis signs an agreement which accepts Christianity into Couronian territory. The Danes are probably hoping that with this act the Couronian Vikings will stop raiding and devastating Danish and Swedish kingdoms and carrying away church bells and other objects. In 1234, a Dominican monk by the name of Engelbert is appointed the first bishop of Courland. The bishopric of Courland is formally declared in 11 February 1232.

fl c.1250

Semigallian leader.

fl 1281

Semigallian leader.

1260 - 1290

With the Livonian Knights being severely defeated at the Battle of Durbe in Livonia in 1260, the bishop leaves Courland and only re-enters the territory in 1290 following the successful suppression of serious Couronian and Semigallian insurgencies in 1267 and 1272 respectively.