Everything about The Neva Battle Of 1240 totally explained
Battle of the Neva (
Nevskaya bitva, ) was fought between the
Novgorod Republic and
Swedish armies on the
Neva River, near the settlement of
Ust-Izhora, on
July 15,
1240. The purpose of the Swedish
invasion was probably to gain control over the mouth of the Neva and the city of
Ladoga and, hence, seize the most important part of the
Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks, which had been under
Novgorod's control for more than hundred years. The battle was part of the medieval
Swedish-Novgorodian Wars.
Russian sources
Existence of the battle is only known from Russian sources. First to mention the battle is the
Novgorod First Chronicle from the 14th century. According to the chronicle, on receiving the news of the advancing Swedish fleet, the 20-year-old
Prince Alexander Yaroslavich of Novgorod quickly moved his small army to face the enemy before they'd reached
Lake Ladoga. The chronicle described the battle as follows:
"Swedes came with a great army, and Norwegians and Finns and Tavastians with ships in great numbers, Swedes with their prince and bishops, and they stayed on the Neva, at the mouth of the Izhora, willing to take Ladoga, and to put it short, Novgorod and all of its lands. But still protected the merciful, man-loving God us and sheltered us from the foreign people, and the word came to Novgorod that Swedes were sailing to Ladoga; but prince Alexander didn't hesitate at all, but went against them with Novgorodians and people of Ladoga and overcame them with the help of Saint Sophia and through prayers of our lady, the Mother of God and Virgin Mary, July 15, in the memory of Kirik and Ulita, on Sunday, (the same day that) the 630 holy fathers held a meeting in Chalcedon; and there was a great gathering of the Swedes; and their leader called Spiridon was killed there; but some claimed that even the bishop was slain; and a great number of them fell; and when they'd loaded two ships with the bodies of high-born men, they let them sail to the sea; but the others, that were unnumbered, they cast to a pit, that they buried, and many others were wounded; and that same night they fled, without waiting for the Monday light, with shame. Of Novgorodians there fell: Konstantin Lugotinitch, Yuryata Pinyashchinich, Namest Drochilo, Nesdylov son of Kozhevnik, but including the people of Ladoga 20 men or less, God knows. But prince Alexander came back home with Novgorodians and people of Ladoga, all well, protected by God and Saint Sophia and all the prayers of the holy men."
A 16th century version of the battle gave plenty of additional details, expanding the conflict to biblical proportions, but otherwise following the earlier described developments.
Later, Prince Alexander Yaroslavich was
nicknamed "Nevsky" (of Neva) for his first significant victory. Two years later, Alexander stalled an invasion of the
Livonian Knights during the
Battle on the Ice. Despite the victories, there were no Novgorodian advances further west to
Finland or
Estonia.
Swedish sources
All references to the battle of the Neva are famously missing from the Swedish sources. This can be presumed to have resulted from Sweden's utter defeat, but the reasons may be more complicated than that.
Situation in Sweden
Since the untimely death of King
John in 1222, Sweden was in a
de facto state of civil war until 1248 when
Birger Jarl managed to seize the power in the kingdom. Unrest was due to the struggle between those who, according to one theory, wanted to keep the old tribal structure, the
folkung party, and the king, who was assisted by the church. Folkungs were mainly from
Uppland, allegedly heavily resisting centralization of power, taxation of the
Swedes of Uppland, The relations were improved only after the
Treaty of Lödöse in 1249, which was forged by the newly empowered Birger Jarl. Before the treaty, Norway remained an ally to the folkungs, giving them refuge and providing men and arms.
In this situation, it seems unlikely, that Sweden could have been able to organize a major expedition against Novgorod. Between 1222 and 1249, Swedes are not known to have done any other military campaigns, making the claims about their forceful appearance at the Neva with Norwegians as their allies seem questionable.
Theories
Taking these facts into consideration, it has been suggested, that the Swedish expedition may have been an indirect result from the papal letter in 1237 that was sent to the Swedish
Archbishop of Uppsala. The letter eloquently called for a crusade, not against Novgorod, but against
Tavastians in
Finland, who had allegedly started hostilities against the church. In his defunct position, the king may not have been willing or able to react, but the letter may have provided the frustrated folkungs an opportunity to regain part of their
Viking Age glory. Mostly free to react without interference from the king, folkungs would have been able to
raise an army of their own, get voluntaries from Norway and even assistance from
Thomas, the independent
Bishop of Finland, who needed to constantly worry about the
attacks from the east. Instead of Tavastia, this mixed set of interests and nationalities would have headed for the more lucrative Neva and there met its fate in the hands of Alexander. In the possible aftermath of the said battle, King of Norway approached his Swedish counterpart for peace talks in 1241, but was turned down at the time.
However, some recent research has altogether questioned the importance of the battle, seeing it as an ordinary border skirmish that was exaggerated for political purposes, thus also explaining its absence from Swedish and other western sources. Noteworthy is that any exact numbers of Russian or Swedish losses in the battle were exceptionally small.
Additional theories are numerous. Some historians have expressed that the Swedish army was under the command of the very young Birger Jarl already then, 8 years before his appointment to the position of the
jarl. It has also been suggested, that the suspicious information on Norwegians', Finns' and Tavastians' participance was made up in the 14th century, the time when the First Novgorod Chronicle was written, with Sweden in control of Norway, Finland and Tavastia.
Consequences
All in all, the first known Swedish military expedition against Novgorod after the events at the Neva took place in 1256, following folkungs' demise, peace with Norway and conquest of Finland. If the battle of the Neva had any long-term consequences, it was in Sweden's determination to take over Finland first before attempting to proceed further east.
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