The 'Battle of the Vorskla River' was one of the greatest and bloodiest in the medieval history of Eastern Europe. It was fought on August 12, 1399 between the Tatars under Edigu and Temur Qutlugh and the armies of Grand Duke Vytautas of the Lithuania and Tokhtamysh.

Contents

Build Up

The Battle

Aftermath

References

Build Up

In the later part of the 14th century, Grand Duke Vytautas and Dmitri Donskoi of Moscow started a rivalry for the fertile southern lands of modern day Ukraine, controlled (if only nominally) by the Blue Horde. As the Tatar power was on the wane, Dmitriy soundly defeated the Horde Battle of Kulikovo (1380), only to be besieged in Moscow and defeated in 1382 by the new Khan Tokhtamysh.
It seemed that the power of the Golden Horde had begun to rise, but in 1389, Tokhtamysh made the disastrous decision of waging war on his former master, the great Tamerlane. Tamerlane's hordes rampaged through modern-day southern Russia, crippling the Golden Horde's economy and practically wiping out it's defenses in those lands.
After losing the war, Tokhtamysh was then dethroned by the party of Khan Temur Qutlugh and Emir Edigu, supported by Tamerlane. When Tokhtamysh asked Vytautas for assistance in retaking the Horde, the latter readily gathered a huge army which included Lithuanians, Tatars , Ruthenians, Russians, Poles, Moldavians, Wallachians, and Teutonic knights.

The Battle

In 1398, the huge army moved from Moldavia to the Dnieper River and northern Crimea. Inspired by their great successes, Vytautas declared a 'Crusade against the Tatars' with Papal backing. Thus in 1399, the army of Vytautas once again moved on the horde. His army met the horde's at the Vorskla River, slightly inside Lithuanian territory.
Although the Lithuanian army was well equipped with cannons, it could not resist a rear attack from Edigu's reserve units. Vytautas was barely able to escape alive, many princes of his kin, possibly up to 20, were killed (as for example, Ştefan Muşat, Prince of Moldavia and two of his brothers, while a forth was badly injured ), and the victorious Tatars besieged Kiev. "And the Christian blood had flown like a water, up to the Kievan walls", as one chronicler put it. Meanwhile Temur Kutlugh died from the wounds received in the battle, and Tokhtamysh was killed by one of his own men.

Aftermath

Vytautas' defeat at the Vorskla effectively blocked Lithuanian expansion to Southern Ruthenia. His enormous state also ''lost'' hard-won access to the Black Sea as the Tatars reconquered the southern steppe all the way to Moldavia (Lithuania, however did reclaim the lands once the Khanate of Crimea broke off from the Golden Horde). The political activity of Lithuanians was then switched to the fight for northern principalities, such as Smolensk.

References

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