In an attempt to replace his ally Tokhtamysh Khan on the throne of the Golden Horde, Vytautus of Lithuania was defeated on the banks of the Worskla, a tributary of the Dnieper, by the khan’s rival, Timur Kutluk. As well as Tokhtamysh and his Tartar forces Vytautus’ army, commanded by 50 Lithuanian and Russian princes, included Lithuanians, West Russians, 400 Poles and 100 or 500 Teutonic Knights under the Castellan of Ragnit, plus wagons and some artillery. Vytautus had hoped to disperse Timur Kutluk’s forces with his cannons, but they had only a minimal effect on the fast-moving Tartar cavalry, whose movements were largely hidden anyway by clouds of dust raised by their horses’ hooves. Nevertheless, after a fierce fight of several hours’ duration that began soon after midday, the Lithuanians were close to victory over the main Tartar body, commanded by the future khan Egidei, until the Tartar reserve under Timur Kutluk himself suddenly came in on their rear. The Lithuanian artillery was immediately overrun, their camp captured and their cavalry thrown into a whirl of confusion that soon degenerated into a rout. Tokhtamysh was among the first to flee, the rest of the Lithuanian army soon following suit.
Vytautus escaped, but two-thirds of his army was left dead on the field, 74 princes plus voivodes and nobles without number being among them, including Dmitri of Bryansk and Andrei of Pskov who had been prominent amongst the Russian commanders at Kulikovo. According to the ‘Chronicle of Novgorod’, which reports that this was ‘such a fierce battle as there had never been before between the Lithuanians and Tartars’, the Tartar pursuit took Timur Kutluk as far as Kiev.
World History
