Osel

Osel (mod. Saaremaa, Estonia) is an island off the western coast of Livonia (the second largest in the Baltic Sea), conquered in the course of the Baltic Crusades. In the thirteenth century, the Latin word Osilia seems to have designated the entire group of islands around Saaremaa, in contrast to the mainland.

At the beginning of the Baltic Crusades, Osel was one of the most powerful and best organized territories of the Estonians. The Osilians were efficient and warlike seamen, and in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries their raids against the Swedish and Danish coasts were notorious. The remains of impressive hillforts at Carmel (mod. Kaarma), Volde (mod. Valjala), Peude (mod. Poide), and Moon (mod. Muhmu) also testify to a remarkable concentration of power. The Osilians appear as the fiercest opponents of the German crusader settlement in Riga, and they resisted Christianity longer than other Estonian tribes. They successfully fought off invasions by the Danes (1206 and 1222) and Germans from Riga (1216) and took the offensive against the crusaders, blockading the river Duna and later harassing a crusader fleet as it left Livonia. In 1227 the Osilians accepted Christianity and concluded peace with Riga.

The island was initially divided equally between the archbishop of Riga, the town of Riga, and the Order of the Sword Brethren. The archbishop’s share soon absorbed that of the town, and both sections (the central parishes) became the property of the new bishopric of Osel-Wiek, while that of the Sword Brethren (the western and eastern ends of the island) passed to the Teutonic Order. Castles were erected by the bishop at Arensburg (mod. Kuressaare) and by the order at Peude.

The Osilians retained a considerable degree of autonomy throughout the thirteenth century. In 1241, after a revolt, the Livonian master of the Teutonic Order agreed that a bailiff should visit the island once a year to resolve court cases in concordance with the local chieftains. A treaty in 1255 regulated criminal procedures and military obligations. The Osilians built their first churches in the vicinity of the hillforts, which is further evidence of the persistence of local power structures in the thirteenth century. The last great uprising of the Osilians occurred in 1343 (in connection with the St. George’s Night Revolt on the mainland), in which they destroyed the castle at Peude. After their subjection, the Osilians were obliged to erect a new castle for the order in Soneburg (mod. Maasilinn), which remained the center of the administration of the Teutonic Order on the Estonian islands.

The island remained divided between the bishop of Osel-Wiek and the Teutonic Order throughout the Middle Ages. Although the center of the bishopric was on the mainland at Hapsal (mod. Haapsalu), Arensburg gained importance as one of the bishop’s strongholds. Disputed episcopal successions and conflicts with the Teutonic Order in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries created unrest in the region. The last bishop of Osel-Wiek, Johannes Munchhausen, sold his bishopric to Denmark in 1559. The last bailiff of Soneburg, Heinrich Wulf Ludinghausen, tried to sell the bailiwick of the

Teutonic Order to Denmark (but never received payment for it) and acted until 1564 as the king’s governor on the island. Denmark remained in possession of the whole island until 1645, when it came under Swedish rule.

-Juhan Kreem

Bibliography

Busch, Nicolaus, Geschichte und Verfassung des Bistums Osel bis zur Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts, ed. Leonid Arbusow (Riga: Hacker, 1934).

Magi, Marika, “Districts and Centres in Saaremaa,

1100-1400,” in Culture Clash or Compromise? The Europeanisation of the Baltic Sea Area, 1100-1400 AD, ed. Nils Blomkvist (Visby: Gotland Centre for Baltic Studies, 1998), pp. 147-157.

-, At the Crossroads of Space and Time: Graves,

Changing Society and Ideology on Saaremaa (Osel), 9th-13th Centuries AD (Tallinn: Department of Archaeology, Institute of History, 2002).

Uluots, Juri, Die Vertrdge der Esten mit den Fremden im XIII Jahrhundert (Tartu: Akadeemiline koperatiiv, 1937).