From Memelburg to Klaipėda : The history of Fortress Sieges

 I always look forward to a trip to Klaipėda. And not because the weather is different there, you can feel the sea breeze. But it is also great opportunity to watch the ships passing by. At the same time you can feel that the Lithuanians have been ruling Klaipėda for more than  70 years, but it is still  separated from the rest of Lithuania by a certain separation. But may be this is natural thing ?

Part I. Medieval Crossrods of Swords: How the Samogitians Besieged Memel

1252 The Livonian Orders Master Eberhard von Seyn, together with the Courland Bishop Heinrich, reaches strategically important place - here the Nemunas (the Germans called Memel) flows in to the see. 

They needed springboard that would connect the lands of the Livonian Order with the Teutonic Order in Prussia. Right here stands a wooden castle called Memelburg. For the Samogitians , this fortress was like a thorn in their throat. It blindly blocked their direct access to the Baltic sea and cut through the lands of the Baltic tribes. The knights of the Order had not yet had time to settle down properly when the peace of the surrounding forests was pierced by the trumpets of war. The century - long nightmare of the Memelburg began. 

The first trails : fire and catapults

In the spring of 1253 , barely after the first construction was completed , the castle was sorrounded by a joint army of Samoginians and Curonians. The strategy was simple , but cruel - hunge and fire. The Lithuanians arranged wooden towers arround the castle, from which they pelted the captured with flaming arrows and stones. The knigths defended themselves fiercery , and the castle walls withstood the first baptism, but it was only an overture. The citys greatest test ofthe 13th century came in 1258. The Samogitians returned stronger, better prepared, and driven by indomitable range. They burned down the German posad (settlment outside the castle walls)that had just begun to grow. Chronicals mention that the castle was surrounded so blindly that "neither a bird could fly out nor a beast escape". The defenders straved, ate horse meat and leather belts. Only by a hair`s breadth, after receiving reinforcements by sea  from Konigsberg, did the knigths manage to repel the attackers.