Semigallians

Semigallians (Latvian: Zemgaļi; Lithuanian: Žiemgaliai; also Zemgalians, Semigalls or Semigalians) were the Baltic tribe that lived in the south central part of contemporary Latvia and northern Lithuania.

In Gesta Danorum the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus wrote that the Viking Starkad crushed the Curonians, all the tribes of Estonia, and the peoples of Semgala.

[2] When the Rurikid successors of the Varangians tried to subjugate the Semigallians, the latter defeated the invading army of Polotsk led by Prince Rogvolod Vseslavich in 1106.

[3] At the start of German conquests Semigallian lands were divided in Upmale, Dobele, Spārnene, Dobe, Rakte, Silene and Tērvete chieftaincies.

In 1207, the Semigallian duke Viestards (Latin: dux Semigallorum) helped the christened Livonian chief Caupo conquer back his Turaida castle from pagan rebels.

Upon uniting hostile Semigallian clans into a single state in the early 13th century, Viestards formed an alliance with the German crusaders to defeat his enemies on the outside.

After the crusaders broke the treaty and invaded his lands, he allied with Lithuanians, resulting in the near annihilation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Battle of Saule in 1236.