According to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, it was indeed in return for protection against the Lithuanians that Vetseke offered half of his land and the fort to Albert in 1205 (...offerens sibi terre et castri sui medietatem).

However, Daniel, the knight of Lielvārde (Danielus de Lenewarde), upon hearing the news of Vetseke’s capture immediately notified bishop Albert[12] who then "ordered the fort to be restored to the king and all his wealth to be given back to him".

The bishop then sent Vetseke back along with "twenty strong men with arms, knights with their mounts, ballistarii, and masons to strengthen the fort and hold it against the Lithuanians", just as he had promised three years earlier.

[13] After sending Vetseke back to Koknese bishop Albert prepared to leave on a customary annual trip to Germany in order to recruit new crusaders to replace the ones whose pilgrimage was completed.

Upon hearing that a grand army of crusaders and native Livonians has gathered in Riga, the Russians became afraid, "divided the arms and horses of the Germans among themselves, set fire to the fort of Koknese and fled, each one on his own way".

[15] The crusaders, being deprived of the opportunity to gather loot in Koknese, took revenge on the local Latvian population by killing many Latgallians and Selonians who had fled to the woods.

[17] Vetseke, who had lost his earlier dominions to the crusaders and Livonians, was given money and two hundred men by the Novgorod Republic so that he could establish himself in Tarbatu (present-day Tartu) or any other place "that he could conquer for himself".

Soviet historiography claimed that the "Russian-Estonian cooperation" in the defense of Tartu "against common enemy – the German colonizers" – was a sign of "friendship between the two brotherly nations".