Lake Peipus 1242: Battle of the Ice (Osprey Military Campaign Series, #46) [Paperback]

David Nicolle (Author), Angus McBride (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1997

Osprey's Campaign title for The battle of Lake Peipus, which took place in 1242 between the Teutonic Knights and the Russian city-state of Novgorod, led by its inspirational leader Alexandre Nevskii. The Teutonic Knights were a powerful military order, backed with the crusading zeal of Europe, the blessing of the Pope and the support of the Holy Roman Emperor. This battle, although little-known in the west, was important in the history of the medieval eastern crusades, the Teutonic defeat having a serious effect on future events. David Nicolle's excellent text examines the Crusade against Novgorod and the fierce fighting around the frozen shores of Lake Peipus.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Highly visual guides to history's greatest conflicts, detailing the command strategies, tactics, and experiences of the opposing forces throughout each campaign, and concluding with a guide to the battlefields today.

About the Author

David Nicolle was born in 1944, the son of the illustrator Pat Nicolle. He worked in the BBC Arabic service for a number of years, before going 'back to school', gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He later taught world and Islamic art and architectural history at Yarmuk University, Jordan. He has written many books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years. David lives and works in Leicestershire, UK.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (March 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855325535
• ISBN-13: 978-1855325531
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.2 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,465,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > History > Europe > Estonia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lake Peipus, 1242 or 1939?, November 17, 2002

By 

Philip Line (Harrogate, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lake Peipus 1242: Battle of the Ice (Osprey Military Campaign Series, #46) (Paperback)

This is arguably the poorest of Osprey's Campaign series. The author is clearly not familiar with the subject area, and as a result the book is marred by a considerable number of errors, especially in references to matters peripheral to the battle. For instance, on the map on p.26 the Finnish 'tribes' (Suomi and Hame (Rus. Jem/'Em/Emi), who were, contrary to the book's information, farmers) are in the wrong areas of Finland, 'Murman' become a Finnish tribe when the Russian name meant 'Norwegian', and a mysterious people called the Ugri inhabit the Ural region near the Mansi and Khanty (both of which constituted the Ugrian-speaking group of Finno-Ugrian speakers). There was no such person as 'Earl Karl Birger': presumably this is an error for Birger (Jarl) Magnusson, who possibly led a Swedish crusade to Finland (for which the only evidence is Erik's Chronicle, a rhyme chronicle written 50-70 years after the event). As regards the battle of 1242 itself, the poor sources are interpreted very freely. There is no good evidence that there were horse archers there, or that Mongols were fighting in Russian armies as early as this. The reference to attacks by archers on the Danes (king's men) might equally refer to foot archery, yet the horse archers become the key to victory in this account. The account is in any case confusing and full of baseless speculation, such as the idea that Novgorod chronicle tales of intervention by angels and saints from the heavens may have been a memory of showers of arrows. The number of knights at the battle must have been very small, since the total number of Sword Brothers in 1230 was about 120, 49 had been killed at Saule in 1236, others must have been in garrisons and the Teutonic Knights had not yet exerted their control over Livonia. The epic tale presented here seems to derive as much from Eisenstein's propaganda film as anything else, with Alexander Nevsky the hero. There are, however, a lot of nice pictures in the book, and if it inspires interest in the area it has some value.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A detailed account of the battle written somewhat scholarly., May 31, 1999

By 

Melvin Williams - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lake Peipus 1242: Battle of the Ice (Osprey Military Campaign Series, #46) (Paperback)

This is a fine edition to the Osprey Campaign Series and typifies the attention to detail and excellent illustrations of the books. I almost gave this title four stars, however, there are some minor shortcomings in the book which lessened it's effect. To be fair to the author, the book itself is probably as well written as the subject will allow in the 96 page format used for the Osprey Campaign books. The problem is that the topic of Lake Peipus centers around a very confusing era of interlaced politics, religion, sociology, etc.. Unless the reader is already familiar with the scope of 12th century affairs, the book would almost need to be twice its size to properly explain the background to the campaign leading up to the battle. Despite this, David Nicolle attempts to devote a few pages to explaining the events leading up to the battle but does so in such a way as to leave the average reader confused. The author then goes on to address the campaign and actual battle of Lake Peipus with good detail. This book makes a great reference source or addition to the CS collection, but falls a bit short of conveying the big picture of the circumstances leading up to the battle. The wording tends to be a bit scholarly as well. With all of that said, I still enjoyed the book and recommend it to anyone interested in 12th century warfare. Osprey has better books in the series and this one gets only 3 stars because the other books have set such a high standard.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling intruduction to an obscure conflict., September 1, 2007

By 

Joshua G. Feldman "Technophile" (New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lake Peipus 1242: Battle of the Ice (Praeger Illustrated Military History) (Hardcover)

The complaints in some of the other reviews about this title are a bit like executing the messenger. The battle of Lake Peipus is obscure, poorly known in the west (but of epic importance in Russia). The battle of Lake Peipus ended the Eastern Crusader's aspirations of expanding the anti-pagan crusades to a larger crusade against Russia and the Eastern Orthodox. There are only two primary sources - each giving only a couple of paragraphs to the battle. The fact that the original source material is so thin guarantees that any attempt at a detailed analysis of the strategy and tactics of the battle will be mainly conjecture. History is full of such situations. It doesn't make the effort worthless by any means. The battle of Lake Peipus made the reputation of Alexandr Nevskii - a Russian national hero in the vein (if not the magnitude) of El Cid, Arthur, or Roland. The Teutonic Knights and Sword Brothers were involved too.

This little book provides a lot of information about the tribes and political background to the medieval baltic states, Russia, Scandanavia, and Eastern Christian lands. This information is presented in a fairly rushed and, I feel, disorganized way (the organization sacrifices narrative flow to fit the typical Osprey structure of breaking things up into sections looking at each of the armies). This "lay of the land" stuff about this part of Europe was really entertaining to me - since so much of it was new to me. The Baltic was still partly pagan at this time - this was the frontier of Europe. The polar areas were hunter-gatherer. Russia was emerging out of the melting pot of Slavic, Scandanavian, and Turkic cultures and ethnicities. There are Finn tribes, the Danes, Swedes, Poles, and Germans are involved. It's fascinating.

Once we get into the battle itself it gets a little thin. This event happened near the edge of the world 3/4ths of a millenia ago. There is so little known you just can't say that much about it. Other than the political context the main thing going for it is the great atmosphere - medieval knights battling on (or at the edge of) a frozen lake. This image was make famous through the great Russian silent movie of 1938 by Eisenstein, "Alexander Nevsky". More recently 2004's King Arthur movie featured a frozen lake battle scene - a distinct "homage". The original sources don't mention anyone falling through the ice - but in the "gaming the battle" section at the end it mentions that cavalry would have broken the ice at the edge of the lake and following infantry would have had to avoid areas of open water or fell and drowned. Not quite the stuff from the movies - but a great setting no matter how you slice it.

Nicolle has visited the site and has taken lots of photos. There's a ton of illustrations of knights of the period from mid 13th century manuscript and sculptures from relevant German, Scandanavian, and Russian sources. This might not be the best Osprey title and maybe the antiquity and remoteness of the battle might make it less suitable for such a title but the historic importance and atmospheric nature of the battle make for compelling reading anyway. I really enjoyed this one and it has served as a springboard to further study of medieval Baltic history.