In the marshes near Durbe on 13 July 1260, two armies met, and for the crusaders it was a disaster. The combined Prussian and Livonian branches of the Teutonic Order moved against the Samogitians; the sources disagree on whether the Curonians attacked from the rear or left the Order’s ranks shortly before the clash. The result is clear: the Livonian master Burkhard von Hornhausen, the Prussian marshal Heinrich Botel, and about 150 Order brothers were killed.

The Battle of Durbe belongs to the history of the 13th-century Livonian Crusades, when Courland, Semigallia, and other lands had not simply been absorbed into the Order’s rule. After the defeat, the Curonians, Prussians, and others rose again against the Order, and war in what is now Latvia continued for years.