page_title: Saint George's Night Uprising
section_title: Massacre of the four kings
hierarchical_section_title: Saint George's Night Uprising / Massacre of the four kings
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruins of a medieval castle in Paide - the symbol of the town.
context_page_description: Saint George's Night Uprising in 1343–1345 was an unsuccessful attempt by the indigenous Estonian population in the Duchy of Estonia, the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek, and the insular territories of the State of the Teutonic Order to rid themselves of Danish and German rulers and landlords who had conquered the country in the 13th century during the Livonian Crusade; and to eradicate the non-indigenous Christian religion. After initial success the revolt was ended by the invasion of the Teutonic Order. In 1346, the Duchy of Estonia was sold for 19,000 Köln marks by the King of Denmark to the Teutonic Order. The shift of sovereignty from Denmark to the State of the Teutonic Order took place on November 1, 1346.
context_section_description: Soon after the massacre terrified survivors started to trickle to the castle of Weissenstein (Paide). The vogt of the castle immediately sent a letter to the master of the Livonian Order advising him on the situation. Burchard von Dreileben, the Livonian Master, sent one Brother to the Estonians "who knew their language and whom they knew" (possibly an ethnic Estonian member of the order) and asked them to send a delegation to Weissenstein to explain the reasons why they had renounced Christianity and killed all the Germans. He also promised to redress the past wrongs and establish good relations with the Estonians.
  Estonians sent their four kings to Weissenstein accompanied by three squires. Estonians also let the bishop of Reval pass through rebel-held territory to attend the negotiations. Among the many high-ranking members of the Livonian Order who came to Paide were the Livonian Master Burchard von Dreileben, the komturs of Fellin (Viljandi) and Riga, the vogt of Jervia (Järva), and many others. The large number of knights who arrived to the negotiations indicates that the true purpose of the meeting was to neutralize the Estonian kings and then to attack the leaderless rebel army.  Even after truce had been declared, knights of the Order attacked a camp of 500 Estonians in Ravila.
  On May 4, the two sides sat down for talks. The Livonian Master personally served as the spokesperson for the German side at the conference. The Estonian kings offered to become vassals to the Livonian Order, provided they would have no overlords over them. The master demanded to know why they had killed so many people, including the 28 monks of Padise. The answer he received was that any German deserved to be killed even if he were only two feet tall. The master of the order, Burchard von Dreileben, pronounced the answer outrageous, but declared that the four kings and their retinue were to remain unpunished and could keep their personal liberty; however, until the master has returned from the campaign against the Estonian army the kings were not to be allowed to leave the castle of Weissenstein. The four kings, who had been granted safe passage under the medieval code of honor, were outraged. They demanded to be released so that they could meet their fate with their army, but to no avail.
  When the Estonian delegation was escorted to their quarters they were suddenly attacked by their German hosts in the courtyard of the castle. In the ensuing fight the four kings and their squires were all hacked to death. The chronicle blames the incident on the envoys themselves, saying that one of them attempted to kill the vogt of Jervia (Järva) who had been assigned to attend to the Estonian envoys' needs. Some historians dismiss this explanation and say the negotiations were just a ruse to kill the leaders of the insurgency, and that the official version of the incident was a rather inept attempt to justify the murder of diplomatic envoys by the Teutonic knights.
caption: Ruins of Paide Castle
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