Lembitu (died
September 21 1217) was an
ancient Estonian elder of
Sakala County and military leader in the struggle against
conquest of the Estonian lands by the
German Livonian Brothers of the Sword at the beginning of the 13th century. Interestingly, he is the only Estonian pre-Crusade ruler, about whom some biographical information is known (he is mentioned only in the
Chronicle of Henry of Livonia).
Lembitu, also referred to in
Estonian as
Lembit and in
Latin as
Lambite,
Lembito or
Lembitus, was first mentioned in chronicles in 1211. Troops led by Lembitu destroyed a troop of missionaries in the historical Estonian county of
Sakala and made a raid as far as
Pskov, then a town of the
Novgorod Republic. In 1215, Lembitu's Lehola (
Leal) stronghold (situated near the present town of
Suure-Jaani) was taken by Germans and Lembitu was taken prisoner. He was released in 1217.
Lembitu attempted to unite the
Estonians in order to withstand the German conquest. He managed to assemble an army of 6,000 Estonian men from different counties, but was killed in the following
Battle of St. Matthew's Day in September, 1217.
The 20th Century Estonian-born Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia,
Lembit Uno Lilleleht, a 1953 B. S, graduate of the
Univeristy of Delaware, was named for Lembitu. Another famous Lembit is the
British Parliamentarian Lembit Öpik, an ethnic Estonian.
See also
