The Battle of Rodovoye was fought in 1260 between the armies of Novgorod and the Teutonic Order amid the Northern Crusades. Grand Prince Alexander Nevski defeated a Teutonic army which was invading his lands, avenging his failed attempt to take Riga.
Captain Henry von Schwanenburg led a Teutonic army of 601 troops in an invasion of Russia from Latvia, marching on the Novgorodian city of Pskov. Alexander Nevski led his 881-strong Russian army to intercept the Teutonic army halfway, meeting them near the present-day village of Rodovoye on the Russia-Latvia border.
The Novgorodian army arrayed itself on a hilltop, while the Teutonic army advanced through the woods to assault them. They were greeted by hails of arrows, which inflicted heavy losses before they could meet the Slavic militia in combat. When the Teutonic knights charged into battle, they were outflanked by the Novgorodian peasants, whose flanking maneuver made up for their lack of proper training. The Teutonic army was routed, but most of its soldiers were encircled and either butchered or taken prisoner. 248 Teutonic knights were killed and 353 captured, while only 65 Russians had been killed. The Russians then offered to ransom the 180 burgher pikemen, 167 Prussian archers, and 6 Christ Knights to the Order for 1,547 florins, but, as the Teutonic Order refused to pay the ransom, the Russians were forced to execute all 353 prisoners.