Courland

Former name of part of the Baltic State of Latvia, with its capital at Jelgava. Courland was a coastal region, bounded by the Gulf of Riga to the north, the Baltic Sea to the west, and Lithuania to the south. Its name derives from its habitation from the 3rd century onwards by the pagan Cours (or Curonians).

In 1202–30, the area was conquered by the bishop of Riga, assisted by a small military order called the ‘Brothers of the Sword’. Following their defeat by pagans from neighbouring Lithuania in 1236, a much larger military order, the Teutonic Knights, set up an independent state in the region, waging a long campaign against the Lithuanians and Prussians. From 1561 Courland became a duchy of Poland, and in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 passed to Russia. The area was the scene of heavy fighting in World War I between Russian and German forces, resulting in German capture of the area by August 1915. They held the Courland until the end of the war, and it then became part of a newly independent Latvia in 1920. Courland again saw bitter fighting during World War II, when Hitler ordered a beleaguered German army to abandon plans to evacuate by sea and to continue to resist the Soviet advance on Germany. Six of the 26 divisions were eventually evacuated and the remainder surrendered in May 1945.