The Reign of Sampo I (1115-1149)
King Sampo rose to the throne during the middle of war, in 1115. His father had fallen in a disastrous battle in Åland and the Danish forces occupied the island. However, on the bright side, the highly feared forces of Holy Roman Emperor never arrived to Finland. Therefore it was up Sampo to just beat the Danes in order to win the war.
From the beginning to the end of his reign, King Sampo's reign was almost complete war. He envisioned to continue his grandfather Väinö's dreams of conquest even further. The first war against Danes was decided by the Second Battle of Åland in 1118 where Finnish warriors led by Sampo defeated the Danes decisively and thus peace was restored with no concession to either side.
Peace lasted only the following winter. Sampo had already decided where to make his plans of conquest; Novgorod. The rich trading center would be very rewarding if obtained. The only thing that was on the way were the Mordvins. As Sampo declared war on the Chief of Novgorod in 1119, the Mordvin King Nalka decided to join the war to protect his distant, but important vassal.
The conquest of Novgorod was swift, as the local Mordvin forces were not very organized and they had no centralized command structure and each section of their army was ruled by some petty chief. To make matters worse, the Mordvins had been devastated by wars for many decades against Russians, Poles and the Swedes who had conquered most of Lithuania. Thus the Mordvins agreed to peace and gave up their claims on Novgorod and the rich area was incorporated to Finland.
Siege of Novgorod
With Finland occupied yet again by war, the Danish King Einar I saw that they had another chance to try an invasion. This particular invasion of Estonia was just another futile attempt by the Danes to establish a foothold on the Eastern Baltic. The Danish forces were defeated in one of the biggest battles of the period in the province of Reval, in 1120.
Even though Finland was facing a war already, King Sampo decided recklessly to start more wars in order to expand his Kingdom. The Danes were defeated in a decisive battle to allow time for this so it was decided to expand to North East, to Bjarmia and Permia. The local pagan tribes were small and didn't have central authority so they were ripe pickings for the Finnish Kingdom.
Some of the pagan tribes, facing Finnish invasion, decided to ally with the Mordvins for protection and the brief peace between Finns and Mordvins was broken.
Another war with Mordvins begins. Notice the Finnish expansion in Bjarmia and Permia.
Mordvins however couldn't stop the inevitable. Conquest of Bjarmia and Permia was finished in 1124.
This was not enough for Sampo. He decided to expand to the Mordvin homelands themselves and thus attacked the Tribe of Belozeero.
The Mordvins were defeated. They had failed to protect the pagan tribes and their intervention had only caused them to lose more territory. First they lost Novgorod in 1119 and now Belozeero in 1125.
Sampo had managed to double the size of the Kingdom, by conquering the vast empty lands to his east. However, even though most of this land was very poor, he had managed to conquer the rich city of Novgorod and Finland had become a major regional power. Pope himself had recognised the threat a powerful pagan Kingdom could cause and urged the Christian Kings of Sweden and Poland to intervene. Only after threats of Excommunication they finally agreed and formally declared war on Finland in the year 1126.
The following war didn't see any major battles, only small scale skirmishes occured between Finnish and Swedish forces in the border between Lithuania and Livonia. However Sampo decided to make the war as profitable as possible; he decided to seize Kurland from Sweden. He led one major force to occupy the area and easily defeated the small garrisons. He however decided not to make any more gains against the Christians; if he went too far they might get serious.
Finnish Kurland.
The acquisation of Kurland brang a large number of Christians under Finnish rule. Even though Finland had previously had contact with Christianity, it had only been minor and the God they spoke of was only recognised as one of the many others. However this particular scenario was very rare for the times; pagans ruling over Christians.
Pope was not pleased with the news; faithful Christians under a pagan yoke. He sent yet again another request to the Christian Kings and called the Teutonic Orders to action. Only one King dared to join in the first Crusade against Finland; Oluf I of Denmark. Together with Teutonic Knights the Danes attempted yet again to invade Finland in the year of 1133.
Sampo, after learning of the news, acted swiftly. It was decided that the continuous Danish wars had to be stopped; he organized a fleet and sailed for Denmark with 25 000 men. If he sacked the very Danish capital perhaps the Danes would stop the frequent invasions.
Invasion of Denmark.
The Knights were rallied and the Polish King Pjotr I gave the province of Memel to act as their base. From there, they invaded Kurland with the intention of freeing the Christians under pagan rule. This was however doomed to fail as Susi, the High Chief of Livonia and Estonia and oldest son of Sampo, defeated the Knights after amassing an army.
With the Danish capital sacked and Knights defeated, Sampo negotiated for peace; he offered white peace and freedom to the Christians of Kurland if the Danes would stop their invasions and give up claims in Estonia and Livonia.
After the Crusade, Finland entered into a period of peace for some years. When Sampo wasn't leading his armies to battle he was building fortifications and training grounds for warriors. The first castle in Finland was built around 1136 near to the coast in Turku.
The last war on Sampo's reign was the conquest of Västerbotten. The local Swedish county succumbed easily and this was the first conquest by Finland on the Scandinavian Peninsula.
This brang more Christians under Finnish rule. This time Sampo decided to act with more force and the local Christians were prosecuted under his rule. No news of this never arrived to Pope himself and the Swedish King Haakon I ignored it.
In fact, Haakon was prooved to be interested in an alliance with the Finns. He had witnessed their strength in wars against the Denmark, his major rivals and he was planning the total destruction of the Mordvins with Finnish and Polish help. He had already obtained Lithuania from the Mordvins and continuous wars between them had occured during the early 12th century.
Sampo agreed to the alliance. It was uncommon to the time that pagans and Christians allied and Pope was said to be infuriated. Sampo held a major hunting festival to celebrate the alliance...something that had major consequences.
During the hunt, Sampo encountered a huge wild bear alone in the forest which was enraged by it's awakening from hibernation and even though Sampo was a mighty warrior, he was severely wounded by the animal. He however managed to scare off the animal to the forest by screaming loudly and throwing rocks at it.
It was then that the Swedish King finally called on to war against the Mordvins.
Sampo agreed to join the war but he was in no condition to lead battles. The injuried evolved into a sickness and he fought for his survival against the deadly disease. He ordered a massive hunt for the bear that wounded him.
The bear was captured but Sampo wasn't to see his revenge on the animal. He died on a late December night in 1149 and his body was burned along with the bear carcass. It was believed that the two spirits would continue their mighty fight in the afterlife.
Sampo was succeeded by his grandson, Susi, who had already taken control of the Kingdom by the time of Sampo's wounding. He was to lead Finland in war against Mordvins.
King Sampo had been great warrior King. His reign saw numerous wars and he managed to expand the Finnish lands tremendously.
List of wars during Sampo's reign;
-war against Denmark 1115-1118
-conquest of Novgorod in 1119
-war against Denmark in 1120-1123
-conquest of Bjarmia, Belozeero, Vologda and Permia in 1124-1125
-war against Sweden and Poland in 1126-1129
-conquest of Kurland in 1128
-war against Denmark 1133-1136
-Teutonic Knights invade Kurland in 1135
-conquest of Västerbotten in 1138
-war against Mordvins begins in 1149
Finland at the end of Sampo's reign.
