The Battle of Verchen was a battle

Battle

Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...

 between Saxons

Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...

 and West Slavic

Polabian Slavs

Polabian Slavs - is a collective term applied to a number of Lechites tribes who lived along the Elbe river, between the Baltic Sea to the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae to the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes to the south, and Poland to the east. They have also been known...

 Obotrites

Obotrites

The Obotrites , also commonly known as the Obodrites, Abotrites, or Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany . For decades they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against Germanic Saxons and Slavic...

 on 6 July 1164.

The Obotrites were attacked by Saxons and Danes in 1160, resulting in the death of the Obotrite prince, Niklot

Niklot

Niklot or Nyklot was a pagan chief or prince of the Slavic Obotrites and an ancestor of the House of Mecklenburg. From 1130 or 1131 until his death he was chief of the Obotrite confederacy, the Kissini, and the Circipani. At the same time he was Lord of Schwerin, Quetzin, and Malchow...

, and the partition of the Obotrite lands. Niklot's son Pribislav

Pribislav of Mecklenburg

Pribislav was an Obotrite prince and the first Prince of Mecklenburg .Pribislav was one of three sons of the Obotrite chieftain Niklot, who was killed in 1160 during a joint campaign by Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and King Valdemar the Great of Denmark...

 rose in revolt in 1163, capturing the castles of Malchow

Malchow

Malchow is a municipality in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany.-Geography:It is situated on the river Elde, 25,5 km west of Waren, and 35 km north of Wittstock.-History:...

 and Quetzin.

The army of Duke Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....

 of Saxony was concentrated at Verchen

Verchen

Verchen is a municipality in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The Battle of Verchen occurred nearby in 1164....

 near Demmin

Demmin

Demmin is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It was the capital of the former district Demmin.- Name :...

 and consisted of troops from Saxony

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

, Holstein

Holstein

Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....

, Dithmarschen

Dithmarschen

Dithmarschen is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, and Steinburg, by the state of Lower Saxony , and by the North Sea.-Geography:The district is located on the North Sea...

, and Frisia

Frisia

Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...

. The Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 army was also assisted by a fleet from King Valdemar the Great

Valdemar I of Denmark

Valdemar I of Denmark , also known as Valdemar the Great, was King of Denmark from 1157 until 1182.-Biography:...

 of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. They were opposed by a force of Slavs led by Pribislav and the Pomeranian dukes Bogislaw I

Bogislaw I, Duke of Pomerania

Bogislaw I of the House of Pomerania was Duke of Pomerania-Stettin from 1156 to 1187. He co-ruled the Duchy of Pomerania with his brother Casimir I of Pomerania-Demmin. His father was Wartislaw I...

 and Casimir I

Casimir I, Duke of Pomerania

Casimir I was duke of Pomerania since his uncle Ratibor I's death in 1155/56. A son of Wartislaw I, he co-ruled Pomerania with his older brother Bogislaw I, receiving Pomerania-Demmin as his share just as Bogislaw received Pomerania-Stettin, and ruling the remainder in common.After the lost 1164...

.

The outcome of the resulting bloody battle with the Slavs was in doubt, although the Christian lords were eventually victorious. Slavic casualties amounted to 2,500, while the Saxon Count of Holstein, Adolf II

Adolf II of Holstein

Adolf II was the Count of Schauenburg and Holstein from 1130 until his death, though he was briefly out of Holstein from 1137 until 1142. He succeeded his father Adolf I under the regency of his mother, Hildewa....

, fell in battle.

The land of the Obotrites was ravaged by the campaign and many inhabitants, including Pribislav, fled to Pomerania.