1.
Kaliningrad Oblast
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Kaliningrad Oblast is a federal subject of the Russian Federation that is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. As an oblast, its status is equal to each of the other 84 federal subjects. Its administrative center is the city of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg and it is the only Baltic port in the Russian Federation that remains ice-free in winter. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 941,873, the oblast is an exclave so visa-free travel to the main part of Russia is only possible by sea or air. The territory was part of East Prussia. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the territory was annexed by the Soviet Union, following the post-war migration and expulsion of the German-speaking population, the territory was populated with citizens from the Soviet Union. Today, only a few thousand ethnic Germans remain, most of recent immigrants from other parts of the former Soviet Union. Early in the 21st century, the hitherto flagging economy of Kaliningrad Oblast became one of the best performing economies in Russia and this was helped by a low manufacturing tax rate related to its Special Economic Zone status. As of 2006, one in three televisions manufactured in Russia came from Kaliningrad, the territorys population was one of the few in Russia that was expected to show strong growth after the collapse of the USSR. Germany currently places no claims, however it also has not renounced any claims to the possibility of territory reunification. During the Middle Ages, the territory of what is now Kaliningrad Oblast was inhabited by tribes of Old Prussians in the western part, the tribes were divided by the rivers Pregolya and Alna. The Teutonic Knights conquered the region and established a monastic state, on the foundations of a destroyed Prussian settlement known as Tvanksta, the Order founded the city of Königsberg. Germans resettled the territory and assimilated the indigenous Old Prussians, the Lithuanian-inhabited areas became known as Lithuania Minor. Speakers of the old Baltic languages became extinct around the 17th century, in 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order and established himself as the sovereign of the Duchy of Prussia. The duchy was nominally a fief of the Polish crown and it later merged with the Margravate of Brandenburg. Königsberg was the capital from 1525 until 1701. As the centre of Prussia moved westward, the position of the capital became too peripheral, during the Seven Years War it was occupied by the Russian Empire. The region was reorganized into the Province of East Prussia within the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, the territory of the Kaliningrad Oblast lies in the northern part of East Prussia
2.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
3.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
4.
Teutonic Order
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The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious order founded as a military order in the 12th century in Acre. Purely religious since 1929, it still confers limited honorary knighthoods, the order was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Formed in the year 1190 in Acre, in the Levant, after Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Transylvania in 1211 to help defend the South-Eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Kipchaks. Starting from there, the Order created the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, adding continuously the conquered Prussians territory, the Order theoretically lost its main purpose in Europe with the Christianization of Lithuania. However, it initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic. The Teutonic Knights had an economic base, and so hired mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald, however, the capital of the Teutonic Knights was successfully defended in the following Siege of Marienburg and the Order was saved from collapse. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made an alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter, the empire did not support the Order against Poland, in 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism, becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany, the Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body and it was outlawed by Adolf Hitler in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe, the Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms, the motto of the Order was, Helfen, Wehren, Heilen. The full name of the Order in German is Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem or in Latin Ordo domus Sanctæ Mariæ Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum, thus, the term Teutonic refers to the German origins of the order in Latin. It is commonly known in German as the Deutscher Orden, historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden, Deutschherrenorden, Deutschritterorden or Die Herren im weißen Mantel. However, based on the model of the Knights Templar, it was transformed into an order in 1198. It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity, during the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort, northeast of Acre, the Order also had a castle at Amouda in Armenia Minor
5.
Duchy of Masovia
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The Duchy of Masovia with its capital at Płock was a medieval duchy formed when the Polish Kingdom of the Piasts fragmented in 1138. It was located in the historic Masovian region of northeastern Poland, Masovia was reincorporated into the Jagiellon Polish kingdom in 1526. The lands of the Masovians east of the Vistula river had been conquered by Duke Mieszko I of Poland, the Diocese of Płock had been established in 1075. His Masovian realm also comprised the adjacent lands of Kuyavia in the west, in 1233 Konrad gave Kuyavia to his second son Casimir I, while Masovia passed to the first-born Boleslaus I upon his death in 1247, succeeded by the youngest brother Siemowit I the next year. When the kingdom was restored in 1295 by the coronation of Duke Przemysł II of Greater Poland. The Dukes of Masovia also ruled the Duchy of Belz until 1462, after the establishment of the Rawa and Płock Voivodeships, in 1495 the last surviving son of Boleslaus IV, Duke Konrad III Rudy, once again united the remaining Masovian lands under his rule. However, the line of the Masovian Piasts became extinct upon the death of his son Janusz III, in 1526. Parts of the region of neighboring East Prussia received settlers. By the 18th century the portion of East Prussia in which they settled was sometimes referred to as Masuria, and inhabited by a Protestant population of Germans and Poles
6.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
7.
Kingdom of Bohemia
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The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. It was an Imperial State in the Holy Roman Empire, the kings of Bohemia, besides Bohemia ruled also the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which at various times included Moravia, Silesia and parts of Saxony, Brandenburg and Bavaria. Numerous kings of Bohemia were also elected Holy Roman Emperors and the capital Prague was the seat in the late 14th century. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the became part of the Habsburg Austrian Empire. The Czech language was the language of the Diet and the nobility until 1627. German was then formally made equal with Czech and eventually prevailed as the language of the Diet until the Czech national revival in the 19th century. German was also used as the language of administration in many towns after Germans immigrated and populated some areas of the country in the 13th century. The royal court used the Czech, Latin, and German languages, depending on the ruler, following the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, both the Kingdom and Empire were dissolved. Bohemia became the part of the newly formed Czechoslovak Republic. In 1204 Ottokars royal status was accepted by Otto IV as well as by Pope Innocent III and it was officially recognized in 1212 by the Golden Bull of Sicily issued by Emperor Frederick II, elevating the Duchy of Bohemia to Kingdom status. Under these terms, the Czech king was to be exempt from all obligations to the Holy Roman Empire except for participation in the imperial councils. The imperial prerogative to ratify each Bohemian ruler and to appoint the bishop of Prague was revoked, the kings successor was his son Wenceslaus I, from his second marriage. Corresponding with the Pope, she established the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star in 1233, four other military orders were present in Bohemia, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from c. 1160, the Order of Saint Lazarus from the late 12th century, 1200–1421, and the Knights Templar from 1232–1312. The 13th century was the most dynamic period of the Přemyslid reign over Bohemia, at the same time, the Mongol invasions absorbed the attention of Bohemias eastern neighbors, Hungary and Poland. Přemysl Ottokar II married a German princess, Margaret of Babenberg and he thereby acquired Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and part of Styria. He conquered the rest of Styria, most of Carinthia, and he was called the king of iron and gold. He campaigned as far as Prussia, where he defeated the natives and in 1256, founded a city he named Královec in Czech
8.
Margraviate of Brandenburg
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The Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806. Also known as the March of Brandenburg, it played a role in the history of Germany. Brandenburg developed out of the Northern March founded in the territory of the Slavic Wends and its ruling margraves were established as prestigious prince-electors in the Golden Bull of 1356, allowing them to vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor. The state thus became known as Electoral Brandenburg or the Electorate of Brandenburg. The House of Hohenzollern came to the throne of Brandenburg in 1415, under Hohenzollern leadership, Brandenburg grew rapidly in power during the 17th century and inherited the Duchy of Prussia. The resulting Brandenburg-Prussia was the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia, although the electors highest title was King in/of Prussia, their power base remained in Brandenburg and its capital Berlin. Although the Margraviate of Brandenburg ended with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, despite its meager beginnings in the Holy Roman Empire, the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the creation of the German Empire in 1871. The Mark Brandenburg is still used today to refer to the federal state of Brandenburg in the Federal Republic of Germany. The territory of the margraviate, commonly known as the Mark Brandenburg, lies in present-day eastern Germany. Geographically it encompassed the majority of the present-day German states Brandenburg and Berlin, the Altmark, parts of the present-day federal state Brandenburg, such as Lower Lusatia and territory which had been Saxon until 1815, were not parts of the Mark. Colloquially but not accurately, the federal state Brandenburg is sometimes identified as the Mark or Mark Brandenburg, the region was formed during the ice age and characterized by moraines, glacial valleys, and numerous lakes. The territory is known as a Mark or march because it was a county of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark is defined by two uplands and two depressions, the depressions are taken up by rivers and chains of lakes with marsh and boggy soil along the shores, once used for peat collection, the riverbanks are now mostly drained and dry. The Northern or Baltic Uplands of the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau have only minor extensions into Brandenburg, the southern depression is generally to the north of this ridge and appears strikingly in the Spreewald. Between these two depressions is a low plateau that extends from the Poznań area westward to Brandenburg through Torzym, the Spree plateau, the region is predominantly marked by dry, sandy soil, wide stretches of which have pine trees and erica plants, or heath. However, the soil is loamy in the uplands and plateaus and, Mark Brandenburg has a cool, continental climate, with temperatures averaging near 0 °C in January and February and near 18 °C in July and August. Precipitation averages between 500 mm and 600 mm annually, with a modest summer maximum, by the 8th century, Slavic Wends, such as the Sprevjane and Hevelli, started to move into the Brandenburg area. They intermarried with Saxons and Bohemians, the Bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg were established at the beginning of the 10th century
9.
Margravate of Meissen
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The Margravate of Meissen, sometimes known as the March of Misnia, was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a march of the Holy Roman Empire. The margravate was finally merged into the Saxon Electorate in 1423, the Margravate of Meissen was originally part of a march called the Sorbian march, which was later renamed to the Thuringian March. Thuringia was the name of the land east of the Saale, the eastern part of the Thuringian March around the fortress near the Dresden Basin became the Margravate of Meissen. In 928 and 929, during a campaign against Slavic Glomacze tribes, the fortress was later renamed Meissen after the nearby Meisa stream. A town soon developed around the castle, Henry, however, made no attempts to Germanise the Slavs or to create a chain of burgwards around his fortress. Meissen sat alone, like Brandenburg, with few defenses or towns around it, the town around the fortress grew however, eventually becoming one of the most important cities in the large Marca Geronis region, which included the lands east of the German stem duchy of Saxony. When the marca was divided in 965 upon the death of Margrave Gero, the first Meissen Margrave, Wigbert, is mentioned in the 968 charter of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. That same year, the Meissen fortress also became the see of the newly created Bishopric of Meissen, in 978, the Saxon count Rikdag became the Margrave of Meissen, and incorporated the marches of Merseburg and Zeitz into Meissen. In 983, following the defeat of Emperor Otto II at the Battle of Stilo, the bishoprics of Havelberg and Brandenburg and the March of Zeitz were overrun by Lutici tribes. Nevertheless, large territories of the Northern March were lost, Margrave Eckard I succeeded Rikdag as Margrave of Meissen in 985. His family, the Ekkeharding noble family, would keep the title until 1046, in 1002, King Bolesław I Chrobry of Poland conquered the Thuringian March, starting a German–Polish War. The war ended with the 1018 Peace of Bautzen, and Meissen had to cede the Upper Lusatian region of Milceni to Poland, in 1031 however, King Conrad II of Germany was able to reconquer the Milceni lands, which were returned to Meissen. In 1046, Count Otto of Weimar-Orlamünde became the Margrave, and upon his death in 1067, Emperor Henry IV then granted Meissen to Count Henry of Eilenburg of the Wettin dynasty. Meissen would remain under Wettin rule for the rest of its existence, under Wiprecht von Groitzsch in the 1120s, Meissen underwent a process of Germanisation. He was succeeded by Conrad the Great, Otto the Rich, in 1264, Henry III asserted himself in the War of the Thuringian Succession, where his uncle, Henry Raspe, had died childless. Between 1243 and 1255, Henry III acquired Pleisseland around Altenburg as a security measure, in 1307, the attempt by Emperor Henry VII to once again subdue the Margraves of Meissen failed with his defeat at the Battle of Lucka. By that time the margravate was de facto independent of any sovereign authority, in the years following the Battle of Lucka, there would be joint rule of Meissen by multiple members of the Wettin dynasty at any given time
10.
March of Lusatia
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The March or Margraviate of Lusatia was as an eastern border march of the Holy Roman Empire in the lands settled by Polabian Slavs. It arose in 965 in the course of the partition of the vast Marca Geronis, ruled by several Saxon margravial dynasties, among them the House of Wettin, the lordship was contested by the Polish kings as well as by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. The remaining territory was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1367. The territory of the margraviate roughly corresponded with the region of Lower Lusatia. It originally stretched from the border of the Saxon stem duchy along the Saale River in the west to the border with Poland on the Bober River in the east, from about 1138, the adjacent Polish territory beyond the river was part of the Duchy of Silesia. Over the centuries, the margravial territory diminished in favour of the Ascanian County of Anhalt, further territories in the west were split off by means of distribution, like the Osterland ruled by the Margraves of Landsberg or the County of Brehna. The area east of the former limes Sorabicus of East Francia, settled by the Slavic Veleti and he added the territory between the Saale and Bober rivers to his Marca Geronis, which the Saxon duke and German King Otto I had established in 937. After Geros death in 965 and the loss of the Northern March in the course of the 983 Slavic uprising, the division between Lower Lusatia and the adjacent Milceni lands around Bautzen and Görlitz, then part of Meissen, was also apparent even that early. Henrys successor Conrad II waged two campaigns, in 1031 and 1032, which reconquered both Lower and Upper Lusatia from Mieszko II of Poland. By the reign of King Henry IV from 1056, Lusatia had been reincorporated into the Holy Roman Empire and it formed one of the four divisions of Upper Saxony along with Meissen, the Ostmark, and Zeitz. These regions were not always ruled by separate margraves, but were mainly administrative divisions, Lusatia and the Ostmark were ruled together and eventually the Ostmark was reduced to little more than Lower Lusatia. Under Henry IV, Upper Lusatia was detached from the Lusatian march, the first Margrave of Lusatia is only known from 1046. Under Emperor Lothair III, Upper and Lower Lusatia were once again reunited in 1136, from 1210 on Lower Lusatia was held by the Margraves of Meissen from the House of Wettin. When the last Lusatian margrave Henry IV died in 1288, the Lusatian lands fell to his grandson Margrave Frederick Tuta of Landsberg and his successor Dietrich sold it to Otto IV, Margrave of Brandenburg in 1303. It was finally acquired by Emperor Charles IV in 1367 and incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, the Lower Lusatian lands later passed to the Electorate of Saxony by the 1635 Peace of Prague. Dedi I, 1046–1075 Dedi II, fl, germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.1928
11.
Duchy of Thuringia
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It was recreated in the Carolingian Empire and its dukes appointed by the king until it was absorbed by the Saxon dukes in 908. From about 1111/12 the territory was ruled by the Landgraves of Thuringia as Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, with Bisinus a first Thuringian king is documented about 500, who ruled over extended estates that stretched beyond the Main River in the south. His son and successor Hermanafrid married Amalaberga, a niece of the Ostrogoth king Theoderic the Great, however, when King Theoderic died in 526, they took the occasion to invade the Thuringian lands and finally carried off the victory in a 531 battle on the Unstrut River. King Theuderic of Rheims had Hermanafrid trapped in Zülpich where the last Thuringian king was killed and his niece Princess Radegund was kidnapped by King Chlothar I and died in exile in 586. The Thuringian realm was shattered, the north of the Harz mountain range was settled by Saxon tribes. The estates east of the Saale River were beyond Frankish control, the first documented duke of remaining Thuringia was a local noble named Radulf, installed by King Dagobert in the early 630s. Radulf was able to secure the Frankish border along the Saale River in the east from Slavic incursions, a punitive expedition led by the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Grimoald ultimatively failed and Radulf was able to maintain his semi-autonomous position. A conflict with Charles Martel around 717–19 brought an end to autonomy, in 849, the eastern part of Thuringia was organised as the limes Sorabicus, or Sorbian March, and placed under a duke named Thachulf. After Thachulfs death in 873, the Sorbs rose in revolt, in 880, King Louis replaced Radulf with Poppo, perhaps a kinsman. Poppo instigated a war with Saxony in 882 and in 883 he and his brother Egino fought a war for control of Thuringia. Egino died in 886 and Poppo resumed command, in 892, King Arnulf replaced Poppo with Conrad. This was an act of patronage by the king, for Conrads house, the Conradines, were soon feuding with Poppos, but Conrads rule was short, perhaps because he had a lack of local support. He was replaced by Burchard, whose title in 903 was marchio Thuringionum, Burchard had to defend Thuringia from the incursions of the Magyars and was defeated and killed in battle, along with the former duke Egino, on 3 August 908. He was the last recorded duke of Thuringia, the duchy was the smallest of the so-called younger stem duchies, and was absorbed by Saxony after Burchards death, when Burchards sons were finally expelled by Duke Henry the Fowler in 913. The Thuringians remained a distinct people, and in the Middle Ages their land was organised as a landgraviate, a separate Thuringian stem duchy did not exist during the emergence of the German kingdom from East Francia in the 10th century. Large parts of the Thuringian estates were controlled by the Counts of Weimar, according to the medieval chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg, Margrave Eckard I was appointed Thuringian duke. After his assassination 1002, Count William II of Weimar acted as Thuringian spokesman with King Henry II of Germany, Louis I had married the Rhenish Franconian countess Hedwig of Gudensberg and became the heir of extended estates in Thuringia and Hesse. A close ally of King Lothair II of Germany against the rising Hohenstaufen dynasty, the dynasty maintained the landgraviate throughout the fierce struggle of the Hohenstaufen and Welf royal families, occasionally switching sides according to the circumstances
12.
County of Mark
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The County of Mark was a county and state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. It lay on both sides of the Ruhr river along the Volme and Lenne rivers, the Counts of the Mark were among the most powerful and influential Westphalian lords in the Holy Roman Empire. The name Mark is recalled in the present-day Märkischer Kreis district in south of the Ruhr in North Rhine-Westphalia. The northern portion is still called Hohe Mark, while the former Lower Mark is—for the most part—merged in the present Ruhr area. The County of the Mark enclosed an area of approximately 3,000 km², the east-west flowing Ruhr separated the county into two different regions, the northern, fertile lowlands of Hellweg Börde, and the southern hills of the Süder Uplands. In the south-north direction the southern part of the county was crossed by the Lenne, in the region of the Lower Lenne was the County of Limburg, a fiefdom of Berg. The seat of the Counts of the Mark von de Marck or de la Marck was originally the Burg Altena in the Sauerland region, but moved to Burg Mark near Hamm in the 1220s. The county was bordered by Vest Recklinghausen, the County of Dortmund, the Bishopric of Münster, the County of Limburg, Werden Abbey, the coat of arms of the county was Or a fess chequy Gules and Argent of three. These arms have been used by the city of Hamm since 1226, many other places in the area include the red and white checkered fess in their arms as a reference to the county and often to their founders. Originally belonging to a line of the counts of Berg at Altena. About 1198 Count Frederick I purchased the Mark Oberhof, a land on the territory of the Edelherren of Rüdenberg. Here Frederick had the Mark Castle erected as the residence of the new Counts of the Mark. The nearby town of Hamm was founded by his son Adolf I, Count of the Mark in 1226, as Brabant and its allies were victorious, the County of Mark gained supremacy in southern Westphalia and became independent of the Archbishopric of Cologne. The territory of Mark was for long restricted to the lands between the Ruhr and Lippe rivers, new territories in the north were gained during the 14th century in wars against the Prince-Bishopric of Münster. In 1332 Count Adolph II married Margarete, the daughter of Count Dietrich VIII of Cleves, adolphs younger son Adolph III upon the death of Dietrichs brother Count John acquired the County of Cleves on the western banks of the Rhine in 1368. In 1391 Adolph III also inherited the Mark from his elder brother Engelbert III, in 1509 the heir to the throne of Cleves-Mark John III the Peaceful married Maria, the daughter of Duke William IV of Berg and Jülich. The dynasty of Jülich-Cleves-Berg became extinct in 1609, when the insane last duke John William had died and it then became part of the Kingdom of Prussia after 1701. In 1807 the County of the Mark passed from Prussia to France in the Treaties of Tilsit, in 1808 Napoleon then gave Mark to the elevated Grand Duchy of Berg, which was divided into four departments along the lines of Napoleonic France
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Principality of Anhalt
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The Principality of Anhalt was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, located in Central Germany, in what is today part of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. The Anhalt territory stretched from the Harz mountain range in the west to the Elbe River, upon the 1315 loss of Anhalt-Aschersleben, the lands around Ballenstedt formed a western exclave. The area of the duchy was 906 miles². In the west, the land is undulating and in the extreme northwest, from the Harz the country gently shelves down to the Saale, the land between this river and the Elbe is particularly fertile. East of the Elbe, the land is mostly a flat plain, with extensive pine forests, interspersed with bog-land. The Elbe is the river, intersecting the eastern portion of the former duchy, from east to west. The navigable Saale takes a northerly direction through the portion of the territory and receives, on the right, the Fuhne and, on the left, the Wipper. The climate is mild, less so in the higher Harz regions to the south-west. In the 11th century, it came under the rule of Count Esico of Ballenstedt, possibly a descendant of the Saxon margrave Odo, he owned large allodial lands around Ballenstedt in the Schwabengau as well as in the adjacent Gau Serimunt in the former Saxon Eastern March. Count Esico was succeeded by his son Adalbert II of Ballenstedt, Adalbert joined the Saxon Rebellion against King Henry IV and was slain in a feud with Egeno II of Konradsburg in 1180. His son Count Otto the Rich appeared as a Count of Ballenstedt from 1106, on the eve of the 1115 Battle of Welfesholz, Otto campaigned the lands of the Polabian Slavs, gaining large estates around Zerbst up to the Hevelli lands ruled by the Hevelli princes. Until his death in 1123, Count Otto had Anhalt Castle built in the Harz mountains near Harzgerode, however, he effectively only ruled over the Eastphalian territories, while the Westphalian and Engern parts of Saxony fell under the control of the Prince-Archbishops of Cologne. The County of Anhalt finally arose upon the death of Duke Bernhard in 1212, the younger Albert I became Duke of Saxony, while the elder Henry I went on to rule the Ascanian lands, now definitely separated from Saxony, as Count of Anhalt. In 1218, Henry I assumed the title of a prince, on Henrys death in 1252, his three sons partitioned the principality and founded, respectively, the lines of Aschersleben, Bernburg and Zerbst. The last prince of the line of Anhalt-Bernburg died in 1468 and his lands were inherited by the princes of the sole remaining line. The territory belonging to this branch of the family had divided in 1396. Early in the 16th century, however, owing to the death or abdication of several princes, wolfgang of Anhalt, called the Confessor, who became prince of Anhalt-Köthen in 1508, was the second ruler in the world to introduce the Reformation to his country. He was a co-signer of the Augsburg Confession in 1530, and after the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547 was placed under Imperial ban and deprived of his lands by Emperor Charles V
14.
County of Regenstein
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The County of Regenstein was a mediaeval statelet of the Holy Roman Empire. The most renowned Count of Regenstein was Albert II, who in the 1330s was frequently in dispute with the leaders of the surrounding estates like the Halberstadt bishops and the abbess of Quedlinburg. These tales were romanticised in the ballad The Robber Count by Gottfried August Bürger, melodized by Johann Philipp Kirnberger, in the 15th century the comital family relocated its seat to Blankenburg, Regenstein Castle lapsed and was left to ruin. The last scion of the family, Count John Ernest. With Blankenburg it fell back to the Bishopric of Halberstadt, shortly thereafter Blankenburg and Regenstein were separated. Regenstein remained with Halberstadt, while Blankenburg was annexed and held by the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
15.
House of Schwarzburg
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The House of Schwarzburg is one of the oldest noble families of Thuringia. The County of Schwarzburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1195 to 1595 and it was ruled by counts from the House of Schwarzburg. Schwarzburg Castle was first mentioned in a 1071 deed, sizzo also established Georgenthal Abbey and in 1157, he accompanied Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa during his campaign against High Duke Bolesław IV the Curly of Poland. In 1197, Sizzos grandson Heinrich II divided the common heritage with his brother Günther III and his territory then also comprised the nearby castle of Blankenburg. The most famous member is Günther von Schwarzburg. In 1349, he was elected as German king by the majority of electors, but, due to less support, he renounced some month later and died shortly after. The Schwarzburg lands were divided among his successors until in 1538 when Count Günther XL the Rich was able to unite the territories including Frankenhausen. He was succeeded by his eldest son Günther XLI, the partition was finally confirmed by the 1599 Treaty of Stadtilm
16.
House of Habsburg
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The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
17.
Duchy of Pomerania
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The Duchy of Pomerania was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania. During the High Middle Ages, it comprised the northern Neumark and Uckermark areas as well as Circipania. Most of the time, the duchy was ruled by several Griffin dukes in common, after the last Griffin duke had died during the Thirty Years War in 1637, the duchy was partitioned between Brandenburg-Prussia and Sweden. The Kings of Sweden and the Margraves of Brandenburg, later Kings of Prussia, the name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means Land by the Sea. In the 12th century, Poland, the Holy Roman Empires Duchy of Saxony and Denmark variously conquered Pomerania, the Stolp and Schlawe areas were ruled by Ratibor I and his descendants until the Danish occupation and extinction of the Ratiboride branch in 1227. The areas stretching from Kolberg to Stettin were ruled by Ratibors brother Wartislaw I, the terms of surrender after the Polish conquest were that Wartislaw had to accept Polish sovereignty, convert his people to Christianity, and pay an annual tribute to the Polish duke. In several expeditions mounted between 1102 and 1121, most of Pomerania had been invaded by the Polish duke Bolesław III Wrymouth, from 1102 to 1109, Boleslaw campaigned in the Netze and Persante area. The Pomeranian residence in Belgard was taken already in 1102, from 1112 to 1116, Boleslaw subdued all of Pomerelia. From 1119 to 1122, the area towards the Oder were subdued, Stettin was taken in the winter of 1121–1122. The conquest resulted in a death toll and devastation of vast areas of Pomerania. Polands influence vanished in the next decade, in 1135, Boleslaw had accepted overlordship of Holy Roman Emperor Lothair III and in turn received his Pomeranian gains as well as the still undefeated Principality of Rügen as a fief. Wartislaw I also accepted the Emperor as his overlord, with Boleslaws death in 1138, Polish overlordship ended, triggering competition of the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark for the area. Already in 1120, he had expanded west into the areas near the Oder Lagoon, most notably Demmin, the Principality of Gützkow and Wolgast were conquered in the following years. The major stage of the expansion into Lutici territory occurred between Otto of Bambergs two missions,1124 and 1128. In 1128, Demmin, the County of Gützkow and Wolgast were already incorporated into Wartislaw Is realm, captured Lutici and other war loot, including livestock, money, and clothes were apportioned among the victorious. These gains were not subject to Polish over lordship, but were placed under over lordship of Nordmark margrave Albrecht the Bear a dedicated enemy of Slavs, by Lothair III, thus, the western territories contributed to making Wartislaw significantly independent from the Polish dukes. Wartislaw was not the only one campaigning in these areas, the Polish duke Boleslaw III, during his Pomeranian campaign launched an expedition into the Müritz area in 1120–21, before he turned back to subdue Wartislaw. The later Holy Roman Emperor Lothair III in 1114 initiated massive campaigns against the local Lutici tribes resulting in their defeat in 1228
18.
Order of Calatrava
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The Order of Calatrava was the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava as a Militia was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26,1164. Most of the political and military power of the order dissipated by the end of the 15th century and it was founded at Calatrava la Vieja in Castile, in the twelfth century by St. Raymond of Fitero, as a military branch of the Cistercian family. The etymology of the name of military order, Calatrava, conveys the meaning. In the Cistercian Order, then recently formed, there had been a large number of knights or sons of knights. In Calatrava, on the contrary, those who had been monks became knights, monastic life has been called a warfare, and it would be a mistake to suppose those rough medieval warriors sought in the cloister only a comfortable asylum after a troubled career. These impetuous natures, who did nothing by halves, were eager to take Heaven, as they took earthly strongholds, by storm. It runs as follows, Calatrava is the Arabic name of a castle recovered from the Moslems, in 1147, by the King of Castile, Alfonso VII, called el Emperador. Located in what was then the southernmost border of Castile, this conquest was difficult to keep than to make. In part to correct this deficiency, the military such as Knights Templars were founded. The Templars, however, were unable to hold Calatrava, and this step is said to have been suggested to the abbot by Father Diego Velázquez, a simple monk, but one who had been a knight, and thus was well acquainted with military matters. Diego was inspired with the idea of employing the lay brothers of the abbey to defend Calatrava, Diego recommended that they become soldiers of the Cross. Thus a new order was created in 1157, motivated by the desire for religious and pecuniary rewards, these brethren were eager to take the offensive against the Moors. When the Abbot Raymond died, a certain Don García started to lead them in battle as their first grand master. At the same time, the monks, not without protest, left Calatrava to live under an abbot whom they had chosen. Only Velasquez and a few other clerics, to act as chaplains, remained in Calatrava with the knights and this somewhat revolutionary arrangement was approved by the general chapter at Cîteaux, and by Pope Alexander III. A general chapter held at Cîteaux in 1187 gave to the Knights of Calatrava their definitive rule, Calatrava was subject not to Cîteaux, but to Morimond in Champagne, the mother-house of Fitero, from which Calatrava had sprung. They had already called into the neighbouring Kingdom of Aragon, and been rewarded by a new encomienda
19.
Old Prussians
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Prussians may also refer to citizens of the former German state Prussia. Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians refers to the peoples from a cluster of Baltic tribes that inhabited the region of Prussia. This region became the core of the state of Prussia. It was located on the shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east. The people spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and followed pagan Prussian mythology, during the 13th century, the Old Prussians were conquered by the Teutonic Knights. The former German state of Prussia took its name from the Baltic Prussians, the Teutonic Knights and their troops transferred Prussians from southern Prussia to northern Prussia. Many Old Prussians were also killed in crusades requested by Poland, many were also assimilated and converted to Christianity. The old Prussian language was extinct by the 17th or early 18th century, many Old Prussians emigrated due to Teutonic crusades. Old Prussians, who emigrated to surrounding areas, later returned, the land of the Old Prussians was larger before the arrival of Polans consisting of central and southern East Prussia and West Prussia. After 1945, the territory was equivalent to the areas of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, the Kaliningrad Oblast. The names of the Baltic Prussian tribes all reflected the theme of landscape, most of the names were based on water, an understandable convention in a land dotted with thousands of lakes, streams, and swamps. To the south, the terrain runs into the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnieper River, the original pre-Baltic settlers generally named their settlements after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled. The clan or tribal entities into which they were organized then took the name of the settlement and this root is perhaps the one used in the very name of Prusa, for which an earlier Brus- is found in the map of the Bavarian Geographer. In Tacitus Germania, the Lugii Buri are mentioned living within the range of the Germans. Lugi may descend from Pokornys *leug-, black, swamp, while Buri is perhaps the Prussian root, the name of Pameddi tribe is derived from the words pa and meddin or meddu. Nadruvia may be a compound of the words na and drawē or nad, the name of the Bartians, a Prussian tribe, and the name of the Bārta river in Latvia are possibly cognates. In the 2nd century AD, the geographer Claudius Ptolemy listed some Borusci living in European Sarmatia and his map is very confused in that region, but the Borusci seem further east than the Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti, recorded by Tacitus, were 450 years later recorded by Jordanes as part of the Gothic Empire, folk etymology led to the belief that each Prussian tribe was named after a tribal leader or his wife, such as the mythical leader Warmo ruling the Warmians
20.
Bartians
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The Bartians were an Old Prussian tribe who were among the last pagans of Europe before the Northern Crusades forced their conversion to Christianity. They lived in Bartia, a territory that stretched from the middle and lower flow of river, by the Świna river. The territory is quite precisely known from description in Chronicon terrae Prussiae, the same description mentions two provinces, the Major Barta and the Minor Barta. The territory was quite densely populated, as confirmed by abundant archeological findings, before the wars with the Teutonic Knights, the population was estimated to be at 17,000. The Bartians, along with the other Prussians, were conquered by the Teutonic Knights, who Christianized them, brought in newcomers, the Prussians assimilated with the newcomers and the Old Prussian language became extinct by the end of the 17th century. Several years of conquest attempts by Poland, aided by a number of crusades by the popes, then Konrad of Masovia called for further crusades and invited the Teutonic Knights, an Order of the Catholic Church, to settle in Kulmerland in 1226. Receiving support from the rest of Christian Europe, the order was able to expand their territory northwest. Their strategy was to conquer a territory and built a castle — a stronghold that would serve as the basis for further expansion, castles at that time in Europe were built around towns to give their residents protection. The Bartians, together with the Warmians and the Natangians, were conquered by the Teutonic Knights 1238-1240, in Barta the Knights built major castles in Bartenstein and Rößel. In 1242, just two years after their conquest, Bartians rebelled and managed to resist until 1252, during the Great Prussian Uprising, that started after the Knights suffered a major loss in the Battle of Durbe, Bartians chose Diwane as their leader. The rebels managed to capture a few castles, including Bartenstein in 1264, with help from other Prussian tribes, Diwane attacked Kulm, Marienburg, and Christburg. However, the Prussians could not win a war of attrition against the Knights, in 1273 Diwane sieged another castle but was fatally wounded. Within a year, the uprising was over, some of the rebels escaped to Hrodna and other Lithuanian territories. Despite heavy losses during the uprising, Barta did not become an uninhabited land, two more attempts were made, in 1286 and 1293, to fight against the Teutonic Knights. In 1286 Bartians asked help from Duke of Rügen, and in 1293 from Vytenis, the Bartians were assimilated by the Germans in the 16th or 17th century. They are most likely the Bartove mentioned in the Hypatian Codex
21.
Galindians
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Galindians were two distinct, and now extinct, tribes of the Balts. Most commonly, Galindians refers to the Western Galindians who lived in the southeast part of Prussia, less commonly, it is used for a tribe that lived in the area of what is today Moscow. The name Galinda is thought to derive from the Baltic word *galas, alluding to the fact that they settled for some further west. The region lay adjacent to the territory of the Yotvingians, which is today in Podlaskie Voivodeship, the name Galind- is probably derived from the hydromym of Gielądzkie Jezioro in the province of Olsztyn, in what was the very center of ancient Galindia. J. Nalepa suggested the root *gal- was originally a different ablaut grade of the root found in Lith. gilus - deep. The original meaning referred to the depth of the lake mentioned, ptolemy was the first to mention the Galindians in the 2nd century AD. From the 6th/7th century until the 17th century the central part of the Galindian tribe continued to exist as the Old Prussian clan of *Galindis. The Eastern Galindians, an extinct East Baltic tribe, lived from the 4th century in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, the Russian chronicles first mention Eastern Galindians as Goliadj in 1058. Prince Yury Dolgorukiy arranged a campaign against them in 1147, the year of the first mention of Moscow in the Russian chronicles, subsequent chronicles do not mention the Eastern Galindians. Nevertheless, the Russians probably did not completely assimilate them until the 15th century, some people still identified as Goliads in the 19th-century
22.
Natangians
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Natangians or Notangians was one of the eleven clans of Prussian people, who lived in Natangia, an area that is now mostly in the Russian exclave Kaliningrad Oblast. The Natangian lands bordered with Sambia in the north and with Warmia in the south and they likely spoke a West Baltic language, now extinct, similar to Old Prussian language. Natangians are first mentioned in a 1238 treaty between the Knights and Zwantepolc De Danceke, the Treaty of Christburg of early 1249, which assured personal freedom to newly converted Christians, included Natangians. However, the treaty failed to address the causes of the conflict. But the victory was short-lived, the Knights regained their strength in just two years and continued their crusade, in 1255 they built Königsberg at the mouth of Pregel river, right on the border between Natangia and Sambia. During the Great Prussian Uprising, the Natangians elected Herkus Monte, at first he was successful and defeated the Knights in the Battle of Pokarwis and Battle of Löbau. However, the rebels were unable to capture the castles built by the Knights and were defeated. Herkus, who had one of the most prominent leaders of the Prussians, was captured and hanged in 1273. The Natangian nobles submitted to the Germans, who promised privileges, Natangians, led by Sabynas and Stanta, rebelled for the last time in 1295. When German colonists settled in the area, the Natangians kept their local language and customs up until the 17th century
23.
Nadruvians
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The Nadruvians were one of the now-extinct Prussian clans. They lived in Nadruvia, a territory in northernmost Prussia. They bordered the Skalvians on the Neman River just to the north, the Sudovians to the east, most information about the clan is provided in a chronicle by Peter von Dusburg. In 1236 Peter of Dusburg wrote that Nadruvia was the location of Romuva, from Romuva Kriwe, the chief priest or pagan Pope, ruled over the religion of all the Balts. No other sources mention the place, scientists have considerable doubts if such an organized structure existed. As the northernmost clan, Nadruvians were conquered last by the Teutonic Knights, in 1230 the Knights set up their base in the Chełmno Land and proceeded to conquer all pagans and convert them to Christianity. The first military encounters between Nadruvians and the Knights began ca.1255 when the Knights were trying to conquer Sambians, Dusburg alleges that Nadruvians had several fortresses with strong garrisons. Two distorted names are given and it is difficult to identify their location. Nadruvians built another castle at Velowe when the Knights reached their lands, Sambians had to surrender in 1277, but the conquest of Nadruvians was delayed by the Great Prussian Uprising that broke out in 1260. The uprising ended in 1274, and Nadruvians fell in 1275, Prussian fortress at Velowe was captured by the Germans and renamed to Wehlau. A handful of Nadruvians retreated into Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the rest were incorporated into the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights and merged with German Settlers. Eventually, sometime after the 16th century, Nadruvians became extinct, linguists offer a few derivations for the name of the clan, Kazimieras Būga reconstructs *Nadravo from Old Prussian na and dravis. Kazys Kuzavinis and Zigmas Zinkevičius argue for na and some reflex of Indo-European *dhreu-, vilius Pėteraitis suggested that the name is derived from Drava, one of the tributaries to Pregolya, which name did not survive to this day. Like for other Old Prussian tribes, folk etymology states that Nadruvia was named after Nadro, while most linguists agree that Nadruvians were one of the Prussian clans, some historians argue that they were a separate tribe, more closely related to western Lithuanians than to Prussians. The matter is complicated by the fact that the area was largerly depopulated by the crusades against Prussians and Lithuanians. It was repopulated by bringing colonists from Germany and Lithuania, therefore, it is impossible to determine whether Lithuanians originally lived there or migrated later on
24.
Pomesanians
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Pomesanians were one of the Prussian clans. They lived in Pomesania, a region in modern northern Poland. It is located around the towns of Elbląg and Malbork. Due to Germanization and assimilation, Pomesanians became extinct some time in the 17th century, the territory is said in folk etymology to have been named after Pomeso, a son of Widewuto, legendary chieftain of the Prussians. Georg Gerullis determined that its name was derived from the Old Prussian word pomedian. The Lithuanian term pamedė, having the meaning, was introduced by Kazimieras Būga. The area was inhabited by Baltic people at least since the 9th century, at the dawn of the 13th century the population is estimated at around 16, 000–20,000. The clan, together with their neighbours the Pogesanians, made frequent raids into Masovian lands, in 1225 Duke Konrad I of Masovia asked the Teutonic Knights to protect his territory from such raids. In 1230 the Knights settled in the Chełmno Land and began the Prussian Crusade, in 1231 they crossed Vistula and built Thorn. Pomesanian leader Pepin unsuccessfully besieged the city, but soon he was captured and tortured to death, in 1233 the work began in Marienwerder, and during the winter the Prussians gathered a large army for a major battle on the Sirgune River, where they suffered a great defeat. During the next three years all of Pomesania was conquered and made part of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights, the city of Elbing was founded in 1237 by the Order near the ancient Prussian trading town of Truso. In 1243, the Bishopric of Pomesania and the three dioceses were put under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Riga by papal legate William of Modena. The diocese of Pomesania was later placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Bromberg, Pomesanians joined the other Prussian clans during the First Prussian Uprising, but was the only clan not to participate in the Great Prussian Uprising. As the westernmost Prussian territory, it was the most exposed clan to the Polish Pomeranian, Masovian and they might have been assimilated more quickly than the other Prussians. With the rest of Prussia, it became a part of the German Empire during the unification of Germany in 1871, after World War II ended in 1945, Pomesania was given to Poland according to the Potsdam Agreement. It is currently divided between the Warmian-Masurian and Pomeranian Voivodeships
25.
Pogesanians
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Pogesanians were one of the eleven Prussian clans mentioned by Peter von Dusburg. The clan lived in Pogesania, a small territory stretched between the Elbląg and Pasłęka rivers and it is now located in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland. Pogesanians, as the rest of the Prussians, were conquered by the Teutonic Knights, the old Prussian language became extinct sometime in the 17th century. In 1237 the Teutonic Order, who had received papal and imperial orders to conquer, Christianize the still heathen Prussians, Elbing at the Elbing River had already been founded by Hanseatic tradesmen from Luebeck. Pogesanians soon destroyed the city, but the Knights rebuilt it, Elbing remained as one of the Teutonic strongholds and grew to become a port and center of commerce. The city served as the base for incursions into the Prussian territory. Pogesanians joined other Prussian clans in the First Prussian Uprising, however, they did not sign the Treaty of Christburg and the fighting continued until 1251 or 1252. The Pogesanians were forced to surrender to strong Teutonic reinforcements from Germany, during the Great Prussian Uprising, the Pogesanians elected Auktume as their leader and joined the fights. They were able to some smaller Teutonic castles, but the stronghold at Elbing remained a serious threat. A major battle occurred in 1271, when joint forces of Bartians led by Diwanus, the Battle of Paganstin saw twelve knights and 500 other Teutonic soldiers killed. The Prussians immediately assaulted Christburg and almost captured it, however, soon cavalry from Elbing arrived and the Prussians were forced to escape. Pogesanians were the last clan standing in the uprising and they made a surprise raid into Elbing and ambushed its garrison. In 1274 the Knights made an expedition to revenge this raid. They captured a stronghold at Heilsberg, the headquarters. In 1276 news spread that Skalmantas, leader of Sudovians, successfully raided Teutonic lands and, with help from Lithuanians, however, other Prussian clans did not join the Third Uprising. Pogesanians were soon suppressed, and some of their survivors relocated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The last attempt at freedom was made in 1286, when Pogesanians and Bartians conspired to invite Duke of Rügen, grandson of Świętopełk II of Pomerania, many of the natives were turned into serfs and the Knights invited German colonists to repopulate the land. As time passed Germans outnumbered the Prussians, and after centuries of Germanization and assimilation Prussian identity ceased to exist, according to Georg Gerullis, the name of the clan is derive from the Prussian word Pagudian, pa, meaning near, and gudde, meaning bush
26.
Sambians
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The Sambians were one of the Prussian tribes. They inhabited the Sambia Peninsula north of the city of Königsberg, Sambians were located in a coastal territory rich in amber and engaged in trade early on. Therefore, they established contacts with foreign nations before any other Prussians, however, as all other Prussians, they were conquered by the Teutonic Knights, and, exposed to assimilation and Germanization, became extinct sometime in the 17th century. Engaged in the trade, Sambia was the richest and most densely populated region of Prussia. It provides a wealth of artifacts from the Bronze Age, including imported goods from the Roman Empire, Sambians, unlike other Prussians, did not cremate their dead. They built earth barrows above graves and surrounded them with stone circles, the name of the clan was first mentioned in 1073 by Adam of Bremen, who calls them most humane people. Warfare with Danes continued from the century to beginning of the 13th century. It is known there was Wiskiauten, a Viking settlement in Sambia. Swedes maintained more peaceful relations and fostered trade, the 13th century saw the rise of another enemy, the Teutonic Knights, a crusading military order from the Holy Roman Empire. Its goal was to all pagans and convert them to Roman Catholicism. The conquest of Sambia during the Prussian Crusade was delayed by the First Prussian Uprising that broke out in 1242, the uprising technically ended in 1249 by signing the Treaty of Christburg, but skirmishes lasted for four more years. Only in 1254–1255 could the Knights arrange a large campaign against the Sambians, king Ottokar II of Bohemia participated in the expedition and as a tribute the Knights named the newly founded Königsberg Castle in his honor. The Sambians rose against the Knights during the Great Prussian Uprising, the Bishopric of Samland became one of four Prussian dioceses, the other three dioceses being Pomesania, Ermland, and Culm as arranged by the papal legate William of Modena. At the end of the 13th century, Sambians numbered only about 22,000 and they gave in to Germanization later than western tribes that were conquered earlier. According to Peter von Dusburg, Sambia was subdivided in 15 territorial units and their German names are, Germau, Medenau, Rinau, Pobeten, Wargen, Rudau, Laptau, Quedenau, Schaaken, Waldau, Caimen, Tapiau, Labiau, Laukischken, and Wehlau
27.
Warmians
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Warmians were one of the Prussian clans. They lived in Warmia, a territory since 1945 largely in Poland and it was situated between the Vistula Lagoon, Łyna and Pasłęka Rivers. Soon after arrival of the first dukes of the Polans in Poland, the preferred method was to try to convert the still heathen Prussians to Christianity, and thereby also acquire their land. A number of crusades followed, called by Konrad of Masovia, as well as attacks on Prussian land of the Yotvingians, which later became Polish Podlasie, and of the Sudovians and Galindians. To speed up and enforce this pressure on Prussians and Pomeranians, the duke Konrad, the Warmians, along with the other Prussians, were conquered by the Teutonic Knights, a crusading military order under direct command of the pope. The Knights conquered the Prussians and converted them to Christianity, many cities and towns were built and the population increased by bringing in colonists from Germany and Poland, as well as other countries of Europe. The Prussians were eventually assimilated by the colonists and the Old Prussian language became extinct by the end of the 17th century or beginning of the 18th century, after arriving to Kulmerland in 1230, the Teutonic Knights proceeded to conquer the pagan Prussians and convert them to Christianity. The Warmians, together with the Bartians and the Natangians, were conquered between 1238-1241, during one of the first Teutonic raids into Warmia, the Knights destroyed Honeda, a Warmian castle, and built Balga, their own brick fortress. Using their tested tactics, the Knights used Balga as a base for further expansion, the stronghold was one of five castles that did not fall during the First Prussian Uprising which broke out in 1242 and ended in 1249 with the signing of the Treaty of Christburg. The Knights also built the Braunsberg and Heilsberg castles, after a crushing defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Durbe in 1260, the Prussians rebelled again. The Great Prussian Uprising lasted for fourteen years, Warmians appointed Glappo as their leader and joined the uprising. During the early stage of the uprising, Glappo and his men successfully captured Braunsberg, in 1266, the rulers of Brandenburg arrived in Prussia and built a castle on the border of Warmian and Natangian lands between Balga and Königsberg. Named Brandenburg, the castle withstood Prussian attacks, Glappo was captured and hanged when he tried to recapture the fortress in 1273. The uprising ended a year later, and it was the last time the Warmians rebelled, afterwards they were slowly assimilated by the Germans and Poles. Several theories exist about the origin of the word Warmia, It might be derived from Prussian word wormyan, in such a case it might have cultic background as worms are associated with fertility, Folk etymology has it that Warmia is named after the legendary Prussian chief Warmo. Ermland, name used by Germans, is said to derive from his widow Erma
28.
Yotvingians
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Yotvingians or Sudovians were a Baltic people with close cultural ties in the 13th century to the Lithuanians and Prussians. The Yotvingian language was a Western Baltic language nearest to Prussian and they were referred to in regional historical records into the 19th century. The Yotvingian lived in the area of Sudovia and Dainava, southwest from the upper Neman, today this area corresponds mostly to the Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland, portions of Lithuania and a part of Hrodna Province of Belarus. The territory was later the Marijampolė and Merkinė, Slonim and Kobryn, and Białystok, and Lyck. Vytautas the Great wrote about terra Sudorum, in a letter to King Sigismund of March 11,1420, the name Sūduva, according to Vytautas Mažiulis, derives from a local hydronym *Sūdvā, in turn derived from a Baltic verbal root *sū-, to flow, pour. According to The Histories of Herodotus, the Neuri Νέυροι were a living beyond the Scythian cultivators, one of the nations along the course of the river Hypanis. This was roughly the area of modern Belarus and Eastern Poland by the Narew river, ptolemy in the 2nd century AD called the people Galindai kai Soudinoi. Peter von Dusburg called them Galindite and Suduwite, in the Hypatian Codex the spellings are changing, Jatviagy, Jatviezie, Jatviažin, zemlia Jatveskaja, na zemliu Jatviažs´kuju and more. Polish sources also used Russian spellings, Jazviagi, Iazvizite, Jazvizite, Yazvizite, in the treaty with the Teutonic Knights in 1260, the region is called terre Getuizintarum. This name was taken by the administration, terra Jatwesouie, Gretuesia, Gzestuesie. The Knights called this tribe Sudowite, Sudowia, in qua Sudowit, in the sentence of Breslau of the emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg to the Order of Livland from 1325, this area is called Suderlandt alias Jetuen. In two dotations of Mindaugas I, a new name was recorded, Dainava, Deynowe, Dainowe, Denowe, the forests were named Deinova Jatvež. Yotvingians also had a warrior culture and were generally well known as great warriors and hunters. Skalmantas, leader of the Yotvingians was responsible for single-handedly raiding Pinsk in the Principality of Turov, a census by the clergy of the Belarus Grodno area in 1860 had as many as 30,929 inhabitants identifying as Yatviags. Skalmantas, leader of Sudovians, took part in the Prussian uprisings, Yotvingian / Sudovian language Yotvingia Marija Gimbutas, The Balts. London, Thames and Hudson, Ancient peoples and places 33,1963, Мoskva,1990, pp 186–189 Mažiulis, V. Baltic languages. V. Toporov, Prusskij jazyk, Slovar, A - L, Moskva, V. Mažiulis, Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas, Vilnius, t. Archäologie der UDSSR, Die Finno-Ugrier und die Balten im Mittelalter, Teil II, Balten, S. 411-419, Moskau 1987 Lepa, Gerhard, Die Sudauer, in Tolkemita-Texte Nr
29.
Skalvians
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The Scalovians, also known as the Skalvians, Schalwen and Schalmen, were a Baltic tribe related to the Prussians. According to the Chronicon terrae Prussiae of Peter of Dusburg, the now extinct Scalovians inhabited the land of Scalovia south of the Curonians and Samogitians and this region is located at both sides of the river Memel north of Nadruvians and south of Samogitia. In the North-East it stretched to rivers Šešupė, Ežeruona and Jūra, in the East it bordered on Sudovia, in the North-West on river Minija, in the West on the Curonian Lagoon and in the South-West on river Gilija. The center were the towns of Rusnė, Ragainė and Tilžė, the meaning is uncertain, skalwa splinter or skalauti between waters. According to Prussian legends, the name is derived from one of the sons of King Waidewuto named Schalauo. The inhabitants can be traced back to burial grounds with cremated remains, judging from the diggings, Scalovians are assumed to have been related to other Western Balts such as Curonians and more distantly to Prussians. Typical Scalovian sepulchral relics are found in Strewa, Skomanten, Jurgaiten, Nikeln, Paulaiten, Wilku Kampas, the center of Scalovia was the castle of Ragnit. Peter von Dusburg told about a castle which could not be conquered by force or starvation because the inhabitants of the stronghold had put in an artificial lake. The conquerors had to burn down the castle, in 1276-1277, Scalovia was subjugated by the Teutonic Knights. In the chronicles of the Knights were mentioned the nobles Sarecka, Surbantas, Svirdotas, in 1281, Jondele Schalwithe got the first Landesprivileg, and in 1289 the castle of order Ragnit was built. Lithuanian immigrants were Sipe and the brothers Pogins and Skirgaila, in 1411, a campaign of the Samogitians under their leader Rumbaudas Valimantaitis against the castles of Ragnit, Tilsit and Splitter is testified. The last mention of the Scalovians was between 1542 and 1563, auflage 1998 Lepa, Gerhard, Die Schalauer, Die Stämme der Prußen, Tolkemita-Texte 52, Dieburg 1997 Matulaitis, K. A. Volkssagen Ostpreußens, Litthauens und Westpreußens, Berlin 1837, S.10 Trautmann, Reinhold, streitberg Festgabe Leipzig 1924, S.355 ff
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Grand Duchy of Lithuania
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The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 13th century until 1795. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, the Grand Duchy later expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other Slavic lands, including territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe and it was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Consolidation of the Lithuanian lands began in the late 12th century, Mindaugas, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy, was crowned as Catholic King of Lithuania in 1253. The pagan state was targeted in the crusade by the Teutonic Knights. The multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state emerged only at the reign of Gediminas. The reign of Vytautas the Great marked both the greatest territorial expansion of the Grand Duchy and the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and it also marked the rise of the Lithuanian nobility. After Vytautass death, Lithuanias relationship with the Kingdom of Poland greatly deteriorated, Lithuanian noblemen, including the Radvila family, attempted to break the personal union with Poland. However, the unsuccessful Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow forced the union to remain intact, eventually, the Union of Lublin of 1569 created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this federation, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania maintained its political distinctiveness and had separate government, laws, army, shortly after, the unitary character of the state was confirmed by adopting the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations. The newly reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbours, with a truncated state remaining only nominally independent, after the Kościuszko Uprising, the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria in 1795. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania name the name of the state as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. The title of Grand Duchy was consistently applied to Lithuania from the 14th century onward, in the 12th century, Slavic chronicles refer to Lithuania as one of the areas attacked by the Rus. Pagan Lithuanians initially paid tribute to Polotsk, but they grew in strength. The sudden spark of military raids marked consolidation of the Lithuanian lands in Aukštaitija, the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights, crusading military orders, were established in Riga in 1202 and in Prussia in 1226. The Christian orders posed a significant threat to pagan Baltic tribes, the peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia of 1219 provides evidence of cooperation between Lithuanians and Samogitians. This treaty lists 21 Lithuanian dukes, including five senior Lithuanian dukes from Aukštaitija, although they had battled in the past, the Lithuanians and the Žemaičiai now faced a common enemy. Likely Živinbudas had the most authority and at least several dukes were from the same families, the formal acknowledgment of common interests and the establishment of a hierarchy among the signatories of the treaty foreshadowed the emergence of the state
31.
Hermann von Salza
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Hermann von Salza was the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1210 to 1239. A skilled diplomat with ties to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope, Hermann von Salza was born to a dynasty of ministeriales of the Thuringian landgraves, probably at Dryburg Castle in Langensalza. With Landgrave Louis III of Thuringia he may have taken part in the 1189/91 Siege of Acre. He possibly also joined Landgrave Hermann I and the Henneberg count Otto von Botenlauben on the Crusade of 1197 and witnessed the coronation of King Amalric II of Jerusalem. The precise time of Hermanns entry into the Order is unknown, as such he may have spent some time in the Mediterranean Sea region during the first year of his rule. During this period the activities of the Knights were extended from Spain to Livonia, Hermann was a friend and councilor of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, for whom he represented as a mediator in the Papal curia from 1222 onwards. At the request of King Andrew II of Hungary in 1211, hungarian nobles complained of the orders presence, however, and they were forced to leave by 1225. Meanwhile, Hermann accompanied Frederick on the Fifth Crusade against Damietta in 1219, Hermann later convinced Frederick to undertake the Sixth Crusade, and was partially responsible for Fredericks marriage to Yolanda, John of Briennes daughter. Upon his return to Europe, Hermann helped to lift Fredericks excommunication and he was then requested by Konrad I of Masovia to fight the pagan Old Prussians. After Hermann had gained approval from both the Pope and the Emperor the knights began their campaign to Christianize Prussia in 1230. Hermanns subsequent visits with the Pope or the Emperor brought new privileges and he was also able to obtain the incorporation of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword into the Teutonic Order in 1237. The importance of Hermanns role as mediator between Pope Gregory IX and the emperor can be seen by the fact that all communication between Frederick and the pope broke off with Hermanns death. Within the Teutonic Order, however, the knights began to grow dissatisfied at the absence of their Grand Master, however, he was less successful as a religious leader, and soon retired to Salerno in 1238. In World War II, SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11 was named Hermann von Salza, hat Hermann von Salza das Deutschordensland betreten. Hermann von Salza im Urteil der Nachwelt, breslau, M. & H. Marcus 1930. Helmuth Kluger, Hochmeister Hermann von Salza und Kaiser Friedrich II, ein Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte des Deutschen Ordens. Marburg, Elwert 1987 ISBN 3-7708-0861-4 Adolf Koch, Hermann von Salza, Meister des Deutschen Ordens, leipzig, Duncker & Humblot 1885 Andreas Lorck, Hermann von Salza, sein Itinerar. 1880 Hermann von Salza in the German National Library catalogue Hermann von Salza - Das Leben eines bedeutenden Langensalzaers
32.
Hermann Balk
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For the World War II general, see Hermann Balck. For the American bishop, see Victor Hermann Balke, Hermann Balk, also known as Hermann von Balk or Hermann Balke, was a Knight-Brother of the Teutonic Order and its first Landmeister, or Provincial Master, in both Prussia and Livonia. From 1219 to 1227, he served as the Deutschmeister in the Orders Province of Alemannia, Balk led the crusaders during the Prussian Crusade and became Master of Prussia in 1230. From 1237 to 1238, he served in the additional role as Master of Livonia. Balk came from a family of Lower Saxon-Markish origin and he may have been a former canon at Hildesheim and may have joined the Teutonic Knights at Acre in 1189. He was well respected by fellow Roman Catholics, but he had no patience for pagans and his leadership and traditions were emulated by his successors throughout the 13th century, and he created the masters seal presenting the flight into Egypt. While all other masters seals were anonymous, only Balks included his name, in 1226, the Teutonic Knights were invited to combat the Old Prussians by Duke Conrad I of Masovia, whose lands had been raided by the pagans over the preceding decades. Balk led the first substantial detachment of Teutonic Knights to Castle Vogelsang near Toruń, because the Teutonic Orders primary focus was defending Outremer, Balk, the Pizarro of the Baltic lands, had limited resources at his disposal. He utilized guerilla warfare, forest ambushes, and his cavalry in winter campaigns. Balk allowed tribes who accepted Christianity to become auxiliaries of the Teutonic Knights and left them with their lands, ballistae and crossbows were used by the crusaders to capture the Prussians forts. Under Balks leadership, castles were built at Marienwerder, Culm, Elbing, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, a German military order active in Livonia, were crushed by Samogitians in the 1236 Battle of Saule. The remnants of the Sword-Brothers were assimilated into the Teutonic Order the following year and he recruited sixty knights from the Teutonic Orders north German convents, as they spoke the Low German used by the Sword-Brothers. After sailing to Riga, he distributed his troops to reinforce the countryside, at Stensby in 1238, Balk returned Danish Estonia, which had been conquered by the Sword-Brothers, to King Valdemar II of Denmark. The upset Livonian Brethren refused to cooperate with Balk, who traveled to Italy to seek aid from Grand Master Hermann von Salza, Balk received little assistance, as Gregory IX was feuding with Emperor Frederick II and Hermann von Salza died in Salerno. Dietrich von Grüningen was named Master of Livonia later in 1238, because of his leadership in the conquest and Christianization of the region, many West Prussian towns had monuments and fountains dedicated to Balk. The Monks of War, The Military Religious Orders, the Teutonic Knights, A Military History. Hermann-Balk-Brunnen of Elbing Hermann Balk in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon,1885 Lohmeyer, Balko, Herrmann, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,2, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, pp. 20–21
33.
Konrad I of Masovia
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Konrad I of Masovia, from the Polish Piast dynasty, was the sixth Duke of Masovia and Kujawy from 1194 until his death as well as High Duke of Poland from 1229 to 1232 and again from 1241 to 1243. He was the youngest son of High Duke Casimir II the Just of Poland and Helen of Znojmo and his maternal grandmother was Maria of Serbia, apparently a daughter of the pre-Nemanjić župan Uroš I of Rascia. After his fathers death in 1194, Konrad was brought up by his mother, in 1199 he received Masovia and in 1205 also the adjacent lands of Kuyavia. In 1205, he and his brother, Duke Leszek I the White of Sandomierz, had their greatest military victory at Battle of Zawichost against Prince Roman the Great of Galicia–Volhynia, the Ruthenian army was crushed and Roman was killed in battle. The Rurik princess Agafia of Rus became his wife, in order to enlarge his dominions, Konrad unsuccessfully attempted to conquer the adjacent pagan lands of Chełmno in Prussia during a 1209 crusade with the consent of Pope Innocent III. In 1215 the monk Christian of Oliva was appointed a missionary bishop among the Old Prussians, several further campaigns in 1219,1222 failed, instead Konrad picked a long-term border quarrel with the Prussian tribes. Subjected to constant Prussian raids and counter-raids, Konrad now wanted to stabilize the north of his Duchy of Masovia in this fight over the area of Chełmno. When they notified Hungary that the Order was, firstly, responsible to the pope, in view of an imminent Prussian invasion, Konrad supposedly signed the Treaty of Kruszwica in 1230, according to which he granted Chełmno Land to the Teutonic Knights and the Order of Dobrzyń. By this donation disclaiming any enfeoffment, Konrad established the nucleus of the State of the Teutonic Order, however it is believed that it was never signed, and the Order might have forged it. The Knights under the command of Hermann Balk crossed the Vistula river and conquered Chełmno Land, erecting the castle of Toruń in 1231. In 1234, Pope Gregory IX issued the Golden Bull of Rieti, confirming the prior deals with the Teutonic Knights, stating that the land of the Order was only subject to the Pope, not a fief of anybody. However their Silesian relative Duke Henry I the Bearded finally prevailed as High Duke at Kraków in 1232, by 1207 Konrad married Agafia of Rus, daughter of Prince Svyatoslav III Igorevich. Eudoxia, married Count Dietrich I of Brehna and Wettin Ludmila, salomea, probably a clare nun at Skała. Judith, married firstly to Duke Mieszko II the Fat of Opole, siemowit I, succeeded eldest brother as Duke of Masovia. From the Polish point of view, the Emperor had no basis to vest the Order with lands that were beyond his discretionary power. King Casimir III of Poland had to accept the rule of the Order in Thorn, after the Thirteen Years War in the 1466 Second Peace of Thorn, the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon gained control over the Chełmno Land as part of Royal Prussia. History of Poland Altes Preussenland before 1200 Hartmut Boockmann, Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas, Konrad of Masovia sent Polish crusaders against Prussian after 1209
34.
Ottokar II of Bohemia
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Ottokar II, the Iron and Golden King, was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who reigned as King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He also held the titles of a Margrave of Moravia from 1247, Duke of Austria from 1251, Duke of Styria from 1260, as well as Duke of Carinthia, with Ottokars rule, the Přemyslids reached the peak of their power in the Holy Roman Empire. His expectations of imperial crown, however, were never fulfilled, Ottokar was the second son of King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia. He was possibly educated by the Bohemian chancellor Philip of Spanheim, when his brother Vladislaus died in 1247, Ottokar suddenly became the heir to the Bohemian throne. According to popular tradition, he was profoundly shocked by his brothers death and did not involve himself in politics. As new heir, his father appointed him Margrave of Moravia and Ottokar took his residence in Brno, in 1248 he was enticed by discontented nobles to lead a rebellion against his father King Wenceslaus. During this rebellion he was elected the younger King on 31 July 1248, Přemysl Ottokar II held the title of King of Bohemia until November 1249. However, he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV, whereafter Wenceslaus finally managed to defeat the rebels, King Wenceslaus had initially attempted to acquire Austria by marrying his heir, Vladislav, to the last dukes niece Gertrude of Babenberg. That match had been cut short by Vladislavs death and Gertrudes remarriage to the Zähringen margrave Herman VI of Baden, the latter was rejected by the Austrian nobility and could not establish his rule. Wenceslaus used this as pretext to invade Austria when Herman died in 1250 — according to some sources, Wenceslaus released Přemysl Ottokar very soon and in 1251 again made him Margrave of Moravia and installed him, with the approval of the Austrian nobles, as governor of Austria. The same year Ottokar entered Austria, where the estates acclaimed him as Duke, to legitimize his position, Přemysl Ottokar married the late Duke Frederick IIs sister Margaret of Babenberg, who was his senior by 30 years and the widow of the Hohenstaufen king Henry of Germany. Their marriage took place on 11 February 1252 at Hainburg, in 1253, King Wenceslaus died and Přemysl Ottokar succeeded his father as King of Bohemia. After the death of the German King Konrad IV in 1254 while his son Conradin was still a minor, however, his election bid was unsuccessful and Count William II of Holland, the German anti-king since 1247, was generally recognised. Feeling threatened by Ottokars growing regional power beyond the Leitha River, the conflict was quelled through papal mediation, it was agreed that Ottokar was to yield large parts of Styria to Béla in exchange for recognition of his right to the remainder of Austria. During the following peace phase, King Ottokar II led two expeditions against the pagan Old Prussians. Königsberg, founded in 1255 by the Teutonic Order, was named in his honour, however, after a few years the conflict resumed and Ottokar defeated the Hungarians in July 1260 at the Battle of Kressenbrunn, ending years of disputes over Styria with Béla IV. Béla now ceded Styria back to Ottokar, and his claim to those territories was formally recognized by Richard of Cornwall, then king of Germany and this peace agreement was also sealed by a royal marriage. Ottokar ended his marriage to Margaret and married Bélas young granddaughter Kunigunda of Halych, the youngest of them became his only legitimate son, Wenceslaus II
35.
Henry II the Pious
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During 1238–1239 he also served as a regent of two other Piast duchies, Sandomierz and Upper Silesian Opole–Racibórz. On October 2015, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Legnica opened up his cause for beatification, Henry II was the second son of the Polish High Duke Henry I the Bearded, Duke of Silesia-Wrocław, by his wife Hedwig of Andechs, daughter of Duke Berthold IV of Merania. His elder brother Bolesław died in 1206, in 1213, his younger brother Konrad the Curly died during a hunt, leaving Henry II as the sole heir of Lower Silesia. Around 1218 his father arranged his marriage to Princess Anna, daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia and this union with the royal Přemyslid dynasty allowed Henry II to participate actively in international politics. Henry I the Bearded quickly designated his sole surviving son as his heir, and from 1222. By 1224, he had his own seal and notary, in 1227, during a meeting of Piast Dukes in Gąsawa, Henry I and the High Duke Leszek I the White were ambushed, Leszek was killed and Henry I was seriously wounded. Young Henry II acted as interim Duke, in 1229, Henry I captured by Duke Konrad I of Masovia, and again young Henry II acted as interim Duke. During 1229–30, Henry II led an expedition to recover and secure the possession of Lubusz Land. In 1234, Henry I named his son Henry II co-ruler, later, Henry I took the Duchies of Kraków and Silesia, and Henry II was given the Duchies of Silesia and Greater Poland. When Henry I the Bearded died on 19 March 1238, Henry II became Duke of Silesia, Kraków, Henry II inherited Lower Silesia from his father Henry I. Southern Greater Poland and Kraków were ruled by the Piast princes, although the late Duke of Greater Poland and Kraków, the will was ignored by Duke Konrad of Masovia and Władysławs III nephew Władysław Odonic. Nevertheless, in 1239, Henry was compelled to resign the regency, although he remained on good terms with the Dukes of Opole and Sandomierz, and managed to retain Greater Polish Kalisz and Wieluń. The situation in the northwest was more complicated, Margrave Otto III of Brandenburg took the important Greater Polish fortress at Santok, Henry II also inherited the disputes with Konrad of Masovia, Władysław Odonic, and with the Church, led by Pełka, Archbishop of Gniezno. The situation changed unexpectedly after the death of Władysław Odonic on 5 June 1239, Henry II took the majority of Odonics possessions, leaving Nakło nad Notecią and Ujście to Odonics sons. Henry then abandoned the alliance of his family with the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen and supported Pope Gregory IX. He then put an end to his conflicts with Konrad of Masovia by arranging the marriages of two of his daughters to two of Konrads sons, Gertrude to Bolesław, and Constance, to Casimir I of Kuyavia. In 1239, Henry II finally lost the Santok fortress to Margrave Otto III after Henrys defeat in the Battle of Lubusz. In the East, a new opponent appeared, the Mongols, under the leadership of Batu Khan
36.
Leszek II the Black
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Leszek II was the eldest son of Duke Casimir I of Kuyavia and his second wife Constance, daughter of Henry II the Pious from the Silesian branch of the Piast dynasty. His nickname, Black appears for the first time in the 14th century Kronika Dzierzwy, in 1257 his mother died, and shortly after his father married for the third time with Euphrosyne, daughter of Casimir I of Opole. Leszek II and Ziemomysł rebelled against their father and stepmother in 1261, Leszek II rule as Duke of Sieradz lasted from 1261 until 1279. His new Duchy was formed one of the less populated lands in the country. Only the colonization policy whom he pursued and the cooperation with the Church. In 1267 Casimir I died, leaving his domains to his five sons, Leszek II, as the oldest son and already in possession of Sieradz, only took Łęczyca. He kept the district for two years, until 1273, when Bolesław gave the district to Leszek II, who became also in Duke of Inowrocław. His government over this land lasted until 1278, when after a meeting at Ląd on 24 August, after Leszek II obtained his political independence in 1261, he rapidly established good relations with Bolesław V the Chaste, ruler of Kraków and Sandomierz. Leszek IIs participation in the war against Bohemia and his allies continued in later year, the childlessness of Bolesław V and close cooperation with Leszek II resulted in the latter expectation to become his heir. The document of adoption was issued in 1265, eight years later, Władysław Opolski organized an expedition to Kraków. On 4 June 1273 took place the Battle of Bogucin Mały, at the end of October, Bolesław V made a retaliatory expedition against Opole-Racibórz, however, the forces were limited only to destroy specific areas of the duchy. In 1265 Leszek II married with Gryfina, daughter of the Rurikid prince Rostislav Mikhailovich, Ban of Slavonia and Duke of Macsó. The union was unhappy, in 1271 erupted the scandal when she fled to Kraków and publicly accused her husband of impotence. The reconciliation of the couple took place four years later, due to the intervention of Bolesław V the Chaste and his wife Kinga. Leszek II then decided to follow a treatment of the well-known doctor Mikołaj of Kraków and his prescription included ate frogs and snakes, because of which -as was stated on the Rocznik Traski- the lack of offspring caused a great abomination into the nation. Ultimately, Leszek II and Gryfina never had children, on 7 December 1279 Bolesław V the Chaste died. In accordance with his wishes, the Duchies of Kraków and Sandomierz where inherited by Leszek II, the succession took place without much problems, although is probable that Leszek II was forced to agree to a formal election as Duke of Kraków. However, the beginning of his reign wasnt peaceful, unexpectedly Leo I of Halych-Peremyshl, with the help of King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, planned the invasion of Kraków
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Otto III, Margrave of Brandenburg
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Otto III, nicknamed the pious was Margrave of Brandenburg jointly with his elder brother John I until John died in 1266. Otto III then ruled alone, until his death, the following year and they consolidated the position of Brandenburg within the Holy Roman Empire, which was reflected in the fact that in 1256, Otto III was a candidate to be elected King of the Germans. They founded several cities and developed the cities of Cölln. They expanded the Ascanian castle in nearby Spandau and made it their preferred residence, before their death, they divided the Margraviate in a Johannine and an Ottonian part. The Ascanians were traditionally buried in the Lehnin Abbey in the Ottonian part of the country, in 1258, they founded a Cistercian monastery named Mariensee, where members of the Johannine line could be buried. In 1266, they changed their mind and founded a second monastery, John was initially buried at Mariensee, his body was moved to Chorin in 1273. After the Ottonian line died out in 1317, John Is grandson Waldemar reunited the Margraviate. Otto was the son of Albert II of the Brandenburg line of the House of Ascania and Mechthild of Lusatia, daughter of Count Conrad II of Lusatia. Since both Otto and his older brother John I were minors when their father died in 1220. The guardianship was taken up by the childrens first cousin once removed, Count Henry I of Anhalt, the brother of Duke Albert I of Saxony. As the sons of Duke Bernard III of Saxony, they were the closest relatives, in 1221, their mother, Countess Matilda, purchased the regency from the Archbishop of Magdeburg for 1900 silver Marks and then ruled jointly with Hernry I. The Archbishop of Magdeburg then traveled to Italy, to visit Emperor Frederick II and Duke Albert I of Saxony attempted to power in Brandenburg. The Saxon attack presented an opportunity for Count Palatine Henry V to get involved, Emperor Frederick II managed to prevent a feud, urging them to keep the peace. After Matilda died in 1225, the brothers ruled the Margraviate of Brandenburg jointly, John I was about twelve years old at the time, and Otto III was ten. They were knighted on 11 May 1231 in Brandenburg an der Havel, in 1229, there was a feud with former regent Archbishop Albert, which ended peacefully. Like their former opponents and defenders, they appeared at the Diet of Mainz in 1235, after the dispute over the kingship between Conrad IV and Henry Raspe the brothers recognized William II of Holland as king in 1251. They first exercised Brandenburgs electoral privilege in 1257, when they voted for king Alfonso X of Castile. Although Alfonso was not elected, the fact that they were able to vote illustrates the importance of Brandenburg
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Henry III, Margrave of Meissen
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Henry III, called Henry the Illustrious from the House of Wettin was Margrave of Meissen and last Margrave of Lusatia from 1221 until his death, from 1242 also Landgrave of Thuringia. Born probably at the Albrechtsburg residence in Meissen, Henry was the youngest son of Margrave Theodoric I, Margrave of Meissen and his wife Jutta, in 1230 he was legally proclaimed an adult. Henry had his first combat experience in sometime around 1234, while on crusade in Prussia and his pilgrimage and company is well-documented by Peter of Dusburg, and it resulted in the construction of Balga castle, an important administrative centre for the Teutonic Knights. In 1245 after many years of conflict with the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, he was forced to cede the fortresses of Köpenick, Teltow and Mittenwalde north of Lower Lusatia. In 1249 however, the Silesian duke Bolesław II the Bald granted him the area around Schiedlo Castle at the Oder river. In the struggle between the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX, Henry took the side of the Emperor, in consideration, Frederick II in 1242 promised him the heritage of Henry Raspe as Landgrave of Thuringia and Count palatine of Saxony. In 1243 the Emperor also betrothed his daughter Margaret of Sicily to Henrys son Albert II, Henry remained a loyal supporter of the Hohenstaufens and not before the departure of Fredericks son Conrad IV from Germany did he recognise the antiking William of Holland. From 1273 Henry was an important support to the newly elected Rex Romanorum Rudolph of Habsburg in his struggle against rivaling King Ottokar II of Bohemia, Henry was patron of many tournaments and singing competitions, in which he also took part himself, and commissioned the famous Christherre-Chronik. He set to music hymns to be sung in the churches, in 1234 Henry married Constance of Babenberg, the daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria. For his younger son Theodoric, Henry had created – though without imperial consent – the smaller Margraviate of Landsberg in the part of the Lusatian lands around Leipzig. Henry kept for only the Margraviate of Meissen, the remaining Lower Lusatian lands. Only domestic disorders, caused by the unworthiness of his son Albert, clouded the later years of his reign and indeed, long after his death in 1288, led to the loss of Lusatia and Thuringia
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