Piotr Dunin

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Imaginary portrait by Piotr Dunin from the 18th century.

Piotr Dunin von Prawkowice (* around 1415 in Pratkowice , Prawkowice, † 1484 in Ujazd ) was a Polish military leader and official of the crown. He was Burgrave of Kraków since 1454 and Marienburg 1478–1484, Under Chamberlain of Sandomierz , Starost of Łęczyca Court Marshal of the Polish Crown since 1455, Castellan of Sieradz since 1478, Voivode of Brest-Kujawien since 1479. In older German historiography, he is often called Peter Dunin led.

ancestry

"Swan" family coat of arms, which Peter Dunin also adorned himself with

Piotr Dunin came from the old noble family of swans (Polish Łabędź ). He was one of the sons of Krystyn von Skrzyńsko, Pratkowice and Śmiłów and an unknown Katharina (Polish: Katarzyna ). He was also a nephew of Dunin von Skrzyńsko alias Dominik or Domin , sub- chancellor of the Polish crown (lat. Subcancellarius, vicecancellarius regni Poloniae ), called "Domin". It was precisely because of the relatives and clergy who worked at the royal court that the family took the nickname Donin or Dunin . From his father he inherited both Prawkowice and Śmiłów and Morawiany.

Life

youth

Since the first unequivocal traditions regarding his person do not date back to the year 1455, one cannot say anything precise about his youth. But since he was then immediately entrusted with very important offices, he must have completed school, courtly and knightly training abroad.

It is even quite possible or even probable that Piotr Dunin first gained experience as an officer in the service of the Teutonic Order under the name of "von Donen" before he appeared at the court of the Polish King Casimir IV . It was quite common at the time to pull unpaid enemy mercenaries over to your own side with hard cash. After the so-called Prussian Confederation had brought almost half of the order state with the richest cities under its control, the German Order was no longer liquid and was often in arrears with its mercenaries. However, the majority of Polish historians reject this option for reasons of reason.

Career in the service of Poland

Rapid ascent

Dunin's secure career in the Polish service began quite late, when he took part in the unsuccessful campaign to Lassen with the entire royal court in 1455 . Much more is not known. At least he won the trust of the king, because in the following year (1456) he got the office of "Ober-Wojski" (lat. Tribunus mayor ) of Sieradz and in 1459 he became burgrave of Cracow and court marshal of the king and was henceforth a member immediate court. The last title was associated with the function of captain of the royal guard. So he accompanied the king on his expedition to Prussia. Then he was rewarded with the office of Vice Chancellor (lat. Vicecancellarius ) from Sandomierz . Therefore he will have proven himself personally. Meanwhile the war took a rather unfavorable course for Poland under royal command.

Hero of the Thirteen Years' War

In view of the royal failures and the bad experiences with the inexperienced and undisciplined army of the aristocracy , he advocated a dramatic change of strategy: Now smaller combat units made up of experienced professional soldiers should keep the war in enemy territory dispersed, but also cooperate in larger actions. This should protect the crown land. The strategic goal was no longer to force a victorious, decisive battle, but rather to split the religious state through the formation of a corridor to Danzig and cut it off from supplies from German lands. In the meantime, Gdansk successfully blocked the order's transport routes across the Baltic Sea. The reconciliation with Denmark (1458), also hostile to the order state and Lübeck , increased the leeway of the allied Danzigers.

Thanks to the new taxes of the Polish Church and the subsidies of the Prussian Federation, a mercenary army of about 2,000 men from Czech veterans of the Hussite Wars was hired in Poland . With this relatively small force, the army drove down the Vistula to Leslau , where the king gave him supreme command of the small force. Contrary to what appears to be the case, however, Dunin was never appointed hetman in the Polish army. There is no evidence of this. After all, the leaders of all combat units that met with him submitted to him without objection.

However, he could not relieve the Strasburg Fortress in West Prussia , so that it had to give up starving. The cooperation with the allied Thorns and Danzigers did not work either, the war was limited to mutual raids and looting, from which Danzig in particular suffered. With a surprise attack he horrified Frauenburg, which was besieged by the Teutonic Order, where Jan Skalski held up the Polish flag. On the way back across the sea, Fischhausen on Samland was robbed and burned when the mercenaries could not agree on the division of the booty.

He then rushed to Danzig for help, which was sabotaged, threatened and at times even besieged by an impressive troop of orders. His 1,100 men could be replenished there with fresh forces in order to advance further west or north. His now 2,000 men met on September 17th in the Putziger Dreieck with around 2,700 men strong military forces, which Fritz von Raueneck and Kaspar von Nostitz were commanded. The Battle of Schwetzin ended with a grandiose victory of Dunin and ended the supremacy of the order in the Pomerelles in one fell swoop and even forced the previous ally of the Teutonic Order, Erich II von Stolp , to switch to the Polish side. But he did not take advantage of the opportunities offered by the fact that the fortresses of Lauenburg , Putzig , Konitz and Bütow were now almost unmanned. Instead, he healed his wounds. Later he besieged and finally took Mewe , Neuenburg i.Wpr. and Konitz , but only through starvation.

Expedition to Hungary

Even in advance of the later expedition, Dunin traveled on a diplomatic mission to Bohemia and Hungary to sound out the chances of succession to the throne for the Jagiellonian children. In both cases the situation was assessed as promising, so that King decided to send his sons there.

As a close confidante of the King of Poland , Dunin accompanied his underage son Casimir on the expedition to Hungary in 1471 , where he was offered the royal crown by a group of dissatisfied magnates . But since the previous owner of the throne, Matthias Corvinus , enjoyed broad support from the population, the 12,000 mercenaries proved to be insufficient to help the young Jagiellonian to the throne. You weren't welcome. They came to Nitra via Eger and even penetrated Pest (city) , but without success and withdrew to Nitra. One could neither conquer a large enough area to be able to hold oneself there, nor secure supply routes from Poland and was thus trapped in the middle of enemy territory. In the absence of money, their own mercenaries rebelled and the formerly friendly magnates did not want to bet on the loser. Therefore, the expedition returned in early 1472 with only 4,000 men undone. After this failure he fell temporarily out of favor with the king.

Prussian Pfaffenkrieg

In 1476 Piotr Dunin fell seriously ill and was in the process of writing his will, in which he listed his debts and monies that the king had owed him until then. When he recovered and offered his services again, the king gave him new offices. In the following year (1477) the king sent him to Prussia in order to assert the interests of the crown against the unloved Bishop Nikolaus von Tüngen in the Prussian Pfaffenkrieg which continued there . Dunin took over the supreme command, but resided in Marienburg while he left the war business to his son, White Johann von Sroczków , and Jan Zielezinski. Piotr Dunin administered well and negotiated unsuccessfully, but he did not need it as long as the fortunes of his armed forces remained fortunate. Only the ceasefire, enforced by the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus under threat of war, forced the warring parties to real willingness to compromise and brought about a lasting solution to the conflict.

End of life

Since the king was satisfied with the services of Dunin, but could not pay all of his outstanding debts, he appointed him to the Starost of Marienburg in 1478 , where he represented the interests of the king - not always to the satisfaction of the Prussian estates. At that time it was the richest region in the Kingdom of Poland and because the officials of the Crown were paid with a share of the income of the territorial unit where they were employed. In the same year (1748) he was castellan of Sieradz and in the following year (1479) voivode of Brest-Kuyavia. Four years later (1483) he fell seriously ill and died one year later (1484).

Private life

Piotr Dunin von Prawkowice has apparently been able to live quite well from his war skills, because he gradually acquired more and more estates, including Ujazd (Powiat Tomaszowski) , where he had converted an existing manor into a fortified castle before he settled there with his Wife Vinzenzia (Polish "Wincentyna" or "Wincencjanna") settled down. She was the daughter of Dobrogst Leżański ("Nałęcz" coat of arms), Starost of Ryczywola. Dunin married her around 1450, even before his career in Polish service began. She gave him numerous children, including:

  • (Son) around (born / died around 1460)
  • Anne (Polish Anna ), (born around 1460), ∞ Jan Bochotnicki von Oleśnica (coat of arms "Dębno")
  • Elisabeth (Polish Elżbieta ), ∞ Pakosz von Zwola
  • Katharina (Polish Katarzyna ), ∞ Paczółtowski
  • "White" Johannes (Polish Jan ), († 1522), Starost of Marienburg and Ryczywół
  • Hieronymus (Polish Hieronim )
  • Peter (Polish Piotr ) († 1535), Polish crown official, Starost von Rawa, Bolesław and Brzeźnica; (1) ∞ Drzewicka (coat of arms "Ciołek") and (2) ∞ Bużeńska (coat of arms "Poraj")
  • Andreas (Polish Andrzej ), († 1522) Ensign of Sieradz, ∞ Mniszewska
  • Jakob (Polish Jakub ) from Ujazd, Starost from Łęczyca, ∞ Przerębska (Nowina coat of arms)

literature

  • Marian Biskup , Druga faza wojny trzynastoletniej (1462-1466). [Second phase of the Thirteen Years War 1462-1466] , in: Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza. [History of Pomerania] , Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, Poznań 1972, - Description of the Battle of Schwetzin: p. 738
  • Marian Biskup, Trzynastoletnia wojna z Zakonem Krzyżackim 1454-1466 , Wydawnictwo MON, Kołobrzeg 1967
  • Detmar and FH Grautoff (eds.), The Luebeck Chronicles in Low German , Hamburg 1830
  • Jan Długosz, Jana Długosza Kanonika Krakowskiego Dziejów Polski ksiąg 12 , part 5, book 12, pp. 331–334
  • JS Ed / JG Gruber, General Encyclopedia of Arts and Science ... AG , Leipzig 1836
  • Stanisław Herbst Wojna Trzynastoletnia - O bitwie pod Świecinem. [The Thirteen Years War - About the Battle of Schwetzin] , Przegląd Historyczno-Wojskowy, vol. 7: 1934/1935, issue 2, pp. 309–311, reprint in: Stanisław Herbst, Potrzeba historii, czyli o polskim stylu życia. Wybór pism. Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1978
  • Theodor Hirsch , Max Toeppen, Ernst Strehlke: Scriptores rerum Prussicarum . The historical sources of the Prussian prehistoric times up to the fall of the order. Volume 3–5, Leipzig 1861–1874.
  • Kacper Niesiecki, Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz, Herby Rycerstwa Polskiego , Vol. 3, Leipzig 1839
  • Janusz Paprocki: Herby rycerstwa polskiego. Kraków 1858, p. 806.
  • Gert von Pistohlkors : German history in Eastern Europe: Baltic countries. Siedler, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-88680-774-6 .
  • Johannes Voigt , History of Prussia: From the oldest times to the fall of the rule of the Teutonic Order. Koenigsberg 1838.

Individual evidence

  1. Information about the ancestry of Peter Dunin in the archive of RP.pl.
  2. Marian Buskup (1967), p 119
  3. Johannes Voigt, pp. 621–629
  4. Voigt, pp. 630-635
  5. Niesiecki / Bobrowicz, p. 439
  6. Paweł Pizuński in Focus-Historia from March 31, 2009
  7. Publication / Gruber pp. 238–240
  8. ↑ Development phases of the castle in Ujazd into a palace
  9. ^ Family tree of the Dunin family (coat of arms "Łabędź")