Battle of Waschow
In the battle of Waschow , on May 25, 1200 (or May 25, 1201) near the town of Waschow in Mecklenburg, in today's Ludwigslust-Parchim district , Count Adolf I von Dassel was defeated by an army of Mecklenburg vassals of the Danish King Knut VI. The defeat ended Adolf's brief reign in the county of Ratzeburg and its independence and was the first military climax of the Danish expansion under Canute VI. and his brother and successor Waldemar II in northern Albingia .
prehistory
After the death of Emperor Heinrich VI. in 1197 and the double election in 1198 of the Staufer Philipp von Schwaben and the Guelph Otto IV. as the German king, bitter fighting broke out between the mutual partisans in the north of the empire, as elsewhere. On the Guelph side stood among others the Danish King Knut VI, as the son-in-law of Henry the Lion, a brother-in-law of Otto IV. He already ruled the Duchy of Schleswig , where his brother Waldemar had ruled as duke since 1182, and western Mecklenburg and saw the inner German Disputes the chance for further expansion in northern Germany.
One of the opponents of the Guelphs, however, was Adolf I von Dassel, who had gained control of the County of Ratzeburg in 1200 through his marriage to Adelheid von Wassel , the widow of Count Bernhard II of Ratzeburg . He allied himself with Count Adolf III. von Schauenburg and Holstein , who had campaigned for his enfeoffment with the County of Ratzeburg, and the Ascanian Duke Bernhard III. of Saxony , who after the ostracism and deposition of Henry the Lion became Duke of Saxony and thereby also feudal lord of the County of Ratzeburg. Individually or in a group, the three repeatedly invaded Danish territory in Schleswig and Mecklenburg.
The battle
Thereupon King Canute VI commissioned. punish his vassals, the cousins Heinrich Borwin I of Mecklenburg and Nikolaus von Rostock as well as the two Counts Gunzelin II and Heinrich von Schwerin , the troublesome Count of Ratzeburg. Together with Duke Waldemar von Schleswig and probably also with Jaromar I , the Ranen Prince of Rügen , they marched into the County of Ratzeburg. A decisive battle broke out on the plain between Wittenburg and Waschow. Nikolaus von Rostock was killed, but Adolf von Dassel lost the battle and had to flee. He disappeared from the historical tradition until further notice and is only shown years later as a participant in the Crusade of Damiette and in 1236 in the campaign of the Brothers of the Sword in Livonia.
consequences
The defeat meant the end of the County of Ratzeburg as an independent rule. The castles Gadebusch and Wittenburg surrendered without resistance. The county came under Danish rule, and King Waldemar II gave it to his nephew, Count Albrecht II of Orlamünde , who, as Count of Holstein , Stormarn , Ratzeburg and Wagrien, was the Danish governor of northern Albingia in 1202 . In 1204 Waldemar II gave the Counts of Schwerin as a reward for their support of the Danish expansion all areas of the County of Ratzeburg east of today's border between Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg. Thus, as a result of the Battle of Waschow, today's western border between Mecklenburg and today's Duchy of Lauenburg was essentially determined, because the county of Schwerin fell to the Duchy of Mecklenburg in 1358.
Web links
- The battle of Waschow. Extract from the "Chronicle - 800 Years of the Battle of Waschow". In: www.suehnekreuz.de. Retrieved October 31, 2016 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . III. Tape. Schwerin 1899, p. 40 ( digitized version ).
- ^ Wilhelm Meyer: Adolf von Dassel, Count of Ratzeburg . In: MJB . tape 76 , 1911, pp. 62 ( digitized version ).
- ^ Otto Vitense: History of Mecklenburg . Friedrich Andreas Perthes AG, Gotha 1920, p. 71 f .
- ↑ MUB I. (1863) No. 166, ( digitized version ).
- ↑ Ernst von Kirchberg : Mecklenburgische Reimchronik . Capitulum 87 - Wy the king Nyclot irslagin wart. S. 221-224 ( digitized version ).