Swantopolk II.
Swantopolk II. Or Swantopolk the Great (also Suantipolk , Zwantepolc de Danceke , Swantepolk , Svatopluk , Swietopelk , Swatopolk , Polish Świętopełk II Wielki ; * around 1195 - † January 10, 1266 ) was a duke of Pomerania . He came from the Samborid dynasty .
Life and political career
Swantopolk II was the son of Duke Mestwin I from the marital union with the Zwinisława. After the death of his father, the territory was initially divided among his sons. Swantopolk received the northern Pomeranian with the Danzig Castle , Wartisław the area around Schwetz , Sambor II the area around Dirschau and Ratibor Castle and District of Belgard . Mestwin had determined that Swantopolk, as the eldest, would be the guardian of his brothers for twenty years. But he only did that for twelve years. Differences between the brothers led to years of fratricidal war.
Before Swantopolk II came to power in 1220, his Pomeranian territory had been forced under Polish suzerainty. He refused to pay the tribute demanded by Poles and to perform the feudal obligation. When he was summoned to the Polish Diet for this reason in 1227, he appeared with an army and attacked the Polish senior duke Leszek the White , who was killed at the meeting. He gained full independence as Duke of Pomerania in 1227. In the same year he took the castle and town of Danzig from the Danes.
Acquisition of the Stolper- und Schlawerland
When the dominance of the Kingdom of Denmark over Greifen- Pomerania collapsed due to the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227 , Swantopolk II expanded his holdings to include the originally Pomeranian lands of Stolp and Schlawe .
Inner-Polish partisanship
In the same year he supported his brother-in-law Władysław Odonic , in whose dispute with Władysław III. Thin leg for supremacy in the Duchy of Greater Poland . They attacked the Polish dukes, knights and bishops gathered in Gąsawa (a village in today's Powiat Żnin ) for a Wiec (German: Wetsche) . Leszek , the reigning Princeps and senior of Poland , was killed, allegedly by an assassination attempt initiated by Swantopolk. Wladyslaw III. However, Dünnbein had not yet arrived at the location of the meeting, thus escaping the attack by the two of them and taking over the seniority that he had already held before Leszek. The cohesion of the duchies dominated by Poland was further weakened by the attack on the Wiec. Ecclesiastically, the Duchy of East Pomerania was temporarily affiliated to the Polish diocese in Włocławek as part of the Archdiocese of Gniezno .
Expansion of state structures
Swantopolk and his brother Sambor held the title "Dux Pomeranorum" since 1227, which their father had only briefly in 1212 after his victory over the Danes. Swantopolk built its own administrative system . The Latin inscription of his seal from 1228 means "S (seal) of Lord Swantopolk of Danzig".
Fight the Prussians
In 1224 the pagan Baltic Prussians (often falsely Pruzzen ) invaded his area and destroyed the monasteries Oliva and Zuckau . Swantopolk then allied itself with the Teutonic Order , who had built Thorn Castle in the Kulmer Land on the right bank of the Vistula in 1231 , and waged war against the Prussians with the Knights of the Order. Swantopolk owned the castles Zantir (on the knee between the Vistula and the Nogat ), Sartowitz and Schwetz on the bank of the Vistula. In the winter of 1233/1234 he and his brother Sambor carried out a campaign against the Prussians together with many other Polish princes and with the Teutonic Knight Order. In the winter battle near Christburg , Swantopolk and Sambor contributed significantly to the victory, because they "had experience in the fight with the Prussians", as the order clerk Peter von Dusburg writes.
Territory changes
In 1236 Swantopolk exchanged his possessions in the Kulm area with the order for part of the Warmia on the Frischen Haff . In 1237 he conquered the Nakel belonging to Wielkopolska .
Brotherly war and in the war against the Teutonic Knight Order
Swantopolk's expansion policy, who as the supreme sovereign claimed all permanent places in Pomerania for better national defense, did not stop at his brothers either. From 1236 to 1238 there was a civil war. Swantopolk captured Belgard, the seat of his brother Ratibor, in 1238, burned the castle and added the conquered area to his rule. He held Ratibor prisoner for a while, while Sambor, who had built Gerdin Castle south of Dirschau with the support of the order, lost his sphere of influence as early as 1236 and found protection and asylum with the German Knights. Swantopolk was reconciled with his brothers in 1248.
In 1242, with Swantopolk's participation or leadership, the first great Prussian uprising against the order took place. In the third part of his “Chronica Terre Prussie”, the chronicle of the order Peter von Dusburg reports on the difficult and eventful battles that the order fought in league with Polish dukes from Greater Poland, Kujawia and Mazovia from 1242 to 1253 against Swantopolk. On August 28, 1243, the order concluded an alliance against him and his Prussian allies with Duke Casimir of Kuyavia and Swantopolk's brothers Sambor and Ratibor. The papal nuncio and archdeacon, Jakob von Lüttich , brokered a preliminary peace that was concluded on November 24, 1248 between the duke and the order and on February 7, 1249 in the peace treaty at Christburg between the order and the Prussians. Hostilities that started again in 1252 were finally settled by the treaty of July 30, 1253. Swantopolk ceded all Prussian areas with the castle Zantir to the order, but kept the Vistula delta. The border of the duchy ran on the Vistula and Nogat in the middle of the rivers. Swantopolk also ceded the conquered nacle to the Duchy of Greater Poland and the castellany Wyszogród, today's Fordon on the left bank of the Vistula near Bromberg , to Kujawy . Domestically, however, he strengthened his position and preserved the cohesion and ability to act of the East Pomeranian duchy including Schlawe and Stolp.
Land development and foundation of the city of Gdansk
Internally, Swantopolk strengthened his domain by promoting the economy by strengthening his income base through tariffs on trade. He also supported the religious communities by building two Cistercian monasteries in Zarnowitz and Buckow and a Dominican order in Danzig. On January 22nd, 1227 he gave the Dominicans the Nikolaikirche belonging to the German colony with the surrounding land. A "Schulze Andreas" appears as a witness in the deed of gift. In addition to other evidence, this is seen by some of the researchers as evidence that at this point in time there was already a self-governing German community next to the old Slavic Grodstadt. Other researchers set the founding of the city relocated according to the Luebian law later, at the latest for 1263 the citizens had a copy of the Luebeck law sent to them at the instigation of Swantopolk. However, a town charter has not been received. The "modern" Gdansk originated on the wide sand ridge that stretches from Neugarten to the Motlawa, initially on the upper Long Market. August 4th is the day of St. Dominic . Since August 5th, 1260, since the days of Swantopolk, the "Dominik", a fair and a fortnightly folk festival have been celebrated every year around this time.
Foundations of monasteries
In 1228 he founded the black Dominican monastery in Danzig. In 1248 he founded the Buckow Benedictine monastery , a branch of the Dargun monastery .
Death and succession
Swantopolk died on January 10, 1266. There was a splendid ceremony, as it is recorded in the Oliva tablets. The body was carried from the castle to the Katharinenkirche . A funeral mass was held there. Then the body was transferred to the Dominican brothers in the Nikolaikapelle, who also celebrated mass. Then the corpse was taken "to the citizens", in whose church the priestly order read a mass again. It is said that all the people, Kashubians, Poles and Germans, young and old, wept and howled at this funeral ceremony. The corpse was carried by representatives of the noblest families of the Kashubians. Swantopolk was buried in the monastery church in Oliva.
During his long reign Swantopolk had already let his sons participate in the rule. He transferred the area around Schwetz to his son Mestwin II, the eldest, and Wartisław II, the youngest, Danzig. This led to a fratricidal war after Swantopolk's death, during which Mestwin II took Danzig in 1271. Wartisław II fled to Kuyavia , where he died around 1271.
Marriages and offspring
Swantopolk was married several times. First marriage to Euphrosyne (Eufrozyna; † 1230), daughter of Odon , Duke in Greater Poland. In second marriage from around 1230 with Ermengard (Ermengardis; † after 1270), daughter of Heinrich , Count of Schwerin .
Several children resulted from his marriages:
- Mestwin II (approx. 1220–1294), Duke in and of Pomerania;
- Euphemia (approx. 1225–1270), as the wife of Prince Jaromar II through marriage to Princess von Rügen ;
- Jan (approx. 1230–1248), died at a young age;
- Wartisław (approx. 1237–1271), Duke in Pomerania;
literature
- Oskar Eggert: History of Pomerania. Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-9800036 , pp. 106-110.
- Theodor Hirsch , Max Toeppen , Ernst Gottfried Wilhelm Strehlke: Scriptores rerum Prussicarum : The historical sources of the Prussian prehistoric times.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marian Gumowski: Handbook of Polish Sigillography , 1966
- ^ A b c Christian Friedrich Wutstrack : Short historical-geographical-statistical description of the royal Prussian duchy of Vor and Hinter Pomerania . Maurer, Berlin and Stettin 1793, p. 46.
- ↑ James Minahan: One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, ISBN 0-313-30984-1 , p. 375.
- ^ Oskar Eggert: History of Pomerania . Hamburg 1974, p. 107.
- ↑ Reinhard Barth: The Chronicle of the Crusades
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Swantopolk II. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Swantopolk the Great; Swantepolk; Svatopluk; Swietopelk |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Duke in and of Pomeranian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1195 |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 10, 1266 |