Bogusław XIV of Pomerania
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Boguslaw XIV of Pomerania (31 March 1580 in Barth - 10 March 1637) in Stettin was the prince of Stettin and Pomerania, bishop of Cammin and last of the Gryfit dynasty (Greifen dynasty) on the Pomeranian throne.
Boguslaw XIV was the third son of Duke Bogusław XIII by his first wife Klara of Brunswick-Lüneburg. On the death of his father in 1606 he and his younger brother Georg became joint Dukes of Pomerania-Rügenwalde. Georg died in 1617, and Boguslaw became sole ruler. In 1620 his domain was incorporated into the Duchy of Stettin, which he inherited on the death of his elder brother Franz. Early in 1625 he became ruler of all West Pomerania on the death of the last Duke of Wolgast, Philip Julius and on the 19 February he was married to Elisabeth (24 September 1580 - 21 December 1653), fifth daughter of Duke Johann of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön by his first wife Elisabeth of Brunswick-Grubenhagen.
Despite his attempts to avoid becoming embroiled in the Thirty Years' War in 1627 he was forced to allow Holy Roman Emperor's troops commanded by Albrecht von Wallenstein to use his territories as a base. In turn, his lands became embroiled in the war, with all its disastrous consequences. In the 1630s many of the local nobility tried to lessen his power, and this problem occupied Boleslaw in the early 1630s. He was struck by a disease and partially paralyzed in 1633, he abdicated a year later in 1634. Boguslaw XIV died without issue in 1637, the last of his line, and was buried in Stettin.
The succession to his lands was disputed between Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, the heir under a pact between the two families in 1464, and his brother-in-law Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who had occupied much of Pomerania on entering the Thirty Years' War in 1629. According to Boleslaw's last will, his lands were to pass to Sweden, not to Brandenburg, but when the allocation of territory was decided in 1648 at the Peace of Westphalia which concluded the war, the territories were split between Sweden and Brandenburg, marking the end of Duchy of Pomerania as an autonomous, political entity.
