Origins of Prussia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For broader context, see the article on the Prussian people.

Contents 1 Early Prussian history to 997 2 Vikings in Prussia 3 Prussia from the 10th century onwards 4 References

[edit] Early Prussian history to 997

The land extending from the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea to the Masurian Lakes district, later to be known as Prussia, was called Brus in the 8th century map of the Bavarian Geographer. Previous historians had documented the Prussian tribes as easterners, with Tacitus referring to them as the Aesti.^[1] Prussia was recorded again in relation to Adalbert of Prague, a Christian missionary who was sent with soldiers of Boleslaw I of Poland^{[citation needed]} to convert the Prussians, and was killed by the Prussians in 997. Archaeological finds in Prussia suggest a continuous presence going back to at least 2000 BC. The Baltic people spoke a variety of languages, with Prussian belonging to the Western branch of the Baltic language group. Related, but not mutually intelligible, are the modern representatives of the Baltic languages, the Latvian and Lithuanian languages of the East Baltic branch.

At the end of the 1st century, Prussian settlements were probably divided into tribal domains, separated from one another by uninhabited areas of forest, swamp and marsh^{[citation needed]}. A basic territorial community was perhaps called a laūks, a word attested in Old Prussian as "field".^[2] This word appears as a segment in Baltic settlement names, especially Curonian,^[3] and it is found in Old Prussian placenames such as Stablack, from stabs (stone) + laūks (field, thus stone field). The plural is not attested in Old Prussian, but the Lithuanian plural of laukas ("field") is laukai. The East Prussian dialect of German maintains a curious tradition of pluralisation, and does not pluralize words like standard German; "Mann" (the German word for man), for example, normally has the plural form "Männer", but in the East Prussian dialect it is simply Manns^{[citation needed]}.

A laūks was formed by a group of farms, which shared economic interests and a desire for safety^{[citation needed]}. The supreme power resided in general gatherings of all adult males, who discussed important matters concerning the community and elected the leader and chief; the leader was responsible for the supervision of the everyday matters, while the chief (the rikīs) was in charge of the road and watchtower building, and border defence, undertaken by vidivariers^{[citation needed]}.

The term laūks must have included the fortifications, if any, and the social superstructure, but the village itself went by another name: kāims.^[4] The head of a household was the buttataws (literally, the house father, from buttan, meaning home, and taws, meaning father).

In the natural course of competition and heredity, some chiefs must have become very powerful, acquiring various laūks and kāims as subordinate entities. The Balts entered history in the early 2nd millennium BC and were organized into these larger social entities, one of which was termed a "duchy" by non-Baltic writers.^{[citation needed]}

Because the Baltic tribes inhabiting Prussia never formed a common political and territorial organisation, they had no reason to adopt a common ethnic or national name. Instead they used the name of the region from which they came — Galindians, Sambians, Bartians, Nadrovians, Natangians, Scalovians, Sudovians, etc. It is not known when and how the first general names came into being. This lack of unity weakened them severely, similar to the condition of Germany during the Middle Ages.

Parts of the Baltic region retained large wilderness areas for longer than anywhere else in Europe. Tacitus may have been referring to peoples living in what was later East Prussia when, in AD 98, he wrote of the Aesti people in his Germania. These people may have been those later known as the "Prussi", who lived between the Vistula and Neman rivers and spoke a Baltic language.

16th century histories of Prussia link the name of the "Prussai"/"Prussi", and thereby Prussia, to a place called "Prutenia". This is historically correct; although the folk etymology they provided was based on legends and not factual etymological information. According to legend, the name "Prussia" is from Pruteno (or Bruteno), the chief priest of Prussia and brother of the legendary king Widewuto/Waidewut, who lived in the late 10th century. The regions of Prussia and the corresponding tribes are said to bear Widewuto's sons' names — for example, Sudovia is from Widewuto's son Sudo. In the first half of the 13th century, Bishop Christian of Prussia recorded the history of a much earlier era. Adam of Bremen mentions Prussians in 1072.

[edit] Vikings in Prussia

The Vikings started to penetrate into Eastern Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries. The largest trade centres of the Prussians, such as Truso and Kaup, seem to have been transformed into the colonies of Norsemen. At the end of the Viking Age, the son of Danish king Harald Bluetooth and Canute the Great launched several expeditions against the Prussians, which resulted in far-spread destruction of many areas in Prussia including the destruction of Truso and Kaup. They failed to establish a firm foothold in Prussia, however. A Viking (Varangian) presence in the area was "less than dominant and very much less than imperial"^[5]

The foundation of the Holy Roman Empire allowed the Ottonian Emperors the opportunity to continue to expand eastwards the holdings they had inherited from the East Frankish kingdom. They achieved this largely through continuing the Carolingian policy of co-opting local Slavic chieftains or ambitious war-leaders into a system of mutual defence and allegiance. This policy not only bound former enemies to the Emperor, but also prevented any of the Emperor's West Frankish leading men from expanding their own power bases eastward.

[edit] Prussia from the 10th century onwards

In 966, with the baptism and conversion to Christianity of Mieszko I, duke of the Slavic tribe of the Polans, the Polish state was born. By the time his son, Bolesław the Brave, became King of Poland in 1025, Poland was one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe, and Catholic. When Adalbert, of Prague, went to Prussia to convert the pagan Old Prussians in 997, Bolesław I sent soldiers with him to protect him. Nevertheless, Saint Adalbert was killed by the Prussians. The Prussians resisted attempts at conversion, which were meant to weaken their independence.

In 1064, the Pomeranians, who were also constantly attacked by Poland, together with Prussians retaliated in Greater Poland. Boleslaw II won a bloody victory and again forced the Pomeranians to temporarily submit. In 1091, Polish forces under Władysław I Herman invaded Pomerania with the goal of re-establishing Polish overlordship. Despite victories (they took Nakło (Nakel) and won a battle near Drezdenko (Driesen)), the Poles were unable to subdue the Pomeranians, who regained their independence from Poland with the aid of the other Prussian tribes.

In 1124, at the request of Boleslaw III, Bishop Otto of Bamberg undertook a mission to Pomerania to convert the Prussians there.^[6] This brought on a new danger for the Prussians.

Starting with 1147 Polish duke Boleslaw IV the Curly (securing help of Rusin troops) tried to subdue Prussia, supposedly as punishment for close cooperation of Prussians with Wladyslaw II the Exile. The only source is unclear about the results of his attempts, vaguely only mentioning that the Prussians were defeated. Whatever were the results in 1157 some Prussian troops were supporting Polish army in fight against Frederick I (Barbarossa). 1166 two Polish dukes, Boleslaw and his younger brother Henryk came into Prussia, again over the Ossa river. Prussians prepared and they led the Polish army, under leadership of Henry of Sandomir, brother of the duke, into an area of marshy morass. Whoever did not drown, was felled by an arrow or by throwing clubs. Nearly all Polish military perished.

1191-1193 Casimir II the Just invaded Prussia, this time along the river Drewenz (Drwęca). He forced some of the Prussian tribes to pay tribute, and then withdrew.

Several attacks by Konrad of Masovia in the early 1200s were also successfully repelled by the Prussians. In 1209 Pope Innocent III commissioned the Cistercian monk Christian of Oliva with the conversion of the still-pagan Prussians. In 1215, Christian was installed as the first bishop of Prussia. The duchy of Masovia, and especially the region of Culmerland, become the object of constant Prussian counter-raids. In response, Konrad I called on the Pope for aid several times, and founded a military order (the Order of Dobrzyń) before calling on the Teutonic Order. The results were edicts calling for Northern Crusades against the "marauding, heathen"^{[citation needed]} Prussians. Many of Europe's knights joined in these Crusades, which lasted sixty years.

In 1224, Emperor Frederick II proclaimed that he himself and the Empire took the population of Prussia and the neighboring provinces under their direct protection; the inhabitants were declared to be Reichsfreie, to be subordinated directly to the Church and the Empire only, and exempted from service to and the jurisdiction of other dukes.

During an attack on Prussia in 1233 over 21 000 crusaders took part, of which the burggrave of Magdeburg brought 5000 warriers, duke Henry of Silesia 3000, duke Konrad of Masovia 4000, duke Kasimir of Kujavia 2000, duke Wladislaw of Greater Poland 2200 and dukes of Pomerania 5000 warriers. The main battle took place at the Sirgune river and both sides had heavy losses. The Prussians took the bishop Christian and locked him up for several years. Crusaders from England and other European countries followed.^{[citation needed]}

The Teutonic Order, officially subject directly to the Popes, but also under the control of the empire, took control of much of the Baltic, establishing their own monastic state in Prussia.

In the latter half of 1242, Pope Honorius announced the appointment of William of Modena as Papal Legate for Prussia, Livonia, and the related territories. In 1243, William divided Prussia into four bishoprics — Culmerland, Pomesania, Ermland, and Sambia — under the archbishopric of Riga.

[edit] References

1. ^ Although the Aesti are generally accepted to be the Prussians, primarily based on their association with amber, this is by no means universally accepted. See Aesti.
2. ^ laūks.
3. ^ It has various spellings, including -laukas, -laukis, and lauks.
4. ^ Attested in manuscripts as Caymis, and from the same PIE root as the modern German Keim and Heim (Middle High German kaim and haim), meaning sprout and home. The root is *tkei- (to settle) for both, from which English acquired the word home[1].
5. ^ Gwyn Jones. A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-280134-1. Page 244.
6. ^ A brief history of the Protestant Church of Pomerania.