Kruto

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kruto or Cruto (died 1093) was a West Slavic chieftain during the last phase of Slavic paganism in the late 11th century.

Kruto was the son of Grin or Grinus; scholars believe the family was part of the Rani of Rugia. Beginning in 1066, Kruto led the western Polabian Slavs, principally the constituent tribes of the Obodrite confederacy, against the expansionist Germans, especially Ordulf, Duke of Saxony, and his successor, Magnus. Kruto made his capital out of a large palisaded fortress at Buku, an island in the confluence of the Trave and Wochnitz rivers and site of the later Lübeck.

In 1074 or 1075, Buthue, son of the Christian Obodrite prince Gottschalk, with a band of Holsteiners sent by Magnus, attacked Kruto's stonghold at Plön, which had been purposefully left undefended. The next day, it was surrounded by Slavic forces, who made the Saxons surrender, after which they were massacred. Thereafter until his death in 1093, Nordalbingia, including Holstein, Sturmaria, and Ditmarsch, was subject to his pagan rule. For decades, Magnus, Eric of Denmark, and the margraves of the Northern March (Udo II, Henry I, and Udo III) struggled to subdue Kruto, but only Eric came close.

Kruto's principality was weak internally, however, because the vassal Slavs, such as the Liutizi, continued to elect their own chiefs subordinate to him. As well, the Christian Obodrites were secretly allied with the Saxons to bring about his downfall. At a banquet at which Kruto intended to kill Gottschalk's son Henry, his guest, Henry and Kruto's wife Slavina instead killed him. Immediately after his death, Henry, a Christian Obodrite prince, led a combined Slav-Saxon army to victory over the Wends at the Battle of Schmilau and subjected the Wagri and Liutizi to tribute again.