Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) on 13 November 1308 refers to an important event in the History of Gdańsk, leading to the incorporation of the city and the surrounding Pomerelia into the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. The takeover, during and after which a disputed number of citizens may have been killed, marks the beginning of tensions between Poland and Teutonic Order. Only after less than 200 years, the takeover was reversed when after the Thirteen Years War the Prussian Confederation seceded from the Order.
|
|||||
Contents |
[edit] Background
In 1224, during the reign of Zwantepolc de Danceke (Swantipolk II of Pomerania), Gdańsk underwent administrative reform based on Lübeck city rights.
Zwantepolc received ducal title in 1227, when emperor Frederick II verified the overlordship of the margraves of Brandenburg over the dukedom Pomerania. In 1236 in the Vertrag zu Kremmen (Treaty of Kremmen) Wartislaw had acknowledged Brandenburg's overlordship over Pomerania. In 1269 Brandenburg received the right to grant Pomerellia (or eastern Pomerania), where Gdańsk was situated, as lien.
During the late 13th century, disputes over succession arose. Conrad, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal would inherit Pomerelia from Duke Mestwin II of Pomerania, while in 1282, the Teutonic Order had inherited Mewe from Sambor II, thus gaining a foothold on the left bank of the Vistula.[1]
At the beginning of the 14th century, the region was plunged into war involving local Pomeranian nobility and the principality of Margraviate of Brandenburg to the west, which had acquired rights by the Treaty of Arnswalde of 1269. Brandenburg's claim to the harbour city and Pomerania was partially based on a treaty of August 8, 1305 between the Rulers of Brandenburg and Wenceslaus III, promising the Meissen territory to the Bohemian crown in exchange for Pomerelia, although it never was finalised.
[edit] Teutonic Knights called in
In Summer of 1308, a Pommerian rebellion in the city unseated the small forces loyal to King Władysław I of Poland presented there since 1306, and allied with Waldemar of Brandenburg [2] who entered the town, but not the castle which was held by a small garrison loyal to the king. They, and the city's Pomeranian judge and castellan, Bogusza, on the advice of the Dominican prior Wilhelm,[3] appealed to the Teutonic Knights in Prussia for assistance.[4]
The Knights, led by Heinrich von Plötzke (and a relative of Gunther von Schwarzburg of the same name) arrived at the castle in August and drove the Brandenburgers from the city in September. When Władysław refused to pay them 10,000 marks in compensation, they remained in the castle and the City, which was opposed by some of the residents.
[edit] Controversy
On 13 November, the knights did suppress an uprising in which a number of people were murdered. The exact figure is not known.
Norman Davies, in his extensive history of Poland notes that the Knights "drove Waldemar from the city, and calmly slaughtered its inhabitants"[5], . During the Cold War, in a Polish answer to US congressman B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee who had stated "The citizens of Danzig are German as they always had been"[6], it is claimed that the Knights treacherously gained access into the Polish garrison as allies, then turned their arms against the Poles, massacred first the soldiers, then the civilians, 10,000 men, women and children.[7] Polish reports spread by Władysław indicated that 10,000 inhabitants were slain in the city[8], although that number has also been considered greater than the city's population at the time.[9] Other estimates give about 100 victims[citation needed].
As of November 2007, the city's website claims "Teutonic Knights..., having captured the castle in 1308 butchered the population. Since then the event is known as "the Gdańsk slaughter "[10], yet no book knows that term [13] [14]. Apparently a "Monument commemorates the massacre of the population of Gdansk in 1308."[11]
The "New Cambridge Medieval History" of 1999 states "when the Poles refused to accept monetary compensation, the Order resolved the ensuing conflict by conquering further towns like Schwetz"[12]. The local colony of merchants and artisans was specifically attacked because they competed with the Knights' town of Elbing (Elbląg), a nearby city.[9]. Other sources indicate that "we have conclusive proof that before 1308, the population of Danzig must have been Polish as the Teutonic Knights would not have slaughtered 10,000 of their own" [13]. The massacre was the Polish answer to the German claim that Danzig is historically and ethnically a German city.[14] Others point out parallels to the contemporary prosecution of the Knights Templar and that, after Polish accusations of sodomy, the Teutonic Knights were even briefly excommunicated by the pope who for financial reasons supported the Polish tax payers[15] In fact, the Knights moved their headquarters from Venice to the Ordensburg Marienburg.
[edit] Part of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights
The Knights then captured the rest of Pomerelia from Brandenburg's troops. In September 1309, Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal sold his claim to the territory to the Teutonic Order for 10,000 marks in the Treaty of Soldin, thereby connecting the Order's territory with that of the Holy Roman Empire. Dantzike was incorporated into the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights.
[edit] Political aftermath
Previously allied against the Prussians, the takeover triggered a series of conflicts between Poland and the Teutonic Order. The possession of Danzig and Pomerelia by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Wladislaus I and Casimir the Great in legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Also, in the 1330s, a war ensued.
Peace was established in the Treaty of Kalisz in 1343; although the Polish kings were able to retain the title "Duke of Pomerania" and were recognized as titular overlords of the crusaders, the Knights retained control of Danzig.[4]
[edit] The city under the Order
Development of the city initially stagnated after its capture by the Teutonic Knights. Initially the new rulers tried to reduce the economic significance of Danzig by abolishing the local government and the privileges of the Lübeck traders. This apparently relates to the fact that the city council, including Arnold Hecht and Conrad Letzkau, was removed and beheaded in 1411[citation needed]. Later they had to accept the fact that city defended its independence and was the largest and most important seaport of the region after overtaking Elbing. Subsequently it flourished, benefiting from major investment and economic prosperity in Monastic state of Teutonic Knights and Poland, which stimulated trade along the Vistula. The city had become a full member of the merchant association called Hanseatic League by 1361, but its merchants remained resentful at the barriers to the trade up the Vistula river to Poland, along with the lack of political rights in a state ruled in the interest of the Order's religiously-motivated knight-monks.
[edit] See also
- Siege of Danzig
- History of Gdańsk
- Teutonic Order#Against Poland
- History of Pomerania#Eastern Pomerania and Poland
[edit] References
- ^ David Abulafia et al., The New Cambridge Medieval History, 1999, Vol.5 [1]
- ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A history of Poland, 1979 [2]
- ^ Poland's Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych, Dzieje miast Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej: Polska w słowie i obrazach, 1928 [3]
- ^ a b Gieysztor, Alexander, Stefan Kieniewicz, Emanuel Rostworowski, Janusz Tazbir, and Henryk Wereszycki. History of Poland. PWN. Warsaw, 1979. ISBN 8301003928
- ^ Norman Davies, God's Playground: A history of Poland, 1979 [4]
- ^ Jędrzej Giertych, Poland and Germany: A Reply to Congressman B. Carrol Reece of Tennessee, 1958, p. 15 [5]
- ^ Jędrzej Giertych, Poland and Germany: A Reply to Congressman B. Carrol Reece of Tennessee, 1958, p. 16, 95 [6]
- ^ Urban, Thomas. "Rezydencja książąt Pomorskich". (Polish)
- ^ a b Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003. ISBN 1853675350
- ^ www.gdansk.pl [7]
- ^ Lech Krzyżanowski, Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia: A Guide to the Triune City, 1974 [8]
- ^ David Abulafia et al., The New Cambridge Medieval History, 1999, Vol.5 [9]
- ^ Edward C. Corsi: Poland, Land of the White Eagle, 1933, [10]
- ^ David Gordon Copping, Polish-German Relations 1930-1934, Stanford 1948, [11]
- ^ Matthew Kuefler, The Boswell Thesis: Essays on Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, [12]
