Duchy of Pomerania

Who rules

Name

Bogislaw II and Casimir II, brothers ruling jointly (Bogislaw linked to Stettin, Casimir to Demmin)

Title

dukes of Pomerania, or dukes of the Slavs (duces Slavorum): princes of the Empire since 1181 and vassals of the Danish king since 1185

Since

18 March 1187, the death of their father Bogislaw I; both of age by about 1194

Born

Bogislaw II about 1177 (after his parents' wedding of 26 April 1177), so about 22; Casimir II about 1180, so about 19 or 20

Family

Sons of Bogislaw I (died 18 March 1187) and his second wife Anastasia, daughter of Mieszko III the Old of Greater Poland (born before 1164, alive until after 1240). Their half-brothers Ratibor (died 1183) and Wartislaw (died 1184) are dead. Neither duke is known to be married on 1 January 1200: Casimir marries Ingardis of Denmark about 1210; Bogislaw marries Miroslawa, daughter of Mestwin I of Pomerelia, later (their son Barnim I is born about 1210), and an earlier wife, a Rus' princess possibly of Smolensk, is uncertain and not dated. Their kinsmen of the Ratibor line hold Schlawe and Stolp.

Confidence

medium

de.wikipedia Bogislaw II. and Kasimir II.; en.wikipedia Casimir II and Bogislaw II; fmg.ac Pomerania (charters of 1188, 1200, 1208)

Overlord

Formally King Canute VI of the Danes and the Wends: Bogislaw I became his vassal in 1185 (some accounts 1186) after the Danish campaigns of 1184-85, and Anastasia later took her sons to Denmark to receive the fief from him in person (date not pinned). Since 1198 the tie is in doubt: de.wikipedia Jaromar I. speaks of a war in 1198 'between Denmark and Pomerania/Brandenburg', Margrave Otto II occupied the Demmin lands in 1198 and 1199, and en.wikipedia has the dukes accept Danish overlordship again only when Valdemar II 'regained Pomerania' in 1202. In the Empire, Barbarossa made Bogislaw I a prince with the title duke of Slavia at Lübeck in 1181, and the margraves of Brandenburg claim to be the dukes' overlords.

What the realm holds

• Stettin castle and town at the Oder mouth
• the castle districts east of the Oder: Pyritz, Stargard, Kammin, Wollin, Kolberg (with its salt springs) and Belgard
• the Peene lands: Demmin, Wolgast with Lassan, Usedom, Loitz, and Gützkow (won back from Rügen in 1198-99)
• the Tollense lands and the land of Stargard (Treptow on the Tollense, Penzlin, the lands of Broda abbey)
• Circipania (Dargun, Kalen, Gnoien, Teterow, Malchin), waste after 1198
• the Uckermark: Prenzlau and Pasewalk with Ueckermünde
• the northern edge of the Barnim (Oderberg and the Finow castles) and probably Köpenick on the Spree: drawn by the Brandenburg researcher (Pomeranian Barnim, Köpenick)
• overlordship of the Ratibor line in Schlawe and Stolp (not pinned; they may hold directly of the Danish king)

How it was acquired

Wartislaw I (died between 1134 and 1148) united the Pomeranians under Polish overlordship and accepted Christianity with the missions of Otto of Bamberg (1124 and 1128). His sons Bogislaw I and Casimir I ruled together from 1156, Casimir from Demmin; Casimir died in 1180 or soon after, probably fighting Brandenburg at Demmin, and Bogislaw ruled alone until 1187.

Allies and rivals

Allies: their grandfather Mieszko III the Old of Greater Poland (alive; dies 13 March 1202) and his house; the Danish crown when it protects them. Rivals: Jaromar I of Rügen; Margrave Otto II of Brandenburg; the Mecklenburg princes on the Circipanian side (later). Pomerelia under Sambor I at Danzig is a neighbour; the marriage alliance (Bogislaw and Miroslawa) is later.

The realm that morning

On the morning of 1 January 1200 the brothers hold the Pomeranian castle districts from the Recknitz and Trebel in the west to the Persante and the Schlawe border in the east, and from the coast south to the Uckermark forests and the forest belt along the Drage (Drawa) and Netze (Noteć) toward Greater Poland. They are Danish vassals in name (see below); no Danish garrison is known in their castles. On the west their ground meets Rügen's along a line just south of the Ryck (Rügen keeps the Ryck mouth, where it founded Eldena in 1199) and the Tribsees land, which Rügen holds of the Danish king and Brandenburg claims.

In Circipania the land round Dargun lies waste after 1198. Whether any Brandenburg garrison still sits in the Demmin lands that morning is not pinned. Across the borders: Rügen (Jaromar I) on the island and the Strelasund shore; the Mecklenburg princes (Nicholas I of Rostock, Borwin I) west of Circipania; the Brandenburg march south of the Uckermark and the Barnim forests; Greater Poland (Mieszko III) beyond the Netze and Warthe with the frontier castles of Santok, Drezdenko and Wieleń; Pomerelia (Sambor I) east of Stolp.

Their allegiance that morning is the campaign's call: formally Danish vassals; in practice cut loose from Denmark since 1198, beside or under Brandenburg, and holding the Ryck lands against Denmark's man Jaromar.

Wealth

Salt from the springs at Kolberg (salt pans granted by the dukes to churches since the 12th century); the Oder mouth trade through Stettin, Wollin and Kammin; herring and the coastal trade; tolls on the Oder, the Peene and the Uecker; the market and mint at Prenzlau; dues in grain, cattle and honey from the castle districts.

Military

Castles at Stettin, Demmin, Wolgast, Usedom, Kammin, Wollin, Kolberg, Belgard, Pyritz, Stargard, Gützkow, Loitz, Pasewalk, Prenzlau, Treptow on the Tollense and in Circipania; the castellans' levies. Record: beaten at sea by Denmark and Rügen in 1184; the Danes raided the Peene mouth and the Kammin land in 1185; Brandenburg overran the Demmin lands in 1198-99. No figures.

Threats

• Margrave Otto II of Brandenburg and his claim to overlordship
• Jaromar I of Rügen and his claim to the land between the Ryck and the Peene
• Danish intervention: the king has already chosen their guardian once and judged their borders
• the Mecklenburg princes on the Circipanian march

Consort

None known for either duke on 1 January 1200 (see family).

Heirs

Each brother is the other's heir; neither has a child known by 1 January 1200. After them the Ratibor line of Schlawe.

Regency

None that winter. Anastasia and Wartislaw Swantiboriz were guardians from 1187; Canute VI deposed Wartislaw in 1189 and named Jaromar I of Rügen guardian; Anastasia's guardianship of Casimir ran until 1194 (de.wikipedia Kasimir II.). Wartislaw Swantiboriz died in 1196 (Annales Colbazienses, cited by fmg.ac). Anastasia remains a power at court: she gives land with both sons at Treptow on the Rega in 1208 and still calls herself duchess of the Pomeranians in 1224.

Officers

The castellans (kastelan, castellanus) of the castle districts, Slav nobles who command the castle, its levy and its court. Named in this period: the sons of Wartislaw Swantiboriz, Bartholomew (castellan of Gützkow by 1219) and Kasimir (castellan of Kolberg, date not pinned), and Bartholomew's son Wartislaw of Gützkow, later castellan of Stettin (see Swantiboriz castellans). The castellans in office on 1 January 1200 are not pinned.

Bishop Sigwin of Kammin (1191-1219) is the dukes' bishop (a Church map record).

Court in 1200

Stettin and Demmin, the old ducal castles; Kammin was the first known ducal seat (Wartislaw I). Where the dukes keep Christmas 1199 is not pinned.

Treaties

Danish fief since 1185. A Danish royal ruling, after Jaromar became guardian in 1189, settled the Rügen border: the accounts differ (Loitz and Miserez to Pomerania and Gützkow, Tribsees and Wusterhusen to Rügen; or Pomerania keeping only Wolgast, Lassan and Ziethen; or Pomerania losing Wolgast and Loitz 'at Nyborg'); Lassan and Ziethen were given back to the dowager by the king.

Feuds

With Jaromar I of Rügen over the land between the Ryck and the Peene (won back by the dukes in 1198-99, still claimed by Rügen). With Margrave Otto II of Brandenburg, who claims overlordship and overran the Demmin lands in 1198-99. The western march (Circipania, Tribsees) lies open to the Mecklenburg princes, who take Circipania by 1236.

Throne war

Not pinned. No act of the dukes for either king is known for 1198-99. Their Danish overlord backs Otto IV; the margrave who overran their western lands in 1198-99, and with whom they may have sided against Denmark, is Philip's man and had Philip confirm his Tribsees fiefs about 1198. If the campaign reads them as Brandenburg's partners that winter, they lean Staufen; if as Danish vassals, Welf.

Relations with rome

Their see of Kammin is exempt, subject directly to the pope since Innocent II's privilege of 14 October 1140. The see sat first at Wollin, then briefly at the Premonstratensian house of Grobe on Usedom, and at Kammin from about 1175; Bishop Siegfried I had the move and the exemption confirmed after 1186. Bishop Sigwin (1191-1219) holds it in 1200. The diocese was meant to reach from Tribsees in the west to the Leba in the east; Sigwin later won parts of Circipania from the see of Schwerin, and the Ryck became the boundary between the two (de.wikipedia Bistum Cammin).

Kammin is a Church map record.

Coinage

Prenzlau is named in 1188 as one of three Pomeranian mints (de.wikipedia Prenzlau); the other two are not named in our source. Small silver pennies; details not pinned.

The host

The castle levies of the districts under their castellans, the Slav nobles and their mounted retinues, and the coastal ships (the Pomeranian fleet was destroyed by the Danes and the men of Rügen in the Greifswald Bay in 1184). No figures.

Church

Religious houses on Pomeranian ground (all Church map records): Stolpe on the Peene (Benedictine, 1153); Grobe on Usedom (Premonstratensian, 1155); Broda on the Tollense lake (Premonstratensian, 1170); Kolbatz (Cistercian, 1173, founded by Wartislaw Swantiboriz); Gramzow in the Uckermark (Premonstratensian, founded by Bogislaw I); Belbuck by Treptow on the Rega (Premonstratensian); Dargun in Circipania (Cistercian, 1172, deserted since 1198). The German merchants' church of St James at Stettin (1187). Across the Ryck: Rügen's Eldena (1199) and Bergen (1193).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 23 April 1200At Schlawe, 'Boguslaus' and his sister Dobroslawa 'of Schlawe' give villages to the Knights of St John (fmg.ac); see Schlawe and Stolp.Depends on: the Ratibor line holding Schlawe in peace Stopped by: war in the east or the death of the donors
2. 25 May 1200 (some sources 1201)Battle of Waschow in western Mecklenburg: the Danish vassals under Duke Valdemar beat Adolf of Dassel; Jaromar of Rügen probably marches with them. No Pomeranian part is recorded.Depends on: Canute's order to punish Ratzeburg Stopped by: a Holstein or Saxon relief
3. 1200-1202The Brandenburg hold on the Demmin lands ends: en.wikipedia says Valdemar II 'regained Pomerania' in 1202 and the dukes again accepted Danish overlordship.Depends on: Danish victories over Holstein and Brandenburg (Stellau 1201) and Valdemar's accession (Canute dies 12 November 1202) Stopped by: a Brandenburg victory over the Danes

Later, on the likely course

1. 1204-1218 (after this year)Innocent III confirms Eldena (1204); Casimir confirms Jaromar's grant of 1207 (1208); the dukes fail in a war with Jaromar (1209); a Danish diet settles the Rügen border (1216); the dukes confirm Eldena's lands (1218).Depends on: the Ryck border staying open Stopped by: a settlement in 1200

Places of note

• Stettin castle: ducal castle and Slav town at the Oder mouth
• Demmin castle (Haus Demmin): ducal residence since 1156; Casimir's seat
• Kolbatz abbey: Cistercian abbey founded 1173 by Wartislaw Swantiboriz (Church map record)
• Kammin cathedral: see of Bishop Sigwin; cathedral begun 1175 by Casimir I

Where the sources disagree

• The assignment names Wartislaw II Swantiboriz, castellan of Stettin, as a possible guardian that winter: Canute VI deposed him in 1189 and he died in 1196 (de.wikipedia Wartislaw Swantiboriz; Annales Colbazienses via fmg.ac). He is not guardian on 1 January 1200, and no regency is in force.
• The Danish ruling on the Rügen border is told three ways: de.wikipedia Fürstentum Rügen (Loitz and Miserez to Pomerania; Gützkow to Rügen; Tribsees and Wusterhusen to Jaromar as fiefs), de.wikipedia Kasimir II. (Pomerania kept only Wolgast, Lassan and Ziethen) and de.wikipedia Bogislaw II. (Pomerania lost Wolgast and Loitz in the 'Nyborg decision'). Its date is not given.
• The war of 1198-99 is told differently: de.wikipedia Kasimir II. (the dukes won back land almost to the Ryck during Otto II's occupation of Pomerania in 1198 and 1199), de.wikipedia Jaromar I. (Rügen lost the land south of the Ryck in 1198), en.wikipedia Casimir II (Otto II occupied Pomerania-Demmin in 1198 and 1199 and Valdemar II regained Pomerania in 1202), de.wikipedia Bogislaw II. (Pomerania stayed under Danish sovereignty). We draw the land south of the Ryck as Pomeranian, the Ryck mouth as Rügen's (Eldena, 1199) and the Demmin lands as Pomeranian without a Brandenburg garrison; the campaign may rule otherwise.
• The Rhineland map anchors Teterow (with Güstrow and Malchow) to mecklenburg without a holder pinned. Teterow was the chief stronghold of Circipania, which was Pomeranian ground from the 1170s (Dargun founded 1172 with Casimir I's gifts) and passed to the Mecklenburg lords only by 1236. We anchor Teterow, Malchin, Dargun and Gnoien to pomerania and leave Güstrow and Malchow to mecklenburg (not pinned). The compiler should prefer one; we recommend pomerania for Teterow.
• The assignment speaks of 'Danish wars in Circipania'; the evidence is that Dargun was destroyed in 1198 in the fighting between Denmark and Brandenburg (de.wikipedia Kloster Eldena), not a Danish attack on Pomerania.
• Allegiance in winter 1199-1200: de.wikipedia Jaromar I. (war of 1198 'between Denmark and Pomerania/Brandenburg') and en.wikipedia Casimir II (Danish overlordship accepted again in 1202) suggest the dukes were out of the Danish obedience in 1198-1202; de.wikipedia Bogislaw II. says Pomerania stayed under Danish sovereignty; the Brandenburg researcher (Brandenburg (Otto II)) has Otto II ravaging Pomerania 'a Danish dependency' in winter 1198-99 and pushing to the coast toward Rügen in 1199, with no truce attested. We record the allegiance as not pinned.
• The Brandenburg researcher's Köpenick record calls Bogislaw II and Casimir II 'minors under Danish overlordship'; on 1 January 1200 they are about 22 and 20 and have ruled for themselves since about 1194.

Evidence: The family, the guardianship and the Danish overlordship are well attested (de.wikipedia and en.wikipedia on the dukes, Jaromar and Wartislaw Swantiboriz; fmg.ac with charter citations). The war of 1198-99 is known only in outline and the accounts disagree on how far the Brandenburg occupation went and how long it lasted. The castellans of 1200 are mostly not named. Pomerania's evidence is thin beside the German lands. Whether the dukes were Danish or Brandenburg partners in 1198-1200 is the largest open question.

On the map: The ground is drawn in the lord records Bogislaw II, Casimir II, Uckermark, Tollense lands, Circipania, Gützkow, Loitz and Schlawe and Stolp. Castle districts are drawn as blocks round the castle with places near their edges; their real edges are forests, marshes and rivers and are not pinned for 1200.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs. Read online
• Chronicle of the Slavs, by Helmold of Bosau, Helmold of Bosau (about 1167 to 1172). Background only. Read online
• The Danish annals of Lund, Ryd and other houses (12th and 13th centuries; Lund continued to 1307, Ryd to 1288). Short dated entries from Lund, the archbishop's seat, and from Ryd in Schleswig. Read online
• Deeds of the Danes, Saxo Grammaticus (about 1185 to 1208). Saxo was writing at Lund in 1200 under Absalon, who died in March 1201, and his last books are an insider's history of Valdemar I and Knud VI to 1185: the Wendish wars, the taking of Rügen, the submission of Pomerania in 1185, the Danish fleet, Absalon's power and the Danish quarrel with the Empire. Read online
• Short history of the kings of Denmark; The Law of the Retainers, Sven Aggesen (about 1185 to 1188). A short Latin history of the Danish kings to Knud VI's Pomeranian victory of 1185, with the Lex castrensis, Sven's version of the law of the royal household. Read online
• The saga of the descendants of Knut (the kings of Denmark) (about 1250 to 1260). An Icelandic kings' saga of Denmark that draws on Saxo and Danish tradition and ends in 1187 with Knud VI and Absalon's Wendish wars. Read online
• Pomeranian charter book, volume 1, 786 to 1253 (documents of 786 to 1253, edited 1868). All known charters for Pomerania and Rügen to 1253. Read online
• The Danish diplomatarium: charters and letters concerning Denmark, with Danish translation (documents of 789 to 1448; the online edition is continuing). Twenty-seven documents are dated to 1200: Innocent III's letters of February and March 1200 to Philip Augustus and Queen Ingeborg and his order for the interdict on France, Otto IV's letter to the pope expecting King Knud VI to move into Saxony, the reports of the legate Octavian and the French bishops on the lifting of the interdict in September, the pope's letters to Knud VI asking him to send advocates for his sister, Knud VI's ordinance on manslaughter for Skåne of 28 December 1200, and private gifts to Roskilde and Næstved. Read online