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147-588: The region formed part of Poland since the establishment of the country in the 10th century. The town was founded on the site of a previous Slavic settlement, dating back to the 10th century. Its name was Germanised to Lewin and then Lewinburg by the Teutonic Knights , after annexation from Poland in 1310. In 1341 Dietrich von Altenburg , Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights , granted 100 Hufen (similar to hides ) to Rutcher von Emmerich for

294-691: A Protestant chivalric order , is descended from the same medieval military order and also continues to award knighthoods and perform charitable work. The name of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem is in German : Orden der Brüder vom Deutschen Haus der Heiligen Maria in Jerusalem and in Latin Ordo domus Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum Hierosolymitanorum . Thus

441-693: A bailiwick headed by a Landkomtur . All of the Teutonic Knights' possessions were subordinate to the Grand Master, whose seat was in Bad Mergentheim. There were twelve German bailiwicks: Outside of German areas were the bailiwicks of The Order gradually lost control of these holdings until, by 1809, only the seat of the Grand Master at Mergentheim remained. Following the abdication of Albert of Brandenburg, Walter von Cronberg became Deutschmeister in 1527, and later Administrator of Prussia and Grand Master in 1530. Emperor Charles V combined

588-529: A district ( Lauenburg-Bütowscher Kreis ), was first included in the newly established province of West Prussia , but was transferred to the province of Pomerania in 1777. When the district was divided in 1846, Lauenburg became the capital of a new district ( Landkreis Lauenburg i. Pom. ). Lauenburg began to develop as an industrial center after its 1852 connection to the Prussian Eastern Railway to Danzig and Stettin (Szczecin) . In 1866,

735-585: A Prussian Landmeister Heinrich von Plötzke , evicted the Brandenburgers from Gdańsk in September 1308 but then refused to yield the town to the Poles, and according to some sources massacred the town's inhabitants ; although the exact extent of the violence is unknown, and widely recognized by historians to be an unsolvable mystery. The estimates range from 60 rebellious leaders, reported by dignitaries of

882-513: A brother called Theoderich or Dietrich, the Order defended the south-eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary against the neighbouring Cumans . Many forts of wood and mud were built for defence. They settled new German peasants among the existing Transylvanian Saxon inhabitants. The Cumans had no fixed settlements for resistance, and soon the Teutons were expanding into their territory. By 1220,

1029-484: A loan of sixty times the amount of 37,000 Prague groschen (approximately seven tonnes of pure silver), 16 rich salt-producing towns in the area of Spisz (Zips) , as well as a right to incorporate them into Poland until the debt was repaid. The towns affected were: Biała , Lubica , Wierzbów , Spiska Sobota , Poprad , Straże , Spiskie Włochy , Nowa Wieś , Spiska Nowa Wieś , Ruszkinowce , Wielka , Spiskie Podgrodzie , Maciejowce , Twarożne . Wenceslaus I sold

1176-592: A naval power in the Baltic Sea . In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald . However, the Knights successfully defended their capital in the following Siege of Marienburg ( Malbork ) and the Order was saved from collapse. In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made a marriage alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter,

1323-582: A negligible Polish population and had until then been governed by Lithuania ), passed under Polish administration, thus becoming Crown territory. During that period, a term for a Pole from the Crown territory was koroniarz (plural: koroniarze ) – or Crownlander(s) in English – derived from Korona – the Crown. Depending on context, the Polish "Crown" may also refer to " The Crown ", a term used to distinguish

1470-524: A noble-based parliament and the free election of the monarch. Additionally, the concept of the Crown extended beyond existing borders, asserting that previously lost territories still rightfully belonged to it. The term Crown of the Kingdom of Poland also referred to all the lands under the rule of the Polish king. This meaning became especially significant after the union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , when it began to be commonly used to denote

1617-537: A number of castles ( Ordensburgen ) from which it could defeat uprisings of Old Prussians , as well as continue its attacks on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, with which the Order was often at war during the 14th and 15th centuries. Major towns founded by the Order included Thorn (Toruń) , Kulm (Chełmno) , Allenstein (Olsztyn) , Elbing (Elbląg) , Memel (Klaipėda) , and Königsberg , founded in 1255 in honor of King Otakar II of Bohemia on

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1764-508: A pro-Polish rally, which was shut down by the local German police. Polish activists were sentenced to several months in prison, and then to exile . Despite Polish attempts at regaining control of the region, the Treaty of Versailles did not restore the pre- partition borders and the town remained within interwar Germany. In the subsequent years many German migrants resettled in and around Lauenburg, while many Poles, including Kashubians, left for

1911-549: A reverted fief and was integrated with the Polish Pomeranian Voivodeship after the 1637 death of Bogislaw XIV, Duke of Pomerania . As Lębork was the leading city of the territory, it became the seat of the eldership ( starostwo ). The starosts were Stanisław Koniecpolski and Jakub Wejher . The Counter-Reformation was largely ineffective in the Lutheran town. Lębork was occupied by Swedes in

2058-538: A second fire in 1682. King John III Sobieski made peaceful attempts to reintegrate the town directly to Poland, but to no avail. In 1701, Lauenburg/Lębork became a Prussian -administered territory under the sovereignty of the Polish Crown . The 1773 Treaty of Warsaw granted full sovereignty over the territory to Prussia after the First Partition of Poland . The Lauenburg and Bütow Land, transformed into

2205-522: A stake would be driven into their bodies or the knight would be flayed. Lithuanian pagan customs included ritualistic human sacrifice, the hanging of widows, and the burying of a warrior's horses and servants with him after his death. The knights would also, on occasion, take captives from defeated Lithuanians, whose condition (as that of other war captives in the Middle Ages) was extensively researched by Jacques Heers. The conflict had much influence in

2352-516: Is twinned with: Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c.  1190 in Acre , Kingdom of Jerusalem . The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals . Its members have commonly been known as

2499-764: Is a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1791 as a vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . In 1791 it gained full independence, but on March 28, 1795, it was annexed by the Russian Empire in the Third Partition of Poland . The duchy also had colonies in Tobago and Gambia. The Duchy of Prussia was a duchy in the eastern part of Prussia from 1525 to 1701. In 1525 during

2646-652: The Christianization of Lithuania . However, it initiated numerous campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland , the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , and the Novgorod Republic (after assimilating the Livonian Order ). The Teutonic Knights had a strong economic base which enabled them to hire mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies, and they also became

2793-696: The Gothic Church of St. James and the Teutonic castle survived. During this time about 600 people committed suicide. As Lębork, the town became again part of Poland in accordance with the post-war Potsdam Agreement . Germans remaining in the town were either immediately expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement or were allowed to voluntarily leave in the 1950s. The remaining Polish inhabitants were joined by other Poles, incl. those displaced from Poland's eastern lands annexed after

2940-684: The Great Sejm convened, and they read and adopted the new constitution. It enfranchised the bourgeoisie, separated the government into three branches, abolished liberum veto , and stopped the abuses of the Repnin Sejm . It made Poland a constitutional monarchy with the King as the head of the executive branch with his cabinet of ministers , called the Guardians of the Laws . The legislative branch

3087-794: The Habsburg monarchy during the Ottoman wars in Europe . The military history of the Teutonic Knights was to end in 1805 by the Article XII of the Peace of Pressburg , which ordered the German territories of the Knights converted into a hereditary domain and gave the Austrian Emperor responsibility for placing a Habsburg prince on its throne. These terms had not been fulfilled by the time of

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3234-800: The Holy Roman Empire and Livonia , although the Livonian branch retained considerable autonomy. Many of the Imperial possessions were ruined in the German Peasants' War from 1524 to 1525 and subsequently confiscated by Protestant territorial princes. The Livonian territory was then partitioned by neighboring powers during the Livonian War ; in 1561 the Livonian Master Gotthard Kettler secularized

3381-460: The Jagiellon realm , becoming a vassal of Władysław II on September 26, 1387. This gesture was to have unexpected consequences: Petru supplied the Polish ruler with funds needed in the war against the Teutonic Knights , and was granted control over Pokuttya until the debt was to be repaid; as this is not recorded to have been carried out, the region became disputed by the two states, until it

3528-563: The King of Aragon . For Poland, the significant development was the emergence of the concept of corona regni in Hungary in the late 12th century. Initially, it represented the kingdom as a territorial entity linked to the Árpád dynasty , heirs to St. Stephen's crown . The shift came with the twilight of the Anjou dynasty , as the diet legitimized the succession through the female line. During

3675-625: The Kingdom of Hungary against the Cumans . The Knights were expelled by force of arms by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1225, after attempting to build their own state within Transylvania and Pope Honorius III's papal bull claiming authority over the Order's territory in Transylvania and its tax exemption toward the king. In 1230, following the Golden Bull of Rimini , Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke Konrad I of Masovia launched

3822-472: The Kingdom of Poland , assuming unity, indivisibility and continuity of the state. Under this idea, the state was no longer seen as the patrimonial property of the monarch or dynasty, but became a common good of the political community of the kingdom. This notion allowed the state to maintain stability even during periods of interregnum and paved the way for a unique political system in Poland, characterized by

3969-687: The Kingdom of Prussia and Germany as the Iron Cross . The motto of the Order was: "Helfen, Wehren, Heilen" ("Help, Defend, Heal"). In 1143 Pope Celestine II ordered the Knights Hospitaller to take over management of a German hospital in Jerusalem , which, according to the chronicler Jean d'Ypres, accommodated the countless German pilgrims and crusaders who could neither speak the local language nor Latin ( patriæ linguam ignorantibus atque Latinam ). Although formally an institution of

4116-598: The Neman River , with as many as twenty forts and castles between Seredžius and Jurbarkas alone. A dispute over the succession to the Duchy of Pomerelia embroiled the Order in further conflict at the beginning of the 14th century. The Margraves of Brandenburg had claims to the duchy which they asserted after the death of King Wenceslaus of Poland in 1306. Duke Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland also claimed

4263-589: The Nogat River , outside the reach of secular powers. The position of Prussian Landmeister was merged with that of the Grand Master. The Pope began investigating misconduct by the knights, but no charges were found to have substance. Along with the campaigns against the Lithuanians, the knights faced a vengeful Poland and legal threats from the Papacy. The Treaty of Kalisz of 1343 ended the open war between

4410-647: The Northern Wars . To gain an ally against Sweden during the Deluge , King John II Casimir of Poland gave the Lauenburg and Bütow Land to Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia as a hereditary fiefdom in the 1657 Treaty of Bromberg . The Swedish troops burnt Lauenburg before their retreat in 1658, destroying seventy houses and the town hall. Frederick William released the town from tax duties for five years to aid in its rebuilding. Lauenburg suffered

4557-512: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on July 1, 1569 with a real union between the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . Before then, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania only had a personal union . The Union of Lublin also made the Crown an elective monarchy; this ended the Jagiellonian dynasty once Henry de Valois was elected on May 16, 1573 as monarch. On May 30, 1574, two months after Henry de Valois

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4704-952: The Protestant Reformation , the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights , Albert of Hohenzollern, secularized the Prussian State of the Teutonic Order , becoming Albert, Duke in Prussia . His duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg ( Kaliningrad ), was established as a fief of the Crown of Poland , as had been Teutonic Prussia since the Second Peace of Thorn in October 1466. This treaty had ended

4851-676: The Prussian Crusade , a joint invasion of Prussia intended to Christianize the Baltic Old Prussians . The Knights had quickly taken steps against their Polish hosts and with the Holy Roman Emperor 's support, had changed the status of Chełmno Land (also Ziemia Chełmińska or Kulmerland), to which they had been invited by the Polish Duke, into their own property. Starting from there, the Order created

4998-579: The Russian Empire for any political reform; she argued that Poland had fallen prey to radical Jacobinism that was prominent in France at the time. Russia invaded the Commonwealth in 1792. The Constitution was in place for less than 19 months; it was annulled by the Grodno Sejm . The creation of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was a milestone in the evolution of Polish statehood and

5145-625: The Siege of Marienburg ), and placed his own choice of rulers in Wallachia. His reign was one of the most successful in Moldavia's history, but also saw the first confrontation with the Ottoman Turks at Cetatea Albă in 1420, and later even a conflict with the Poles. A deep crisis was to follow Alexandru's long reign, with his successors battling each other in a succession of wars that divided

5292-405: The Swedish-Polish War under the same favorable conditions the House of Pomerania had enjoyed before. Lauenburg and Bütow Land was officially a Polish fiefdom until the First Partition of Poland in 1772 when King Frederick II of Prussia incorporated the territory into Prussia and the subsequent Treaty of Warsaw in 1773 made the former conditions obsolete. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia

5439-405: The Teutonic Knights , having historically served as a crusading military order for supporting Catholic rule in the Holy Land and the Northern Crusades during the Middle Ages , as well as supplying military protection for Catholics in Eastern Europe . Purely religious since 1810, the Teutonic Order still confers limited honorary knighthoods . The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order ,

5586-403: The Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, and therefore Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the Knights' remaining territory to be disbursed to his German allies, which was completed in 1810. Crown of the Kingdom of Poland The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( Polish : Korona Królestwa Polskiego ; Latin : Corona Regni Poloniae ) was a political and legal concept formed in the 14th century in

5733-423: The Treaty of Wehlau in Wehlau (Polish: Welawa; now Znamensk), whereby Frederick William renounced a previous Swedish-Prussian alliance and John Casimir recognised Frederick William's full sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia. Full sovereignty was a necessary prerequisite for upgrading the Duchy to Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. The Duchy of Livonia was a territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – and later

5880-431: The Vistula River Valley and the Brandenburg Neumark were ravaged by the Hussites during the Hussite Wars . Some Teutonic Knights were sent to battle the invaders but were defeated by the Bohemian infantry. The Knights also sustained a defeat in the Polish-Teutonic War (1431–1435) . In 1440, the Prussian Confederation was founded by gentry and burghers of the State of the Teutonic Order. In 1454, it rose up against

6027-430: The Wawel Cathedral held the royal jewels. Also important was the cult of Saint Stanislaus Bishop of Kraków , who was presented as the patron saint of the kingdom and its unification. A unified ecclesiastical metropolis headed by the Archbishop of Gniezno also played an important role; its boundaries coincided with those of the kingdom. Gniezno , as the second centre of the state, and the place of coronation, nurtured

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6174-494: The first Mongol invasion of Poland . The combined Polish-German army was crushed by the Mongol army and their superior tactics, with few survivors. In 1337, Emperor Louis IV allegedly granted the Order the imperial privilege to conquer all Lithuania and Russia. During the reign of Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode (1351–1382), the Order reached the peak of its international prestige and hosted numerous European crusaders and nobility. King Albert of Sweden ceded Gotland to

6321-491: The flag of Poland . The concept of the Crown also had geographical aspects, particularly related to the indivisibility of the Polish Crown's territory. It can be also seen as a unit of administrative division , the territories under direct administration of the Polish state from the Middle Ages to the late 18th century (currently part of Poland , Ukraine and some border counties of Russia , Belarus , Moldova , Slovakia , and Romania , among others). Parts formed part at

6468-406: The pagan prince Mieszko I and the West Polans adopted Christianity . The Baptism of Poland established the first true Polish state, though the process was begun by Mieszko's Piast ancestors. His son and successor, Bolesław I the Brave , Duke of Poland , became the first crowned King of Poland in 1025. And although his son and successor Mieszko II was forced to relinquish the crown, as

6615-433: The Cross") and as Kryžiuočių Ordinas in Lithuanian, Vācu Ordenis in Latvian, Saksa Ordu or, simply, Ordu ("The Order") in Estonian. The fraternity which preceded the formation of the Order was formed in the year 1191 in Acre by German merchants from Bremen and Lübeck . After the capture of Acre they took over a hospital in the city in order to take care of the sick and began to describe themselves as

6762-431: The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia ( Polish : Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie , ) was a semi independent ecclesiastical state , ruled by the incumbent ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Warmia , and a protectorate of Kingdom of Poland , later part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Peace of Thorn (1466–1772) After

6909-432: The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The union concluded at Krewo was not an ordinary personal union, common in Europe at that time, precisely because one party was the Corona Regni , that is, the community of the Kingdom of Poland, and not a dynasty or ruler, as was the case with the agreement between Casimir the Great and Louis the Great , which elevated the latter to the throne. Both Jogaila and Jadwiga were elected to

7056-410: The Duchy of Siewierz to the Archbishop of Kraków , Zbigniew Cardinal Oleśnicki , for 6,000 silver groats in 1443. After that point it was considered to be associated with the Lesser Poland Province and was the only ecclesiastical duchy in Lesser Poland. The junction of the duchy with the Lesser Poland Province was concluded in 1790 when the Great Sejm formally incorporated the Duchy, as part of

7203-456: The Empire", enabling the Grand Master to negotiate with other senior princes as an equal. During Frederick's coronation as King of Jerusalem in 1225, Teutonic Knights served as his escort in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ; von Salza read the emperor's proclamation in both French and German . However, the Teutonic Knights were never as influential in Outremer as the older Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller . Teutonic Order domains in

7350-409: The European identity. It represented the concept of the Polish kingdom (nation) as distinctly separate from the person of the monarch. The introduction of the concept marked the transformation of the Polish government from a patrimonial monarchy (a hereditary monarchy ) to a "quasi- constitutional monarchy " ( monarchia stanowa ) in which power resided in the nobility, the clergy and (to some extent)

7497-539: The German Empire, but this title refers to the city of Lauenburg/Elbe in present-day Germany, and should not be confused with Lębork/Lauenburg in Pomerania.) New German settlers came to the town, but Poles also still settled there. Despite Germanisation policies, the Polish-Kashubian movement developed. Helpful in preserving Polish culture and identity was the local Catholic church, in which Polish language lessons were still organized. Poland regained independence after World War I in 1918, and local Poles organized

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7644-424: The German landowners and were gradually assimilated. Peasants in frontier regions, such as Samland , had more privileges than those in more populated lands, such as Pomesania . The crusading knights often accepted baptism as a form of submission by the natives. Christianity along western lines slowly spread through Prussian culture. Bishops were reluctant to have pagan Prussian religious practices integrated into

7791-410: The Great of Hungary, as his successor, rather than any of the numerous male representatives of the Piast dynasty. In his testament, he bequeathed a significant portion of the borderlands to his grandson, Casimir IV , Duke of Pomerania from the House of Griffins . However, the court annulled this provision after Louis's coronation, as it fragmented the kingdom's territory. This was an open challenge to

7938-405: The Holy Land against the Muslim Saracens . During the rule of Grand Master Hermann von Salza (1209–1239) the Order changed from being a hospice brotherhood for pilgrims to primarily a military order. The Order was founded in Acre, and the Knights purchased Montfort Castle , northeast of Acre, in 1220. This castle, which defended the route between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea , was made

8085-405: The Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem. Pope Clement III approved it and the Order started to play an important role in Outremer (the general name for the Crusader states ), controlling the port tolls of Acre. After Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Burzenland (southeastern Transylvania ) in 1211 to help defend the south-eastern borders of

8232-411: The Hospitallers, the pope commanded that the prior and the brothers of the domus Theutonicorum (house of the Germans) should always be Germans themselves, so a tradition of a German-led religious institution could develop during the 12th century in the Kingdom of Jerusalem . After the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, some merchants from Lübeck and Bremen took up the idea and founded a field hospital for

8379-463: The King), such as the Duchy of Prussia (        ) and the Duchy of Courland (        ). Prior to the 1569 Union of Lublin , Crown territories may be understood as those of the Kingdom of Poland proper, inhabited by Poles , or as other areas under the sovereignty of the Polish king (such as Royal Prussia ) or the szlachta . With the Union of Lublin, however, most of present-day Ukraine (which had

8526-550: The Knights Hospitallers in Rhodes and later in Malta . To make up for losses from the plague and to replace the partially exterminated native population, the Order encouraged immigration from the Holy Roman Empire (mostly Germans , Flemish , and Dutch ) and from Masovia ( Poles ), the later Masurians . These included nobles, burghers, and peasants, and the surviving Old Prussians were gradually assimilated through Germanization . The settlers founded numerous towns and cities on former Prussian settlements. The Order itself built

8673-433: The Levant: In 1211, Andrew II of Hungary accepted the services of the Teutonic Knights and granted them the district of Burzenland in Transylvania , where they would be exempt from fees and duties and could administer their own justice. Andrew had been involved in negotiations for the marriage of his daughter with the son of Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia , whose vassals included the family of Hermann von Salza. Led by

8820-405: The Masonic Lodge was formed, whose membership was in the main made up of the elite entrepreneurial class. The building survives to this day. The town became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the unification of Germany . Chancellor Otto Fürst von Bismarck (1815–1898) was made an honorary citizen in 1874. (He was also created Duke of Lauenburg in 1890 after his resignation as Chancellor of

8967-441: The Order and asked Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon to incorporate the region into the Kingdom of Poland , to which the King agreed and signed an act of incorporation in Kraków . Mayors, burghers and representatives from the region pledged allegiance to the Polish King during the incorporation in March 1454 in Kraków . This marked the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War between the Teutonic Order and Poland. The main cities of

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9114-460: The Order as a pledge (similar to a fiefdom ), with the understanding that they would eliminate the pirating Victual Brothers from this strategic island base in the Baltic Sea . An invasion force under Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen conquered the island in 1398 and drove the Victual Brothers out of Gotland and the Baltic Sea. In 1386, Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania was baptised into Christianity and married Queen Jadwiga of Poland , taking

9261-445: The Order lost its last secular holdings. However, the Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body. It was outlawed by Nazi Germany in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe . The Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms ; this emblem was later used for military decoration and insignia by

9408-475: The Order state the Prussians would "roast captured brethren alive in their armour, like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local god". The native nobility who submitted to the crusaders had many of their privileges confirmed by the Treaty of Christburg . After the Prussian uprisings of 1260–83, however, much of the Prussian nobility emigrated or were resettled, and many free Prussians lost their rights. The Prussian nobles who remained were more closely allied with

9555-492: The Order won a great victory over the Lithuanians in the Battle of Strėva , severely weakening them. In 1370 it won a decisive victory over Lithuania in the Battle of Rudau . Warfare between the Order and the Lithuanians was particularly brutal. It was common practice for Lithuanians to torture captured enemies and civilians. It is recorded by a Teutonic chronicler that they had the habit of tying captured knights to their horses and having both of them burned alive, while sometimes

9702-416: The Order's higher dignitaries fell on the battlefield. The Polish–Lithuanian army then began the Siege of Marienburg ( Malbork ), the capital of the Order, but was unable to take Marienburg owing to the resistance of Heinrich von Plauen . When the First Peace of Thorn was signed in 1411, the Order managed to retain essentially all of its territories, although the Knights' reputation as invincible warriors

9849-431: The Order's remaining Prussian territories and assumed from his uncle Sigismund I the Old , King of Poland, the hereditary rights to the Duchy of Prussia as a personal vassal of the Polish Crown, the Prussian Homage . Ducal Prussia retained its currency, laws and faith. The aristocracy was not present in the Sejm. Although it had lost control of all of its Prussian lands, the Teutonic Order retained its territories within

9996-439: The Piast dynasty. Particularly noteworthy was the situation of Ruthenia , which was conquered by Casimir III. Formally, it was a separate kingdom, on whose throne Casimir sat as the heir of his relative, Yuri II Boleslav of the Piast dynasty. The king, however, regarded himself as a patrimonial ruler who could freely manage the kingdom and its lands. An expression of this attitude was the appointment of his nephew, King Louis

10143-409: The Polish part of the joint Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . The idea of the Crown in Central Europe first appeared in Bohemia and Hungary, from where the model was taken by kings Ladislaus the Short and Casimir III the Great to strengthen their power. During the reign of Louis the Great in Poland, who spent most of his time in Hungary , as well as during the interregnum following his death and

10290-406: The Polish throne by the nobles; their natural rights to the throne were weak, and their power rested solely on the agreement between them and the Crown of the Kingdom. According to Robert I. Frost, the aim of the Union of Krewo was not the annexation of Lithuania by Poland, but its incorporation into the community of the kingdom, that is, the Crown. The Union of Lublin created the single state of

10437-432: The Prince inherited the Kingdom, petitioned Pope Honorius III to be placed directly under the authority of the Papal See , rather than that of the King of Hungary. This was a grave mistake, as King Andrew, angered and alarmed at their growing power, responded in 1225 by expelling the Teutonic Knights, although he allowed the ethnically German commoners and peasants settled here by the Order to remain and these became part of

10584-609: The Province of Greater Poland. The history of Moldavia has long been intertwined with that of Poland. The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians (under the name Wallachians ) as having joined a military expedition in 1342, under King Władysław I , against the Margraviate of Brandenburg . The Polish state was powerful enough to counter the Hungarian Kingdom which was consistently interested in bringing

10731-605: The Prussian Confederation and not the Teutonic Order, King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland granted the town three nearby villages. Troops from the Polish-allied city of Gdańsk (Danzig) reoccupied Lauenburg in 1459 when the mayor, Lorenz Senftopf, entered into negotiations with the Teutonic Knights. Eric replaced the Danzigers with Teutonic Knights the following year, however, when he switched sides during

10878-591: The Semigallians in 1290. The Order suppressed a major Estonian rebellion in 1343–1345, and in 1346 purchased the Duchy of Estonia from Denmark . The Teutonic Knights began to direct their campaigns against pagan Lithuania (see Lithuanian mythology ), due to the long existing conflicts in the region (including constant incursions into the Holy Roman Empire's territory by pagan raiding parties) and

11025-478: The Teutonic Knights and Poland. The Knights relinquished Kuyavia and Dobrzyń Land to Poland, but retained Chełmno Land and Pomerelia with Gdańsk (Germanized as Danzig ). In 1236, the Knights of Saint Thomas , an English order, adopted the rules of the Teutonic Order. A contingent of Teutonic Knights of indeterminate number is traditionally believed to have participated at the Battle of Legnica in 1241 during

11172-460: The Teutonic Knights assimilated the smaller Order of Dobrzyń , which had been established earlier by Christian , the first Bishop of Prussia. The conquest of Prussia was accomplished with much bloodshed over more than fifty years, during which native Prussians who remained unbaptised were subjugated, killed, or exiled. Fighting between the Knights and the Prussians was ferocious; chronicles of

11319-600: The Teutonic Knights use of Chełmno Land as a base for their campaign. This being a time of widespread crusading fervor throughout Western Europe, Hermann von Salza considered Prussia a good training ground for his knights for the wars against the Muslims in Outremer . With the Golden Bull of Rimini , Emperor Frederick II bestowed on the Order a special imperial privilege for the conquest and possession of Prussia, including Chełmno Land, with nominal papal sovereignty. In 1235

11466-587: The Teutonic Knights, and at the request of which King Casimir IV Jagiellon signed the act of re-incorporation of the town and region to the Kingdom of Poland in 1454. The population of Lauenburg was composed in large part of Kashubians , later Slovincians . In 1454 after the outbreak of the Thirteen Years' War , troops from Danzig (Gdańsk) occupied Lauenburg and Bütow (Bytów) ; the following year they were turned over to Eric II, Duke of Pomerania , to form an alliance. Because Lauenburg remained loyal to

11613-466: The Teutonic Order was obliged to swear an oath of allegiance to the reigning Polish king within six months of taking office. The Grand Master became a prince and counselor of the Polish king and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–1521) , the Order was completely ousted from Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg converted to Lutheranism in 1525. He secularized

11760-623: The Teutonics Knights had built five castles, some of them made of stone. Their rapid expansion made the Hungarian nobility and clergy, who were previously uninterested in those regions, jealous and suspicious. Some nobles claimed these lands, but the Order refused to share them, ignoring the demands of the local bishop. After the Fifth Crusade , King Andrew returned to Hungary and found his kingdom full of resentment because of

11907-653: The War of the Cities or Thirteen Years' War and provided for the Order's cession of its rights over the western half of its territories to the Polish crown, which became the province of Royal Prussia , while the remaining part of the Order's land became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569) . In the 17th century King John II Casimir of Poland submitted Frederick William to regain Prussian suzerainty in return for supporting Poland against Sweden. On July 29, 1657, they signed

12054-703: The area that would become Moldavia into its political orbit. Ties between Poland and Moldavia expanded after the Polish annexation of Galicia in the aftermath of the Galicia–Volhynia Wars and the founding of the Moldavian state by Bogdan of Cuhea . Bogdan, a Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathian Mountains in 1359, took control of Moldavia, and succeeded in transforming it into an independent political entity. Despite being disfavored by

12201-477: The brief union of Angevin Poland and Hungary (the latter was still the country's overlord), Bogdan's successor Lațcu , the Moldavian ruler also likely allied himself with the Poles. Lațcu also accepted conversion to Roman Catholicism around 1370, but his gesture was to remain without lasting consequences. Petru I profited from the end of the Hungarian-Polish union and moved the country closer to

12348-660: The childless death of the last of the House of Pomerania , Bogislaw XIV in 1637, Lauenburg and Bütow Land again became a terra (land, ziemia ) of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1641 it became part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . After the 1657 Treaty of Bydgoszcz , which amended the Treaty of Wehlau , it was granted to the Hohenzollern dynasty of Brandenburg-Prussia in return for her help against Sweden in

12495-662: The clause which formed the personal union. After being baptized at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków on February 15, 1386, Jogaila began to formally use the name Władysław. Three days after his baptism, the marriage between Jadwiga and Władysław II Jagiełło took place. Over the next few years, the Lithuanian princes from the Gediminid dynasty paid homage to Jogaila, himself a Lithuanian and Gediminid, his wife Jadwiga, and

12642-511: The country until the murder of Bogdan II and the ascension of Peter III Aaron in 1451. Nevertheless, Moldavia was subject to further Hungarian interventions after that moment, as Matthias Corvinus deposed Aron and backed Alexăndrel to the throne in Suceava . Petru Aron's rule also signified the beginning of Moldavia's Ottoman Empire allegiance, as the ruler agreed to pay tribute to Sultan Mehmed II . The principality of Moldavia covered

12789-548: The cult of the second patron saint, St Adalbert . His influence, however, was less. In 1295, the Duke of Greater Poland Przemysł II, although his power did not extend to Kraków, and was crowned king in Gniezno Cathedral , as the first Piast since 1076. He was, however, assassinated a year later. He was succeeded by Wenceslas II , King of Bohemia, who from 1291 ruled Lesser Poland , conquered Greater Poland and in 1300

12936-404: The death of Ludwik in 1382, which ended with the coronation of Jadwiga in 1384, was evidence of the vitality of the Crown of the Kingdom. During this period, the magnates ( regnicolae regni Poloniae ) managed the affairs of the state, avoiding a bloody civil war and successfully leading to the coronation of new ruler. Moreover, the basis of power began to rest on an agreement between the dynasty and

13083-555: The defeated Order renounced any claims to the territories of Gdańsk/Eastern Pomerania and Chełmno Land , which were reintegrated with Poland, and the region of Elbląg and Malbork, and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , which were also recognized as part of Poland, while retaining the eastern territories in historic Prussia, but as a fief and protectorate of Poland, also considered an integral part of "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland. From now on, every Grand Master of

13230-429: The duchy, based on inheritance from Przemysław II , but he was opposed by some Pomeranians nobles. They requested help from Brandenburg, which subsequently occupied all of Pomerelia except for the citadel of Gdańsk in 1308. Because Władysław was unable to come to the defense of Gdańsk, the Teutonic Knights, then led by Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen , were called to expel the Brandenburgers. The Order, under

13377-514: The duration of the Siege of Acre in 1190, which became the nucleus of the order; Pope Celestine III recognized it in 1192 by granting the monks Augustinian Rule . However, based on the model of the Knights Templar , it was transformed into a military order in 1198 and the head of the order became known as the Grand Master ( magister hospitalis ). It received papal orders for crusades to take and hold Jerusalem for Christianity and defend

13524-533: The early Kingdom of Poland , then, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until its final collapse in 1795. At the same time, the Crown also referred to all lands that the Polish state (not the monarch) could claim to have the right to rule over, including those that were not within Polish borders. The term distinguishes those territories federated with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (        ) from various fiefdom territories (which enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy or semi-independence from

13671-430: The elites of Lesser Poland, who saw it as a way to elevate their role. This was facilitated by the rule of a foreign king, the regency in Poland by his mother, Elizabeth , as well as disputes over the succession after his death, which resulted in a woman, Queen Jadwiga , ascending the Polish throne. In the perception of the time, this violated the old laws and required the consent of the lords. The interregnum following

13818-533: The empire did not support the Order against Poland. In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism , becoming Duke of Prussia as a vassal of Poland. Soon after, the Order lost Livonia and its holdings in the Protestant areas of Germany. The Order did keep its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and

13965-595: The entire geographic region of Moldavia. In various periods, various other territories were politically connected with the Moldavian principality. This is the case of the province of Pokuttya , the fiefdoms of Cetatea de Baltă and Ciceu (both in Transylvania ) or, at a later date, the territories between the Dniester and the Bug rivers. As one of the terms of the Treaty of Lubowla , the Hungarian crown exchanged, for

14112-403: The expenses and losses of the failed military campaign. When the nobles demanded that he cancel the concessions made to the Knights, he concluded that they had exceeded their task and that the agreement should be revised, but did not revert the concessions. However, Prince Béla, heir to the throne, was allied with the nobility. In 1224, the Teutonic Knights, seeing that they would have problems when

14259-586: The former kings of Poland. The Silesian princes were referred to in Poland as duces Poloniae , although they paid homage to the Bohemian Crown . Casimir also abandoned the coat of arms of the Kuyavia line of the Piasts, a hybrid of eagle and lion, in favour of a crowned white eagle, which was also the symbol of the Kingdom. At the congress of Visegrad in 1335, Casimir bought off John of Bohemia claims to

14406-598: The foundation of a town named Lewinburg (Lauenburg) with Kulm rights , presumably to secure the territory around Stolp (Słupsk) . East of the original city the Teutonic Order completed the Ordensburg castle in 1363. The castle was partly razed after the 1410 Battle of Grunwald and remained under Polish control until 1411. In 1440 the town joined the Prussian Confederation , which opposed

14553-445: The hand of Queen Jadwiga of Poland. Once Jogaila confirmed the prenuptial agreements on August 14, 1385, Poland and Lithuania formed a personal union . The agreements included the adoption of Christianity, repatriation of lands lost by the Crown. Jogaila also pledged to permanently attach his Lithuanian and Ruthenian lands to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( terras suas Lithuaniae et Rusie Corone Regni Poloniae perpetuo aplicare) ,

14700-480: The incorporated territory were authorized by Casimir IV to mint Polish coins. Much of Prussia was devastated in the war, during the course of which the Order returned Neumark to Brandenburg in 1455 to raise funds for war. Because Marienburg Castle was handed over to mercenaries in lieu of their pay, and eventually passed to Poland, the Order moved its base to Königsberg in Sambia . In the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) ,

14847-422: The independent State of the Teutonic Order , adding continuously the conquered Prussians' territory, and subsequently conquered Livonia . Over time, the kings of Poland denounced the Order for expropriating their lands, specifically Chełmno Land and later the Polish lands of Pomerelia (also Pomorze Gdańskie or Pomerania), Kuyavia , and Dobrzyń Land . The Order theoretically lost its main purpose in Europe with

14994-403: The kingdom's community. The nobles respected the natural right of Louis's daughters to the throne, but this right was conditional upon adherence to the oaths and obligations made by the ruler to the Crown of the Kingdom. The Union of Krewo was a set of prenuptial agreements made at Kreva Castle on August 13, 1385, between Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila and Polish lords, who were offering him

15141-445: The king’s judicial power and the state as a whole, including territories that had been lost. Similar developments occurred in other European regions, each shaped by local conditions. In France, the term appeared slightly later and initially referred mainly to the royal domain but also extended to the lands held by royal vassals. In Aragon , the Crown denoted a collection of kingdoms and territories united chiefly by their shared ruler,

15288-405: The lack of a proper area of operation for the Knights, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Acre in 1291 and their later expulsion from Hungary. At first the knights moved their headquarters to Venice , from which they planned the recovery of Outremer; this plan was, however, soon abandoned, and the Order later moved its headquarters to Marienburg, so it could better focus its efforts on

15435-541: The lands of Prussia , Pomerelia , Samogitia , Courland , Livonia , Estonia , Gotland , Dagö , Ösel , and the Neumark , pawned by Brandenburg in 1402. In 1410, at the Battle of Grunwald a combined Polish–Lithuanian army, led by Władysław II Jagiełło and Vytautas , decisively defeated the Order in the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War . Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen and most (50 out of 60) of

15582-560: The larger group of the Transylvanian Saxons. Lacking the military organization and experience of the Teutonic Knights, the Hungarians failed to replace them with adequate defence against the attacking Cumans. Soon, the steppe warriors would be a threat again. In 1226, Konrad I , Duke of Masovia in north-eastern Poland , appealed to the Knights to defend his borders and subdue the pagan Baltic Old Prussians , allowing

15729-424: The lost territories not for himself, but for the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, during his coronation. Jan Radlica was the first royal chancellor who stopped referring to himself as "of Kraków" or "of the court" chancellor and began to use in 1381 the title regni Poloniae supremus cancellarius (supreme chancellor of the Kingdom of Poland). The concept of the Crown being the real sovereign began to be promoted by

15876-784: The main Stutthof camp, and the subcamp was dissolved only in February 1945, during the German-organized evacuation of the Stutthof main camp. The Germans also operated a forced labour subcamp of the Stalag II-B prisoner-of-war camp for Allied POWs in the town. The town was occupied without resistance by the Soviet Red Army on 10 March 1945. Most of the Old Town burned in the subsequent Soviet rampage, although

16023-508: The majority of brothers remained Catholic. The Teutonic Knights became tri-denominational, with Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed bailiwicks. The Grand Masters, often members of the great German families (and, after 1761, members of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ), continued to preside over the Order's considerable holdings in Germany. Teutonic Knights from Germany, Austria, and Bohemia were used as battlefield commanders leading mercenaries for

16170-472: The margraves for 10,000 marks on 13 September 1309. Control of Pomerelia allowed the Order to connect their monastic state with the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. Crusading reinforcements and supplies could travel from the Imperial territory of Hither Pomerania through Pomerelia to Prussia, while Poland's access to the Baltic Sea was blocked. While Poland had mostly been an ally of the knights against

16317-488: The name Władysław II Jagiełło and becoming King of Poland. This created a personal union between the two countries and a potentially formidable opponent for the Teutonic Knights. The Order initially managed to play Władysław II Jagiełło and his cousin Vytautas against each other, but this strategy failed when Vytautas began to suspect that the Order was planning to annex parts of his territory. The baptism of Jogaila began

16464-657: The nearby Polish Pomeranian Voivodeship . The town's economy has declined and the nationalists, communists and Nazis gained popularity among the German population. The Poles were active in the Union of Poles in Germany . After the Nazis took power, Poles, as well as Jews , were persecuted. Under the leadership of Willy Fruggel a Hochschule for teacher education was established in the city in 1933. The football club SV Sturm Lauenburg played within Gauliga Pommern . After

16611-531: The new Grand Master was unable to revive the Order's fortunes. After the Gollub War the Knights lost some small border regions and renounced all claims to Samogitia in the 1422 Treaty of Melno . Austrian and Bavarian knights feuded with those from the Rhineland , who likewise bickered with Low German -speaking Saxons , from whose ranks the Grand Master was usually chosen. The western Prussian lands of

16758-531: The new faith, while the ruling knights found it easier to govern the natives when they were semi-pagan and lawless. After fifty years of warfare and brutal conquest, the end result was that most of the Prussian natives were either killed or deported. The Order ruled Prussia under charters issued by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor as a sovereign monastic state , comparable to the arrangement of

16905-472: The next decades the Order focused on the subjugation of the Curonians and Semigallians . In 1260 it suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Durbe against Samogitians , and this inspired rebellions throughout Prussia and Livonia. After the Knights won a crucial victory in the Siege of Königsberg from 1262 to 1265, the war had reached a turning point. The Curonians were finally subjugated in 1267 and

17052-480: The official conversion of Lithuania to Christianity. Although the crusading rationale for the Order's state ended when Prussia and Lithuania had become officially Christian, the Order's feuds and wars with Lithuania and Poland continued. The Lizard Union was created in 1397 by Prussian nobles in Chełmno Land to oppose the Order's policy. In 1407, the Teutonic Order reached its greatest territorial extent and included

17199-667: The oldest codified national constitution in Europe; the oldest being the United States Constitution . It was called the Government Act ( Ustawa Rządowa ) Drafting for it began on October 6, 1788, and lasted 32 months. Stanisław II Augustus was the principal author of the Constitution, and he wanted the Crown to be a constitutional monarchy, similar to the one in Great Britain. On May 3, 1791,

17346-706: The outbreak of World War II , the persecution of indigenous Poles, including Kashubians, intensified, and the patients of the local psychiatric hospital were murdered in Piaśnica , however, the Polish resistance movement remained present in the district. In 1942, the Germans founded a subcamp of the Stutthof concentration camp and sent prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp there. Further prisoners were sent from

17493-430: The pagan Prussians and Lithuanians, the capture of Pomerelia turned the kingdom into a determined enemy of the Order. The capture of Gdańsk marked a new phase in the history of the Teutonic Knights. The persecution and abolition of the powerful Knights Templar, which began in 1307, worried the Teutonic Knights, but control of Pomerelia allowed them to move their headquarters in 1309 from Venice to Marienburg (Malbork) on

17640-584: The personal influence and private assets of the Commonwealth's current monarch from government authority and property. It often meant a distinction between persons loyal to the elected king (royalists) and persons loyal to Polish magnates (confederates). After the Union of Lublin (1569) Crown lands were divided into two provinces : Lesser Poland (Polish: Małopolska) and Greater Poland (Polish: Wielkopolska). These were further divided into administrative units known as voivodeships (the Polish names of

17787-438: The political situation of the region and was the source of many rivalries between Lithuanians or Poles and Germans; the degree to which it impacted the mentalities of the time can be seen in the lyrical works of men such as the contemporary Austrian poet Peter Suchenwirt . Overall, the conflict lasted over 200 years (although with varying degrees of active hostility during that time), its front line extending along both banks of

17934-532: The population was predominantly Catholic since the Christianization of Poland, then it was mostly composed of Protestants after the Reformation, and since the end of World War II it is once again predominantly Catholic. Railway stations in the city include Lębork and Lębork Nowy Świat . The local football team is Pogoń Lębork  [ pl ] . It competes in the lower leagues. Lębork

18081-432: The regency during the minority of his daughter Jadwiga , the idea was adopted by the lords of the kingdom to emphasize their own role as co-responsible for the state. The concept of corona regni first emerged in early 12th-century England . By the 13th century, when it had fully developed, the term corona regni Angliae signified the inalienable and enduring royal dignity, authority, and rights, primarily encompassing

18228-441: The region and Knight chroniclers, to 10,000 civilians, a number cited in a papal bull (of dubious provenance) that was used in a legal process installed to punish the Order for the event; the legal dispute went on for a time, but the Order was eventually absolved of the charges. In the Treaty of Soldin , the Teutonic Order purchased Brandenburg's supposed claim to the castles of Gdańsk, Świecie , and Tczew and their hinterlands from

18375-406: The region of Prussia. Because " Lithuania Propria " remained non-Christian until the end of the 14th century, much later than the rest of eastern Europe, the conflicts were dragged out over a longer time, and many Knights from western European countries, such as England and France , journeyed to Prussia to participate in the seasonal campaigns ( reyse ) against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1348,

18522-570: The rights of the Přemyslids ' successor, King John of Bohemia , who still considered himself king of Poland. Władysław's successor Casimir III the Great was also crowned in Kraków in 1333. Casimir, like his father, considered himself the inherent ruler of the kingdom, the heir of the ancient Bolesławs. He strove to extend his power over the remaining Piast princes and to regain all the lands ruled by

18669-485: The rule of Sigismund of Luxembourg the Holy Crown was finally distinguished from the King, and the Hungarian estates emphasized the ruler’s obligations to the Crown. By the 15th century, the Crown gained legal personality, standing above both King and Estates, becoming the true sovereign. In Bohemia, the concept of the corona regni emerged primarily in connection with the territorial expansion and consolidation of

18816-413: The ruler's claim of having the full freedom to manage the territory and resources of the state. The concept of Corona Regni appears in the documents of Casimir the Great only three times, and all three documents were produced by foreign chanceries in the king's name. This idea, which limited the monarch's power, gained popularity only after his death. The annulment of Casimir the Great's testament in 1370

18963-470: The seat of the Grand Masters in 1229, although they returned to Acre after losing Montfort to Muslim control in 1271. The Order received donations of land in the Holy Roman Empire (especially in present-day Germany and Italy ), Frankokratia , and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor , elevated his close friend Hermann von Salza to the status of Reichsfürst , or "Prince of

19110-607: The site of a destroyed Prussian settlement. After suffering a devastating defeat in the Battle of Saule , the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were absorbed by the Teutonic Knights in 1237. The Livonian branch subsequently became known as the Livonian Order . Attempts to expand into Rus' failed when the Knights suffered a major defeat in 1242 in the Battle of the Ice at the hands of Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod . Over

19257-456: The southern Livonian possessions of the Order to create the Duchy of Courland , also a vassal of Poland. After the loss of Prussia in 1525, the Teutonic Knights concentrated on their possessions in the Holy Roman Empire. Since they held no contiguous territory, they developed a three-tiered administrative system: holdings were combined into commanderies that were administered by a commander ( Komtur ). Several commanderies were combined to form

19404-599: The state. The Luxemburg dynasty 's unsuccessful pursuit of the Polish throne underscored the necessity of uniting the Silesian principalities with the Bohemian crown. In 1348, Charles IV formalized the feudal structure of the state and introduced the notion of the corona regni Bohemiae , incorporating the Silesian and Upper Lusatian territories bounding them to the perpetual Crown. The history of Poland as an entity has been traditionally traced to c.  966 , when

19551-779: The term "Teutonic" echoes the German origins of the order ( Theutonicorum ) in its Latin name. German-speakers commonly refer to the Deutscher Orden (official short name, literally "German Order"), historically also as Deutscher Ritterorden ("German Order of Knights"), Deutschherrenorden ("Order of the German Lords"), Deutschritterorden ("Order of the German Knights"), Marienritter ("Knights of Mary "), Die Herren im weißen Mantel ("The lords in white capes"), etc. . The Teutonic Knights have been known as Zakon Krzyżacki in Polish ("Order of

19698-423: The title of king of Poland. This allowed for the expansion of the semantic scope of the term "Kingdom of Poland," ( Lithuanian : Regnum Poloniae ) which was often interpreted in a particularistic manner and limited only to Greater Poland. From that moment, in a territorial sense, it began to denote all the lands currently under the king's rule, and in an ideological sense, all the territories that once belonged to

19845-719: The two positions in 1531, creating the title Hoch- und Deutschmeister , which also had the rank of Prince of the Empire . A new Grand Magistery was established in Mergentheim in Württemberg , which was attacked during the German Peasants' War. The Order also helped Charles V against the Schmalkaldic League . After the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, membership in the Order was open to Protestants, although

19992-430: The voivodships and towns are shown below in parentheses). Royal Prussia ( Polish : Prusy Królewskie ) was a semi-autonomous province of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1772. Royal Prussia included Pomerelia , Chełmno Land (Kulmerland) , Malbork Voivodeship (Marienburg) , Gdańsk (Danzig) , Toruń (Thorn) , and Elbląg (Elbing) . Polish historian Henryk Wisner writes that Royal Prussia belonged to

20139-414: The war by the Soviet Union. The town was administratively part of the Gdańsk Voivodeship in 1945–1975, and then the Słupsk Voivodeship in 1975–1998. The climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is " Cfb ". (Marine West Coast Climate/ Oceanic climate ). In terms of confession,

20286-435: The war. After the Teutonic Knights were ultimately defeated in the Thirteen Years' War, Lębork passed to Poland, according to the 1466 Second Peace of Thorn , and was granted by Casimir IV Jagiellon to Eric and his Pomeranian successors as part of the Lauenburg and Bütow Land , a Polish fief . The Protestant Reformation was introduced in the town soon after 1519. The territory came back to Polish King Władysław IV Vasa as

20433-407: The working class, also referred to as an "elective monarchy" . A related concept that evolved soon afterward was that of Rzeczpospolita ("Commonwealth"), which was an alternate to the Crown as a name for the Polish state after the Treaty of Lublin in 1569. The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland was also related to other symbols of Poland , such as the capital ( Kraków ), the Polish coat of arms and

20580-463: Was bicameral with an elected Sejm and an appointed Senate ; the King was given the power to break ties in the Senate, and the head of the Sejm was the Sejm Marshal . The Crown Tribunal , the highest appellate court in the Crown, was reformed. The Sejm would elect their judges for the Sejm Court (the Crown's parliamentary court) from their deputies ( posłowie ). The Government Act angered Catherine II who believed that Poland needed permission from

20727-415: Was challenged by Sigismund of Hungary , whose expedition was defeated at Ghindăoani in 1385; however, Stephen disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Although Alexander I was brought to the throne in 1400 by the Hungarians (with assistance from Mircea I of Wallachia ), this ruler shifted his allegiances towards Poland (notably engaging Moldavian forces on the Polish side in the Battle of Grunwald and

20874-401: Was crowned King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania on February 22, 1574, he was made King of France , and was crowned King of France on February 13, 1575. He left the throne of the Crown on May 12, 1575, two months after he was crowned King of France. Anna Jagiellon was elected after him. The Constitution of May 3, 1791 is the second-oldest, codified national constitution in history, and

21021-482: Was crowned King of Poland in Gniezno. This meant the loss of central power for the Piast dynasty . This situation did not last long, however, as Wenceslas II died in 1305, followed by his son and successor, Wenceslas III, in 1306. The Duke of Kuyavia , Władysław Łokietek , managed to occupy first Lesser Poland and then Greater Poland, and made efforts to be crowned by the Pope. In 1320, the Archbishop of Gniezno crowned him king in Kraków, which formally did not infringe on

21168-400: Was essentially the first act undertaken in the name of the interests of the Crown. Ludwik was initially inclined to recognize the will, but strong opposition forced him to refer the matter to the court, which ruled that the ruler could not diminish the territory of the Crown of the Kingdom, a decision that Ludwik accepted. Similarly, the new king, Louis the Great, committed himself to reclaiming

21315-408: Was his great-grandson Boleslaw II the Bold , the idea of a kingdom survived. Even during the period of deep partition and the collapse of the central ducal power, Poland was still regarded as a kingdom, and the Piast princes, ruling the various provinces, as members of a royal dynasty and princes of Poland. A special role was played by Kraków , which was regarded as the main city of the kingdom, as

21462-450: Was irreparably damaged. While Poland and Lithuania were growing in power, that of the Teutonic Knights dwindled through infighting. They were forced to impose high taxes to pay a substantial indemnity but did not give the cities sufficient requested representation in the administration of their state. The authoritarian and reforming Grand Master Heinrich von Plauen was forced from power and replaced by Michael Küchmeister von Sternberg , but

21609-420: Was lost by Moldavia in the Battle of Obertyn (1531). Prince Petru also expanded his rule southwards to the Danube Delta . His brother Roman I conquered the Hungarian-ruled Cetatea Albă in 1392, giving Moldavia an outlet to the Black Sea , before being toppled from the throne for supporting Fyodor Koriatovych in his conflict with Vytautas the Great of Lithuania . Under Stephen I , growing Polish influence

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