Pomerania in the Late Middle Ages
Before the Treaty of Stralsund (1370), and during the reign of Eric of Pomerania, the Hanseatic towns were in a state of war with Denmark for hegemony in the Baltic Sea.
[14] The relation between the towns and the nobility throughout the Middle Ages ranged from alliances and support (German: Landfrieden) to cabalism, banditry and outright warfare.
When Barmin I, for a short period sole ruler of the duchy, died in 1278, his oldest son Bogislaw IV took his father's seat.
Bogislaw and Otto now agreed on a partition of the duchy, that would last until 1464: Bogislaw's share was the area where the towns were under Lübeck law, that was Vorpommern north of the Peene river (though including Anklam and Demmin on its southern bank) and Farther Pomerania north of the Ihna and Stepenitz rivers, both areas were connected by the islands of Usedom and Wollin.
[16] A series of wars was triggered by Denmark in the early 14th century, when Eric VI Menved attempted to reestablish Danish rule in Northern Germany.
To achieve these goals, the dukes allied with various neighboring states, mounted military campaigns of which the first Battle of Kremmer Damm in 1332 was the most important, and gave their lands to the Cammin bishops (in 1320)[18] and even to pope John XXII (in 1330).
In 1338, Barnim III of Pomerania-Stettin was granted his part-duchy as a fief directly from the emperor, while Pomerania-Wolgast remained under formal Brandenburgian overlordship.
[19] The towns Stettin, Greifenhagen, and Gollnow in Pomerania-Stettin, concerned about a permanent division of the duchy in case Barnim III would not have children, rebelled in 1339 and sided with Pomerania-Wolgast in 1341.
On 12 June 1348 German king and later emperor Karl IV granted the Duchy of Pomerania as a whole and the Rugian principality as a fief to the dukes of both Pomerania-Stettin and Pomerania-Wolgast, erasing Brandenburg's claims.
[21] Barnim III, against the will of the burghers, erected a castle within Stettin's walls in 1346 (the old burgh had been leveled in 1249),[22] and gained from Brandenburg the eastern parts of the Uckermark, that was in 1354 Pasewalk, in 1355 Schwedt, Angermünde, and Brüssow, and in 1359 (Torgelow).
Because of the earlier death of his son, he had no male heir, and Wartislaw IV of Pomerania-Wolgast took over the principality according to the 1315 agreement with Christopher II of Denmark.
Wartislaw's minor sons were aided by primarily by Greifswald and Demmin, but also by Stralsund, Anklam, and Valdemar III, who decisively defeated the Mecklenburgian army in 1228 near Völschow.
Wartislaw VI received Pomerania-(Wolgast)-Barth, the former principality of Rügen, and Bogislaw IV's Pomerania-Wolgast was reduced to an area between Greifswald and the Świna river.
Elisabeth would become Holy Roman Empress after her marriage with Charles IV, and Casimir was adopted by and designated heir of his grandfather.
[28] Eric however failed in his most ambitious plan, to make his first cousin Bogusław IX of Pomerania-Stolp, king of both the Kalmar Union and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Casimir III died in 1372 during a siege of Königsberg (Neumark), after he had managed to receive an imperial approval of his Uckermark possessions in 1370.
On 17 May 1373 all dukes of Pomerania concluded an alliance in Kaseburg, but situation eased when Otto III, Margrave of Brandenburg abdicated on 15 August 1373, and the House of Luxembourg took over the march on 2 October that year.
[34] In 1320 and 1325, Wartislaw IV of Pomerania-Wolgast allied with the Landmeister of the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia against king Casimir III of Poland.
[35] Later in 1388 however, the dukes of Pomerania-Stolp left this alliance and sided with Poland, who had promised to partially respect their claims as Casimir III's heirs.
[36] Bogislaw VIII, Barnim V and Wartislaw VII reacted by siding with Polish king Jogaila and concluding mutual trade alleviations.
[36] When Wartislaw VII died, Bogislaw VIII and Barnim V concluded a treaty with the Teutonic Knights to safeguard their supply routes in turn for a financial credit.
[36] Bogislaw VIII also entered into Jogaila's service, but changed sides in 1407/08, when he allied with the Teutonic Knights and settled their common border.
[36] Swantibor I and Bogislaw VII of Pomerania-Stettin joined this alliance in 1409, after they had concluded a ten-year truce with the knights in return for debt cancellation before.
[7] In the Treaty of Soldin of 1466, a compromise was negotiated: Wartislaw X and Eric II, the dukes of Pomerania, took over Pomerania-Stettin as a Brandenburgian fief.
During the confirmation of the Peace of Prenzlau in 1479, the border was finally settled north of Strasburg and Bogislaw had to take his possessions as a fief from Brandenburg.
Involved in internal dynastic conflicts, Mestwin had promised his duchy to Conrad, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal, for aiding him in his struggles with his brother, Wratislaw.
[citation needed] Yet, in the 1282 Treaty of Kępno he named his ally Przemyslaw II, duke and later king of Poland, as his co-ruler and successor in Pomerelia.
The Teutonic Order, who also held claims regarding Pomerelia, had inherited Mewe from Sambor II, thus gaining a foothold on the left bank of the Vistula.
On becoming king of Poland, in summer 1300, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia asked the Teutonic Knights to protect Pomerania from the claims of Brandenburg.
[2] The Swenzones family was de facto ruling the area regardless of the respective overlord, their power was broken only by the dukes of Pomerania-Wolgast.
