Pribislav was one of three sons of the Obotrite chieftain Niklot, who was killed in 1160 during a joint campaign by Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and King Valdemar the Great of Denmark.

While Wertislav and much of the Slavic nobility were imprisoned by Henry during the siege of Werle, Pribislav destroyed many of the former Obotrite castles including Mecklenburg where all the male Fleming (settlers from Flanders) defenders were slaughtered.

Supported by a Danish fleet, the Saxon army defeated the Slavs in the bloody Battle of Verchen in 1164.

The Cistercian missionary Berno of Amelungsborn convinced Pribislav to side with the Christians against the pagan Slavs.

In 1219 his remains were transferred by his son Heinrich Borwin to the newly completed Doberan Minster, where they lie in a sarcophagus in the Chapel of Pribislav.