Teutonic Knights and at the Fifth Lateran Council

NELSON H. MINNICH /WASHINGTON

The relations hip between Poland and the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem and came to the attention of the Fifth Lateran Couneil. The controversy between them had existed for centuries. In the the lands along the Baltic coast of Poland, east of the Vis• tula River, were inhabited in part by a pagan Prussian tribe, related to other Balts such as the Latvians and Lithuanians. The territory to the west of the river was inhabited by and was part of the lands ruled by (960-92) who converted to (966). His eldest son Bole• slaw I, the Brave (992-1025), became Poland's first king in 1025. His kingdom eventually disintegrated into riyal duchies. While the Pomeranians convert• ed to Christianity, the Prussians resisted efforts to subdue and convert them and made occasional raids into the neighboring duchies of Masovia/Ma• zowsze and Cuiavia/Kujavia. To defend his lands, Duke Conrad of Masovia/ Mazowsze made what became a momentous deeision by inviting the Teu• tonic Knights to settle on his frontier1• The terms of this invitation have been disputed by historians. Those supporting the Knights claimed that they had been brought in to protect Polish territory and had been given charge of the provinces of Cuyavia/ Kujavia and Chelmo/Kulm/Kulmerland and of any Prussian lands they could conquer and convert to Christianity. Polish historians argue that the duke had acted as a private person and had invited the Knights to make a religious foundation. The Grand Master Hermann von Salza (c. 1165-1239, Grand Master since 1210) had a plan of his own, to create a new German state based on lands given hirn by Duke Conrad in 1226-28: the village of orlowo in Kujavia/Cuyavia and the castle at Chelmno with its dependen• eies, and on lands he would later conquer. The Knights obtained from the Emperor Friedrich 11 (1194-1250, emperor 1212-50) in Rimini on 26 Febru-

1 O. SEWARD, The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders, rev. ed., Baltimore 1995, 95-133; E. N. JOHNSON, The German Crusade on the Baltic, in: A History of the Crusades, ed. K. M. SETION, 6 vols., vol. III: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, ed. H. W. HAZARD, Madi• son, WI 1975,545-85, he re 581-84; P. W. KNOLL, Poland, in: OMA 9 (1987) 716-31, here 726-28.

IAHe 46 (2014)1 192 Nelson H. Minnich

ary 1226 a Golden BuH granting them fuH sovereignty over any lands they conquered, with the as their ultimate sovereign and making the Grand Master and his successors princes of the Empire with a seat in the imperial Diet. The Knights were very successful crusaders and between 1232 and 1283 conquered the Prussians and set up an independent state with its headquarters in Prussiaz• They also acquired Polish lands by various means. The district of Mi• chalowo came into the hands of the Knights in 1303 as coHateral for a loan given to Duke Leszek/lokietek of Kujavia, but it was never returned even after the duke offered to repay the loan. Additional lands were taken by force. In 1308-09 the Knights conquered Eastern , known as Gdansk . The Polish king Wladyslaw I the Short/lokietek (1261- 1333, ruled 1296-1300, 1306-33) lodged a complaint with Pope lohn XXII who ordered a formal trial in 1320 which issued its decision on 9/10 Febru• ary 1321, ordering the Knights to return Gdansk Pomerelia to the and to pay them an indemnity of 30,000 marks, plus another 150 in court costs. The Knights protested against the proceedings and refused to abide by the decision. The efforts of the Polish kings Wladyslaw I the Short and his son Casimir III (1310-70, ruled 1333-70) to retake this territory failed. A new law suit was lodged at the papal court and Pope Benedict XII in 1338 set up a tribunal to hear the case in Warsaw. The Poles called for the restitution of Pomerelia, Chelmno, Kujavia, Dobrzyn, and Michalowo, and the payment of an indemnity of 149,000 Polish marks. On twenty-three different occasions, depositions supporting the Polish claims were taken from 126 witnesses in various Polish cities. On 15 September 1339 in Warsaw the papaljudges or• dered the Knights to return the territories to the Poles and to pay them an indemnity of 194,500 silver marks and another 1,600 marks for court costs. But the pope refused to confirm the sentence and urged a compromise set• tlement whereby Po land would receive only Kujavia and Dobrzyn, plus 10,000 florins as indemnification, and renounce its claims to Gdansk Pome-

2 For the propaganda warfare over the dual image of the as both a crusading religious order whose reason for existence ceased with the conversion of the Bal• tic pagans and as a secular corporation enjoying governmental powers as either a vassal of Poland or state within the Empire, see: Th. WÜNSCH, Der Deutsche Orden als Wille und Vor• stellung: Selbst- und Fremdkonstruktionen einer geistlich-weltlichen Korporation zwischen Ideologie und Politik, in: Generalprobe : Neue Forschungen zur Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens in Siebenbürgen und im Banat, ed. K. GÜNDlSCH, Wien 2013, 11-29; S. F. BElCH, Paulus Vladimiri and His Doctrine Concerning International Law and Politics, 2 vols., The Hague 1965, I, 101-103.