Prussian

The people which in history is called Prussian is the population that in the migration of nations settled in that part of the Baltic coast-land which in the second half of the Middle Ages was known as Prussia.

The land extending from the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea to the Masurian Lakes district was called "Prussia" by its Polish neighbours in the 10th century. People inhabiting those lands from at least the 5th century BCE spoke a variety of languages belonging to the western branch of the Baltic languages

Because the Baltic tribes inhabiting Prussia never formed a common political and territorial organisation (a state), they had no reason to adopt a common ethnic name. Instead they used the name of the region from which they came - Galindians, Sambians, Bartians, Nadrovians, Natangians, Scalovians and Sudovians.

Tacitus may have been referring to peoples living in what was later East Prussia when, in AD 98, he wrote of the Aesti in his Germania. These people may have been those later known as the Aesti-Prussi, who lived between the Vistula and Niemen rivers and spoke a Baltic rather than a Germanic language. (another baltian tribes: pls. see Samogits)
Links:

Prussia (from wikipedia)
www.ezresult.com - Prussia

In 1220 Conrad of Masovia invaded and even conquered some of the Prussian territory

return to "the field of the battle 1410"

from Historic chronology

1226. Teutonic Order (German Military Order of Knights), which was expelled from Hungary in 1225 for their excessive demands, are invited by a Polish Duke Conrad of Mazowia, with lands on the lower reaches of the Vistula river, to help him fight the pagan Prussians. In order to avoid the bitter experience of Hungary and to secure the Order’s position, its Grand Master Hermann von Salza obtained from the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II the so-called Golden Bull of Rimini as a legal basis for the settlement. By this charter, Frederick confirmed to Hermann and to the Order not only the lands to be granted by Conrad, but also those that the knights were to conquer from the Prussians. Later (1234), Hermann also secured privileges from Pope Gregory IX, which can be regarded as the second foundation charter of the Order’s Prussian State: the papacy was ready to accept the Order’s current and future conquests as the property of the Holy See and to grant them back to the Order in perpetual tenure.

1230. By the act of Kruchwitz of 16 June, Conrad of Mazowia grants to the Order the lands of Kulm, which never belonged to Mazowia. Pope Gregory IX, who in the autumn of the same years calls for a crusade against the Prussians, confirms this illegal grant.

1231. Combined German and Polish forces cross the Vistula River and begin the invasion of Prussian lands. During the next fifty years, having advanced from the lower Vistula River to the lower Nemunas River and having exterminated most of the native Prussian population (especially during the major uprising of 1260 – 1274), the Order firmly established its control over Prussia.

1250. The Order build their first castle in the Koningsberg region at Balga on the Aistian Lagoon (now, Vistula Lagoon) in place of the Vundenava castle of a Prussian tribe Varmi.

1260-1274. Major Prussian uprising against the yoke of the Order - only seven from over fifty-castles of the Order remain untaken.

1275. Attack of Nadruva and Skalva. 1278-1283, the Order conquers Suduva. The Order fully occupies the territory of Lithuanian Minor up to Nemunas. Their branch Livonian Order subdues the Klaipeda region.

1283. The Order attacks the Lithuanian fortifications on the right side of Nemunas, destroying the castle of Bisena (between Skisnemune and Veliuona).

1351. Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas and his brother Duke Kestutis demand from Pope Innocent VI and, in 1358, from Gregory XI that the Order returns to Lithuania the patronymic Baltic lands of Gediminaiciai from Aistian Lagoon to the Alna river, which were the Konigsberg and Klaipeda regions.

http://www.ccel.org

Prussians were neither Germans nor Slavs, but belonged with their neighbors to that special branch of the Indo-Germanic group which is called Lettish. As to the south of them the Poles had settled and to the west the Wends, they had no contact with Germany. Their religion was nature worship, a naive polytheism, deifying sun, moon, stars, thunder, birds, and quadrupeds. The common center of sacrifice was Romove, a place near Domnau (23 m. s.e. of Konigsberg, East Prussia); the place of worship was under trees, especially the oak. The people believed in a future life and retribution of a material kind. They dwelt in free, independent communities without national feeling. Their pursuits were agriculture and cattle-raising, trade and the chase. They practised polygamy, while women were treated as merchandise and slaves. The sick were exposed or slain, and drunkenness was a common vice. Hospitality, however, stood in high esteem. Because of their exclusion toward the south and west, Christianity could not come to the Prussians before the Christianization of the Poles and Wends. The first missionary attempt was made in 997 by Bishop Adalbert of Prague (q.v.), but without success. Bruno, Count of Querfurt, a relative of Otto III., who made a similar attempt, was suddenly captured by the heathen, with eighteen of his companions, and beheaded in 1009. In 1207 Abbot Gottfried from the monastery of Lekno in Greater Poland baptized some people, but was prevented by his early death from organizing congregations. Another monk, named Christian, probably also from a Cistercian monastery in Greater Poland, had better success, owing to the energetic assistance of Duke Conrad of Masovia and Cujavia. Christian entered the so called territory of Culm from the south, and between 1207 and 1210 preached Christianity in the neighborhood of L?au (74 m. s.e. of Danzig) and on the boundary line of Pomerania under the authority of Pope Innocent III. Between 1212 and 1215 he became "bishop" in Prussia. Two chiefs, Warpoda and Svabuno, with others were converted and received baptism in Rome. They granted pieces of land to their bishop, in the neighborhood of Loebau, and Duke Conrad of Masovia gave him the larger part of the territory of Culm, which possessions became a secure foundation of the Prussian bishopric.

2. Order of Teutonic Knights.

To protect the converted Prussians from the hatred of their countrymen, Pope Honorius III. demanded, in Poland and Pomerania, in 1217, and in Germany, in 1218, the preaching of a crusade against the Prussian heathen. Not until 1223 did the crusading armies from Silesia and Pomerania enter the territory of Culm. At the same time the Prussians fell fiercely upon Pomerania and Masovia. Christian, who had taken refuge in the fortified castle of Culm, and Conrad of Masovia were in the greatest peril and turned to the heroic Order of Teutonic Knights, promising them large grants of land for the conquest of Prussia. Hermann of Salza, the grand-master of the order, who sojourned at that time in Italy at the court of Ferdinand II. of Hohenstauffen, consented, although he was not immediately prepared to send an army; but in 1228 he sent a deputation of his knights to receive the land grant of Culm. In addition Bishop Christian also conferred upon him a tithe from his own possessions at Culm and in 1231 the gift of a third of his lands and its appurtenances. In the mean time Pope Gregory IX., in 1230, renewed the demand for a crusade against the Prussian heathen, and in 1231 Hermann Balke with an army of knights crossed the Vistula at Nassau and advanced toward Pomerania. Wherever the order gained a footing, fortresses were erected and German colonists attracted. Thus arose the towns of Thorn, Culm, Grandenz, Marienwerder (1233), Elbing (1237), and Konigsberg (1255). In 1238 the Teutonic order in Prussia united with the Order of the Brethren of the Sword in Livonia so that it could extend its missionary and colonizing activity far into the East. Wherever a town was founded there arose a church. Here and there a church or monastery was erected in the country. During an invasion from Samland, Bishop Christian was taken captive in Pomerania (1232). After his release in 1238 through Christian merchants, he accused the order of having made no efforts at ransom and of having robbed him of his possessions and privileges. The pope sent a legate who decided in favor of the order, conceding to the bishop only one-third of the conquered land and only the spiritual functions in the territory of the order. A reason why Christian did not enjoy any longer the favor of the papal court is to be found in the fear of leaving such a large territory under the rule of one person. Pope Innocent IV. accordingly divided Prussia, in 1243, into four episcopal dioceses: Culm, Pomerania, Ermland, and Samland; and these four bishoprics together with those of the Baltic provinces were put under the authority of the archbishop of Riga. This was entirely after the desire of the Teutonic order; for an archbishop living in Riga could not hinder their plans in Prussia. Moreover, the Teutonic knights established the tradition that the bishoprics and cathedral chapters should be occupied by priests from their own order. The treaty of peace between the Prussians and the order, concluded at Christburg in 1249, throws light upon the inner history of the mission. The Prussians promised to renounce heathenism entirely and adopt Christianity; however, a long time passed before the entire country as far as the Lithuanian boundary was subjected. The order was assisted in 1254 by Ottocar II., king of Bohemia, to whom was assigned the castle of K?nigsberg; and in 1266 by Margrave Otto III. of Brandenburg, who built the fortress of Brandenburg. By 1283 the knights were masters of the country from the Vistula to the Eastern border of modern East Prussia. In 1309 the grand master removed his seat to Marienburg (27 m. s.e. of Danzig)