Royal Prussia (;  or , ) or Polish PrussiaAnton Friedrich Büsching, Patrick Murdoch.
A New System of Geography, London 1762, p. 588 (Polish: ; German: ) Polnisch-Preußen ("State Constitution of Polish-Prussia") (see: Excerpt in the publication of 1764, p. 581) was a province of the Polish Crown, which was established after the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) from territory in western Prussia which had previously been part of the State of the Teutonic Order.
Royal Prussia retained its autonomy, governing itself and maintaining its own laws, customs, rights and German language.
In 1569, Royal Prussia was fully integrated into the Kingdom of Poland and its autonomy was largely abandoned.
As a result, the Royal Prussian parliament was incorporated into the Polish Sejm.
In 1772, the former territory of Royal Prussia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and subsequently re-organized into the province of West Prussia.
This occurred at the time of the First Partition of Poland, with other parts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth being annexed by the Russian Empire and Habsburg Austria.
Geography
The area consisted of the following districts:
Pomerelia and Danzig,
Kulmerland and Michelauer Land and Thorn,
the mouth of the Vistula with Elbing and Marienburg,
the Bishopric of Warmia (Ermland) with Allenstein which were forcibly ceded from the Teutonic Order in the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) to the Kingdom of Poland.Stone, Daniel.
A History of East Central Europe.
University of Washington Press, 2001, .
p. 30
From the 14th century, in old texts (until the 16th or 17th century) and in Latin, the terms Prut(h)enia and Prut(h)enic refer not only to the original settlement area of the now extinct Old Prussians along the Baltic coast east of the Vistula River, but also to the adjacent lands of the former Samboride dukes of Pomerelia, which territory the Teutonic Knights had acquired from the king of Poland in the 1343 Treaty of Kalisz and incorporated into the Order's State.
Pomerelia's Lauenburg and Bütow Land to the west was ruled by the Pomeranian dukes, enfeoffed to the king of Poland.
Royal Prussia is distinguished from later Ducal Prussia, the remaining (eastern) parts of Prussia around Königsberg, founded and governed by the Teutonic Knights.
After secularisation in 1525, it succeeded to the Protestant dukes of the Hohenzollern dynasty.
From 1618 this area was in personal union by the Electors of Brandenburg (Brandenburg-Prussia).
In 1657 the titular monarchy devolved by the Treaty of Wehlau.
History
Prussian Confederation
By 1308, the Pomerelian part of the region was conquered by the first Polish state, who granted them autonomy and their existing self-government.Frost, Robert, The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania, Vol.
I During the rule of Władysław I the Elbow-high of Poland, the Margraviate of Brandenburg staked its claim on the territory in 1308, leading Władysław to request assistance from the Teutonic Knights, who had replaced the Brandenburgers and incorporated Pomerelia into the Teutonic Order state in 1309 (Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) and Treaty of Soldin (Myślibórz)).
At the beginning of the 15th century the lands of the Teutonic Knights were inhabited by a mixed population, it is estimated that there were about 140 000 native Prussians, about 140 000 Poles and about 200 000 Germans.
The burden of taxation and the arbitrary way of governing caused resistance among the people of Prussia.
The burghers of the great Prussian cities began to organize themselves.
The first organized body was the Lizard League founded by the Chelmno Land nobility in 1397.
After being checked at the Battle of Grunwald, the Teutonic Knights's prestige declined, most towns and castles, as well as three Prussian bishops, swore loyalty to the Polish king.
Although the Order soon regained control over most of the territory, by the 1411 Peace of Thorn they were forced to pay large compnsation of 100,000 kop groszy for the return of prisoners, which became a financial burden on the citizenry.
Facing the opposition the komtur of Danzig ordered to execute the city's mayor Konrad Letzkau along with two councillors and five Chełmno nobles without a trial.
In order to protect their rights nobles and burghers created for the first time a joint assembly in 1412.
Subsequent peace treaties (1422 and 1435) with Poland gave the Order's subjects the right to throw off its sovereignty if it violated them.
In 1440, as the tax burden rose, indigenous nobles and Hanseatic cities established the Prussian Confederation at Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) in resistance of the Order's domestic and financial policies.
Confederation formed a self-governing bicameral institution, representing nobles and burghers of the province, which took decisions unanimously.
The Confederation was led by the citizens of Danzig, Elbing, and Thorn.
The gentry from Chełmno Land and Pomerelia participated as well.
After the monastic knights complained to the Emperor and Council of Basel, the Prussian parliament had to dissolve itself in 1449, but immediately resumed its clandestine activities.
In turn, in February 1454, the Confederation sent a delegation, under Hans von Baysen, to King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland, to ask him for support against the Teutonic Order's rule and for incorporation of their homeland into the Kingdom of Poland.
In this treaty, Prussian delegates declared the Polish king the only true sovereign of their lands, justified by the historical fact that the king of Poland had earlier ruled them.
After lengthy negotiation, on 6 March 1454, the Royal Chancellery issued the Incorporation Act by which king Kazimierz Jagiellończyk accepted inhabitants of the Prussian lands Prussians as subjects, incorporated Prussia to the Polish kingdom and granted them a large autonomy.
The Prussian estates received confirmation of their rights and privileges, were exempted from paying the , received the ius indigenatus, the right to decide on Prussian affairs at their own estate assemblies and a guarantee of the freedom of trade.
Thorn, Elbing, Königsberg and Danzig (Danzig law) were to retain the right to mint coins during the war, although with the image of the Polish king.
Thirteen Years' War
After the Prussian Confederation pledged allegiance to Casimir on 6 March 1454, the Thirteen Years' War ("War of the Cities") began.
King Casimir IV Jagiellon appointed Baysen as the first war-time governor of Royal Prussia.
On 28 May 1454, the king took an oath of allegiance from the citizens of Thorn, and in June a similar oath from the citizens of Elbing and Königsberg was taken.F. Kiryk, B. Ryś (red.)
Wielka Historia Polski, t.
II 1320-1506, Kraków 1997, p. 160-161
The rebellion also included major cities from the eastern part of the Order's lands, such as Kneiphof, later a part of Königsberg.
Though the Knights were victorious at the Battle of Chojnice in 1454, they were not able to finance more knights in order to reconquer the castles occupied by the insurgents.
Thirteen years of attrition warfare ended in October 1466 with the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), which provided for the Order's cession to the Polish Crown of its rights over the western half of Prussia, including Pomerelia and the districts of Elbing, Marienburg, and Chełmno.
Incorporation into the Polish Crown
thumb|1751 map showing Royal Prussia - dependency of the king of Poland, and Ducal Prussia - enfeoffed to the king of Poland.
According to the 1454 treaty signed by King Casimir IV, Royal Prussia was incorporated into the Polish Crown and their elites enjoyed the same rights and privileges as the elites of the Polish kingdom.
At the same time Royal Prussia was granted a considerable degree of autonomy.
Already instituted law codes were retained, only Prussians could be appointed on public offices (ius indigenatus), borders of the province had to remain intact and all decisions regarding Prussia had to be consulted with the Prussian council.
Thorn,  and Danzig retained the right to mint coins.
Polish model of political and administrative organisation was introduced into the province.
Royal Prussia was divided in 1454 onto four voivodeships: Pomeranian, Chełmno, Elbląg (later Malbork) and Królewiec (Königsberg), which ceased to exist after the second peace of Thorn.
Voivodeships were divided subsequently onto powiats.
The Bishop of Warmia had claimed Imperial Prince-Bishopric status, as mentioned in the Golden Bull of 1356 by Emperor Charles IV.
Although the area was never directly under the Emperor's jurisdiction and the claim seems unsupported by any bestowal document, it was in wide use in the 17th century.
The bishopric continued defending this status until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
The territory of Warmia remained under the jurisdiction of the its bishop, who since was the head of Prussian diet.
The bishopry of Warmia was depended on the archbishopric of Riga until 1566, and since then directly on the Papacy.
Integration into the Kingdom of Poland
In 1569, as a result of the Union of Lublin, which created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Royal Prussia was integrated fully into the Kingdom of Poland, and its parliament reduced to the status of a provincial assembly, also other separate Prussian institutions were dissolved.
The former territory was subsequently governed as Pomeranian Voivodeship, Culm Voivodeship, Malbork Voivodeship, and Prince-Bishopric of Warmia Partitions
At the same time as the 1772 First Partition of Poland, the former lands of Royal Prussia were annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, the successor state of the Teutonic Order.
In 1793, the new Kingdom of Prussia participated in the Second Partition of Poland by temporarily annexing the neighboring regions, which were almost immediately returned to the Tsarist kingdom of Poland and incorporated into the Russian Empire.
Governors
1454–1459: Johannes von Baysen, war-time governor
1459–1480: Stibor (Tiburcius) von BaysenActen der Ständetage Preussens unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens: 5 vols., Max Toeppen (ed.), Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1874–1886; reprint Aalen: Scientia, 1968–1974, vol. 5: 'Die Jahre 1458–1525', 1974.
p. 90]. .
1480: Niklas von Baysen, who was only elected; he refused to swear allegiance to the king.
He was also Voivode of Malbork.
In 1510, after several attempts to install another governor, the office was abolished.
See also
Ducal Prussia
Duchy of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
Pomerelia
Kursenieki
Kashubia
Warmia
The plague during the Great Northern War
References
Further reading
Robert Frost, The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania, Vol. I: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385—1569, Oxford 2015.
Gerard Labuda (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol.
I–IV, Poznań 1969–2003 (also covers East Prussia)
Wacław Odyniec, Dzieje Prus Królewskich (1454–1772).
Zarys monograficzny, Warszawa 1972
Dzieje Pomorza Nadwiślańskiego od VII wieku do 1945 roku, Gdańsk 1978
External links
Detailed Map of Prussia from about 1635 containing Ducal and Royal Prussia
