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Duchy of Prussia
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The Duchy of Prussia (German: Herzogtum Preußen (help·info)) or Ducal Prussia (Polish: Prusy Książęce) was a duchy established in 1525 in the former Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights in the Eastern part of Prussia. It was the first Protestant (Lutheran) state, with a mainly German-speaking population.
The Duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg, was inherited by the Hohenzollern prince-electors of Brandenburg in 1618. The personal union is referred to as Brandenburg-Prussia until it was elevated to the status of a kingdom in 1701.
The Duchy of Prussia remained a largely autonomous vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1657, when the "Great Elector" Frederick William of Brandenburg achieved full sovereignty over the territory in the Treaty of Wehlau, which was conclusively recognized in the Treaty of Oliva (1660).
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As Protestantism spread among the laity of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, dissent began to develop against the Catholic rule of the Teutonic Knights, whose Grand Master, Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, lacked the military resources to assert the order's authority. After losing a so called Prussian War against the Kingdom of Poland, and with his personal bishop Georg von Polenz of Sambia and a number of his commanders already supporting Protestant ideas, Albert began to consider a radical solution. At Wittenberg in 1522 and at Nuremberg in 1524, Martin Luther encouraged him to convert the order's territory into a secular principality under his personal rule, as the anachronistic Teutonic Knights would not be able survive the Protestant Reformation.[1]
In April 1525 Albert resigned his position, became a Protestant, and in the Prussian Homage was granted the title "Duke of Prussia" by his new feudal overlord, King Sigismund I the Old of Poland. In a deal partially brokered by Luther, Ducal Prussia became the first Protestant state, anticipating the dispensations of the Peace of Augsburg of 1555. When Albert returned to Königsberg, he publicly declared his conversion and announced to a quorum of Teutonic Knights his new ducal status. The knights who disapproved of the decision were pressured into acceptance by Albert's supporters and the burghers of Königsberg, and only Eric of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Komtur of Memel, opposed the new duke.
By the end of Albert's rule, the offices of Großkomtur and Ordensmarschall had deliberately been left vacant and the order had only 55 knights in Prussia. Some of the knights converted to Lutheranism in order to retain their property and then married into the Prussian nobility, while others returned to the Holy Roman Empire and remained Catholic.[2]
On 1 March 1526 Albert married Princess Dorothea, daughter of King Frederick I of Denmark, thereby establishing political ties between Lutheranism and Scandinavia. Despite his Protestant creed, Albert was greatly aided by his older brother George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who had already earlier established Protestant religion in his territories of Franconia and Upper Silesia. Albert also found himself reliant on support from his Jagiellonian uncle Sigismund I of Catholic Poland, as the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church had banned him for his Protestantism.
Because Ducal Prussia was ostensibly a Lutheran land, authorities travelled throughout the duchy ensuring that Lutheran teachings were being followed and imposing penalties on pagans and dissidents. There was little active resistance to the new creed, although the fact that the Teutonic Knights had brought Roman Catholicism and Protestantism made the transition easier.[3] While there was little longing for Catholicism, Baltic Prussian peasants continued to practice pagan customs in some areas, for example praying to gods such as Perkunos, Potrimpos, and Pikullos (Patollu) while consuming the roasted flesh of a goat.[4]
The Crown Duchy of Prussia, Polish fief Grand Duchy of Lithuania Duchy of Courland, Lithuanian fief Duchy of Livonia Swedish and Danish Livonia
  History of Brandenburg and Prussia |
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| Northern March pre-12th century |
Old Prussians pre-13th century |
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| Margraviate of Brandenburg 1157–1618 (1806) |
Ordenstaat 1224–1525 |
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| Duchy of Prussia 1525–1618 |
Royal (Polish) Prussia 1466–1772 |
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| Brandenburg-Prussia 1618–1701 |
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| Kingdom in Prussia 1701–1772 |
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| Kingdom of Prussia 1772–1918 |
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| Free State of Prussia 1918–1947 |
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| Brandenburg 1947–1952 / 1990– |
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A peasant rebellion broke out in Sambia in 1525. The combination of taxation by the nobility, the furor of the Protestant Reformation, and the abrupt secularization of the Teutonic Order's remaining Prussian lands exacerbated peasant unrest. The relatively well-to-do rebel leaders, including a miller from Kaimen and an innkeeper from Schaaken, were supported by sympathizers in Königsberg. The rebels demanded the elimination of newer taxes by the nobility and a return to an older tax of two marks for every Hufe (approximately forty acres). They claimed to be rebelling against the harsh nobility, not against Duke Albert, who was away in the Holy Roman Empire, but they would only swear allegiance to him in person. Upon Albert's return from the Empire, he called for a meeting of the peasants in a field, whereupon he surrounded them with loyal troops and had them arrested without incident; the leaders of the rebellion were subsequently executed.[4] Although there were no more large-scale rebellions, Ducal Prussia became known as a land of Protestant dissent and sectarianism.[3] While the composition of the nobility changed little in the transition from monastic state to duchy, the hold of the nobility over the peasantry increased. The peasant rebellion had frightened the nobles, however, causing them to look to Duke Albert for leadership.
Administratively, little changed in the transition from the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights to Ducal Prussia. Although he was formally a vassal of the crown of Poland, Albert retained self-government for Prussia, his own army, the minting of his currency, a provincial assembly (Prussian Diet, Landtag), and had substantial autonomy in foreign affairs.[5]
When Albert died in 1568, his son Albert Frederick inherited the duchy. Administration in the duchy declined as Albert Frederick became increasingly feeble-minded, leading Margrave George Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach to become Regent of Prussia in 1577.
As Albert Frederick had no surviving male heirs, the Treatise of Warsaw in 1611 allowed his son-in-law, Elector John Sigismund of the Hohenzollern branch in Brandenburg, to become the duke's legal successor. In 1618, the Thirty Years' War broke out, and Albert Frederick's died, with the duchy passing to John Sigismund who himself died the following year. John Sigismund's son, George William, was successfully invested with the Duchy in 1623 by the king of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa, thus the personal union Brandenburg-Prussia was confirmed.[3] Many of the Prussian Junkers were opposed to rule by the House of Hohenzollern of Berlin and appealed to King Sigismund III Vasa for redress, or even incorporation of Ducal Prussia into the Polish kingdom, although without success.[6]
- ^ Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades. Penguin Books. London, 1997. ISBN 0-14-026653-4
- ^ Seward, Desmond. The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders. Penguin Books. London, 1995. ISBN 0-14-019501-7
- ^ a b c Koch, H.W. A History of Prussia. Barnes & Noble Books. New York, 1978. ISBN 0-88029-158-3
- ^ a b Kirby, David. Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Baltic World, 1492–1772. Longman. London, 1990. ISBN 0-582-00410-1
- ^ Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003. ISBN 1-85367-535-0
- ^ Eulenberg, Herbert. The Hohenzollerns. Translated by M.M. Bozman. The Century Co. New York, 1929.
 Fiefs of the Polish Kingdom |
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| Fiefs of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom | Duchy of Prussia · Lębork-Bytów Land · Duchy of Masovia · Principality of Moldavia · Principality of Wallachia · Novgorod Republic |  Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1635 |
| Common with Grand Duchy of Lithuania | Duchy of Courland and Semigallia | |
