The Teutonic Knights, who arrived in Poland in the first half of the thirteenth century, had long coveted Gdańsk Pomerania. Controlling the mouth of the Vistula guaranteed them a series of political and economic benefits. The Order’s authorities were only waiting for favorable conditions to put their plans into action. This ultimately occurred at the beginning of the fourteenth century. During the conquest of Pomeranian lands, the Teutonic Knights proved extraordinarily brutal, which, combined with their cunning, determined their ultimate success.
Gdańsk in Trouble – Brandenburg Invasion (1308)
In 1308, a dangerous Brandenburg invasion struck Pomerania. The invaders occupied Gdańsk without major difficulty. Reportedly, the people of Gdańsk themselves voluntarily let the attackers into the city due to the dislike they harbored toward their lord Władysław the Elbow-high, who had granted too many privileges to merchants from Lübeck.
Only the Gdańsk stronghold survived the Brandenburg invasion, where forces loyal to Władysław the Elbow-high took refuge. At their head was Judge Bogusza, previously appointed by the duke as Pomeranian governor.
To capture the stronghold, the Brandenburgers began its siege. The valiantly defending defenders repelled all enemy assaults. The latter were, however, too few to withstand all the besiegers’ attacks. Consequently, Bogusza turned to the Teutonic Knights for help. He had appropriate authorization from Władysław the Elbow-high for this purpose, who was occupied at the time with struggles on another front.
Gdańsk Massacre – How Many People Did the Teutonic Knights Murder?
The Teutonic Knights willingly agreed to provide support to the Poles. However, they did not do this disinterestedly. They expected to obtain concrete political and territorial benefits.
Teutonic forces entered action as early as November 1308, driving the Brandenburgers from occupied positions practically without any problem, and then taking possession of the stronghold, which the Poles had abandoned.
The Teutonic Knights then launched an assault on the city. They ultimately captured it (on the night of November 12-13, 1308), though they had to exert considerable effort in the process. Immediately upon entering the city, the Order’s knights organized a massacre of all their opponents. At least sixteen Polish knights perished, who were subsequently buried in the cemetery in Oliwa.
The civilian population also fell victim to the Order – townspeople along with their families. The remaining townspeople were expelled from Gdańsk, and the city itself was burned to the ground.
To this day, scholars dispute how many people actually died during the events discussed here. Opinions among specialists are divergent. Some historians believed that the Gdańsk massacre claimed several thousand victims. The Poles, during later trials with the Teutonic Knights, claimed that the enemy murdered as many as 10,000 Gdańsk residents. In reality, the Polish side’s estimates were significantly inflated, because Gdańsk at that time was inhabited by at most several thousand people.
Meanwhile, the Order’s authorities maintained that they killed only 16 bandits, handed over to them by Gdańsk townspeople, who themselves set fire to their city! Of course, the Teutonic Knights were lying straight to their faces. Today, the fact that there were decidedly more victims raises no major doubts. However, sources helpful in establishing the exact number of those murdered are lacking.
Destruction of Tczew
After controlling Gdańsk, the Order’s forces approached Tczew, besieging the local castle and city. Historians believe that the then Duke of Kujawy, Kazimierz, had little intention of defending his heritage, hence he began negotiations with the enemy.
The townspeople of Tczew, however, approached the entire matter differently, intending to defend their settlements. They were not deterred from their conceived intention even by news of the conduct that the Order’s knights had committed in recently conquered Gdańsk.
Details of the Teutonic siege of Tczew are not known. It is only known that the defenders resisted the besiegers for several good weeks. In the end, however, they decided to leave Tczew, which undoubtedly caused great sadness on their faces, and then dispersed in different directions, settling various localities in Pomerania and Warmia.
The Teutonic Knights were very satisfied with the development of events thus far. Shortly after taking possession of Tczew, they demolished its fortifications along with the castle. Then they occupied the town of Nowe and ended military operations in 1308 with this. The balance of struggles with the Poles was extremely favorable for them.
Treacherous Control of Świecie
In April 1309, Duke Władysław the Elbow-high met with representatives of the Order in Kujawy to speak with them about Pomerania, recently occupied by them. Negotiations proceeded in an extremely tense atmosphere. The Teutonic Knights presented the Piast with such unfavorable conditions regarding the redemption of Pomerania from their hands that the Polish side had to reject them. This meant the outbreak of a new Polish-Teutonic war.
The last Polish point of resistance in Pomerania before Teutonic aggression was the powerful stronghold of Świecie, located on the Vistula. Battles for this fortress were particularly fierce. The Teutonic Knights brought four large throwing machines to the stronghold, which continuously conducted fire on enemy positions.
During the siege, the Order’s command decided to terrorize the valiantly defending garrison by hanging local peasants every day in their view on gallows specially prepared for this purpose. The enemies wanted to demonstrate to the defenders in this way that a similar fate would befall them in the future in case of further resistance.
The stronghold’s garrison, however, disregarded the besiegers’ actions, whereupon the Teutonic Knights came up with a truly diabolical idea. Namely, they bribed one of the Polish feudal lords, who destroyed part of the defenders’ siege equipment, which significantly facilitated the besiegers’ conduct of battles. Ultimately, the besieged capitulated after ten weeks of heavy siege.
With the moment of controlling Świecie, the Teutonic Knights completed the conquest of Gdańsk Pomerania, which found itself within the borders of the Order’s state for a century and a half.
