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Ducal Prussia (), or the Duchy of Prussia (), was a duchy established in 1525 in the eastern part of Prussia, after western Prussia had become the Polish province of Royal Prussia according to the Peace of Toruń (Thorn) in 1466. The first Protestant (Lutheran) state, Ducal Prussia had its capital in Königsberg.
The duchy remained part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1657, when the Hohenzollern prince-electors of Brandenburg achieved sovereignty over the territory. It was elevated to the status of a kingdom in 1701. In 1773 the territory of Ducal Prussia was reorganized into the Province of East Prussia.
Ducal Prussia
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| | Native Name | Herzogtum Preußen
Prusy Książęce | | Conventional Long Name | Duchy of Prussia | | Common Name | Prussia | | Continent | Europe | | Region | East Europe | | Country | Poland | | Status | Vassal | | Empire | Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569) | | Empire Article | of | | Empire Common Name | Poland | | Empire Extra Text | (1525-1569)
Vassal of Polish-Lithuanian ... | | Government Type | Monarchy | | Event Start | Prussian Homage | | Year Start | 1525 | | Date Start | April | | Event End | Kingdom of Prussia | | Year End | 1701 | | Date End | 18 January | | Event1 | Brandenburg-Prussia | | Date Event1 | 27 August | | Year Event1 | 1618 | | Event2 | Treaty of Oliva | | Date Event2 | 23 April | | Year Event2 | 1660 | | P1 | Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights | | S1 | Kingdom of Prussia | | Flag S1 | Flag of Preussen 1701-1918.jpg | | Symbol | | | Image Coat | Coat of arms - Ducal Prussia.png | | Image Map | Rzeczpospolita Royal Ducal.png | | Image Map Caption | Royal and Ducal Prussia in the second half of... | | Capital | Kaliningrad | | Latd | 55 | | Latm | 44 | | Latns | N | | Longd | 20 | | Longm | 29 | | Longew | E | | Religion | Protestantism | | Title Leader | Duke of Prussia | | Leader1 | Albert I, Duke of Prussia | | Leader2 | Frederick I of Prussia | | Year Leader1 | 1525 — 1568 | | Year Leader2 | 1688 — 1701 |
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History
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 Prussia, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, lacked the military resources to assert the order's authority. After losing a war against the Kingdom of Poland, and with his personal bishop 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.[Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades. Penguin Books. London, 1997. ISBN 0-14-026653-4]
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.[Seward, Desmond. The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders. Penguin Books. London, 1995. ISBN 0-14-019501-7 ]
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 found himself reliant on support from 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.[Koch, H.W. A History of Prussia. Barnes & Noble Books. New York, 1978. ISBN 0-88029-158-3 ] 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 Patollu while consuming the flesh of a goat.[Kirby, David. Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Baltic World, 1492-1772. Longman. London, 1990. ISBN 0-582-00410-1 ]
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.[ Although there were no more large-scale rebellions, Ducal Prussia became known as a land of Protestant dissent and sectarianism.][ 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 to Ducal Prussia. Although he was formally a vassal of Poland, Albert was allowed his own army, the minting of his currency, a provincial assembly, and had substantial autonomy in foreign affairs.[Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003. ISBN 1-85367-535-0 ]
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. Upon Albert Frederick's death in 1618, the duchy passed to John Sigismund, although he himself died the following year. John Sigismund's son, George William, was successfully invested with the duchy by Poland in 1623.[ Many of the Prussian Junkers were opposed to rule by the House of Hohenzollern of Berlin and appealed to King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland for redress, or even incorporation of Ducal Prussia into the Polish kingdom, although without success.][Eulenberg, Herbert. The Hohenzollerns. Translated by M.M. Bozman. The Century Co. New York, 1929.]
In 1657 during the Second Northern War between Sweden, Poland, and Brandenburg, the Treaty of Wehlau granted full sovereignty over Ducal Prussia to Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. The duchy lost its status as a fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and instead became part of the newly-styled Brandenburg-Prussia.
In 1675 King John III Sobieski of Poland concluded with France a secret pact, in which Poland would attack Ducal Prussia while France would pressure the Ottoman Empire to return territories to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Upon the ending of hostilities with the Ottoman Turks, Poland could then attack Brandenburg or France's rival Austria. However, Sobieski was opposed by the Papacy, Polish gentry who saw the Ottomans as the greater threat, and Polish magnates bribed by Berlin and Vienna, and Sobieski's plans for Ducal Prussia dissipated.[Gieysztor, Alexander, Stefan Kieniewicz, Emanuel Rostworowski, Janusz Tazbir, and Henryk Wereszycki. History of Poland. PWN. Warsaw, 1979. ISBN 83-01-00392-8]
Ducal Prussia's location outside of the Holy Roman Empire allowed Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg to become "king in Prussia" in 1701 without offending Emperor Leopold I. In 1773 former Ducal Prussia was reorganized into the Province of East Prussia, while most of Royal Prussia became the Province of West Prussia.
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