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The Teutonic takeover of Danzig in 1308 refers to events that lead to the incorporation of the Polish city of Gdańsk into the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the region was plunged into war involving Poland and the German principality of Brandenburg to the west. Brandenburg's claim to Gdańsk and Pomerania was based on a treaty of August 8, 1305 between Brandenburg's margraves and Wenceslaus III, promising the Meissen territory to the Bohemian crown in exchange for Pomerelia, although it never was finalised.

Because King Władysław I of Poland's troops were unable to relieve Gdańsk from a siege by Brandenburg, the city's Pomeranian judge, Bogusza, appealed to the Teutonic Knights in Prussia for assistance. The Knights expelled the Brandenburgers in 1308, but did not relinquish the city to Poland after Władysław refused to pay them 10,000 marks in compensation. The townspeople rebelled in an uprising bloodily repressed by the Knights. The royal garrison was attacked and expelled and the suburban populace was slaughtered, with the suburbs subsequently destroyed. Gdańsk's colony of German merchants and artisans was specifically attacked because they competed with the Knights' town of Elbing (Elbląg), a nearby Prussian Hanseatic city. Polish reports spread by Władysław indicated that 10,000 inhabitants were slain in the city, although that number has also been considered greater than the city's population at the time.

The Knights then captured the rest of Pomerelia from Brandenburg's troops. In September 1309, Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal sold his claim to the territory to the Teutonic Order for 10,000 marks, thereby connecting the Order's territory with that of the Holy Roman Empire. Gdańsk became officially known by its Germanised name "Danzig" and was incorporated into the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. Previously allies against the Prussians, Poland and the Teutonic Order engaged in a series of conflicts after the capture of Pomerelia.

Development of the city initially stagnated after its capture by the Teutonic Knights. Initially the new rulers tried to reduce the economic significance of Danzig by abolishing the local government and the privileges of the Lübeck traders. This apparently relates to the fact that the Danzig city council, including Arnold Hecht and Conrad Letzkau, was removed and beheaded in 1411. Later they had to accept the fact that Danzig defended its independence and was the largest and most important seaport of the region after overtaking Elbing. Subsequently Danzig flourished, benefiting from major investment and economic prosperity in Prussia and Poland, which stimulated trade along the Vistula. The city had become a full member of the Hanseatic League by 1361, but its merchants remained resentful at the barriers to the trade up the Vistula river to Poland, along with the lack of political rights in a state ruled in the interest of the Order's religiously-motivated knight-monks.

The takeover of Danzig by the Teutonic Order was questioned consistently by the Polish kings Wladislaus I and Casimir the Great, which led to a series of bloody wars and legal suits in the papal court in 1320 and 1333. Peace was established in the Treaty of Kalisz in 1343; although the Polish kings were able to retain the title "Duke of Pomerania" and were recognized as titular overlords of the crusaders, the Knights retained control of Danzig.

See also

• History of Gdańsk

1. ^ Gieysztor, Alexander, Stefan Kieniewicz, Emanuel Rostworowski, Janusz Tazbir, and Henryk Wereszycki. History of Poland. PWN. Warsaw, 1979. ISBN 8301003928
2. Halecki, Oscar. A History of Poland. Roy Publishers. New York, 1976. ISBN 0679510877
3. ^ Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003. ISBN 1853675350
4. Urban, Thomas. "Rezydencja książąt Pomorskich". Template:Pl icon