Pomerania in the early modern period covers the history of Pomerania in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
The name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means "[land] by the sea".Der Name Pommern (po more) ist slawischer Herkunft und bedeutet so viel wie „Land am Meer“. (Pommersches Landesmuseum, German)
The Duchy of Pomerania was fragmented into Pomerania-Stettin (Farther Pomerania) and Pomerania-Wolgast (Western Pomerania) in 1532,Buchholz (1999), pp.205–220Theologische Realenzyklopädie (1997), p.40ff underwent Protestant Reformation in 1534,Buchholz (1999), pp.205–212du Moulin Eckart (1976), pp.111,112Theologische (1997), pp.43ff and was even further fragmented in 1569.Buchholz (1999), pp.207 In 1627, the Thirty Years' War reached the duchy.Buchholz (1999), p.233 Following the Treaty of Stettin (1630), it was under Swedish control.Buchholz (1999), pp.235,236 During the war, the last duke Bogislaw XIV died without an issue. Garrison, plunder, numerous battles, famine and diseases left two thirds of the population dead and most of the country ravaged.Buchholz (1999), p.263Buchholz (1999), p.332 In the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the Swedish Empire and Brandenburg–Prussia agreed on a partition of the duchy, which came into effect after the Treaty of Stettin (1653). Western Pomerania became Swedish Pomerania, a Swedish dominion, while Farther Pomerania became a Brandenburg–Prussian province.
A series of wars affected Pomerania in the following centuries. As a consequence, most of the formerly free peasants became serfs of the nobles.Buchholz (1999), p.264ff Brandenburg–Prussia was able to integrate southern Swedish Pomerania into her Pomeranian province during the Great Northern War, which was confirmed in the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720.Buchholz (1999), pp.341–343 In the 18th century, Prussia rebuilt and colonised her war-torn Pomeranian province.Buchholz (1999), pp.332,347,354
Throughout this time, Pomerelia was within Poland as province of Royal Prussia with certain degree of autonomy until 1569, when it was further integrated with Polish state. In the late 18th century, it was forcefully annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the Partitions of Poland and subjected to Germanization efforts.
Polish Pomerelia (1454/1466–1793)
During the Thirteen Years' War, in February 1454, the Prussian Confederation of cities and gentry trying to secede from the Teutonic Knights' monastic state, asked the Polish king for support against the Teutonic Order's rule and for incorporation of into the Polish kingdom. The war ended in October 1466 with the Second Peace of Thorn, in which the Order recognized the incorporation of Pomerelia, Chełmno Land, Warmia and parts of Prussia into the Kingdom of Poland. Pomerelia became the Pomeranian Voivodeship within the larger provinces of Royal Prussia and Greater Poland Province. In 1613 Skarszewy became capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Royal Prussia enjoyed a certain degree autonomy in its affiliation to the Crown of Poland – it had its own Diet, treasury and monetary unit and armies. It was governed by a council, subordinate to the Polish king, whose members were chosen from local lords and wealthy citizens. Prussians had also seats provided for them in Polish Diet, but they chose not to use this right until the Union of Lublin. According to Zygmunt Gloger, during the rule of Sigismund III Vasa, Gdańsk was one of the two largest cities of Poland (alongside Kraków), and one of the three largest cities in Slavic countries (alongside Kraków and Prague).
Gdańsk was visited by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1504 and 1526, and Narratio Prima, the first printed publication of his heliocentric theory, was published there in 1540. Grudziądz was the place where Copernicus presented his Monetae cudendae ratio treatise, in which he postulated the principle that "bad money drives out good" which became known as the Gresham's law or the Gresham–Copernicus law. Around 1640, Johannes Hevelius established his astronomical observatory in Gdańsk, which was regularly visited by Polish King John III Sobieski.
Chojnice was an important center of cloth production in Poland. Cloth production was the main branch of the town's economy, and in 1570, clothiers constituted 36% of all craftsmen in the town. To this day, one of the main streets in the town center is called Ulica Sukienników ("Clothiers' Street").
The significant Scottish diaspora in Poland, founded in Gdańsk in 1380, grew due to immigration, and in the 16th and 17th centuries was also noted in other towns of the region, including Biały Bór, Chojnice, Czarne, Człuchów, Debrzno, Gniew, Kościerzyna, Puck, Starogard, Świecie and Tczew.
During the Polish–Swedish War of 1626–1629, in 1627, the naval Battle of Oliwa was fought in the area, and it is one of the greatest victories in the history of the Polish Navy. The region was invaded by Sweden during the Swedish invasion of Poland of 1655–1660, commonly known as the Deluge, however, Gdańsk withstood a Swedish siege. In 1677, a Polish-Swedish alliance was signed in the city.
In 1587, Sigismund III Vasa swore the pacta conventa in Oliwa prior to his coronation as King of Poland. In the second half of the 17th century, prior to becoming King of Poland, John III Sobieski served as the starost of Gniew and built the Marysieńka Palace for his wife, Queen Marie Casimire, there. The future Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski lived in Gdańsk until the age of 7, and his brother Michał Jerzy Poniatowski, who would become the Primate of Poland, was born in the city.
In 1686, a French Huguenot commune was established in Gdańsk.
Józef Wybicki, author of the lyrics to the national anthem of Poland, hailed from the region, as he was born in Będomin, attended a college in Stare Szkoty and studied law at the local court in Skarszewy.
In the 1772 and 1793 Partitions of Poland, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, which created out of the conquered territories the province of West Prussia.
Protestant Reformation (1534)
The Protestant Reformation reached Pomerania in the early 16th century. Bogislaw X of the Duchy of Pomerania in 1518 sent his son, Barnim IX, to study in Wittenberg. In 1521, he personally attended a mass of Martin Luther in Wittenberg, and also of other reformed preachers in the following years. Also in 1521, Johannes Bugenhagen, the Doctor Pomeranus, the most important person in the following conversion of Pomerania to Protestantism, left Belbuck Abbey to study in Wittenberg, close to Luther. In Belbuck, a circle had formed before, comprising not only Bugenhagen, but also Johann Boldewan, Christian Ketelhut, Andreas Knöpke and Johannes Kureke. These persons, and also Johannes Knipstro, Paul vom Rode, Peter Suawe, Jacob Hogensee and Johann Amandus spread the Protestant idea all over Pomerania. At several occasions, this went along with public outrage, plunder and arson directed against the church.
The dukes' role in the reformation process was ambitious. Bogislaw X, despite his sympathies, forbade Protestant preaching and tumults shortly before his death. Of his sons, Georg I opposed, and Barnim IX supported Protestantism as did Georg's son, Phillip I. In 1531, Georg died, and a Landtag in Stettin (Szczecin) formally allowed Protestant preaching, if no tumults would arise from this. On December 13, 1534, a Landtag was assembled in Treptow an der Rega (Trzebiatów), where the dukes and the nobility against the vote of Cammin (Kamień) bishop Erasmus von Manteuffel officially introduced Protestantism to Pomerania. Bugenhagen in the following month drafted the new Lutheran church order.Du Moulin Eckart (1976), pp.111,112
The Duchy of Pomerania joined the Schmalkaldic League, but did not actively participate in the Schmalkaldic War.Buchholz (1999), p.223
With the conversion of most Pomeranians to Lutheranism the Duchy of Pomerania turned into a Catholic diaspora. The Catholic Northern Missions took care of Catholic Pomeranians, directly subordinated to Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in Rome since 1622. In 1667 these missions were taken care by a newly established Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern Missions, led by a vicar apostolic seated in Hanover and subject to the nuncio in Cologne. Between 1709 and 1780 then Brandenburgian Pomerania was part of the Vicariate Apostolic for Upper and Lower Saxony.
In 1748 the first new post-Reformation Catholic congregations in Pomerania were founded in the course of King Frederick II's repopulation policy. Palatine Catholics were settled in the five newly founded villages of Augustwalde (Wielgowo, a part of today's Szczecin), Blumenthal (a part of today's Ferdinandshof), Hoppenwalde (a part of today's Eggesin), Luisenthal (Borzysławiec) and Viereck. Since 1761 Catholic soldiers in Swedish Stralsund were granted Catholic pastoral care, which developed into the fourth new Catholic congregation in Pomerania. The same happened in Stettin, where the post of the Prussian Catholic military chaplains became the nucleus of the Catholic congregation (est. in 1809). In 1780 the Vicariate for Upper and Lower Saxony remerged into the Vicariate Apostolic of the North, with the next crucial change for Catholic Pomerians taking place in 1824.
Partitions of 1532 and 1569: Pomerania-Stettin and Pomerania-Wolgast
After Bogislaw X's death, his sons initially ruled in common. Yet, after Georg's death, the duchy was partitioned again between Barnim IX, who resided in Stettin (Szczecin), and Phillip I, who resided in Wolgast. The border ran roughly along the Oder and Świna rivers, with Pomerania-Wolgast now consisting of Hither or Western Pomerania (Vorpommern, yet without Stettin and Gartz (Oder) on the Oder river's left bank, and with Gryfice on its right bank), and Pomerania-Stettin consisting of Farther Pomerania. The secular possessions of the Diocese of Cammin (Kamień) around Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) subsequently came controlled by the dukes, when members of the ducal family were made titular bishops of Cammin since 1556.
Despite the division, the duchy maintained one central government.Nicklas (2002), p.180
In 1569, Pomerania-Barth (consisting of the area around Barth, Damgarten and Richtenberg) was split off Pomerania-Wolgast to satisfy Bogislaw XIII. In the same year, Pomerania-Rügenwalde (consisting of the areas around Darłowo and Bytów) was split off Pomerania-Stettin to satisfy Barnim XII.Buchholz (1999), pp.207 Though the partitions were named similar to the earlier ones, their territory differed significantly.
In contrast to the partition of 1532, it was agreed that two governments were maintained in Wolgast and Stettin. Decisions of war and peace were to be made only by a common Landtag.Nicklas (2002), p.182
During the 1560s, Pomerania was caught between the Northern Seven Years' War for hegemony in the Baltic Sea and the struggle for hegemony in the Upper Saxon Circle of the Electorate of Saxony and Brandenburg.Nicklas (2002), p.179 In 1570, the war in the Baltic ended with the Treaty of Stettin. In 1571/74, the duchy's status regarding Brandenburg was finally settled: While an agreement of 1529 ruled Brandenburg to succeed in Pomerania once the House of Pomerania died out in turn for the final rejection of Brandenburgian claims to hold Pomerania as a fief, it was now agreed that both ruling houses had a mutual right of succession in case of the extinction of the other one.