Pomeranian Voivodeship (1466–1772)
| Pomeranian Voivodeship Województwo pomorskie Woiwodschaft Pommerellen | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voivodeship of Poland¹ Part of Royal Prussia and (from 1569) Greater Poland provinces | |||||||||
| 1466–1772 | |||||||||
Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth | |||||||||
| Capital | Skarszewy | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• | 12,907 km2 (4,983 sq mi) | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 21 February 1454 | |||||||||
| 1 October 1466 | |||||||||
| 1 July 1569 | |||||||||
| 5 August 1772 | |||||||||
| Political subdivisions | counties: 8 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Poland Russia² | ||||||||
| ¹ Voivodeship of the Polish Crown in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland before 1569. ² Small portion of the Vistula Spit around Polski[1] | |||||||||
The Pomeranian Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo pomorskie, German: Woiwodschaft Pommerellen) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1454/1466 until the First partition of Poland in 1772. From 1613 the capital was at Skarszewy (Schöneck).
The voivodeship comprised the westernmost part of the autonomous province of Royal Prussia and, after the Union of Lublin in 1569, the northernmost part of the Greater Poland Province.
Etymology
The name Pomerania derives from the Slavic po more, meaning "by the sea" or "on the sea".[2]
In English sources and generally in German language use, for this historical region the appellation of Pomerelia (German: Pommerellen or Pomerellen, rendered as Pomorze Gdańskie in Polish) prevails, because the name Pomerania (German: Pommern) usually refers to the western Duchy of Pomerania (Polish: Księstwo Pomorskie), ruled by the House of Griffins.
History
The voivodeship comprised the historic Pomerelia region, which since the Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1308 had been held by the State of the Teutonic Order.
In 1440, many cities of the region joined the newly formed anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation.[3] In 1454, the organization asked Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon to reincorporate the region into the Kingdom of Poland, to which the King agreed and signed an act of re-incorporation in Kraków.[4] After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War, the longest of all Polish–Teutonic wars, the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the region and recognized it as part of Poland.[5] Together with the Chełmno (Kulm) and Malbork (Marienburg) voivodeships and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia (Ermland) it formed the autonomous and multilingual province of Royal Prussia. The autonomy of the region was later abolished as a result of the Union of Lublin in 1569 and the area was fully incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland.
In turn for their support in the Thirteen Years' War, the Griffin dukes in 1455 gained the Pomerelian Lębork and Bytów Land (Lauenburg and Bütow) as a Polish fief, which upon the extinction of the dynasty in 1637 was reincorporated directly into the Pomeranian Voivodeship.
In 1571, Denmark conducted a naval raid of Hel. 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, Danzig (Gdańsk) withstood a Swedish siege. The Treaty of Oliva, one of the peace treaties ending the Second Northern War was signed in Oliwa in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. In 1677, a Polish-Swedish alliance was signed in Danzig.[6]
After the 1618 personal union of the Polish vassal Ducal Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg under the rising House of Hohenzollern, the Pomeranian Voivodeship separated the two territories. By the 1657 Treaty of Bromberg, Poland had given up suzerainty over Ducal Prussia and granted the Lębork and Bytów Land as a Polish fief to Brandenburg, who also ruled over the adjacent Imperial Pomerania Province. As the margraves had assumed the title of a King in Prussia in 1701, the Hohenzollerns sought to link their territories. On the eve of the Polish partitions, King Frederick II of Prussia in 1771 finally incorporated Lauenburg and Bütow into the Pomerania Province. In the course of the First Partition of Poland the next year, he furthermore annexed the Pomeranian Voivodeship with most of Royal Prussia, then renamed as the Province of West Prussia – except for the port city of Danzig, which was not incorporated until the Second Partition of 1793.
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, the capital of the voivodeship.[7]
Today the historic administrative region roughly corresponds to the present-day Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland, which also comprises the Lębork and Bytów Land as well as part of the territory of the former Malbork Voivodeship, that until 1230 had been part of the Prussian tribal territory.
Administration
Voivodeship Governor (Wojewoda) seat:
Regional council (sejmik generalny)
Regional councils (sejmik poselski i deputacki)
Administrative divisions:
- Człuchów County, (Powiat Człuchowski), Człuchów
- Gdańsk County, (Powiat Gdański), Gdańsk
- Koscierzyna County, (Powiat Kościerzyński), Kościerzyna
- Mirachowo County, (Powiat Mirachowski), Mirachowo
- Nowe County, (Powiat Nowski), Nowe
- Puck County, (Powiat Pucki), Puck
- Skarszewy County, (Powiat Skarszewski), Skarszewy
- Stargard County, (Powiat Starogrodzki) Starogard Gdański
- Świecie County, (Powiat Świecki), Świecie
- Tczew County, (Powiat Tczewski), Tczew
- Tuchola County, (Powiat Tucholski), Tuchola
From 1637 to 1657, the Lębork and Bytów Land.
Cities and towns
The largest city of the voivodeship was Gdańsk, which as one of the largest and most influential cities of entire Poland enjoyed voting rights during the Royal free elections.[8] Since 1454, Gdańsk was authorized by King Casimir IV to mint Polish coins.[9] 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.[10] In 1587, Sigismund III Vasa swore the pacta conventa in Oliwa near Gdańsk prior to his coronation as King of Poland.[11] 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).[11] Around 1640, Johannes Hevelius established his astronomical observatory in Gdańsk, which was regularly visited by Polish King John III Sobieski.
Other royal cities and towns were Biały Bór, Chojnice, Czarne, Człuchów, Debrzno, Gniew, Kościerzyna, Nowe, Puck, Starogard, Świecie, Tuchola, Tczew and the voivodeship capital Skarszewy.[12] Chojnice was an important center of cloth production in Poland.[13] Cloth production was the main branch of the town's economy, and in 1570, clothiers constituted 36% of all craftsmen in the town.[13] To this day, one of the main streets in the town center is called Ulica Sukienników ("Clothiers' Street").[13] 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 towns of Bytów, Lębork and Łeba were part of the voivodeship from 1637 to 1657, and in 1643 the town of Wejherowo was founded.
See also
References
- ^ Biskup, Marian; Tomczak, Andrzej (1955). Mapy województwa pomorskiego w drugiej połowie XVI w. (in Polish). Toruń. p. 129.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Der Name Pommern (po more) ist slawischer Herkunft und bedeutet so viel wie „Land am Meer“. (Pommersches Landesmuseum, German)
- ^ Górski 1949, p. XXXVII.
- ^ Górski 1949, p. 51, 56.
- ^ Górski 1949, p. 88–90, 206–207.
- ^ Jonasson, Gustav (1980). "Polska i Szwecja za czasów Jana III Sobieskiego". Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka (in Polish). XXXV (2). Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk: 240. ISSN 0037-7511.
- ^ "90 lat Mazurka Dąbrowskiego. Autor Hymnu Narodowego mieszkał w Skarszewach". Kociewiak.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 3 November 2025.
- ^ Polska encyklopedja szlachecka, Tom I (in Polish). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Kultury Historycznej. 1935. p. 42.
- ^ Górski 1949, p. 63.
- ^ "Gdańsk". Szlak Kopernikowski (in Polish). Retrieved 3 November 2025.
- ^ a b Gloger, Zygmunt (1900). Geografia historyczna ziem dawnej Polski (in Polish). Kraków. p. 168.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Prusy Królewskie w drugiej połowie XVI wieku. Część I. Mapy, plany (in Polish). Warszawa: Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk. 2021. p. 1.
- ^ a b c Look, Witold (2014). "Sukiennictwo chojnickie". Zeszyty Chojnickie (in Polish). No. 29. Chojnice: Chojnickie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk. p. 20.
Bibliography
- Górski, Karol (1949). Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych (in Polish and Latin). Poznań: Instytut Zachodni.