- Wartislaw III, Duke of Pomerania
Wartislaw III (* ~ 1210; †
17 May 1264 ) was a Griffin duke of Pomerania-Demmin. Son of Casimir II of Pomerania-Demmin andIngardis of Denmark , he was married to a Sophia of an unknown house. As he did not have any children, Pomerania-Demmin ceased to exist with his death.Ingardis ruled Pomerania-Demmin in place of young Wartislaw from Casimir's death 1219 until 1226. At that time, Pomerania-Demmin as well as the other part duchy Pomerania-Stettin were under Danish overlordship, which diminished after the 1227
Battle of Bornhöved and was finally dismissed when Wartislaw successfully countered a Danish expedition in 1234 with hisLübeck allies.1236 was a harsh year for Pomerania-Demmin, as Wartislaw lost a great part of his possessions to his rivaling neighbors
Mecklenburg and theMargraviate of Brandenburg . First, a Mecklenburgian expedition led byHenry Borwin III of Mecklenburg-Rostock annexed most ofCircipania , the western part of the duchy comprising the "terrae"Gnoien ,Altkalen andDemmin , leaving only the residential burgh ofDemmin under Wartislaw's control. Also, Wartislaw had to recognizeBrandenburg 's overlordship over the remainder of his duchy in the 1236Treaty of Kremmen . In the same treaty, he ceded the "terrae" Stargard,Wustrow andBeseritz to Brandenburg, which soon after were taken over by Mecklenburg and became known asMecklenburg-Strelitz .Yet, in the North, Wartislaw was able to expand his sphere of influence up to theRyck river into the territory of Hilda, nowEldena abbey set up there by the princes of Rügen. Wartislaw involved into developing Eldena's market and saline settlementGreifswald by granting it market rights together with the Rugian prince and received the town as a thief from Eldena in 1248.Besides his struggles with his neighbors, Wartislaw enforced the
Ostsiedlung in his duchy alike his cousin and Pomeranian co-ruler Barnim I of Pomerania-Stettin. He invited German nobles to join his court and settlers to develope the countryside, also, he grantedGerman town law in itsLübeck law specification to the growing towns ofGreifswald (1250),Demmin (~ 1250), Kolberg (now Kołobrzeg) (1255, along with Cammin bishopHermann von Gleichen ), Greifenberg (now Gryfice) (1262), also, together with Barnim I of Pomerania-Stettin,Wolgast (1257), Wollin (now Wolin) (1262) andStavenhagen (1252).When Wartislaw died without leaving a son, Pomerania-Demmin would have fallen to
Brandenburg , if not Barnim I had been accepted as co-ruler in the 1250Treaty of Landin and therefore integrated what was left of Pomerania-Demmin after the territorial losses of 1236 into his Stettin-based duchy. Wartislaw III's and his mother Ingardis' burial site isEldena Abbey nearGreifswald .See also
*
Pomeranian duchies and dukes
*House of Pomerania
*History of Pomerania Sources
*Dietmar Lucht: "Herzog Wartislaw III. von Pommern". In:
Baltische Studien , Neue Folge Bd. 53, 1967, S. 13–15.
*Edward Rymar: "Rodowód Książąt pomorskich", Sczecin 2005, S. 151–154.Personendaten
NAME=Wartislaw III. von Pommern
ALTERNATIVNAMEN=
KURZBESCHREIBUNG=Herzog von Pommern
GEBURTSDATUM=um 1210
GEBURTSORT=
STERBEDATUM=17. Mai 1264
STERBEORT=
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