Bogislaw X, Duke of Pomerania

Bogislaw X, "the Great", (June 3, 1454 – October 5, 1523) was Duke of Pomerania from 1474 until his death in 1523.

Bogislaw was born in Rügenwalde into the House of Pomerania (Griffins). His father was Eric II, Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast, his mother was Sophia of Pomerania, both distant relatives of the House of Pomerania. Bogislaw was first married to Margareta of Brandenburg and later to Anna of Poland. With his second wife he had eight children, including Sophia of Pomerania, who became queen of Denmark. He inherited all of the previously partitioned Duchy of Pomerania and became her sole ruler in 1478. He was succeeded by his sons George I and Barnim XI.

Before Bogislaw's reign, the Duchy of Pomerania had for a long time been divided into several splinter duchies, ruled by relatives of the Griffin house. In 1464, Pomerania-Stettin's duke Otto III died without an heir, Bogislaw's father Eric II and his uncle, Wartislaw X, both ruling different portions of Pomerania-Wolgast, managed to succeed in a conflict about Pomerania-Stettin inheritance with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1474, with his father's death, Bogislaw inherited his splinter duchy, becoming Duke of Pomerania. In 1478 with his uncle's death, he inherited his splinter duchy, too, becoming the first sole ruler in the Duchy of Pomerania since about 200 years.

His father, Eric II, had left Pomerania in tense conflicts with Brandenburg and Mecklenburg. Bogislaw managed to resolve these conflicts by both diplomatic and military means. He married his sister, Sophia, to Magnus, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his other sister, Magarete, was married to Magnus' brother Balthasar. Bogislaw himself married Magarete, daughter of Brandenburg's Prince-elector Frederick II. Also, in 1478, Bogislaw regained areas lost to Brandenburg by his father, most notably the town of Gartz and other small towns and castles north of the Brandenburgian Uckermark. He confirmed the 1472 Peace of Prenzlau in 1479, leaving Strasburg with Brandenburg and Bogislaw had to take his possessions as a fief from Brandenburg. In the same year, his wife died before they had children.

When Bogislaw married Anna of Poland in 1491, all of Pomerania's neighbors were tied to the House of Pomerania by marriage. Bogislaw made use of these favourable conditions in 1493, and strengthened Pomerania's position towards Brandenburg in the Treaty of Pyritz, which declared Pomerania not a fief of Brandenburg, but a fief of the Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1496-98, Bogislaw travelled to Jerusalem as a pilgrim. He died in Stettin.

Children

* Sophia (1498–1568), from 1525 Queen of Denmark, ∞ Frederick I of Denmark
* Georg I. (1493–1531)
* Anna (* 1492; † 25. April 1550) ∞ Georg I of Silesia-Liegnitz
* Barnim IX. (1501–1573)
* Elisabeth († before 1518)
* Barnim (* before 1501, † before 1501)
* Otto (* before 1503, † before 1518)
* Kasimir VIII. (* 28. April 1494, † 29. Oktober 1518)
* Christoph (illegitimate son), Bischop of Schwerin

See also

*Pomeranian duchies and dukes
*History of Pomerania

ources

*"Bogislaw X" in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie [http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/bsb00008361/images/index.html?id=00008361&fip=217.184.132.98&no=&seite=51]