The peace treaty that ended the first great insurrection of the native Prussians against the rule of the Teutonic Order.
After the defeat of the order’s Livonian branch by Prince Alexander Nevskii (Yaroslavich) of Novgorod on the ice of Lake Peipus, the newly converted Prussians apostatized in 1242 and allied with Duke Swantopelk II of Pomerelia, an enemy of the order. However, with the support of crusaders from Germany the order largely prevailed. At the end of 1247,
Pope Innocent IV dispatched his legate Jacques Pantaleon, archdeacon of Liege (later pope as Urban IV), to Prussia. Jacques first mediated a peace between Swantopelk and the order and subsequently the Treaty of Christburg (mod. Dzierzgon, Poland) was concluded on 7 February 1249.
The treaty identified the severe lordship of the order as the reason for the insurrection. As a result, personal liberty was granted to the Prussians, comprising rights of property, inheritance (including inheritance rights for women), trade, marriage, and legal representation. Prussians could become clerics, enter religious orders, and receive the belt of knighthood if they were of noble birth. This liberty was to be forfeited if the Prussians apostatized or rebelled against the order, their overlord. The Prussians were also given the right to their own civil law and chose that of the neighboring Poles. They were obliged, however, to abandon all pagan customs and ceremonies, including polygamy, the purchase of wives, the making of idols, and heathen burial rites. Christian duties such as fasts, infant baptism, and annual confession and communion had to be observed. Twenty-two churches were to be built and maintained in places named in the treaty, with priests to be provided by the order. Finally, the Prussians had to participate in the military campaigns of the order. The treaty was rendered invalid when a second insurrection broke out in 1260.
-Axel Ehlers
Bibliography
Patze, Hans, “Der Frieden von Christburg vom Jahre 1249,” Jahrbuch fur die Geschichte Mittel - und Ostdeutschlands 7 (1958), 39-91.
Preufiisches Urkundenbuch, politische Abtheilung 1, part 1, ed. Rudolf Philippi (Konigsberg: Hartung, 1882), no. 218, pp. 158-165.
Urban, William, The Prussian Crusade, 2d ed. (Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 2000).
Rome in 1218 he obtained further privileges that freed his bishopric from the authority of the archbishop of Gniezno.
Christian’s missionary work included ransoming Christian prisoners and Prussian girls as well as erecting schools for native boys. In 1222 Bishop Christian received lands in the area of Kulm (mod. Chelmno, Poland) from Duke Conrad of Mazovia, and in 1228 he founded a military order known as the Milites Christi de Prussia (Knights of Christ in Prussia), or Knights of Dobrin, which was intended to provide his bishopric with a military force. However, Christian’s mission suffered a major setback when he was taken captive by the pagan Prussians in 1233; on his release (1238), he tried unsuccessfully to regain his bishopric, which was eventually dissolved in 1243 as a result of a new organization of the Prussian church. In the meantime, the Knights of Dobrin were absorbed into the Teutonic Order.
-Torben K. Nielsen
Bibliography
Blanke, Fritz, “Die Missionsmethode des Bischofs Christian von Preufien,” in Heidenmission und Kreuzzugsgedanke, ed. Helmut Beumann (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1969), pp. 337-363.
Nowak, Zenon Hubert, “Der Anteil der Ritterorden an der preufiischen Mission (mit Ausnahme des Deutschen Ordens),” in Die Rolle der Ritterorden in der Christianisierung und Kolonisierung des Ostseegebietes, ed. Zenon Hubert Nowak (Torun: Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, 1983), pp. 79-91.
Szacherska, Stella Maria, “Valdemar II’s Expedition to Pruthenia and the Mission of Bishop Christian,” Medieval Scandinavia 12 (1988), 44-75.
World History
