Brandenburg (Ascanian) Margravate of

The reign of Pribislav-Henry, Wendish duke of Brandenburg, over the Hevelli tribe, probably supported by the Ascanians, had started after the murder of the previous prior Hevelli prince Meinfried in 1127.

Around 1129, having no sons of his own, Pribislav-Henry had given the area between Brandenburg and Lehnin to his son-in-law, who is the oldest son of Albert the Bear.

Emperor Lothair III had approved the gift and made Albert margrave of the Northern March in 1134.

After three years of campaigning, diplomatic measures have proven more successful, and by an arrangement made with Pribislav, Albert, after a short war of succession, secures this district when the duke dies childless in 1150.

Albert has colonized the region with German settlers.

The crusade has caused great loss of life among the Wends, and they will consequently offer little opposition to German colonization of the Elbe-Oder region in the following centuries.

(The Wends themselves are enserfed and will be gradually assimilated by the Germans, with the exception of a minority in the traditional region of Lusatia, in present-day eastern Germany, who are today known as Sorbs.)

Albert, called Albert the Bear, the only son of Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika, daughter of Magnus Billung, Duke of Saxony, had inherited the valuable estates in northern Saxony of his father in 1123, and on his mother's death, in 1142, had succeeded to one-half of the lands of the house of Billung.

Albert was a loyal vassal of his relation, Lothar I, Duke of Saxony, from whom, about 1123, he had received the Margraviate of Lusatia, to the east; after Lothar became King of the Germans, Albert had accompanied him on a disastrous expedition to Bohemia in 1126, when he suffered a short imprisonment.

Albert's entanglements in Saxony stemmed from his desire to expand his inherited estates there.

After the death of his brother-in-law, Henry II, margrave of a small area on the Elbe called the Saxon Northern March, in 1128, Albert, disappointed at not receiving this fief himself, had attacked Udo, the heir, and was consequently deprived of Lusatia by Lothar.

In spite of this, he had gone to Italy in 1132 in the train of the king, and his services there were rewarded in 1134 by the investiture of the Northern March, which was again without a ruler.

Once he was firmly established in the Northern March, Albert's covetous eye lay also on the thinly populated lands to the north and east.

For three years, he had campaigned against the Slavic Wends, who as pagans are considered fair game, and whose subjugation to Christianity had been the aim of the Wendish Crusade of 1147 in which Albert took part; diplomatic measures were more successful, and by an arrangement made with the last of the Wendish princes of Brandenburg, Pribislav of the Hevelli, Albert had secured this district when the prince died in 1150.

Taking the title "Margrave of Brandenburg", he has pressed the "crusade" against the Wends, extended the area of his mark, encouraged German migration, established bishoprics under his protection, and so becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1157, which his heirs — the House of Ascania — will hold until the line dies out in 1320.

Frederick Barbarossa, still fuming over Henry the Lion’s refusal of military service during his failed expedition into Lombardy, robs Henry of most of his possessions in 1180.

Taking advantage of the hostility of other German princes to Henry, who had successfully established a powerful and contiguous state comprising Saxony, Bavaria and substantial territories in the north and east of Germany, Frederick has Henry tried in absentia for insubordination by a court of bishops and princes in 1180.

Declaring that Imperial law overrules traditional German law, the court has Henry stripped of his lands and declares him an outlaw.

Frederick now invades Saxony with an Imperial army to bring his cousin to his knees.

Emperor Frederick grants the duchy of Bavaria to Otto VI, count of Scheyern, in 1180.

(As Duke Otto I, he is the founder of the Wittelsbach family.)

Saxony’s Westphalian areas go to the archbishop of Cologne, and the eastern regions are conveyed to the Ascanian family in the person of Bernard, Count of Anhalt, the youngest son of Albert the Bear; he also receives the Saxon ducal title.

The Welf family retains only the central zone around Braunschweig and …

…Lüneburg.

Bernhard's vassals in Nordalbingia and the areas between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea had soon rebelled against him and had given their support to Henry the Lion.

Bernhard had tried to assert his claims, thanks to the support of his brothers Otto I of Brandenburg and Siegfried, Archbishop of Bremen.

At first the vassals of Artlenburg had sworn an oath of fidelity.

After them, the counts of Ratzeburg, Danneberg, Luckow and Schwerin had also sworn.

However, the most powerful of these vassals, Count Adolf of Holstein, had not accepted Bernhard's lordship and had become his adversary.

Conflicts break out around Dithmarschen, in western Holstein, but without success for Adolf.

After Adolf's defeat, Lauenburg (Polabenburg) on the lower Elbe, has become the focal point for opposition to Bernhard's rule.

Determined to eliminate the opposition against him in his lands, he levies high taxes on rebellious territories, which lead to an attack against Lauenburg and its destruction in 1182, followed by the restoration of the fortress.

Henry, deserted by his allies, finally has to submit in November 1181 at a Reichstag in Erfurt.

He is exiled from Germany in 1182 for three years.

Henry had stayed with his father-in-law, in Normandy before being allowed back into Germany in 1185.

He had been exiled again in 1188.

His wife Matilda dies in 1189.

After Frederick Barbarossa goes on the Crusade of 1189, Henry returns to Saxony, mobilizes an army of his faithful, and conquers the rich city of Bardowick as punishment for her disloyalty.

Only the churches are left standing.

Pomerania had been rather sparsely settled before the Ostsiedlung.

A relatively dense population could be found around 1200 on the islands of Rügen, Usedom and Wollin, around the burghs of Stettin, Köslin, Pyritz (Pyritzer Weizacker) and Stargard, around the Persante river (Kolberg area), the lower Peene river, and between Schlawe and the Leba valley.

Largely unsettled were the hilly regions and the woods in the South.

The twelfth century warfare, especially the Danish raids, have depopulated many areas of Pomerania and caused severe population drops in others.

At the turn to the thirteenth century, only isolated German settlements existed, and the merchant's settlement near the Stettin burgh.

In contrast, the monasteries were almost exclusively run by Germans and Danes.

Massive German settlement has started in the first half of the thirteenth century.

Ostsiedlung is a common process at this time in all Central Europe and is largely run by the nobles and monasteries to increase their income.

Also, the settlers are expected to finish and secure the conversion of the non-nobles to Christianity.

In addition, the Danes withdraw from most of Pomerania in 1227, leaving the duchy vulnerable to its expansive neighbors, especially Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, and Henry I of Silesia.