Pogesanians (Prussian clan)
Nation | Defunct
1107 CE to 1791 CE
Pogesanians are one of the eleven Prussian clans mentioned by Peter von Dusburg.
The clan lives in Pogesania, a small territory stretched between the Elbląg and Pasłęka rivers.
It is now located in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland.
Pogesanians, as the rest of the Prussians, are conquered by the Teutonic Knights and become Germanized or polonized.
The old Prussian language becomes extinct sometime in the 17th century.
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The war between Pomerania and the Teutonic Knights is renewed in 1247 when large Teutonic reinforcements arrive in Prussia.
On Christmas Eve of 1247, the Knights besieged and overwhelm a major Pogesanian fortress, which they later rename Christburg (Dzierzgoń), and newly arrived Henry III, Margrave of Meissen, subdues the Pogesanians.
Each Prussian clan chooses a leader as the uprising spreads.
The Sambians are led by Glande, the Natangians by the German-educated Herkus Monte, the Bartians by Diwanus, the Warmians by Glappe, and the Pogesanians by Auktume; the Pomesanians, the westernmost of the Prussian clans, do not joint the uprising.
The uprising is also supported by Skalmantas, leader of the Sudovians.
However, there is no one leader to coordinate efforts of these different forces.
The Prussians besiege the many castles that the Knights have built.
Inferior to the Western Europeans in siege tactics and machinery, the Prussians rely on siege forts, built around the castle, to cut the supplies to the garrisons.
The Teutonic Knights cannot raise large armies to deliver supplies to the starving garrisons and smaller castles begin to fall.
These the Prussians usually destroy, manning just a few captured castles, notably one in Heilsberg, because they lack technology to defend them and organization to provision and supply stationed garrisons.
The first reinforcement to the Teutonic forces arrives in early 1261, but is wiped out on January 21, 1261 by Herkus Monte in the Battle of Pokarwis, near present day Ushakovo.
On August 29, 1261, Jacob of Liège, who had negotiated the Treaty of Christburg after the first uprising, is elected as Pope Urban IV.
Having an inside’s knowledge of events in Prussia, Urban especially favors the Teutonic Knights: in three years of his papacy, he will issue twenty-two papal bulls calling for reinforcements.
However, the reinforcements will be slow to arrive as dukes of Poland and Germany are preoccupied with their own disputes and the Livonian Order is fighting the Semigallian uprising.
The Prussians also receive help from Lithuanians and Sudovians.
Treniota leads an army to Cēsis in the summer of 1262 and battles Mazovia, killing Duke Siemowit I, and raiding Chelmno Land, provoking Pogesanians to join the uprising.
Teniota hopes to encourage all the conquered Baltic tribes to rise up against the Christian orders and unite under Lithuanian leadership.
The Teutonic Knights had planned to advance against Samogitia after conquering Scalovia, but the outbreak of a new rebellion engineered by Skomantas, or Skalmantas, of the Sudovians had delayed the campaign.
Skomantas is first mentioned by Peter von Dusburg during the Great Prussian Uprising (1260–1274) as a leader of the 1263 raid on Chelmno, a stronghold of the Teutonic Knights.
He has also led campaigns against Pinsk and other Slavic territories and therefore could not fully support the uprising.
The Sudovians and Lithuanians have raided Culmerland in 1276-77 and burned settlements near the castles of Rehden, Marienwerder, Zantir, and Christburg.
Theodoric of Samland has been able to convince the Sambians not to rebel, and the Natangians and Warmians have followed suit.
The central Prussian tribes surrender to the crusaders by 1277.
Conrad von Thierberg the Elder leads fifteen hundred men into Kimenau in summer 1277, and crushes a Sudovian army of three thousand near the Winse forest.
Many Pogesanians flee to the Lithuanians and are resettled at Gardinas (in present Belarus), while the ones who remain in Prussia are resettled by the crusaders, probably near Marienburg (Malbork).
This new brick castle, built to replace Zantir, guards against further rebellions with Elbing and Christburg.
The crusaders and Sudovians engage in guerilla warfare, at which the Sudovians are particularly adept.
However, they lack the sheer numbers to deal with their German, Polish, and Volhynian adversaries, and the Sudovian nobility has begun gradually surrendering one by one.
Marshal Conrad von Thierberg the Younger raids Pokima, capturing large amounts of cattle, horses, and prisoners.
They then successfully ambush the three thousand-strong force of pursuing Sudovians, losing only six Christians in the process.
The Sudovians and Lithuanian invade Samland in 1280, but the Order of the Teutonic Knights, alerted to the danger, has fortified their castles and deprives the raiders of provisions.
Komtur Ulrich Bayer of Tapiau leads a devastating counter-raid into Sudovia while the pagans are in Samlan.
The Polish prince Leszek the Black, who had assumed the throne of Kraków in 1279, achieves two significant victories over the pagans, securing the Polish border, and Skalmantas flees Sudovia to Lithuania.
Skomantas, with help from Lithuanians, had led four thousand men against the Teutonic Knights after the Great Prussian Uprising,
The Old Prussians and other Balts are losing their power, however.
Skomantas' estate is devastated in 1280–1281 and he escapes with three sons, Rukals, Gedetes and Galms, to Black Ruthenia, controlled at this time by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Conrad von Thierberg the Younger, named Provincial Master of Prussia in 1283, leads a large army into Sudovia, finding little resistance.
The Knight Ludwig von Liebenzell, who had once been a captive of the Sudovians, negotiates the surrender of sixteen hundred Sudovians and their leader Katingerde, who will subsequently be resettled in Samland.
Most of the remaining Sudovians are redistributed to Pogesania and Samland; Skalmantas, who is pardoned and baptized in the Roman Catholic rite, acknowledges the superiority of the Knights; he is allowed to settle at Balga.
Sudovia is left depopulated to become a border wilderness that protects Prussia, Masovia, and Volhynia from the Lithuanians.
The Order's master, Villekin of Endorpe, in 1287 builds a castle called Heiligenberg right next to the Tērvete castle to conquer the remaining Semigallian hillforts.
The Semigallians in the same year, make another attempt to conquer Rīga, but again fail to take it.
Livonian knights attack them on their return home, but are defeated at the Battle of Garoza, in which the Orders' master Villekin and at least thirty-five knights lose their lives.