| Pomeranian Voivodeship Województwo pomorskie Woiwodschaft Pommerellen | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voivodeship ofPoland¹ Part ofRoyal Prussia and (from 1569)Greater Poland provinces | |||||||||
| 1466–1772 | |||||||||
 Pomeranian Voivodeship of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth | |||||||||
| Capital | Skarszewy | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• | 12,907 km2 (4,983 sq mi) | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 21 February 1454 | |||||||||
| 1 October 1466 | |||||||||
| 1 July 1569 | |||||||||
| 5 August 1772 | |||||||||
| Political subdivisions | counties: 8 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Poland Russia² | ||||||||
| ¹ Voivodeship of thePolish Crown in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Voivodeship of theKingdom of Poland before 1569. ² Small portion of theVistula Spit aroundPolski[1] | |||||||||
ThePomeranian Voivodeship (Polish:Województwo pomorskie,German:Woiwodschaft Pommerellen) was a unit of administrative division and local government in theKingdom of Poland and thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1454/1466 until theFirst partition of Poland in 1772. From 1613 the capital was atSkarszewy (Schöneck).
Thevoivodeship comprised the westernmost part of the autonomous province ofRoyal Prussia and, after theUnion of Lublin in 1569, the northernmost part of theGreater Poland Province.
The namePomerania derives from theSlavicpo more, meaning "by the sea" or "on the sea".[2]
In English sources and generally in German language use, for this historical region the appellation of Pomerelia (German:Pommerellen orPomerellen, rendered asPomorze Gdańskie in Polish) prevails, because the name Pomerania (German:Pommern) usually refers to the westernDuchy of Pomerania (Polish:Księstwo Pomorskie), ruled by theHouse of Griffins.
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Thevoivodeship comprised the historicPomerelia region, which since theTeutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk) in 1308 had been held by theState of the Teutonic Order.
In 1440, many cities of the region joined the newly formed anti-TeutonicPrussian Confederation.[3] In 1454, the organization asked Polish KingCasimir IV Jagiellon to reincorporate the region into the Kingdom of Poland, to which the King agreed and signed an act of re-incorporation inKraków.[4] After the subsequentThirteen Years' War, the longest of all Polish–Teutonic wars, the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the region and recognized it as part of Poland.[5] Together with theChełmno (Kulm) andMalbork (Marienburg) voivodeships and thePrince-Bishopric of Warmia (Ermland) it formed the autonomous and multilingual province ofRoyal Prussia. The autonomy of the region was later abolished as a result of theUnion of Lublin in 1569 and the area was fully incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland.
In turn for their support in the Thirteen Years' War, the Griffin dukes in 1455 gained the PomerelianLębork and Bytów Land (Lauenburg and Bütow) as a Polish fief, which upon the extinction of the dynasty in 1637 was reincorporated directly into the Pomeranian Voivodeship.
In 1571, Denmark conducted anaval raid of Hel. During thePolish–Swedish War of 1626–1629, in 1627, the navalBattle of Oliwa was fought in the area, and it is one of the greatest victories in the history of thePolish Navy. The region was invaded bySweden during the Swedish invasion of Poland of 1655–1660, commonly known as theDeluge, however,Danzig (Gdańsk) withstood aSwedish siege. TheTreaty of Oliva, one of the peace treaties ending theSecond Northern War was signed inOliwa in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. In 1677, a Polish-Swedish alliance was signed in Danzig.[6]
After the 1618personal union of the Polish vassalDucal Prussia and theMargraviate of Brandenburg under the risingHouse of Hohenzollern, the Pomeranian Voivodeship separated the two territories. By the 1657Treaty of Bromberg, Poland had given up suzerainty over Ducal Prussia and granted the Lębork and Bytów Land as a Polish fief to Brandenburg, who also ruled over the adjacent ImperialPomerania Province. As the margraves had assumed the title of aKing in Prussia in 1701, the Hohenzollerns sought to link their territories. On the eve of the Polish partitions, KingFrederick II of Prussia in 1771 finally incorporated Lauenburg and Bütow into the Pomerania Province. In the course of theFirst Partition of Poland the next year, he furthermore annexed the Pomeranian Voivodeship with most of Royal Prussia, then renamed as the Province ofWest Prussia – except for the port city of Danzig, which was not incorporated until theSecond Partition of 1793.
Józef Wybicki, author of the lyrics to thenational anthem of Poland, hailed from the region, as he was born inBędomin, attended a college inStare Szkoty and studied law at the local court inSkarszewy, the capital of the voivodeship.[7]
Today the historic administrative region roughly corresponds to the present-dayPomeranian Voivodeship of Poland, which also comprises the Lębork and Bytów Land as well as part of the territory of the former Malbork Voivodeship, that until 1230 had been part of the Prussian tribal territory.
Voivodeship Governor (Wojewoda) seat:
Regional council (sejmik generalny)
Regional councils (sejmik poselski i deputacki)
Administrative divisions:
From 1637 to 1657, theLębork and Bytów Land.
The largest city of the voivodeship wasGdańsk, which as one of the largest and most influential cities of entire Poland enjoyed voting rights during theRoyal free elections.[8] Since 1454, Gdańsk was authorized by King Casimir IV to mint Polish coins.[9] Gdańsk was visited byNicolaus Copernicus in 1504 and 1526, andNarratio Prima, the first printed publication of hisheliocentric theory, was published there in 1540.[10] In 1587,Sigismund III Vasa swore thepacta conventa inOliwa near Gdańsk prior to his coronation as King of Poland.[11] According toZygmunt Gloger, during the rule of Sigismund III Vasa, Gdańsk was one of the two largest cities of Poland (alongsideKraków), and one of the three largest cities in Slavic countries (alongside Kraków andPrague).[11] Around 1640,Johannes Hevelius established his astronomical observatory in Gdańsk, which was regularly visited by Polish KingJohn III Sobieski.
Otherroyal cities and towns wereBiały Bór,Chojnice,Czarne,Człuchów,Debrzno,Gniew,Kościerzyna,Nowe,Puck,Starogard,Świecie,Tuchola,Tczew and the voivodeship capitalSkarszewy.[12] Chojnice was an important center of cloth production in Poland.[13] Cloth production was the main branch of the town's economy, and in 1570, clothiers constituted 36% of all craftsmen in the town.[13] To this day, one of the main streets in the town center is calledUlica Sukienników ("Clothiers' Street").[13] In the second half of the 17th century, prior to becoming King of Poland,John III Sobieski served as thestarost of Gniew and built the Marysieńka Palace for his wife, QueenMarie Casimire, there. The towns ofBytów,Lębork andŁeba were part of the voivodeship from 1637 to 1657, and in 1643 the town ofWejherowo was founded.
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