II.

Early History

The people from whom the name Prussia is derived were usually called Prussi, or Borussi, in the earliest sources. They were related to the Lithuanians and inhabited the region between the Wisła and lower Niemen rivers. The Saxons, a Teutonic people, entered eastern Europe in the 10th century and failed in their attempts to convert the Prussians to Christianity. In 997 the Bohemian bishop St Adalbert was martyred as a missionary in Prussia. The Christian faith was not established until about the middle of the 13th century, when the Teutonic Knights subdued the country and brought German and Dutch settlers into the conquered territory. By the end of the century the region was completely subjugated (see Baltic Crusades). Thereafter it was ruled by the Teutonic Knights as a papal fief.

During the second half of the 14th century, strong opposition to the Germans developed in eastern Europe. In 1386 Poland and Lithuania entered into a dynastic union, and in 1410 a Polish and Lithuanian army defeated the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Tannenberg. After a further period of warfare, the terms of the second Peace of Thorn, in 1466, left the Knights in possession of the eastern part of Prussia, which it held as a fief of the Polish Crown. Western Prussia was ceded to Poland, becoming known as Polish Royal Prussia. Eastern Prussia became a secular duchy, known as East Prussia or Ducal Prussia, under the last grand master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert of Hohenzollern, a Lutheran, who created himself 1st Duke of Prussia in 1525. In 1618 the duchy, still a vassal state of Poland, passed to John Sigismund, a Hohenzollern; his grandson, Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, secured ducal Prussia’s independence of Poland at the Peace of Oliva in 1660. Frederick William centralized the administration of the duchy, assuming governing powers that were formerly exercised by the nobility and the town oligarchies, and encouraged industry and commerce in his domains, giving shelter to Huguenots with valuable skills who had been exiled from France in 1685 by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He also strengthened the army, created a Prussian navy, and increased Prussia’s power and importance in European affairs through a combination of wars and diplomacy.