Pomezanian Feoffees in the State of the Teutonic Order in the 1260–1370s

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of incorporation of the Pomezanians who settled in western Prussian lands in the social system of the Order State in the 1260–1370s. To research this problem, the article discusses composition and functions of 227 feoffees entered the service of brethern and bishops. These aspects have not been thoroughly studied in historiography; they are fixed in 147 acts, such as Pomezanian Law and the Chronicles of Peter of Dusburg and Wigand of Marburg. The given aspects have been researched with prosopographical, historical-
 comparative, typological, and diachron-synchronous methods, that allowed us to make the following conclusions. The majority of feoffees (165 of 227 persons) kept the military service for their estates and additionally paid natural, natural-money or cash taxes (Group 1) or were free from taxes (Group 2). These groups were constantly increased in number in the 1260–1370s. It was caused by the Order need for warriors for military campaigns against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. In contrast to them, Group 3 was rarely replenished and paid the brethern and church additional taxes from distinct lands. These groups had social-propriety differentiation, negative consequences
 of the latter were neutralized by the Order and church due to the heirs’ increasing numver, permission to change land estates, exemption from military service and taxes for a certain period of time and other actions. These measures were based on the local law and combined with regulations of military service and taxes fixed in Culm Charter. This situation the flexible policy conducted by the brethern and church in Pomezania. It became the basis for successful incorporation of local inhabitants in the social system of the Order State.