Pomerania During The Early Middle Ages - German-Lutician Alliance

German-Lutician Alliance

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Further information: Lutici and Peace of Bautzen

In the aftermath of the uprising of 983, Holy Roman Emperor Otto III sought to reinstate his marches and upheld good relations with Piast Poland, which was to be integrated in a reorganized empire ("renovatio imperii Romanorum"). These plans, reaching a climax with the Congress of Gniezno in 1000 AD, were thwarted by Otto's death in 1002, the subsequent rapid expansion of the Piast realm, and the resulting change in Polish politics. After conquering Bohemia, parts of Hungary and Kiev, Boleslaw I of Poland refused to give his oath to Otto's successor, Henry II, and instead allied with German dukes and margraves opposing Henry. Thus, Henry, for a tribute, offered an alliance to the Luticians when he met with their representatives at a Hoftag in Merseburg on March 28, 1003.

Parts of the German clergy and nobility however did not approve this alliance, because it thwarted their ambitions to reintegrate the Lutician territories in their marches and bishoprics. Among those who disapproved was Thietmar of Merseburg, a contemporary chronicler whom we own the reports of the subsequent events. During the expedition to Poland in 1005, the Christian German army was "shocked" when the pagan Luticians showed up carrying their idols with them. Many of the nobles now ordered by Henry to fight Boleslaw were just years before involved with the German-Polish alliance by fighting the Luticians and arranging marriages with the House of Piast. In another expedition in 1017, when Hermann Billung commanded an army comprising several Lutician units, one of Billung's men threw a rock at an idol of a Lutician goddess, with the consequence that Henry had to pay the Luticians twelve punds of silver. Boleslaw on the other hand prepared an anti-Lutician alliance which he termed "brotherhood in Christo", but at the same time tried to bribe the Luticians and have them carry out attacks on the empire. In 1007, Luticians reported a bribery case to Henry, while in 1010, Hevellian renegades were caught by Henry's troops, indicating that the German and Polish offers at least to some degree divided the Luticians.

In 1012, the German-Lutician alliance of 1003 was renewed in Amberg. In 1017, after an idol of a Lutician goddess got lost when German and Lutician units crossed the Mulde river during a flood, the Luticians left the expeditions and held an assembly on whether or not continue the alliance after this omen - though they eventually decided in favor of the alliance, an inner division of the Luticians in this case was evident again.

The alliance broke off, when Henry's successor, Konrad II managed to subdue Poland, then led by Boleslaw's successor, Mieszko II. Starting in 1129, several imperial campaigns with Danish and Kievian participation resulted in the Peace of Merseburg, concluded in 1033. With the Polish threat, the primary precondition for the German-Lutician alliance was thus eliminated, and hostilities started the same year.