Białogarda () (; ) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Wicko, within

Lębork County __NOTOC__ Lębork County (, ) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern Poland, on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local ...

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship ( ; ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The voivodeship was established on January 1, 1999, out of the former voivodeships of Gdańsk Voivo ...

, in northern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It is situated east of the

Łeba river Łeba (, ; ) is a seaside town in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of northern Poland. It is located in the region of Gdańsk Pomerania (Pomerelia), near Łebsko Lake and the mouth of the river Łeba on the Slovincian Coast of the Baltic Sea. History ...

in the historic

Pomerelia Pomerelia, also known as Eastern Pomerania, Vistula Pomerania, and also before World War II as Polish Pomerania, is a historical sub-region of Pomerania on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland. Gdańsk Pomerania is largely c ...

n region, approximately south-east of Wicko, north-west of

Lębork Lębork (; ; ) is a town on the Łeba River, Łeba and Okalica rivers in the Gdańsk Pomerania region in northern Poland. It is the capital of Lębork County in Pomeranian Voivodeship. Its population is 37,000. History Middle Ages The region fo ...

, and north-west of the regional capital

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

History

Białogarda is one of the oldest documented settlements of the region, mentioned in a 1209 deed, after Duke Sambor I of Pomerania had granted the

castellany A castellan, or constable, was the governor of a castle in medieval Europe. Its surrounding territory was referred to as the castellany. The word stems from . A castellan was almost always male, but could occasionally be female, as when, in 1 ...

near the border with the Pomeranian

Lands of Schlawe and Stolp The Schlawe and Stolp Land (also known as Słupsk and Sławno Land) is a historical region in Pomerania, centered on the towns of Sławno (''Schlawe'') and Słupsk (''Stolp'') in Farther Pomerania (Eastern Pomerania), present-day Poland. The are ...

to his younger brother Mestwin I. Mestwin's son, the Pomerelian duke Ratibor (''Racibor Białogardzki''), made Białogarda his residence between 1233 and 1262. After Ratibor had invaded the adjacent Stolpe Land, then held by his elder brother Duke Swietopelk II, his castle was devastated in the following fratricidal war within the ruling

Samborides The Samborides () or House of Sobiesław () were a ruling dynasty in the historic region of Pomerelia. They were first documented about 1155 as governors (''princeps'') in the Eastern Pomeranian lands serving the royal Piast dynasty of Kingdom o ...

dynasty. Ratibor was imprisoned, he later joined the

Teutonic Knights The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, to whose he bequested his Pomerelian lands. After the extinction of the Samborides, the

State of the Teutonic Order The State of the Teutonic Order () was a theocratic state located along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. It was formed by the knights of the Teutonic Order during the early 13th century Northern Crusades in the region ...

purchased Pomerelia from Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg in the 1309 Treaty of Soldin. After the Order's defeat in the

Thirteen Years' War (1454–66) Thirteen Years' War may refer to: *the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) between the Prussian Confederation and Poland versus the Teutonic Order state *the Long Turkish War (1593–1606) between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire *the Ru ...

, the Polish king

Casimir IV Jagiellon Casimir IV (Casimir Andrew Jagiellon; ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 until his death in 1492. He was one of the most active Polish-Lithuanian rulers; under ...

gave Białogarda with the

Lauenburg and Bütow Land Lauenburg and Bütow Land ( or , , ) formed a historical region in the western part of Pomerelia (Polish and papal historiography) or in the eastern part of Farther Pomerania (German historiography). It was composed of two districts centered on th ...

in trust to his ally Duke Eric II of Pomerania, who joined the

Second Peace of Thorn The Peace of Thorn or Toruń of 1466, also known as the Second Peace of Thorn or Toruń (; ), was a peace treaty signed in the Hanseatic city of Thorn (Toruń) on 19 October 1466 between the Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellon and the Teutonic Knig ...

in 1467.

References

Villages in Lębork County Capitals of former nations {{Lębork-geo-stub