:''You may also be looking for Swietopelk II, Duke of Pomerania'' Swietopelk I (, also referred to as Swantopolk I), (, died before 1148) sometimes called "Swietopelk of Nakło" (Polish: ''Świętopełk Nakielski'') to distinguish him from other rulers of the same name, was one of the first known

Dukes of Pomerania This is a list of the duchies and dukes of Pomerania. Dukes of the Slavic Pomeranian tribes (All Pomerania) The lands of Pomerania were firstly ruled by local tribes, who settled in Pomerania around the 10th and 11th centuries. Non-dynastic ...

; in the years 1109/13 to 1121 he ruled over

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 ...

. He is usually thought to have been the son of Świętobór I (Swantibor),Kowalenko, p. 429. although other historians make him a brother of Świętobór (as well as of a third Pomeranian duke, Dumar) and son of Siemomysl I.Rymar, p. 609. He is mentioned in the chronicle of ''

Gallus Anonymus ''Gallus Anonymus'', also known by his Polonized variant ''Gall '', is the name traditionally given to the anonymous author of (Deeds of the Princes of the Poles), composed in Latin between 1112 and 1118. ''Gallus'' is generally regarded as the ...

''. The 16th-century Pomeranian chronicler

Thomas Kantzow Thomas Kantzow (died 1542) was a chronicler in the Duchy of Pomerania. He studied at the universities of Rostock and Wittenberg, and was a secretary of the Pomeranian dukes. His manuscripts, rediscovered in 1729, 1832 and 1973, are written in Low ...

also states that Swietopelk was one of the younger sons of Swietibor, who ruled Eastern Pomerania after his father was deposed.Rymar, p. 37. The Prussian historian

Ludwig Giesebrecht Heinrich Ludwig Theodor Giesebrecht (5 July 1792 in Mirow – 18 March 1873 in Jasenitz) was a German poet and historian. He studied history at the universities of University of Berlin, Berlin and University of Greifswald, Greifswald, and in t ...

, who gave approximate dates for the duke's birth and death, considered him the originator of the Pomeralian dynasty and stated that Swietopelk and his father Swietibor were related to the

Piast dynasty The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented List of Polish monarchs, Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I of Poland, Mieszko I (–992). The Poland during the Piast dynasty, Piasts' royal rule in Pol ...

through marriage.Rymar, p. 38. Other historians have also hypothesized that Swietopelk and Swietibor were related, by blood or by marriage, to the Polish Piast dynasty, or that they served as voyevodas for them in

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 ...

(Danzig). However, Edward Rymar contests the thesis that Swietopelk was Swantibor's son based on the fact that Gallus Anonymous would have surely mentioned that fact, but rather the chronicler described Swietopelk as a "certain Pomeranian" who was granted control over Polish land by the Polish ruler. Along with his father he was most likely expelled from Pomerania around 1106 by rivals. After

Bolesław III Krzywousty Bolesław or Boleslav may refer to: People * Bolesław (given name) (also ''Boleslav'' or ''Boleslaus''), including a list of people with this name Geography * Bolesław, Dąbrowa County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland * Bolesław, Olkusz Coun ...

defeated Pomeranian dukes at the Battle of Nakło (whose forces, according to ''Gallus Anonymus'' numbered thirty thousand),Rymar, p. 90. he gave Swietopelk Nakło, and other grods (Slavic settlements) on the river

Noteć The Noteć (; , ) is a river in central Poland with a length of (7th longest) and a basin area of .Wyszogród Wyszogród is a town in central Poland, in Masovian Voivodeship, in Płock County, by the Vistula River. The population of Wyszogród was 2,793 in 2004. History The settlement dates back to the 7th century, when there was a Slavic pagan temple ...

and Nakło. Little is known of his later life. In 1119, Krzywousty defeated two unnamed Pomeranian dukes, taking one prisoner and banishing the other. It is possible that one of them was Swietopelk. According to later chronicles of

Jan Długosz Jan Długosz (; 1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480), also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first histo ...

and Kantzow, in 1121, a Duke "Odrzanski" ("of the

Oder The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...

") named Swietopelk died.Rymar, p. 91. Some historians have interpreted this to have been the same Swietopolk, son of Świętobór. However, others consider the "Odrzanski" Swietopolk to have been a different person, Duke of the

Chyżans The Kessinians, also known as Kessini, Chizzini, ''Kcynianie'' and ''Chyżanie'', were a medieval West Slavic tribe in what is now northeastern Germany. They inhabited the territory between the Warnow and Recknitz rivers, today split between the ...

(''Kcynians''), whose lands were invaded in 1121 by the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

prince

Lothar of Supplinburg Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg ( June 1075 – 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 be ...

.Rymar, p. 95. Swietopelk had several sons, one of whom served as a hostage at the court of Bolesław Krzywousty. It is possible that this unnamed son was the father of

Sobieslaw I, Duke of Pomerania Sobiesław, Soběslav or Sebeslav (Proto-Slavic: , , , , ) is a very old Slavic names, Slavic given name, mostly common among the West Slavs. Because of folk etymology, it is popularly supposed to derive from ''sobie'' ("usurp, for me, myself") an ...

, founder of the

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.

Works cited

*Edward Rymar,
Rodowód książąt pomorskich
' (Genealogy of Dukes of Pomerania), Książnica Pomorska, 2005. *Gdańskie Towarzystwo Naukowe, Wydział I--Nauk Społecznych i Humanistycznych (Gdańsk Science Association, Division I – Social Sciences and Humanities)
''Rocznik gdański, Volume 43''
Gdańskie Towarzystwo Naukowe, 1983. *Władysław Kowalenko
''Słownik starożytności słowiańskich: encyklopedyczny zarys kultury Słowian od czasów najdawniejszych, Volume 1, Parts 1-2''
(Dictionary of ancient Slavdom), Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1991.

References

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