:''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''. The 16th-century Pomeranian chronicler Thomas Kantzow 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, 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 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 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 DÅ‚ugosz
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.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 ...
Pomeranian duchies and dukes
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
...