Wartislaw IV or Vartislav IV (before 1290 – 1 August 1326) was
Duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...
of
Pomerania-Wolgast from 1309 until his death. He was the only son of Duke
Bogislaw IV of Pomerania and his wife Margareta, a daughter of
Vitslav II, Prince of Rügen. Vartislaw IV had four sisters: Jutta, Elisabeth, Margareta and Eufemia.
Vartislaw IV married Elisabeth, a daughter of Count Ulrich I of
Lindow-
Ruppin; they had three sons:
Bogislav V,
Barnim IV and
Vartislaw V.
In 1309 Vartislav IV succeeded his father as duke of Pomerania-Wolgast and in 1317 received the
Lands of Schlawe and Stolp as a fief from Margrave
Waldemar of Brandenburg-Stendal. Upon Valdemar's death in 1319, his minor cousin and heir Henry II was under Vartislav's tutelage, his plans to achieve the rule over
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
however were shattered by King
Louis IV of Germany, who finally granted the margraviate to his son
Louis V of Wittelsbach in 1323.
In 1321 Vartislav signed an inheritance treaty with his maternal uncle Prince Wizlaw III of Rugia, and upon his death in 1325 oversaw the unification with the
Principality of Rügen, then a
Danish fief. King
Christopher II of Denmark however, despite his former assertions, enfeoffed the
Mecklenburg and
Werle princes, thereby sparking a
war of succession
A war of succession is a war prompted by a succession crisis in which two or more individuals claim to be the Order of succession, rightful successor to a demise of the Crown, deceased or deposition (politics), deposed monarch. The rivals are ...
, in which late Vartislav's minor sons, backed by King Christopher's opponent Count
Gerhard III of Holstein and Duke
Barnim III of Pomerania-Stettin had to struggle for their heritage, until Mecklenburg renounced Rugia in 1328.
{{Authority control
Dukes of Pomerania
13th-century births
1326 deaths
14th-century monarchs in Europe
13th-century German nobility
14th-century German nobility