page_title: Lutici
section_title: Division and conversion of the Lutician areas
hierarchical_section_title: Lutici / History / Division and conversion of the Lutician areas
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Boleslaw Wrymouth's expedition to western Pomerania in 1121. Source: Slowianie Zachodni. Monarchie Wczesnofeudalne by Andrzej Michalek
context_page_description: The Lutici / Liutizi were a federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation: the Redarians, Circipanians, Kessinians and Tollensians. At least in part, the Lutici were a continuation of the Veleti. In contrast to the former and the neighboring peoples, the Lutici were not led by a Christian monarch or duke, rather power was asserted through consensus formed in central assemblies of the social elites, and the Lutici worshipped nature and several deities. The political and religious center was Radgosc.
  The Lutici were first recorded by written sources in the context of the uprising of 983, by which they annihilated the rule of the Holy Roman Empire in the Billung and Northern Marches. Hostilities continued until 997. Thereafter, tensions with the empire eased, and in 1003 the Lutici entered an alliance with the emperor against duke Boleslaw I of Poland. However, by 1033 the alliance broke apart, and a German-Lutician war broke out that lasted until 1035, when the Lutici became tributaries of the empire again, but otherwise retained their independence.
context_section_description: In 1110, upon getting news of the defeat of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in the German-Polish War of 1109 the Dołężanie and the Redarians rebelled against German authority. The uprising was quelled by Lothair of Supplinburg, who had recently been made Duke of Saxony by Henry. However, Lothair and Henry became engaged in a struggle of their own. When in 1115 Lothair defeated Henry in the Battle of Welfesholz, the emperor's influence in Saxony and the Wendish territories had virtually disappeared. On the other hand, Lothair then followed an expansionist policy himself. Among the tribes he campaigned against, regardless of whether they were within the Obodrite sphere of interest, were also the Kessini, whose prince Dumar was subdued, along with his sons, in 1114. This campaign was supported by the (nominal) margrave of the Northern March, whose army included 300 Circipanian cavalry. Several subsequent campaigns of Lothair into the Lutician areas followed between 1115 and 1127. In 1121, Lothair mounted another successful campaign against the Kessini, this time sacking their main stronghold Kessin and subduing their prince Sventipolk. In the same year, Bolesław III Wrymouth advanced from the lower Oder region deep into Lutician territory, reaching and devastating the Müritz region. According to Maleczynski (1939), Boleslaw thereby "most likely took Demmin and Gützkow" and, with reference to the 1121 campaign of Lothair of Supplinburg, "German and Polish expansion met at Müritz lake and the upper Peene river, and probably in the vicinity of today's Stralsund." Enders (1986) says that during the same campaign, Boleslaw destroyed the Ukrainian stronghold of Nadam, following a thesis that Nadam was located near today's Nieden. Herrmann (1968) proposed that Boleslaw's campaign followed a fork of the Magdeburg–Malchow route which ran from Lake Müritz to Stettin/Szczecin, via Nieden. In 1127, a campaign of Lothair was also targeted at the Gützkow area. With his campaigns, Lothair renewed the German claim to the areas lost in 983.
  In 1127, Kessin was again sacked, along with Werle, this time by Obodrite prince Sventipolk. A son of Henry (deceased 1125), Sventipolk struggled for his father's heritage against his brother Knud. In his campaign against the Kessini he was supported by Adolf I, Count of Schauenburg. However, Sventipolk, his son Swinike and his brother Knud were all murdered in 1128, and in 1129 Lothair (king of the Germans since 1125) gave the "kingdom of the Obodrites" to Danish Knud Lavard, who was however murdered by a relative in 1131. His successor in the eastern Obodrite realm, up to the Peene river, was Niklot.
  The eastern Lutician areas between the Peene, Tollense, Uecker and Oder rivers had by then been subdued by the Pomeranian duke Wartislaw I, and the Lutician primores of this area converted to Christianity in 1128. Thence the Pomeranian dukes occasionally styled themselves dux Liuticiorum. The conversion of the Lutici was accomplished by Otto of Bamberg, who had also missioned the Pomeranians (Slavic tribe) and the tribes on the lower Oder (Prissani and Wolinians, all under Wartislaw's rule) in 1124/25. Boleslaw III of Poland had subdued Wartislaw after his abovementioned Lutician campaign, and in 1127 was on the verge of attacking Wartislaw again because of the latter's Lutician conquests, which had considerably strengthened Wartislaw's position. When Otto of Bamberg waited for Wartislaw I in Demmin in 1128 to convert the Lutici, the Pomeranian duke appeared with two armies, and according to Otto's biographer Herbod looted and burned the surrounding areas before he held talks with Otto about the conversion. Wartislaw had also convened a meeting of the Lutician nobles at Usedom, where they accepted Christianity upon Otto's and Wartislaw's appearance. Otto then destroyed the pagan temples at Wolgast and Gützkow, before he mediated in the dispute between Wartislaw I and Boleslaw III. Boleslaw aborted his preparations for war, and in turn Wartislaw accepted Boleslaw's superiority for his territories east of the
caption: The expedition of Boleslaw III of Poland to Szczecin and east of the Oder to subjugate the Slavic Lutici, in 1121.[60]
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