Prussian uprisings The Prussian uprisings were two major and three smaller uprisings by the Prussians , one of the Baltic tribes , against the Teutonic Knights that took place in the 13th century during the Prussian Crusade . The crusading military order , supported by the Popes and Christian Europe , sought to conquer and convert pagan Prussians . In the first ten years of the crusade five of the seven major Prussian clans fell under control of the less numerous Teutonic Knights . However , Prussians rose against their conquerors on five occasions . The first uprising was supported by Duke Swietopelk II , Duke of Pomerania . The Prussians were successful at first , reducing the Knights to only five of their strongest castles . Conversely , the duke suffered a series of military defeats and was eventually forced to make peace with the Teutonic Knights . With Duke Swietopelk ' s support for the Prussians broken , a prelate of Pope Innocent IV then negotiated a peace treaty between the Prussians and the Knights . However , this treaty was never honored or enforced , especially after the Battle of Krücken at the end of 1249 . The second uprising , known in historiography as " The Great Prussian Uprising " , was prompted by the 1260 Battle of Durbe , the largest defeat suffered by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century . This uprising was the longest , largest , and most threatening to the Teutonic Order , who again were reduced to five of their strongest castles . Reinforcements for the Knights were slow to arrive , despite repeated encouragements from Pope Urban IV , and the position of the Order looked set to worsen . Luckily for the Order , the Prussians lacked unity and a common strategy and reinforcements finally reached Prussia in around 1265 . One by one , Prussian clans surrendered and the uprising was ended in 1274 . The later three lesser uprisings depended on foreign help and were suppressed within one or two years . The last uprising in 1295 effectively ended the Prussian Crusade and Prussia became a Christian German - speaking territory , which assimilated native Prussians and a number of settlers from different German states . Background . Although the Prussians repelled early incursions by the Order of Dobrzyń , they were outnumbered by attacks from Poland , Russians in the southeast and the Teutonic Knights from the west . The Teutonic Order was called to the Culmerland ( Chełmno Land ) in 1226 by Konrad I of Masovia , who started a number of attacks and crusades against the Prussians and later asked the Knights to protect him from retaliatory raids by the Prussians . Preoccupied with crusades in the Holy Land , the Teutonic Knights arrived only in 1230 . Their first task was to build a base on the left bank of Vistula at Vogelsang , opposite of Toruń ( Thorn ) , which was completed a year later . Led by Hermann Balk , the Knights did not repeat the mistakes of the previous Order and did not push eastwards into the forest of the interior . They would further build fortified log ( later brick and stone ) castle s along major rivers and the Vistula Lagoon to serve as basis for future expansion . In 1231 – 1242 , forty such castles were built . The Prussians faced major difficulties in capturing these castles as they were accustomed only to battling in open fields . Most conflicts occurred either in summer or winter . Heavily - armoured knights could not travel and fight on land soaked by water from melting snow or autumn rains . Summer campaigns were most dangerous as the Knights would immediately build new castles in the conquered territory . The Teutonic Knight ' s strategy proved successful : in ten years , five of the seven major Prussian clans fell under control of the less - numerous Teutonic Knights . However , the Prussians further resisted the conquerors , leading to five uprisings over the following fifty years . The First Prussian Uprising ( 1242 – 1249 ) . The First Prussian Uprising was influenced by three major events . Firstly , the Teutonic Knights lost the Battle of the Ice on Lake Peipus to Alexander Nevsky in April 1242 . Secondly , southern Poland was devastated by a Mongol invasion in 1241 ; Poland lost the Battle of Legnica and the Teutonic Knights lost one of its most trusted allies that often supplied troops . Thirdly , Duke Swantopolk II of Pomerania was fighting against the Knights , who supported his brothers ' dynastic claims against him . It has been implied that the new castles of the Knights were competing with his lands over the trade routes along the Vistula River . While some historians embrace the Swantopolk – Prussian alliance without hesitation , others are more careful . They point out that the historical information came from documents written by the Teutonic Knights and must have been ideologically charged to persuade the Pope to declare a crusade not only against the pagan Prussians but also against the Christian duke . Prussians besieged Teutonic castles and managed to capture all except for Elbing ( Elbląg ) and Balga in the eastern regions of Natangia , Barta and Warmia ; Thorn ( Toruń ) , Culm ( Chełmno ) , and Rehden ( Radzyń Chełmiński ) in the western parts . In December 1242 , the Knights were able to capture Sartowice , Swantopolk ' s castle on the banks of the Vistula . The ensuing five - week siege of Sartowice failed to recapture the fortress and Swantopolk lost 900 men . In the spring of 1243 , Swantopolk also lost the castle at Nakel ( Nakło nad Notecią ) , which dominated trade on the Noteć River . In the face of these losses , the duke was forced to make short - lived truce . In the summer of 1243 , Prussians with Sudovian help raided the Culmerland ( Chełmno Land ) and , on their way back , defeated the pursuing Teutonic Knights on June 15 on the banks of the Osa River . Some 400 Teutonic soldiers perished , including their marshal . Swantopolk , encouraged by the defeat , gathered an army of 2 , 000 men and unsuccessfully besieged Culm ( Chełmno ) . The Teutonic Knights managed to gather a coalition against Swantopolk : Dukes of Masovia were given territories in Prussia , Dukes of Greater Poland received Nakel , and Dukes of Pomerellia , brothers of Swantopolk , hoped to regain their inheritance . Swantopolk built a castle at Zantyr , where Nogat separated from the Vistula , and launched a blockade of Elbing and Balga . While the castle withstood Teutonic attacks , the blockade was smashed by cogs . In late 1245 Swantopolks ' s army suffered a great defeat at S ( ch ) wetz Świecie , and another one in early 1246 , where 1 , 500 Pomeranians were killed . Swantopolk II asked for truce and Pope Innocent IV appointed his chaplain , Jacob of Liège , the future Pope Urban IV , to handle the peace negotiations . However , the war was renewed in 1247 when large Teutonic reinforcements arrived in Prussia . On Christmas Eve of 1247 the Knights besieged and overwhelmed a major Pomesanian fortress , which they later renamed Christburg ( Dzierzgoń ) , and newly arrived Henry III , Margrave of Meissen subdued the Pogesanians . Swantopolk retaliated and destroyed Christburg , but the Knights rebuilt it in a new location . Both Prussian and Swantopolk ' s armies failed to capture the new castle . Otto III of Brandenburg raided Warmia and Natangia forcing the locals to surrender . The peace talks that begun in 1247 achieved little , but a new truce was arranged in September 1248 and peace was made on November 24 , 1248 . Swantopolk had to return lands seized from his brothers , allow Teutonic Knights to pass through his domains , stop charging tolls on ships using the Vistula , and stop any aid to the Prussians . Prussians were compelled to sign the Treaty of Christburg on February 7 , 1249 . The treaty provided personal freedom and rights to newly converted Christians . It formally ended the uprising , but already in November 1249 the Natangians defeated the Knights at the Battle of Krücken . The skirmishes lasted until 1253 and some sources cite this year as the end of the uprising . At that point the treaty ceased its political power but remained an interesting historical document . The Great Prussian Uprising ( 1260 – 1274 ) . Preparation and tactics . The major revolt began on September 20 , 1260 . It was triggered by the Lithuanian and Samogitian military victory against the joint forces of the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Durbe . As the uprising was spreading through Prussian lands , each clan chose a leader : the Sambia ns were led by Glande , the Natangia ns by Herkus Monte , the Bartia ns by Diwanus , the Warmia ns by Glappe , the Pogesania ns by Auktume . One clan that did not join the uprising was the Pomesanians . The uprising was also supported by Skalmantas , leader of the Sudovians . However , there was no one leader to coordinate efforts of these different forces . Herkus Monte , who was educated in Germany , became the best known and most successful of the leaders , but he commanded only his Natangians . The Prussians besieged the many castles that the Knights had built and could not send large armies to fight in the west . Prussians were not familiar with Western European siege tactics and machinery and relied on siege forts , built around the castle , to cut the supplies to the garrisons . The Teutonic Knights could not raise large armies to deliver supplies to the starving garrisons and smaller castles began to fall . Those castles were usually destroyed and the Prussians manned just a few castles , notably one in Heilsberg ( Lidzbark Warmiński ) , because they lacked technology to defend the captured castles and organization to provide food and supplies to stationed garrisons . On August 29 , 1261 Jacob of Liège , who negotiated the Treaty of Christburg after the first uprising , was elected as Pope Urban IV . He , having an inside scope on events in Prussia , was especially favourable to the Teutonic Knights and issued 22 papal bulls in three years of his papacy calling for reinforcements to the Knights . However , the reinforcements were slow to come as dukes of Poland and Germany were preoccupied with their own disputes and the Livonian Order was fighting the Semigallia n uprising . Early Prussian success . The first reinforcement to the Teutonic forces arrived in early 1261 , but was wiped out on January 21 , 1261 by Herkus Monte in the Battle of Pokarwis . In January 1262 reinforcements arrived from the Rhineland , led by Wilhelm VII , Duke of Jülich , who was obliged by Pope Alexander IV to fulfil his crusader duties in Prussia . This army broke the Siege of Königsberg but as soon as the army returned home , the Sambians resumed the siege and were reinforced by Herkus Monte and his Natangians . Herkus was later injured and the Natangians retreated , leaving the Sambians unable to stop supplies reaching the castle and the siege eventually failed . Prussians were more successful capturing castles deeper into the Prussian territory ( with an exception of Wehlau , now Znamensk ) , and the Knights were left only with strongholds in Balga , Elbing , Culm , Thorn , and Königsberg . Most castles fell in 1262 – 1263 , and Bartenstein fell in 1264 . The Prussians destroyed captured forts instead of using them for their own defence , so the end of successful sieges meant that large Prussian forces did not have to stay near their home and were then free to operate in other parts of Prussia , raiding the Culmerland and Kuyavia . A recovered Herkus Monte raided Culmerland with a large force and took many prisoners in 1263 . On his way back to Natangia , Herkus and his men were confronted by a contingent of their enemies . In the Battle of Löbau that ensued , Prussians killed forty knights , including the Master and the Marshal . The Prussians also received help from Lithuanians and Sudovians . In summer of 1262 Treniota and Shvarn attacked Masovia , killing Duke Siemowit I , and raided Culmerland , provoking Pogesanians to join the uprising . However , assassination of Mindaugas and subsequent dynastic fights prevented Lithuanians from further campaigns . Skalmantas , leader of Sudovians , raided Culm ( Chełmno ) in 1263 and in 1265 . Turning point . The year of 1265 was the turning point in the uprising : more substantial reinforcements for the Teutonic Knights finally started arriving in Prussia and Sambia gave up the fight . Teutonic castles in Königsberg and Wehlau on the Pregel River cut off the region from the rest of Prussia . Supplies to Königsberg were brought by sea , and the castle served as the basis for raids in surrounding Samland ( Sambia ) . The Livonian Order sent troops to Königsberg and the joint forces defeated the Sambians in a decisive battle forcing them to surrender . In 1265 reinforcements arrived from Germany : armies of Duke Albrecht of Braunschweig and Margrave Albert of Meissen arrived in Prussia , but were unable to achieve much . In 1266 Otto III and John I , co - rulers of Brandenburg , built a castle in the Natangian lands between Balga and Königsberg and named it Brandenburg ( since 1945 Ushakovo ) . Due to bad weather they did not organize campaigns into Prussian lands . When the Dukes returned home , Brandenburg was captured by Glappe and his Warmians . The very next year Otto returned to rebuild the castle . However , both John and Otto died before the end of 1267 , and Otto ' s son was killed in a tournament . Subsequent Dukes of Brandenburg were not as supportive of the Knights . In 1266 Duke Swantopolk , the supporter of the Prussians during the First Uprising , died and his sons Mestwin and Warcisław briefly joined the Prussians in the uprising . In 1267 King Ottokar II of Bohemia , who already participated in the Prussian Crusade in 1254 and who was promised by Pope Urban IV all Prussian lands he could conquer , finally arrived in Prussia . His only achievement was forcing Duke Mestwin to reconcile with the Teutonic Knights . His large army was unable to campaign due to an early thaw : heavily armed knights could hardly fight during the wet and swampy spring season . The warfare with the Prussians relied on guerilla raids in the border regions . Small groups of men , a dozen to a hundred , made quick raids on farms , villages , border posts , etc . This was a positional warfare where neither side could defeat the other , but the Teutonic Knights relied on future reinforcements from Germany and Europe , while Prussians were draining their local resources . After the massacre of surrendered Teutonic soldiers in the Battle of Krücken in 1249 , the Knights refused to negotiate with the Prussians . The Prussians were also unable to coordinate their efforts and develop a common strategy : while each clan had its own leader , there was no one to lead all the clans . The Natangians had to watch for attacks from Balga , Brandenburg , Wehlau , and Königsberg while the Warmians were threatened by garrisons at Christburg and Elbing . This way only Diwane and his Bartians were able to continue the war in the west . They made several minor expeditions to Culmerland each year . The end of the uprising . The major Prussian offensive was organized in 1271 together with Linka , leader of the Pogesanians . The Bartian infantry and Pogesanians besieged a border castle , but were fended off by the Knights from Christburg . The Prussians who managed to escape joined their cavalry while the Knights set up a camp on the opposite bank of the Dargune River ( Dzierzgoń River ) , blocking the route home . When Christians retired for the night , one half of the Prussian army crossed the river in a distance , in order to attack the Knights from the rear , while the other half charged straight across the river . The Knights were encircled . The Battle of Paganstin saw twelve knights and 500 men killed . The Prussians immediately assaulted Christburg and almost captured it . The Prussians were still looting the surrounding area when cavalry from Elbing arrived . Many of the Prussian infantry perished while cavalry escaped . Despite these losses , Diwane was soon back and blocked roads leading to Christburg hoping to starve the castle . Diwane was killed during a siege of a small post at Schönsee ( Wąbrzeźno ) in 1273 . In the winter of 1271 – 1272 reinforcements arrived from Meissen , led by Count Dietrich II . The army invaded Natangia and besieged an unnamed Natangian castle . While the assault claimed 150 lives of the crusaders , most of Notangian resistance was broken and the region was decimated . Herkus Monte , with a small group of his followers , was forced to withdraw to the forests of southern Prussia . Within a year he was finally captured and hanged . The last Prussian leader , Glappe of Warmians , was also hanged when his siege campaign on Brandenburg ( now Ushakovo ) was attacked from the rear . The last tribe standing were the Pogesanians , who made a surprise raid into Elbing and ambushed its garrison . In 1274 the Knights made a great expedition to avenge this raid , capturing the rebel headquarters at Heilsberg ( Lidzbark Warmiński ) and ending the uprising . The Knights proceeded to rebuild and strengthen castles destroyed by the Prussians . A number of Prussians escaped either to Sudovia or to Lithuania , or were resettled by the Knights . Many free peasants were made into serfs . Local nobles had to convert and give hostages , and only a few of them were granted privileges to retain their noble status . From 1274 to 1283 the Teutonic Knights conquered Skalvians , Nadruvians , and Sudovians / Yotvingians . Further uprisings and aftermath . After the Great Uprising , the Prussians rose a number of times against the Knights , but these uprisings were much smaller in scale and posed no real danger to the Teutonic Knights , who could concentrate on further conquests . The number of uprisings varies from three to two . They were suppressed within a year or two and showed exhaustion and division of the Prussian tribes . The third uprising in 1276 was provoked by Skalmantas , leader of the Sudovians , who successfully raided Teutonic lands . The next year he , with help from the Lithuanians , led 4 , 000 men into the Culmerland ( Chełmno Land ) . The uprising failed to spread after Theodoric , vogt of Sambia , convinced the Sambians not to join the insurrection ; Natangians and Warmians had also accepted baptism and promised their loyalty to the Knights . The Pogesanians alone continued the fight and were crushed . Survivors with their Bartian chief escaped to Hrodna in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania where they joined some of the Bartians , Skalvians , and all of the Nadruvians , who fled there after the Great Uprising . The last two Prussian attempts to rid itself of the Teutonic rule were made relying on the foreign powers who were enemies of the Knights . The first one in 1286 , also known as the fourth uprising , depended upon help from the Duke of Rügen , the grandson of Swantopolk . The plot was soon revealed and the Bartians and Pogesanians suffered the consequences . In 1295 the last uprising was limited to Natangia and Sambia and depended upon help from Vytenis , Grand Duke of Lithuania . The rebels captured Bartenstein ( Bartoszyce ) by surprise and plundered as far as Königsberg , but were never a serious threat . By that time Prussian nobility was already baptized and pro - Teutonic to the extent that peasants killed them first before attacking the Knights . This last attempt effectively ended the Prussian Crusade and the Knights concentrated on conquering Samogitia and Lithuania . Lithuanian historians note that fierce resistance by the Prussians won time for the young Lithuanian state to mature and strengthen so it could withstand the hundred - year crusade , culminating in the 1410 Battle of Grunwald , with minimal territorial losses . The Prussian lands were repopulated by colonists from Germany , who after the 16th century eventually outnumbered the natives . It is estimated that around 1400 Prussians numbered 100 , 000 and comprised about half of the total population in Prussia . The Prussians were subject to Germanization and assimilation and eventually became extinct sometime after the 16th century . It is believed that the Prussian language became extinct sometime at the beginning of the 18th century .