Swietoslaw

Swietoslaw z Devan was a King of the Sorbs from 791 until his death in 829.

## Early Life

Swietoslaw was born in May of 770 to Kajetan and Thyra, his wife who supposedly was Scandinavian. The favorite son of his father, he was brought up with the best education out of all of his siblings and became a genius in military strategy growing up, learning from his father.

Though in the late 780s, relations between him and his father worsened as the two began to have different opinions on how to rule, and as a member of Kajetan's council Swietoslaw continued to prod his father to be more kind to the people, and to focus less on the economy and more on military defense. This angered Kajetan, firing Swietoslaw from his council.

## Rise to Power

*For the full article, see War of the Four Brothers*

Swietoslaw knew that when his father died, he would have to proclaim himself as the King of the Sorbs. Kajetan died on October 22, 791 by assassination, with the assailant being unknown. Some believe it might have been Swietoslaw himself. Knowing his brothers would cause a conflict, he immediately rode to Brennaburg and proclaimed himself to be King of the Sorbs less than a week after his father's death. Swietoslaw had to fight his brothers for the throne, defeating all three of them, even killing his younger brother Tadeusz to eliminate competition after he had been lied to by him. However, he was merciful to his other two brothers, letting them live, but to work for him as long as they lived. Swietoslaw was now the undisputed King of the Sorbs.

## Early Reign

### War With Neighbors

In early 794, a group of Saxon raiders, possibly from Suavia, crossed the Elbe river and began looting areas in western Sorbia under Swietoslaw's domain. After sending an angry letter to the Saxon King and being ignored, he sent his army and decimated the raiders in the spring of that year. Marching with his brother Gawel, he crossed the Elbe with "some thousand men" and began raiding the Saxons themselves. However in July of 794 his army was defeated by the twice-as-large Saxon one, having them flee to Wolgast, which was already also fighting Saxony. However, by 807, conflict with Saxony was largely over.

In March of 795, Swietoslaw still seeked revenge, so with a larger army he crossed the Elbe again. After successfuly pillaging their lands, and then raiding Francian lands, they returned home after losing the battle of Merseburg against the Franks. Swietoslaw also later fought the Franks starting in 800, helping their Bohemian allies. This war ended with a victory in 801.

Around 802 was the first interaction between Sorbia and vikings, with men, possibly from Bornholm, attempting to loot southern Sorbia by going down the Elbe river. Swietoslaw was largely successful in defending against these raiders.

### Territorial Growth

In June of 797, Thankulf of Thuringia declared independence from the Franks. Seeing the opportunity, Swietoslaw immediately invaded the smaller country. After sieging Merseburg in October of that year, and winning the battle there, he pushed further west. The area had already been raided by Swietoslaw in the years before, making this much easier. Thankulf saw this as well, and surrendered before Swietoslaw's army got to Thuringia proper. For the rest of Swietoslaw's reign, Thuringia payed tribute to him.

Fearing that his eastern neighbor, Silesia, was becoming too strong, he decided to invade them in early 799 and take as much land as he could, with his brother Vojtech and the leader of Wolgast. It's unclear how well the war went early on, but by the end of 799 he was sieging the capital, Wroclaw. In early 800, the Silesian King surrendered and Swietoslaw took an unknown amount of land, with that land's leader, Borzyslaw, becoming his Chancellor.

### Local Events

Soon after the Silesian war had ended, Swietoslaw's new first wife, Borena, ordered the murder of another wife, Miroslava. With Miroslava being one of Swietoslaw's favorite wives, Swietoslaw ordered for the capture of Borena. However, she escaped and fled presumably to Khazaria or Alania, her homeland.

Later in his reign, Swietoslaw adopted a more peaceful foreign policy, ending his raiding against neighbors and ending his expansionism. He befriended his vassal, Thankulf, and established better relations with the Saxons in 807 through marriage, ending up with a non-aggression pact.

Swietoslaw was also known to be fond of architecture during this time, expanding the fort that his father had created, with it later becoming Brennaburg Castle. He was said to have reinforced the fort, also building watchtowers and outposts around the castle. Swietoslaw was the first king to be known to actually live in the castle.

## Later Reign

### Rostocker Revolt

In June of 810 a revolt broke out in Rostock, by a large group of peasants. This revolt soon turned into a full-on rebellion. After a week they crossed onto Rügen, killing the army defending the island. They then marched back to Rostock, defeating the local army there as well, and began sieging the fortress there. The peasant army consisted of several thousand men. Swietoslaw didn't even hear of this revolt for over a month, because during this time he and his army was raiding Hesse and sieging Nassau in the southwest. When hearing this though, he marched his forces up to Rostock, which had at this time already been sieged down by the peasants.

In the fall of 810, the two forces finally met in Dymin, south of Rostock, and the battle was evenly numbered. However, the peasant army was much worse equipped and organized than the Sorb army, and so Swietoslaw was able to break the middle of the force, routing them. The left flank fell even before this, leaderless. The army scattered, and the revolt fell apart almost as quickly as it had originally begun. Their leader, Marian, was hanged.

### Duel with Heimrich II

After the revolt, Swietoslaw and his army marched back to Hesse and raided it extensively in 811 and 812, culminating in the kidnapping of the Hessian King's wife after successfully sacking the capital. This angered the King, Heimrich II, who hated Swietoslaw with a burning passion. Seeing this, Swietoslaw proposed a duel with the King, which was accepted in the fall of 813. Swietoslaw, who was aging at this point, did very poorly against Heimrich, who was about 20 years younger than him. It's thought that several of Swietoslaw's ribs were broken at that point. Knowing he'd lost the duel, he proposed to send Kasimir's wife back to him, but Swietoslaw's brother Vojtech, who had fallen in love with the woman, had already married her and didn't let her go back to Hesse. Swietoslaw, not knowing what to do, did nothing. It's thought that this indecisiveness, combined with losing a duel, made Swietoslaw much less popular to the citizens of Sorbia.

### Diplomatic Policy

In 816, Swietoslaw helped his neighbor (possibly ally), Pomerania, against the invading armies of Pomerania. It's thought that he may have helped the Pomeranian King because they were both a part of the Champions of Perun, with Swietoslaw being the Society Heir at the time. Either way, he fought and won a battle in Pomerania and lifted the siege happening there. His army later helped siege Pruthenia proper, winning the war by the end of 817, fighting even more battles.

Swietoslaw, after marrying a Saxon princess, strengthened relations with the Saxons even more by forming an alliance with one of the more powerful groups within the country.

## Illness and Death

In early 820, Swietoslaw was violently coughing, quite a bit. After a prolonged time of illness, he began seeking the help of his Greek court physician. Everything seemed to be going well until he completely botched the treatment, three times, with the final time being that Swietoslaw's hand was amputated. Swietoslaw, enraged, excecuted the physician.

Despite his best efforts, Swietoslaw's illness got worse and worse through that decade and he eventually died in the Spring of 829, at about 58 years old.

### Aftermath

When Swietoslaw died, there wasn't an official heir to the throne at the time, despite his many sons. Udalrich, Swietoslaw's oldest son, had been heir, however he had already died. So Swietoslaw's four oldest living sons began to fight, with another civil war.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Swietoslaw was said to be a man of average height. He had shoulder-length hair for most of his life, though in old age he let it grow out. His hair was brown and later turned gray, and he kept it well-kept. He had a beard, though shaved his chin, and a fairly round face. He strongly resembled his mother, who was from Scandanavia, and looked different from his siblings because of this. His skin was very pale, and his nose was fairly flat. He was muscular in his youth, but in old age he became overweight. He was left-handed, like his father.

### Personality

Swietoslaw was always focusing on military in the early part of his reign, always insisting that his army should grow to be as large as possible. He was an ambitious strategist, and would spend long amounts of time in his strategy room, planning his next campaign. But later in his reign, much like how his foreign policy softened, Swietoslaw became much kinder than he used to be, befriending both his children and court members. He was patient, kind, and diligent, and always tried to look relatively fashionable at court.

## Family and Children

Swietoslaw had at least 8 sons with at least 9 wives. He had no known daughters.