De vastacione terre Sambiensis.
Raid into Samland
In April 1308, nobles from Samethia led a large mounted force into Samland and devastated Powunden and Rudowie with fire, but withdrew upon learning that the Teutonic brothers awaited them.
In April of the year of our Lord 1308, on the feast day of blessed George, Mansto and Sudargus and other nobles from Samethia, with five thousand horsemen around the new castle at Neria in Courland, entered the land of Samland and the territories of Powunden and Rudowie and devastated them with fire. But when they realized that the brothers with the greatest army had long awaited them, they withdrew in the middle of the night.
A New Master General and a New Seat
Brother Siegfried of Wucgwangen became master general of Prussia in 1309 and moved the order's principal house from Aenecias to the castle of Mergenburgk.
Concerning brother Siegfried, master general of the land of Prussia. In the year of our Lord 1309, on the eleventh of September, brother Siegfried of Wucgwangen, the eleventh master general of the land of Prussia, came to the land of Prussia and transferred the principal house, which since the destruction of the city of Acre had been at Aenecias, to the castle of Mergenburgk in Prussia.1
Read the original Latin
93 April Anno domini mcccviii in die beati Georgii1' Mansto et Sudargus et alii nobiles de Samethia cum v milibus equitum circa castrum novum in Neria Curoniensi intraverunt terram Sambie et territoria Powundie et Rudowie incendio vastaverunt. Sed cum perciperent, quod fratres cum maximo exercitu eos diu expectassent in noctis medio recesserunt. De fratre Syfrido magistro generali terre Prussie. wi) Anno domini mcccix frater Syfridus de Wucgwangen magister generalis xia September et terre Prussie magister xvnib venit ad terram Prussie et domum principalem, que a tempore destructionis civitatis Achonensis fuerat apud Aenecias transtulit ad castrum Mergenburgk in Prussiam.
Notes
- 1 ↩The opening word 'wi' is an uncertain reading in the source text; it has been omitted from the translation as its meaning cannot be determined with confidence.
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