De peregrinis et pace reddita terre Prussie.
The Plague and the Princes' Compassion
A great plague moves the German princes to compassion for the afflicted brothers and people.
This great plague of God, brought upon the brothers and the people, reached the ears of the princes of Germany and moved them to compassion.
Christ Strikes and Heals: The Princes' Campaign
Moved by Christ's grace, German princes and bishops invade Prussia, devastating the land of the apostates.
The result was that Christ himself — the one who strikes and heals — touched the hearts of certain princes by the grace of his Spirit: namely, the margrave of Brandenburg, who came in the year of the Lord 1151, and the bishop of Merseburg, and Count Henry of Schwarzburg, who in the following year entered the land of Prussia with a multitude of armed men. Each of them powerfully overran the territory of the aforementioned apostates, destroying with fire and plunder, killing and seizing, until they completely collapsed and could no longer catch their breath.✦12
The Tribes Return to the Faith
The Prussian tribes submit again to the brothers, give hostages, and return to the faith under Christ's sovereignty.
From that time on, the Pomesanians, Pogesanians, Warmians, Nattangians, and Bartians — with the Lord Jesus Christ directing it, in whose hand are all the powers and all the rights of kingdoms — returned to the faith and submitted themselves once again to the authority of the brothers, having given hostages.✦3
Swantepolc's Settlement and the End of War
The duke of Pomerania accepts a papal-mediated settlement, and after eleven years Prussia rests in peace.
At the same time and for the same reason, Swantepolc, duke of Pomerania, worn out by the toil and expense and no longer able to resist the brothers, kept in force the settlement that Jacob, archdeacon of Liège — who later became Pope Urban IV — had made between him and the brothers, and held it valid until the end of his life.4 And so, from the day Swantepolc's war began, it was brought to an end in the eleventh year, and the land of Prussia rested in peace.
Heading and Transition to the Sambian Wars
The chronicle introduces the section on the Sambian wars and signals that only select campaigns will be recounted.
Of the war of the brothers against the Sambians. From section 68 (67i): On the devastation of the territory of Girmow.5 Many wars were waged against the people of the Sambians, which would be too long to list one by one; nevertheless, some are to be set down.6
The Campaign Against Samland and the Death of the Commanders
Brother Henry Stango leads a winter campaign into Samland, fights a rearguard action, is killed, and his kinsman Brother Hermann dies avenging him.
Brother Henry, called Stango, commander of Christburg, marched out with a great army by order of the Master to make war against Samland. He entered the region around the place where the castle of Lochstädt now stands, in winter, laying waste on both sides with fire and plunder as far as the village of Girmow, killing and capturing many men, where the Sambians met them in armed force. Against them the same commander set himself like a fearless lion, and to hold them off until his army could withdraw to a safe place, he wounded many of them with his lances. At last the Prussians surrounded him by treachery, and after inflicting many wounds, they threw him from his horse. When Brother Hermann, the kinsman of the said commander, saw this, his heart was moved with anguish over his brother. Unable to bear so shameful a death for him, he charged into battle, and after a long defense in which he inflicted many mortal wounds, both of them fell dead; the other brothers escaped with their army.
Read the original Latin
Hec plaga magna dei facta in fratribus et populo, ad aures principum Alemanie pervenit et commovit eos ad compassionem. Unde factum est, quod ipse Cristus, qui percutit et sanat, tetigit gracia sui Spiritus quorundam principum iicorda, videlicet marchionis de Brandenburgk, qui anno domini mccli, et episcopi de Mersburgk, et comitisf Henrici de Schwarzburgkg, qui anno ejusdem sequenti intraverunt terram Prussie cum multitudine armatorum, quorum singuli terminos dictorum apostatarum potenter pertransiverunt, incendio et rapina destruendo, occidendo et rapiendo, quousque omnino deficerent, nec ultra possent aliqualiter respirare. Ex tune Pomesani, Pogesani, Warmienses, Nattangi et Barthi, ordinante domino Jesu Cristo, in cujus manu sunt omnes potestates et omnium jura regnorum, reversi sunt ad fidem, et fratrum imperio datis obsidibus se iterum subdiderunt. Eodem tempore et eadem causa Swantepolcus dux Pomeranie, fatigatus laboribus et expensis, nec valens ultra resistere fratribus, composicionem, quam fecit Jacobus archidiaconus Leodiensis, qui postea fuit Urbanus papa iiii, inter eum et fratres, servavit ratam usque in finem vite sue. Sicque a die, qua incepit bellum Swantepolci, fuit anno undecimo terminatum, et terra Prussie in pace quievit. De bello fratrum contra Sambitas. a 68 (67i De vastacione territorii Girmoiv. Multa bella gesta sunt contra gentem Sambitarum, que singulariter enumerare nimis longum esset, tarnen aliqua sunt ponencla.
Frater Henricus dictus Stango, commendator de Cristburgk, cum exercitu magno de magistri mandato processit ad bellum contra Sambiam, et intravit circa locum, ubi nunc situm est castrum Lochstete, tempore hyemali, vastando per incendium et rapinam ex utraque parte usque ad villam Girmow, occisis et captis multis hominibus, ubi occurrerunt eis Sambite armata manu. Quibus se opposuit idem commen dator, quasi leo intrepidus, et ut retardaret eos, quousque exercitus suus posset recedere ad tutum locum, lanceis suis plures vulneravit. Tandem circumvenerunt eum Prutheni dolose, et plagis pluribus impositis de equo dejecerunt. Quod videns frater Hermannus germanus dicti commendatoris, commota fuerunt viscera ejus super fratre suo. Non valens tarn injuriosam mortem ipsius sustinere, accessit ad bellum, et post longam defensionem, in qua plures letaliter vulneravit, ambo mortui ceciderunt; alii fratres cum exercitu suo evaserunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.53.5 — But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
- ↩Ps.22.28 — All the ends of the earth will remember and turn back to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before you.
Notes
- 1 ↩The phrase 'qui percutit et sanat' (who strikes and heals) frames the military campaign as an act of divine discipline and mercy simultaneously — the destruction of the apostates is presented as Christ's own work.
- 2 ↩Medieval spellings normalized: 'iicorda' (corda/heart), 'brandenburgk' (Brandenburg), 'mersburgk' (Merseburg), 'schwarzburgkg' (Schwarzburg), 'comitisf' (comitis/count), 'mccli' (1151). Translation renders the intended referents.
- 3 ↩The clause 'in cujus manu sunt omnes potestates et omnium jura regnorum' is a sweeping Christological claim: all earthly sovereignty belongs to Christ. The tribal submission to the Teutonic Order is framed as submission to Christ himself.
- 4 ↩Medieval spellings normalized: 'tune' (tunc/then), 'pomeranie' (Pomerania), 'leodiensis' (Liège), 'iiii' (IV/fourth). 'Comitisf' in s2 and 'composicionem' here (for composicionem) reflect scribal abbreviation habits.
- 5 ↩This sentence appears to be a marginal or interlinear reference note rather than a narrative sentence. The 'a 68 (67i' is a cross-reference marker, likely pointing to another section or page. 'Girmow' is a place name (cf. 'Girmow' in ChrP.4.56.2.s1).
- 6 ↩'tarnen' is a variant spelling of tamen (nevertheless/however); 'ponencla' appears to be a scribal form of ponenda (things to be set down/recorded). Translation renders the intended sense.
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