De conflictu in Pocarwis, ubi multi Cristiani sunt occisi.
The Crusaders March into Nattangia
In 1261, German princes and crusaders, roused by news of persecution, enter Nattangia to devastate the land and establish a camp near Brandenburg.
In the year of our Lord 1261, when a rumor of this kind of persecution was flying through Germany, the princes and barons were stirred up. From there the lord of Reyder and many a planting of the church in the regions of Prussia, raised up through the shedding of the blood of many of the faithful, ought not to have perished so miserably — they came to the aid of the aforesaid land.12 With them the brothers and their armored men entered the land of the Nattangians, and after devastating it with fire and plunder, and after capturing and killing many, they returned to that place where the fortress of Brandenburg now stands, and there they pitched camp. And it pleased the brothers and the pilgrims that some part of the army should return again to ravage the aforesaid land, while the other part was left in that same place.3
The Battle of Pocarwis
The Nattangians surprise the smaller raiding party at Pocarwis, where a Westphalian knight fights valiantly before being killed, and the Christian army is decisively defeated.
When this was done, the Nattangians, considering that only a few would dare to plunder their land — con.4 In January, having gathered together, they invaded the remaining part of the army at Pocarwis, while the pilgrims and the brothers bravely opposed them from the opposite side, and especially a certain knight from Westphalia, called Stenckel of Bmtheymf, who had heard in a certain sermon of the bishop that the souls of the faithful killed in Prussia ought to fly straight to heaven without any purgatory — this man, spurring on his warhorse with his spurs, lance couched in military fashion, charged through the enemy's ranks, killing the wicked on his right and on his left, and they fell on every side of him.567 But on the return, when he had come into their midst, he was killed, and a fierce battle broke out among them, with many on both sides mortally wounded and slain.89 At last, just as it pleased God, so it came to pass: the lord of Reyder himself was killed, along with a great part of the army and the brothers who had been with him; some were captured, and the rest were put to flight.10
Retreat and a Captive's Sacrifice
The surviving army retreats, and among the captives a Magdeburg burgher twice ransomed by a compassionate knight ultimately offers himself as a willing sacrifice, dying amid a vision of a white dove.
While this was happening, the brothers, along with the rest of the army, drew near the place of battle and saw the Christian forces thrown into confusion. Unable to break free because of the sheer number of the enemy, they turned back by another road to their own lines. After this slaughter, the Nattangians, wanting to offer a victim to their gods, cast lots among the Teutonic men they had captured there — and the lot fell twice upon a certain burgher from Magdeburg, a wealthy and noble man called Hirtzhals. He, finding himself in this distress, asked Henry of the Mountain to recall the kindnesses he had often shown him in the city of Magdeburg, and to free him from this misery. When Henry heard this, he sympathized with the man and freed him — twice over. But when the lot was cast a third time and fell again upon him, he refused to be ransomed. Instead, willingly offering himself as a sacrifice to God in good confession, he was bound upon his own pyre and burned. Note here that the same Henry and several others later affirmed under oath that when the burgher, burning on the horse, gave up his spirit, they saw a dove — the whitest dove — flying out of his mouth.
Read the original Latin
Anno domini mcclxi \ volante fama persecucionis hujusmodi per Alemaniam, commoti sunt principes et barones. Unde dominus de Reyder et multi vella plantacio ecclesie in partibus Prussie, per multorum fidelium sanguinis effusionem erecta, deberet tarn miserabiliter interire, venerunt dicte terre in subsidium. Cum quibus fratres et eorum armigeri intraverunt terram Nattangie, et devastata ipsa incendio et rapina, captis et occisis multis, redierunt ad eum locum, ubi nunc situm est castrum Brandenburgk, ibique castra metati sunt. Placuitque fratribus et peregrinis, ut aliqua pars exercitus rediret ad dictam terram iterum depopulandam, relicta parte alia in dictod loco. Quo facto Nattangi considerantes, quod pauci' non auderent ipsorum terram depredari, con. Januar gregati invaserunt residuam partem exercitus in Pocarwis, peregrinis et fratri bus ex adverso viriliter se opponentibus, et precipue quidam miles de Westfalia, dictus Stenckel de Bmtheymf, qui audierat in quodam sermone episcopi, quod anime fidelium interfectorum in Prussia deberent ad celum sine omni purgatorio evolare, hic perurgens dextrarium suum calcaribus, applicataquelancea, more militari pertransiit§ hostium cuneos, interficiens impios a dextris et a sinistris, et cadebant ab eo huc et illuc. Sedk in reditu, dum venisset ad me dium ipsorum, occisus est, ortumque est inter eos grave bellum, ex utraque parte pluribus vulneratis letaliter et occisis. Tandem sicut deo placuit, ita fac tum est, quod ipse dominus de Reyder cum magna parte exercitus et fratribus, qui cum eo fuerant, est occisus, quidam capti, in fugam ceteri sunt conversi.
Dum hec agerentur, fratres cum alia parte exercitus dum appropinquantes loco certaminis viderent exercitum Cristianorum confusum, nec possent pre multitudine hostium liberare, per viam aliam ad propria sunt reversi. Post hanc cedem Nattangi, volentes victimam diis offerre, miserunt sortem inter Theutonicos ibi captos, ceciditque duabus vicibus super quendam burgensem de Megdenburgk, nobilem et divitem, dictum Hirtzhals, qui sic in angustia constitutus, Henricum Monte rogavit, ut ad memoriam reduceret beneficia, que ipsi in civitate Megdenburgk sepius exhibuit, et eum ab hac miseria liberaret. Quo audito Henricus eidem compaciens, ipsum duabus vicibus liberavit. Sed cum' tercio missa sors caderet iterum super eum, noluit redimi, sed sponte offerens se in bona confessione hostiam deo, ligatus super etpium suum, est crematus: Nota hic, quod idem Henricus et plures abi sub iuramento suo postea affirmabant, quod cum idem burgensisb in equo crematus emitteret spiritum, viderunt ex ore ipsius columbam albissimam evolantem.
Notes
- 1 ↩vella: uncertain reading, possibly 'fleeces' or a variant of a word meaning 'settlements/plantings'; rendered as 'planting' in the sense of church foundations.
- 2 ↩tarn: uncertain form, possibly a corruption of tam or tandem; rendered as 'so' to fit the sense.
- 3 ↩dictod: uncertain form, likely a corruption of dicto; rendered as 'that same' to match the sense of the preceding dictam.
- 4 ↩The sentence breaks off with 'con.', a truncated or incomplete form. The translation reflects the break.
- 5 ↩Januar: uncertain whether this is a month name or a personal name; rendered as 'In January' following the most likely reading.
- 6 ↩Bmtheymf: uncertain place name, possibly corrupt.
- 7 ↩fratri bus: appears to be a scribal error for fratribus; rendered as 'brothers.'
- 8 ↩Sedk: uncertain; possibly a personal name or a truncated form. Rendered as a name.
- 9 ↩dium: uncertain form, possibly a corruption of medium; rendered as 'midst.'
- 10 ↩fac tum: appears to be a scribal error splitting factum; rendered as 'it came to pass.'
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