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The Battle of Gransee was fought in August 1316 between the armies of a North German-Danish alliance led by the Duchy of Mecklenburg, and those of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and their allies. It took place near the village of Schulzendorf, Brandenburg, which is in present-day Germany. This was the final battle in the North German Margrave War (AKA Sunderkrieg). It was a decisive victory for the Alliance, who were subsequently able to impose their demands through the Treaty of Templin (24/25 November 1317).
The immediate cause of conflict was a dispute over succession to the Lordship of Stargard following the death in 1314 of Beatrix of Brandenburg, wife of Henry II, Lord of Mecklenburg (nicknamed "The Lion"). Waldemar, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal (nicknamed "The Great"), demanded the return of what he considered a fief of Brandenburg, which Beatrix had possessed only as part of her dowry (German : de:Leibgedinge ). Henry countered by calling for military assistance from his allies –who included King Erik of Denmark, John of Werle, and other North German princes –and by invading Brandenburg. Waldemar assembled his forces at the walled city of Gransee to oppose them.
Waldemar's forces consisted largely of knights in armour; Henry's of foot soldiers. It was conventional military wisdom in those days that heavy cavalry hopelessly outclassed light infantry. (Subsequent patriotic accounts from Mecklenburg even suggested that the Alliance was outnumbered four to one.) On John's advice, the Alliance decided on a surprise attack. Passing through a forest (remnants of which still exist as the Unterbusch), they crossed the Mühlenfließ near Schulzendorf. (The Mühlenfließ was a millstream which powered the watermill at Rauschendorf.) [Note 1]
According to the chroniclers, it was the foot soldiers who won the day. The knights, fighting on foot, were immobile and vulnerable. [Note 2] The battle swayed to and fro for several hours, and resembled a massacre. [Note 3] Henry caught an axe blow to the helmet in the initial phase of the battle, and had to be supported from the field; but later returned to fight with undiminished vigour.
Seven counts on the Brandenburg side, including Albrecht V of Wernigerode and the Count of Mansfeld, were taken prisoner. Waldemar himself only escaped because Count von Manseld fought to give him the opportunity. Waldemar and his retinue retreated in some disorder to Gransee, said by Fontane to have been the strongest place in the Lordship of Ruppin. On the Alliance side, John III, Count of Holstein-Plön was captured.
The victorious Alliance withdrew to Buchholz by way of Rheinsberg and Wesenberg, and celebrated their victory.
The two sides now began to negotiate, at first in Zehdenick. The captured noblemen were important bargaining counters. Under the Treaty of Templin, Waldemar was forced to agree to cede Starburg to Mecklenburg.
Waldemar died in 1319. His cousin, Henry II, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal, died in 1320, at the age of 12 or 13. The claims of the House of Ascania to the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its possessions (including Starburg) thereupon became extinct, and the quarrel was never revived.
On 30 July 2016, near the 700th anniversary of the battle, the municipal councils of Gransee, Sonnenberg and Schulzendorf, together with the Stargarder Burgverein, dedicated a memorial to the battle. It consists of a plaque which includes a panorama of the battlefield, and historical information by Carsten Dräger, local historian, and by Frank Saß, head of the Stargarden Castle museum.
Louis V, called the Brandenburger, a member of the House of Wittelsbach, ruled as Margrave of Brandenburg from 1323 to 1351 and as Duke of Bavaria from 1347 until his death. From 1342 he also was co-ruling Count of Tyrol by his marriage with the Meinhardiner countess Margaret.
Waldemar the Great, a member of the House of Ascania, was Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal from 1308 until his death. He became sole ruler of the Margraviate of Brandenburg upon the death of his cousin John V of Brandenburg-Salzwedel in 1317. Waldemar is known as the last in the line of Ascanian margraves starting with Albert the Bear in 1157; he was only succeeded by his minor cousin Henry II, who died one year later.
The Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1815 that, having electoral status although being quite poor, grew rapidly in importance after inheriting the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 and then came to play a pivotal role in the history of Germany and that of Central Europe as core of the Prussian kingdom.
The Treaty of Templin was concluded on 24/25 November 1317, ending a war between the Margraviate of Brandenburg and Denmark, the latter leading a North German alliance. During this war, Brandenburgian margrave Waldemar and his troops were decisively defeated in the 1316 Battle of Gransee, fought at Schulzendorf between Rheinsberg and Gransee. After the battle, Brandenburg was forced to negotiate a truce. The treaty of Templin was signed a year later by Danish king Eric VI Menved, his ally duke Henry II of Mecklenburg, and Waldemar.
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Albert II, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst was a German prince of the House of Ascania and ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Zerbst.
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Pomerania during the Late Middle Ages covers the history of Pomerania in the 14th and 15th centuries.
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Wartislaw IV or Vartislav IV was Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast from 1309 until his death. He was the only son of Duke Bogislaw IV of Pomerania and his wife Margareta, a daughter of Vitslav II, Prince of Rügen. Vartislaw IV had four sisters: Jutta, Elisabeth, Margareta and Eufemia.
Starting in the 12th century, the Margraviate, later Electorate, of Brandenburg was in conflict with the neighboring Duchy of Pomerania over frontier territories claimed by them both, and over the status of the Pomeranian duchy, which Brandenburg claimed as a fief, whereas Pomerania claimed Imperial immediacy. The conflict frequently turned into open war, and despite occasional success, none of the parties prevailed permanently until the House of Pomerania died out in 1637. Brandenburg would by then have naturally have prevailed, but this was hindered by the contemporary Swedish occupation of Pomerania, and the conflict continued between Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia until 1815, when Prussia incorporated Swedish Pomerania into her Province of Pomerania.
Henry II, Lord of Mecklenburg, nicknamed the Lion was regent of Mecklenburg from 1287 to 1298, co-regent from 1298 to 1302 and ruled alone again from 1302 to 1329.
John I, Margrave of Brandenburg was from 1220 until his death Margrave of Brandenburg, jointly with his brother Otto III "the Pious".
Beatrix of Brandenburg was the first wife of Lord Henry II "the Lion" of Mecklenburg (1266–1329), whom she married in 1292 at Stargard Castle.
Herman, Margrave of Brandenburg, also known as Herman the Tall, a member of the House of Ascania, was Margrave and co-ruler of Brandenburg with his cousin Margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg-Stendal.
Otto III, nicknamed the pious was Margrave of Brandenburg jointly with his elder brother John I until John died in 1266. Otto III then ruled alone, until his death, the following year.
Margrave Henry I was a member of the House of Ascania and Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal and Landsberg.
Henry II of Brandenburg-Stendal, nicknamed Henry the Younger or Henry the Child was the last margrave of Brandenburg from the House of Ascania.
Events from the 1310s in Denmark.