In the Slavic revolt of 983, Polabian Slavs, Wends, Lutici and Obotrite tribes, that lived east of the Elbe River in modern north-east Germany overthrew an assumed Ottonian rule over the Slavic lands and rejected Christianization under Emperor Otto I. [1]
The Slavic peoples between the Elbe and the Baltic coast had been conquered and nominally converted to Christianity in the campaigns of the German king Henry the Fowler and his son Otto I, who in 962 was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Otto had most recently defeated an alliance of Obotrite and Circipani tribes at the 955 Battle on the Raxa. The conquered area east of the German Duchy of Saxony was initially organized within the vast Saxon Eastern March under Margrave Gero, but divided into smaller marches upon his death in 965.
In order to stabilize his rule, Otto promoted the conversion of the Slavic population, establishing the bishoprics of Havelberg and Brandenburg in 948, followed by the Archbishopric of Magdeburg in 968, which in particular carried out active missionary work. [2] [1] [3]
In 981 Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg, the Apostle of the Slavs, died and his successor Gisilher had to struggle with the resistance by the Magdeburg chapter. He was backed by Emperor Otto II, who, however, was on campaign in Italy, where he suffered a disastrous defeat against the Sicilian Kalbids in the 982 Battle of Stilo and died the next year without having returned to Germany, leaving his minor son Otto III under the tutelage of the Empress consorts Theophanu and Adelaide of Burgundy. [1]
While there was internal dissention in the Holy Roman Empire, Slavic forces led by the Lutici revolted and drove out the political and religious representatives of the Empire. Starting from the Slavic sanctuary at Rethra, the bishops' seat of Havelberg on 29 June 983 was occupied and plundered, followed by Brandenburg three days later and numerous settlements up to the Tanger River in the west. According to the contemporary chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg, the Obotrites joined the Lutici, devastated a St Lawrence monastery in Kalbe, the bishopric of Oldenburg and even assaulted Hamburg. [1] [3]
A hastily assembled Saxon army was only able to retain the Slavs behind the Elbe. The Northern March and the March of the Billungs were lost. The March of Lusatia as well as the adjacent marches of Zeitz, Merseburg and the Meissen in the south did not take part in the uprising.
From 985, several Princes of the Empire carried out annual campaigns together with the Christian Polish princes Mieszko I and Bolesław I Chrobry to subjugate the area, however these campaigns were unsuccessful. In 1003 King Henry II of Germany tried a different approach: he allied himself with the Lutici and waged war against his previous ally Prince Bolesław of Poland. This stabilized the independence of the Lutici and ensured that the area remained ruled by Polabian Slavs and unchristianized into the 12th century. [1]
The immediate consequences of the uprising were an almost complete stop on further German eastward expansion (Ostsiedlung) for the next 200 years. For most of the time, the dioceses of Brandenburg and Havelberg existed in titular form only, with the bishops residing at the royal court. Only in the 12th century after the Wendish Crusade of 1147 and the establishment of the Margraviate of Brandenburg under the Ascanian prince Albert the Bear in 1157, the settlements east of the Elbe were resumed; followed by the northern lands of Mecklenburg, where after several years of fighting against the Obotrite prince Niklot, his son Pribislav in 1167 declared himself a vassal of the Saxon Duke Henry the Lion. [1] [3]
The Prince-Bishopric of Brandenburg was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire from the 12th century until it was secularized during the second half of the 16th century. It should not be confused with the larger Diocese of Brandenburg established by King Otto I of Germany in 948, in the territory of the Marca Geronis east of the Elbe river. The diocese, over which the prince-bishop exercised only spiritual authority, was a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Magdeburg, its seat was Brandenburg an der Havel.
Year 983 (CMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Otto III was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu.
The Altmark is a historic region in Germany, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt. As the initial territory of the March of Brandenburg, it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by Otto von Bismarck, a native from Schönhausen near Stendal.
The Archbishopric of Magdeburg was a Latin Catholic archdiocese (969–1552) and Prince-Archbishopric (1180–1680) of the Holy Roman Empire centered on the city of Magdeburg on the Elbe River.
The Congress of Gniezno was an amicable meeting between the Polish Duke Bolesław I the Brave and Emperor Otto III, which took place at Gniezno in Poland on 11 March 1000. Scholars disagree over the details of the decisions made at the convention, especially whether the ruler of Poland was pledged the king's crown or not.
The Northern March or North March was created out of the division of the vast Marca Geronis in 965. It initially comprised the northern third of the Marca and was part of the territorial organisation of areas conquered from the Wends. A Lutician rebellion in 983 reversed German control over the region until the establishment of the March of Brandenburg by Albert the Bear in the 12th century.
The Wendish Crusade was a military campaign in 1147, one of the Northern Crusades and a part of the Second Crusade, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany within the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Slavs. The Wends were made up of the Slavic tribes of Abrotrites, Rani, Liutizians, Wagarians, and Pomeranians who lived east of the River Elbe in present-day northeast Germany and Poland.
Polabian Slavs, also known as Elbe Slavs, is a collective term applied to a number of Lechitic tribes who lived scattered along the Elbe river in what is today eastern Germany. The approximate territory stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north, the Saale and the Limes Saxoniae in the west, the Ore Mountains and the Western Sudetes in the south, and Poland in the east.
Lebus is a historic town in the Märkisch-Oderland District of Brandenburg, Germany. It is the administrative seat of Amt Lebus. The town, located on the west bank of the Oder river at the border with Poland, was the centre of the historical region known as Lubusz Land, which provides the name for the present-day Polish Lubusz Voivodeship.
Thietmar, Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynasty. Two of Thietmar's great-grandfathers, both referred to as Liuthar, were the Saxon nobles Lothar II, Count of Stade, and Lothar I, Count of Walbeck. They were both killed fighting the Slavs at the Battle of Lenzen.
The Margravate of Meissen was a medieval principality in the area of the modern German state of Saxony. It originally was a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, created out of the vast Marca Geronis in 965. Under the rule of the Wettin dynasty, the margravate finally merged with the former Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg into the Saxon Electorate by 1423.
The Saxon Eastern March was a march of the Holy Roman Empire from the 10th until the 12th century. The term "eastern march" stems from the Latin term marchia Orientalis and originally could refer to either a march created on the eastern frontier of the East Frankish duchy of Saxony or another on the eastern border of the Duchy of Bavaria: the Bavarian marchia Orientalis, corresponding to later Austria.
Gisilher, Gisiler or Giseler was the second Archbishop of Magdeburg, succeeding Saint Adalbert, from 981 until his death in 1004.
Dietrichof Haldensleben was a count in the Schwabengau, later also in the Nordthüringgau and the Derlingau, who was the first Margrave of the Northern March from 965 until the Great Slav Rising of 983. He also bore the title of a dux (duke) in contemporary sources.
Lothair I was Margrave of the Nordmark from about 983 until his death. He was also a member of Saxon nobility as Count of Derlingau and of Nordthüringgau.
The Billung March or March of the Billungs was a frontier region of the far northeastern Duchy of Saxony in the 10th century. It was named after the family which held it, the House of Billung.
The Bishopric of Havelberg was a Roman Catholic diocese founded by King Otto I of Germany in 946, from 968 a suffragan to the Archbishops of Magedeburg. A Prince-bishopric (Hochstift) from 1151, Havelberg as a result of the Protestant Reformation was secularised and finally annexed by the margraves of Brandenburg in 1598.
Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania from the 7th to the 11th centuries.
The Lutici or Liutizi were a federation of West Slavic Polabian tribes, who between the 10th and 12th centuries lived in what is now northeastern Germany. Four tribes made up the core of the federation: the Redarians, Circipanians (Circipani), Kessinians and Tollensians (Tholenzi). At least in part, the Lutici were a continuation of the Veleti. In contrast to the former and the neighboring peoples, the Lutici were not led by a Christian monarch or duke, rather power was asserted through consensus formed in central assemblies of the social elites, and the Lutici worshipped nature and several deities. The political and religious center was Radgosc.