Treaty of Kalisz 1343
The Treaty of Kalisz, concluded on 8 July 1343 between the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland, was one of the most important diplomatic instruments in the history of the Teutonic state. The treaty formally ended the long dispute between the Order and the Polish crown over the possession of the Prussian lands and of the duchy of Pomerelia, and it secured the Order’s sovereignty over a substantial Baltic territory for the next century and a quarter.
The Background of the Conflict
The dispute had its roots in the events of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The Order had acquired Pomerelia — the territory between the Vistula and the Oder — in 1309, by a contested purchase from the Margrave of Brandenburg and from the heirs of the Samborides, the local ducal dynasty. The acquisition was challenged by the Polish duke Wenceslaus of Płock, who claimed the territory as a Polish fief. The dispute escalated to a brief war that ended with the Order’s victory and the cession of Pomerelia, but the matter was not resolved.
The Polish kings — Władysław I the Elbow-high and his son Casimir III the Great — continued to press the Polish claim. Władysław took the title “King of Poland and Lord of Pomerelia” and, in 1331, launched a war against the Order in alliance with the Hungarian king Charles Robert of Anjou. The war ended in 1341 with the Treaty of Inowrocław, but the treaty was not ratified, and the dispute continued.
The Negotiations
The negotiations were conducted, on the Polish side, by Casimir III the Great, and, on the Order’s side, by the Grand Master Dietrich von Altenburg. The negotiations were facilitated by the papal legate, the Cardinal Guy de Boulogne, who wished to assemble a unified Christian front against the pagan Mongols and Lithuanians.
Casimir III was a pragmatic king. He had inherited the Polish claim to Pomerelia, but he was engaged in consolidating the Polish kingdom and was not in a position to wage a long war against the Order. He was prepared to make territorial concessions in exchange for other gains: he wanted the Order’s support against the pagan Lithuanians, and he was prepared to recognise the Order’s possession of Pomerelia in exchange for the Order’s recognition of his possession of Kujavia and Dobrin.
The Order was interested in securing its possession of the Prussian lands and Pomerelia, and in removing the Polish claim as a constant source of diplomatic and military pressure. The Order was also prepared to renounce its claim to Kujavia and Dobrin, which it had held only intermittently.
The Terms of the Treaty
The treaty was concluded at Kalisz on 8 July 1343. Casimir III renounced, on behalf of himself and his successors, all claims to the Prussian lands and to the duchy of Pomerelia. The Order renounced all claims to the duchies of Kujavia and Dobrin, released Polish prisoners, and returned occupied lands. The treaty was guaranteed by the Pope, by the King of Hungary, and by a number of Polish dukes, and was confirmed by a series of oaths binding both parties and their successors.
The treaty was, in effect, a partition: the Order received the Prussian lands and Pomerelia, and the Polish crown received Kujavia and Dobrin. The Order’s share was substantially larger and more prosperous, and the treaty was, a diplomatic triumph for the Order.
The Significance of the Treaty
The Treaty of Kalisz was a decisive moment in the history of the Teutonic state. It secured the Order’s possession of the Prussian lands and Pomerelia, and it removed, for the time being, the principal source of tension between the Order and the Polish crown. The treaty allowed the Order to redirect its resources to the Lithuanian campaign, and it allowed the Order to consolidate its territorial control.
The treaty was, a precondition for the golden age of the Teutonic state, which began in 1309 with the transfer of the Grand Master’s seat to Marienburg. The treaty allowed the Order to concentrate on the Lithuanian campaign, and it allowed the Order to develop the commercial and administrative institutions described in the article on the economy of the state.
The treaty was, however, not a complete settlement. The Order’s relations with the Polish-Lithuanian union, created in 1386, would become a major source of conflict, eventually leading to the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and the long decline of the Order.
The Long-Term Consequences
The Treaty of Kalisz is, in most modern accounts, a milestone in the history of the Baltic region. It established the legal basis for the Teutonic state and shaped the political geography of the region for centuries. The territory the Order acquired became the basis for the duchy of Prussia — created in 1525 by the secularisation of the Order — and, eventually, for the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire.
Sources
- Biskup, Marian, and Gerard Labuda. Dzieje zakonu krzyżackiego w Prusach. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Morskie, 1986.
- Boockmann, Hartmut. Der Deutsche Orden: Zwölf Kapitel aus seiner Geschichte. Munich: Beck, 1981.
- Töppen, Max, ed. Acten der Ständetage Preussens unter der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens. 5 vols. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1867–1886.
Related Reading
For the establishment of the state, see the main article on the establishment of the Teutonic state, and for the tribute system, see the article on the Prussian tribute system. For the period that followed the treaty, see the article on the Golden Age, and for the long-term consequences of the dispute, see the Thirteen Years’ War and the history of the Order.