The influx of knights to Western Pomerania until the early 14th century — a quantitative point of view
The aim of the article is to present the phenomenon of the influx of foreign knights to Western Pomerania in 1231–1310.
The studied population has been identified on the basis of a collection of more than 2500 documents issued in Western Pomerania in that period. When trying to establish the areas from which the various knights came, the author took into consideration documents included in diplomatic codices from Germany.
277 incomers from 225 families have been identified in the period in question. They came mainly from three directions: Margraviate of Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg. Fewer arrived from Westphalia, Holstein, Thuringia, lands ruled by the Archbishops of Magdeburg and Counts of Anhalt, and Rügen. Some knights came from Holland and Denmark.
An analysis of the rate at which knights arrived in Western Pomerania shows that of crucial importance to the phenomenon was Duke Barnim I’s reign, because it was in that period that the newcomers gained the upper hand at the court of the duke and his successors. The migrants made it possible for the dukes from the House of Griffins to rebuild the foundations of their power. This was the beginning of the period during which the German Empire exerted its political, socio-economic, legal and cultural influence on Western Pomerania.