Budownictwo warowne jako narzędzie intensyfikacji władztwa na obrzeżach kraju
Constructing Strongholds as a Means of Strengthening Territorial Authority on Peripheries

The Case of the Castle in Bäslack (Bezławki) in Late Medieval Prussia

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the chronological framework and circumstances of constructing a castle of the Teutonic Order in Bäslack (Bezławki). The research was based on written, mainly manuscript, primary sources. A detailed analysis has been made of the colonisation carried out by the Teutonic Order in the lower and middle course of the Dajna River, where this castle was built, in the region of Barten (Bartia). The analysis made it possible to date back the chronology of constructing the stronghold to the 1370s. It was also argued that the direct reason for erecting the castle was the conflict of the Bishop of Ermland (Warmia) Johann II Stryprock with the Teutonic Order, which had been escalating in the 1360s, and which ended only in 1374/1375. On the one hand, the construction of the castle in Bäslack was to symbolically emphasise the dominant position of the Teutonic Order in Prussia and its supremacy over the dominion of the bishops of Ermland. On the other hand, it was to serve as a tangible demarcation of the territory which was directly under the rule of the Teutonic Order in the region, where the border between the lands controlled by the Teutonic Knights and by the bishops of Ermland had not been firmly established, which was one of the causes of the aforementioned conflict.

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