Royal Prussia - Geography

Geography

From the 14th century, in old texts (until the 16th/17th c.) and in Latin, the terms Prut(h)enia and Prut(h)enic refer not only to the original settlement area of the extinct Old Prussians (Prusowie, see: Prussia) along the Baltic Coast east of the Vistula River, but also to the adjacent lands of the former Samboride dukes of Pomerelia, which the Teutonic Knights had acquired from Poland in the 1343 Treaty of Kalisz and added to their Order's State.

Polish Prussia established in 1466 included these western parts of Teutonic Prussia, i.e. the Pomerelian lands with the port of Gdańsk (Gdańsk Pomerania), as well as Chełmno Land (Kulmerland) with Michałowo Land and Toruń in the south, but also the area around Malbork and Elbląg and the epicopal lands of Warmia. The former Pomerelian Lauenburg and Bütow Land in the far west was held by the Pomeranian dukes as a Polish fief.

Royal Prussia is distinguished from later Ducal Prussia, the remaining parts of Prussia around Königsberg (Królewiec), which was a fiefdom under Polish suzerainty, first held by the Teutonic Knights, from 1525 by secular dukes of the Hohenzollern dynasty. From 1618 this "East Prussian" part was held in personal union by the Electors of Brandenburg (Brandenburg-Prussia) and in 1657 reached full sovereignty from the Polish Crown according to the Treaty of Wehlau.