Independent Pomerania?

What's sort of timeline gymnastics would be required to create an independent Pomerania that includes both Danzig and Stettin?

The Samborides ruled Pomerelia (Pomerania-Danzig) as an independent duchy until the dynasty's extinction in 1294. Maybe if the dynasty survives longer (and Poland remains divided enough so it can't forcibly devour them), it could eventually intermarry with and inherit the Griffins (or vice versa).

Assuming a state like this can be created and sustained, how wealthy could it get, holding the mouths of both Oder and Vistula?
 

Valdemar II

Banned
Honestly I think Pommern would be better off without control with those two cities, the problem are that it will bring them in conflict both with the Hanse and inland principalities. If you look at the medieval periode it was incredible hard for the North European crowns to keep control with major trading cities. Hamburg threw the counts of Holstein out, Reval (Talinn), Strettin, Danzig, Königsburg and Riga turned into independent cities states. Denmark lost control with Falsterbo* to the Hanse and only gained control over Copenhagen in the 15th century.

To how the state would look, Pommern tended/tend to be rather thinly populated with a low urbanisation, the soil are somewhat sandy and was later hit hard by dust balls. But the it position near the coast made it easy to trade resulting in the landowners ending up rather well off. The Oder and Vistula watershed on the other hand was not sandy, but more of a swamp and woodland. Swamp and woodland was favorite settlement area for German and Dutch settlers, and could be made into rich farmland.

So my guess are that we would see the coastal watershed turn into large estates dominated by a knighthood of Slavic descend ruling over a serfhood of slavic descend and middleclass of burghers and freeholder descendent of German settlers, while the Oder and Vistula area would be dominanted by small freeholding farms mostly owned by German settlers and having a higher level of urbanisation, the local nobility would be a lot weaker. Through the medieval periode the towns and villages will likely be almost city states in their own right, while the knights will rule their personal estates as if they was Princes in their own right. The result are a rather weak crown only ruling his own and the royal estates, his biggest goal will have to increase the crowns power.

*today it's a minor town, but in the medieval periode it was the major trading spot for herring, a major source of income for the Hanse and Danish crown.
 
Top