Samborides
noble family
The Samborides (German: Samboriden) or House of Sobiesław (Polish: Sobiesławice) were a ruling dynasty in the historic region of Pomerelia. They were first documented about 1155 as governors (princeps) in the Eastern Pomeranian lands serving the royal Piast dynasty of Poland, and from 1227 ruled as autonomous princes until 1294, at which time the dynasty died out. The subsequent war for succession among the Polish Piast dynasty, the Imperial Margraviate of Brandenburg and the State of the Teutonic Order resulted in the Teutonic takeover of Gdańsk in 1308.
Geography
The dynasty's dominion, Pomerelia, roughly corresponded with the area of today's Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland. The Samborides from 1227 used the Medieval Latin title dux Pomeraniae; their Duchy of Pomerelia was therefore referred to as "Duchy of Pomerania", even though there was another Duchy of Pomerania to the west, ruled by the House of Griffins, who likewise bore the title "Dukes of Pomerania".
In Polish usage, the term Pomorze (Pomerania) tends to be associated with the entire strip of land on the Baltic coast between the Vistula river in the east and the Raksa (Recknitz) river in the west. Until the Germanic invasions, the term was used as far west as the Morini). The distinction is achieved by the use of Pomorze Gdańskie (i.e., Pomerania-Danzig) for Pomerelia, and Pomorze Szczecińskie (i.e., Pomerania-Stettin) for the former Griffin duchy, to whom the title "Duke of Pomerania" and the term "Duchy of Pomerania" would be used exclusively after the Samborides' extinction.
During the rule of Duke Swiętopełk II, Samboride holdings spread from Słupsk in the west going east across the Vistula River including Żuławy Gdańskie, and in the south bordered the Polish dukedoms of Greater Poland and Kuyavia, the Noteć river being the border.
Origins
The Polish name "House of Sobiesław" derives from Duke Sobiesław I, steward for the Piast dukes of Greater Poland in Pomerelia, while "Samborides" as used in English and German derives from his probable son and successor, Duke Sambor I. According to German historiography the first certain princeps of Pomerelia was Sambor, as the records concerning Sobiesław I stems from the 15th century Oliwa chronicle of the 15th century seemed not reliable.
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This entry incorporates text from “Samborides” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.