Pomesania

Pomesania is the name of an area in Prussia, adjacent to the Baltic Sea near the Vistula river, which in 98 AD was described by Tacitus in his Germania. In 1225 the Duke Conrad of Masovia[?], an independent country, invited the Teutonic Knights to protect and increase his territory by fighting the Pagan Prussians. In 1237 the city of Elblag, was founded in Pomesania, near the ancient Prussian trading town of Truso. Malbork is situated to the east of the lower Vistula river.

The territory is said in legend to have been named after Pomeso, a son of Widewuto, chieftain of the Prussians, the Baltic[?] people who inhabited the area at the time of take-over and Christianization by the Teutonic Order in the 13th century. From 1243 to 1821 Pomesania was a diocese of the Catholic Church of Prussia. The diocese of Pomesania and the diocese of Prussia's Sambia[?] came under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Bydgoszcz.

Before, during and after the Reformation and centuries of religious struggles and wars in Prussia and Germany the region became a part of the Kingdom of Poland called Royal Prussia with the 1466 Second Treaty of torun[?]. It was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia at the time of the first partition of Poland. All of Prussia including Pomesania became a part of the German Empire in 1871. After 1920, when parts of Royal Prussia returned to Poland as Polish Corridor, Pomesania remained part of the German exclave and province of East Prussia.

In 1945 Pomesania was ceded to Poland with the Potsdam Agreement.