THE POLITICAL AND LEGAL BASES FOR PURCHASE OF GDANSK POMERANIA BY THE TEUTONIC ORDER FROM THE MARGRAVES OF BRANDENBURG IN THE YEARS 1309-1310

In 1308/9, the Teutonic Order annexed by force Vistula Pomerania (Polish: Pomorze Nadwislanskie). In order to validate this annexation, the Order purchased the territory for 10 thousand silver deniers from the Brandenburg margrave Waldemar, who assumed possession of it in 1305 as a grant of the Bohemian and Polish king Waclaw III, resigning on his behalf from the March of Meissen. Some historians derive the ownership rights to this part of Pomerania from the grant of the Pomeranian Duchy to the Brandenburg margraves, received as fief of the Reich by emperor Frederick II in 1231, while others from the aforementioned transaction from 1305. This latter point of view was represented by the Teutonic Knights themselves; it is better justified.