Great Prussian Uprising

Timeline

1. 1260Durbe · CourlandOn 13 July 1260 the Samogitians defeated the combined Teutonic and Livonian Knights at Durbe. Hearing the news, the Prussian tribes believed the Order could be broken; Samland, Natangia, Bartia, Warmia, Pomesania and others rose almost simultaneously in what became the Great Prussian Uprising.
2. 1261–1272Around Königsberg · PrussiaHerkus Monte, leader of the Natangians, had been a hostage in Magdeburg in his youth, knew the knights' tactics, and became the uprising's most famous leader. The tribes besieged strongholds such as Königsberg and raided German settler villages; the Order was at times reduced to a few stone castles supplied by sea.
3. 1263–1273Prussia · PrussiaReinforcements arrived from the Holy Roman Empire and crusader volunteers. The Order suppressed the tribes region by region: first securing Samland and the mouth of the Vistula, then pushing deep into Natangia and Bartia. Herkus was captured and killed around 1272–1273, and tribal cooperation gradually collapsed.
4. 1273–1274Prussia · PrussiaBy around 1274 the main tribal forces of the great uprising had been broken; the Order rebuilt its castles and expanded German and Polish settlement. Resistance in Sudovia and elsewhere continued longer, but the bulk of Prussia was incorporated into the Order's theocratic state. The aftermath of the conquests of the 1270s is covered in the existing Teutonic entry.