in 1525 After the
Teutonic Knights during the 13th century had conquered the
Prussian territories and incorporated them into the
Order's State, the castle of
Marienburg served as the seat of the
Grand Masters. Following the 1410
Battle of Grunwald, the Knights once again could withstand the Polish
Siege of Marienburg. In 1440, various cities, towns and nobles from the area co-formed the anti-Teutonic
Prussian Confederation. In 1454, the organisation led an uprising against the rule of the Teutonic Knights, and asked King
Casimir IV of Poland to include the region within the Kingdom of Poland, to which the King agreed and signed the act of incorporation of the region to Poland in March 1454 in
Kraków, which sparked the
Thirteen Years' War. The cities of
Elbląg,
Malbork,
Sztum and
Tolkmicko were members of the Confederation, whereas
Dzierzgoń also sided with Poland in the war. The Teutonic Knights had to withdraw from Malbork to
Königsberg and after their final defeat lost the castle and the surrounding territory in the 1466
Second Peace of Thorn. King
Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland established the Malbork Voivodeship, including the towns of
Elbing (Elbląg),
Stuhm (Sztum) and
Christburg (Kiszpork/Dzierzgoń). Since the 1569
Union of Lublin the Lands of the
Polish Crown were part of the larger
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Malbork Castle was occupied twice by troops of the
Swedish Empire: during the
Thirty Years' War 1626–1629 and again from 1656 to 1660 during the
Deluge. Truces between Poland and Sweden were signed in the Malbork Voivodeship in
1629 and
1635. In 1772, the voivodeship was annexed by
Prussia in the
First Partition of Poland and became part of the newly established Province of
West Prussia the next year.
Zygmunt Gloger in his monumental book Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland provides this description of Malbork Voivodeship: "The smallest of three voivodeships of Polish Prussia, it was divided into four counties: Sztum, Kiszpork, Elbląg and Malbork. Local
starostas resided at
Kiszpork, Sztum,
Tolkmicko, and other locations.
Sejmiks and courts were not located at Malbork, but at Sztum, which itself was governed by the starosta of Kiszpork. At sejmiks, local nobility elected eight deputies to the Prussian
Sejm, e.g. two from each county (...) Malbork Voivodeship’s coat of arms was almost identical as
Chełmno Voivodeship's, with differences in color of the eagle. The Prussian Sejm took place alternatively at Malbork and
Grudziądz". ==Cities==