In the Slavic uprisings of 983 and c. 1040 under
Gottschalk, Wagria was wasted and ruined. Many German towns and churches were destroyed and the region was largely depopulated. In 1066, the Wagri allied with the
Wilzi in storming the line of
Saxon burgwarden from
Mecklenburg to
Schwerin and into German territory as deep as
Hamburg. Around 1090, the still
pagan Wagri and
Liutizi came under the sway of the
Rani-born
Kruto. Each tribe elected its own chief who was subordinate to Kruto. In 1093, the Christian
Obodrites under
Henry, aided by some
Saxons and the local Low German population, defeated Kruto at the
Battle of Schmilau near
Ratzeburg. The Wagri were brought to tributary status once more. The
Christianisation of Wagria began under
Unwan,
Archbishop of Bremen, in the 1020s.
Vicelin of Oldenburg, a Christian priest, first began to evangelise the Wagri and Wilzi with the permission of Henry, who was reigning from
Lübeck, around 1126. In the years which followed Vicelin's mission, the
Emperor Lothair II thoroughly
encastellated Wagria and
Canute Lavard and the Holsteiners invaded it and took
Pribislav and
Niklot, the Wagrian leaders, away in chains. In 1142,
Henry the Lion and
Adolf II of Holstein divided the newly conquered Slav lands between them. Wagria with its castle of
Sigberg went to Adolf, while
Polabia with Ratzeburg went to Henry. The
Trave divided the regions. There followed this division a great influx of German colonists. During the
Wendish Crusade of 1147, the Wagri attacked recently founded colonies of
Flemings and
Frisians, but this is the last that is heard of their resistance to Germanisation. ==See also==