Chełmno Voivodeship


The Chełmno Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland since 1454/1466 until the Partitions of Poland in 1772/1795. Together with the Pomeranian and Malbork Voivodeships and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia it formed the historical province of Royal Prussia. Its capital was at Chełmno.

History

The Land of Chełmno had been part of the Polish Duchy of Masovia since 1138. It was occupied by pagan Old Prussian tribes in 1216, who struggled against their Christianization instigated by Bishop Christian of Oliva. After several unsuccessful attempts to reconquer Chełmno, Duke Konrad I of Masovia in 1226 called for support by the Teutonic Knights, who indeed approached and started a Prussian campaign, after the duke promised them the unshared possession of the Chełmno territory as part of the Order's State.
In the course of the Order's decline after the 1410 Battle of Grunwald, the citizens of Chełmno, Toruń and Lubawa joined the uprising of the Prussian Confederation, which sparked the Thirteen Years' War between the Knights and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Order's defeat, the Chełmno Land fell back to Poland according to the Second Peace of Thorn and together with the adjacent Michelauer land in the east formed the Chełmno Voivodeship of the Polish Crown, since the 1569 Union of Lublin part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The voivodeship was annexed by Prussia during the First Partition of Poland in 1772, except for the city of Toruń, which was not incorporated into the Province of West Prussia until the 1793 Second Partition.

Administration

Voivodeship Governor seat:
Regional council
Regional councils
Administrative division:
  1. Augustyn z Szewy, 1454-1455
  2. Gabriel Bażyński, 1455-1474
  3. Ludwik Mortęski, 1475-1480
  4. Mikołaj Dąbrowski, 1480-1483
  5. Karol z Napola, 1484-1495
  6. Jan Dąbrowski, 1498-1513
  7. Jan Luzjański, 1514-1551
  8. Stanisław Kostka, 1551-1555
  9. Jan Działyński, 1556-1583
  10. Mikołaj Działyński, 1584-1604
  11. Maciej Konopacki, 1605-1611
  12. Ludwik Mortęski, 1611-1615
  13. Stanisław Działyński, 1615-1615
  14. Jan Jakub Wejher, 1618-1626
  15. Melchior Wejher, 1626-1643
  16. Mikołaj Wejher, 1643-1647
  17. Jan Działyński, 1647-1648
  18. Jan Kos, 1648-1662
  19. Piotr Działyński, 1663-1668
  20. Jan Gniński, 1668-1680
  21. Michał Działyński, 1681-1687
  22. Jan Kos,1688-1702
  23. Tomasz Działyński, 1702-1714
  24. Jakub Zygmunt Rybiński, 1714-1725
  25. Franciszek Bieliński, 1725-1732
  26. Jan Ansgary Czapski 1732-1738
  27. Michał Wiktor Bieliński, 1738-1746
  28. Zygmunt Kretkowski, 1746-1766
  29. Franciszek Stanisław Hutten-Czapski, 1766-1802