ERMELAND, or ERMLAND ( Varmia), a,
district of Germany, in East
Prussia, extending from the Frisches
Haff, a bay in the Baltic, inland towards the Polish frontier. It is
a well-wooded sandy tract of country, has an area of about 1650 sq. m.,
a population of 240,000, and is divided into the districts of Braunsberg,
Heilsberg, Rössel and Allenstein.
Ermeland was originally one of the eleven districts of old Prussia
and was occupied by the Teutonic
Knights (Deutscher Orden), being made in 1250 one of the four bishoprics
of the country under their sway. The bishop of Ermeland shortly afterwards
declared himself independent of the order, and became a prince of the Empire.
In 1466 Ermeland, together with West
Prussia, was by the peace of
Thorn attached to the crown of Poland, and the bishop had a seat in
the Polish senate. In 1772 it was again incorporated with Prussia. Among
the bishops of the see, which still exists, with its seat in
Frauenberg, may be mentioned Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, afterwards
Pope Pius II., and Cardinal
Stanislaus Hosius (1504 – 1579), the founder of the Jesuit college
in Braunsberg.
See Hipler, Literaturgeschichte des Bisthums Ermeland (Braunsberg,
1873); the Monumenta historiae Warmiensis (Mainz, 1860 –
1864, and Braunsberg, 1866 – 1872, 4 vols.); and Buchholz, Abriss einer
Geschichte des Ermlands (Braunsberg, 1903.)
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