Gottschalk (15 January 1005-7 June 1066) was High Chief of the Obotrites from 1043 to 1066, succeeding Gryn and preceding Kruto.
Biography[]
Gottschalk was born in 1005, the son of the assassinated Obotrite chief Pribigniew. His father had converted to Christianity and had his son baptized, and, on his father's murder by a Saxon in 1028, Gottschalk renounced Christianity and rebelled against the Saxons. Duke Bernard II of Saxony defeated Gottschalk and captured him, and he was then exiled from his own lands. He was sent to the court of Canute of Denmark to serve in his wars in Norway, and, on Gryn's death at the hands of the Norwegians in 1043, Gottschalk returned to Pomerania and became Prince of the Obotrites after a civil war. He built new fortresses, demolished those of the conquered tribes, and aimed to collect the Slavic tribes under one Christian kingdom. Gottschalk's efforts to Christianize the Wends of the Elbe were unsuccessful, however, as the Obotrite nobility and peasantry largely remained pagan. In 1066, Gottschalk was killed in a pagan rebellion, and Kruto seized power.