Prussian Tribut

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"The Prussian Tribute", oil on canvas, 1882, 388 x 875 cm, National Museum in Kraków. Albrecht Hohenzollern receives the Duchy of Prussia as a fief from the Polish King, Sigismundus I the Elder in 1525.

During the Reformation endemic religious upheavals and wars occurred, and on February 10, 1525, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert of Prussia, a member of a cadet branch of the house of Hohenzollern, resigned his position, became a Protestant and received the title "Duke of Prussia" from Sigismund I King of Poland, Great Duke of Lithuania and imperial duke of Silesia in the act called Prussian Tribut. In a deal partially brokered by Martin Luther (under imperial ban since 1521), Ducal Prussia became the first Protestant state, along the lines of the later religious Peace of Augsburg.