Page "Masuria" Paragraph 12

In 1656, during the Battle of Prostki, the forces of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth destroyed the allied Swedish and Brandenburg army capturing Prince Bogusław Radziwiłł.

The 2, 000 Tatar raiders who fought on the Polish side – before their return to Crimea – demolished most townships and caused the death of over 50 % of the population of southern Prussian region ( later Masuria ) within the years 1656 – 1657, taking 3, 400 people into slavery.

From 1708 – 1711, approximately 50 percent of the inhabitants of the newly rebuilt villages died from the Black Death.

Losses in population were partly compensated by migration of Protestant settlers or refugees from Scotland, Salzburg ( expulsion of Protestants 1731 ), France ( Huguenot refugees after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685 ), and especially from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including Polish brethren expelled from Poland in 1657.

The last group of refugees to immigrate to Masuria were the Russian Philipons in 1830, when King Frederick William III of Prussia granted them asylum.