RANI (SLAVIC TRIBE)

The 'Rani' (, ''Rujanen'') were a West Slavic tribe based on the island of Rugia and the southwestern mainland across the Strelasund in what is today northeastern Germany. They were one of the most powerful Slav tribes during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as the Germans began expanding eastward. They were one of the last Slavic peoples to resist Christianisation and Germanisation and cling to their own native paganism.
In 1066, under their Prince Kruto, the Rani were suzerains of a coalition of Polabian Slavs, including the Obotrites, Wagri, and Veleti. The confederacy was dedicated to militant resistance of German expansionism and Christian evangelism, personified in the dukes of Saxony, Ordulf and his son Magnus. The capital of the coalition was at Buku, a large palisaded fortress on an island in the confluence of the Trave and Wochnitz rivers and the site of the later Lübeck.
In 1074 or 1075, the Christian Slavic prince and ally of the Germans, Buthue, with a band of Holsteiners lent by Duke Magnus, attacked Kruto's stonghold at Plön, which had been purposefully left undefended. The next day, it was surrounded by the Slavs, who forced the Christians to surrender. Thereafter until Kruto's death in 1093, Holstein, Nordalbingia, Sturmaria, and Ditmarsch were subject to the rule of the Rani. The Rani principality was weak internally, however, because the vassal Slavs, the Wagri and Liutizi, continued to elect their own chiefs subordinate to the Rani chieftain. As well, the Christian Obodrites were secretly allied with the Saxons to bring about Kruto's downfall. Immediately after his death, Henry, a Christian Obodrite prince, led a combined Slav-Saxon army to victory over the Wends at the Battle of Schmilau and subjected Wagria and the Liutizi to tribute again.
After their defeat, the Rani assaulted the new fortress of Vetus Lubika, but were repulsed by Henry. In 1123, they struck again and killed Henry's son Waldemar. In revenge for their constant attacks, in the winter of 1114–5 or 1124–5, Henry, with an army of 2,000–6,000 men, undertook a campaign to cross the frozen strait separating the continent from Rugia. The priests of Rugia, after Henry devastated the coastal towns, negotiated an agreement sparing their island in return for an immense sum which had to be collected from the continental Slavs further east (Estonia). Regrouping after Henry's death (1127), the Rani assaulted and destroyed Lubika. At this time they seem to have been devoted pagans, with their priests holding theocratic powers. A force of Rani attacked the Danish fleet during the 1147 Wendish Crusade.
The Danes conquered the Rani stronghold of Arkona in 1168 and forced the Slavs to become vassals of Denmark. The Rani were eventually converted to Christianity and subsequently assimilated into the new population of German settlers who had been encouraged to come to Rugia.

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★ Feudal Germany, Volume II, , James Westfall, Thompson, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1928,