of Heinrichsdorf-Warlange and Brotzen-Machlin became allodial possessions of the von der Goltz family, who before had held the areas as fiefs, and were thus excluded from the starosty, Draheim lost a direct land route to the rest of Walcz county. Draheim was then surrounded by the Imperial Duchy of Pomerania in the north, east and southeast, with the exception of the small enclave of Groß Poplow-Brutzen which was in the possession of the von Manteuffel family and directly under the Polish crown; in the southeast, Draheim bordered the Neumark exclave Groß Zacharin-Doderlage. The border was not fixed, but varied according to the ability of competing nobles in the frontier region to manifest their respective claims. When a noble perceived an intrusion into his territory, he and his subjects traditionally reacted with an inequatio, a mounted raid, into the territory of his competitor on the other side of the border. This practice persisted in Walcz county until the late 18th century. In 1407 German and Polish nobility conquered the castle of Draheim (Stare Drawsko). These robber barons used the region as a base for raids until 1422, when they were defeated by the burghers of Dramburg (Drawsko Pomorskie). In 1438 the Teutonic Knights recognized Polish control of the region. In the 16th century the region largely converted to Lutheranism during the Protestant Reformation. During the counter-reformation, of the three important families only the von der Goltzs remained Protestant, while the von Wedells and Czarnowskis converted to Roman Catholicism, maintaining however a tolerant attitude towards the Protestant settlers. Starost Jan Czarnowski expelled the Protestant preachers in 1625; the churches were restored to Catholicism, although the populace remained largely Protestant. Also in the 16th century, conditions for peasants worsened in the neighboring Duchy of Pomerania due to the implementation of stringent serfdom. Many peasants fled from Pomerania to Draheim and other parts of Walcz county, where the nobles offered them hereditary farmland in deserted villages and clearances which they were to settle according to German law. The settlers primarily originated in Pomeranian and Neumark areas no more than away from the Draheim border, and their influx continued throughout the 16th and 17th centuries despite protests of their former superiors. This migration was enhanced by the Thirty Years War, during which Pomerania and Neumark were devastated, while the Polish territories were spared. Orders of the Polish king to expel the refugees were ignored by