Absalon of Roskilde destroyed the Svetovid temple in the hillfort at Cape Arkona, ending both the territorial and religious autonomy of the Rani, their former monarchs became Danish princes of R�gen. In 1325 R�gen was inherited by the Duchy of Pomerania. The Rani prince, Jaromar I, (died 1218) was a vassal of the Danish king and brought Christianity to the island's inhabitants. In 1184, the Pomeranians, whose rule had previously extended as far as the land of G�tzkow and to Demmin and thus made them the immediate neighbours of the now Danish Principality of Rugia, were commissioned by their overlord, the Holy Roman Emperor, to seize R�gen for the empire, but were defeated in the Bay of Greifswald.
Under Danish rule the Principality of Rugia changed its character. Danish monasteries were established (e.g. Bergen Abbey in 1193 and Hilda Abbey, today Eldena Abbey, in 1199). German colonists were introduced into the land and soon became the largest and most culturally influential group within the population. The Slavic cultural element disappeared, also due to the lack of their own Slavic church structures, so that the Rani were absorbed in the period that followed into the now German-influenced people of R�gen. In addition to the colonization of the country and the building of new monasteries and churches, towns were also re-established. In 1234 the R�gen Prince Wizlaw I founded the town of Stralsund and granted Greifswald market rights in 1241. The power of the towns grew rapidly, forcing R�gen's rulers to make concessions - for example, the prince's castle at Barth was slighted and Schadegast, the princely "twin" of the municipally-controlled Stralsund, was ousted in favour of the latter.
In 1304 a storm surge, known as the All Saints' Flood, devastated the island and flooded the peninsula between M�nchgut and Ruden.
After the death of the last Slav prince, Wizlaw III, in 1325, the principality was acquired by Pomerania-Wolgast as a consequence
