The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was (and is) a duchy (by 1815:Grand Duchy) in northern Germania from 1348 on, when Albert II of Mecklenburg and his younger brother John were raised to Dukes of Mecklenburg by King Charles IV. Ruled by the successors of the Nikloting House of Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin remained a relatively poor state of the Holy Roman Empire along the Baltic littoral between Holstein and Pomerania.