The Gryfici

Who he is

Name

No head of the kin is named for 1200. Members: Mikora, whose gift at Bochnia to the Miechów canons the patriarch of Jerusalem confirmed in 1198; probably the palatine Mikołaj (Palatine Mikołaj)

Title

Kindred (ród) of the Kraków court

Since

12th century

Born

Not applicable

Family

Archbishop Jan of Gniezno (1149-1167) and his brother Klemens founded the Cistercian abbey at Brzeźnica (Jędrzejów) about 1140-1149; Jaksa of Miechów (died about 1176), crusader and pilgrim to Jerusalem in 1162, married Agapia, daughter of the palatine Piotr Włostowic, and brought the canons of the Holy Sepulchre to Miechów in 1163; one of Jaksa's daughters married a voivode Mikołaj, probably the palatine, and another, Anna, was abbess of the Norbertine nuns at Zwierzyniec.

Confidence

low

en.wikipedia (Jaxa of Köpenick; Miechów; Bochnia; Mikołaj Gryfita).

Overlord

The duke at Kraków

What it holds

• Estates round Jędrzejów (Brzeźnica), Miechów and Książ, much of them given to their foundations
• Land at Bochnia (Mikora's gift to Miechów, confirmed 1198)
• The founders' patronage of Jędrzejów abbey and of the Miechów canons

How it was acquired

Inherited allodial estates, enlarged by Jaksa's marriage into Piotr Włostowic's family.

Allies and rivals

With the palatine Mikołaj and Bishop Pełka.

How things stand that morning

Among the Kraków lords who hold Mieszko III to his terms; members not individually pinned.

Wealth

Farmland of the loess north of Kraków; patronage of two religious houses.

Military

The kin's knights and followers serve in the Kraków host under the palatine.

Threats

• Leszek's party's enmity to the palatine

Places of note

• Jędrzejów abbey (Brzeźnica): Cistercian abbey founded by Archbishop Jan and Klemens about 1140-1149 (Church map matter).
• Miechów: Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, brought by Jaksa in 1163; church blessed by Bishop Gedko in 1170.
• Bochnia: Mikora Gryfita's gift to Miechów, confirmed by Patriarch Aymar of Jerusalem in 1198.
• Książ: Gryfici country north of Kraków (not pinned for 1200).

Where the sources disagree

• Długosz assigns the palatine Mikołaj to the Lisowie, not the Gryfici (en.wikipedia, Mikołaj Gryfita).

Evidence: Foundations and the 1198 confirmation are dated; the kin's estates and members in 1200 are not.

On the map: No estate map: the kin's lands in 1200 are known only through their gifts.

Primary sources for Kraków (Mieszko III)

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of the Poles, by Master Vincent (Wincenty Kadłubek), Wincenty Kadłubek (about 1190 to 1208). Book 4 is a contemporary's account of the fight for the senior throne of Kraków. Read online
• The annals of the Kraków chapter and the other Polish annals (kept from the 11th century; the Kraków chapter annals continued to 1266). Short dated entries that fix the chronology Kadłubek blurs: the deaths of dukes and bishops, Mieszko the Old's captures of Kraków, Prussian raids on Masovia, church consecrations. Read online
• The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
• The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online