Duchy of Greater Poland

Who rules

Name

Mieszko III the Old (Mieszko Stary)

Title

Duke (dux) of Greater Poland; as the eldest living Piast he claims the seniorate and styles himself duke of all Poland (dux totius Poloniae); senior duke in Kraków by the usual reckoning (see the krakow record)

Since

1138 in Greater Poland by his father's testament; driven out 1177-79 by his son Odon and the Kraków lords; back in Greater Poland 1181-82

Born

about 1126 (estimates run from 1122 to 1127): about 73 on 1 January 1200, the oldest prince in Poland

Family

Piast. The last surviving son of Bolesław III Wrymouth (died 1138) and Salome of Berg. Married first, about 1136-40, Elisabeth, daughter of King Béla II of Hungary (died about 1154-55); second, by 1154, Eudoxia, a Kievan princess, probably a daughter of Grand Prince Iziaslav II (last heard of after 1187; alive or dead on 1 January 1200 is not pinned).

Confidence

high

Birth, marriages and death (13 March 1202 at Kalisz) from en.wikipedia and de.wikipedia, which follow K. Jasiński's genealogy. His hold on Kraków that morning is disputed: see status_1200.

Overlord

None in practice. As senior he claims overlordship over the other Piast dukes. The emperor's old claims over Poland are dormant while Philip of Swabia and Otto IV fight for the German throne.

What the realm holds

• Kalisz, his residence, and the Kalisz land to the Prosna, taken back from the senior province in 1181
• Gniezno and the old heartland castles: Giecz, Ląd, Kłecko and Lednica (Ostrów Lednicki, whose district by 1200 is not pinned)
• Poznań, with Śrem and the land south of the Obra (Kościan, Krzywiń, Przemęt): governed by his son Władysław for the boy Władysław Odonic (whether Poznań itself was the son's or the father's in 1199-1200 is not pinned)
• The Noteć and Warta march toward Pomerania and Pomerelia: Santok, Drzeń (Drezdenko), Wieleń, Czarnków, Ujście and Nakło with the southern Krajna
• The Obra march toward the Lubusz land and Silesia: Międzyrzecz, Zbąszyń, Przemęt, and Wschowa on the Silesian border
• The ducal rights over the peasants (dues in kind, carting, castle work and hospitality: the ducal law, ius ducale), the market and river tolls, and the mint
• Kraków and the senior province with the Sieradz land, as senior duke, by the usual reckoning (the krakow record has the detail)
• Claims: overlordship as senior over the other Piasts; Kuyavia, ceded in 1198

How it was acquired

Greater Poland (Poznań and Gniezno) by the testament of Bolesław III in 1138. Senior duke in Kraków 1173-77, until the Lesser Polish lords and his own son Odon drove him out; Casimir II then held Kraków and Kalisz. With Pomeranian help he regained Poznań in 1181 and took Gniezno and Kalisz from the senior province, leaving Odon a strip south of the Obra. He annexed Kuyavia in 1186 for his son Bolesław and briefly took Kraków in 1191.

Kalisz was held by his son Mieszko the Younger (1191-93), then by Odon (1193-94), then by Mieszko himself. After Mozgawa (13 September 1195), where his son Bolesław fell, he made terms with Casimir's widow Helen of Znojmo in 1198: Kraków for him, Kuyavia for her sons.

The realm that morning

On the morning of 1 January 1200 Mieszko holds all Greater Poland north to the Noteć, west to Międzyrzecz and the Lubusz border, south to the Barycz marshes and the Silesian forest belt and east to the Kuyavian, Łęczyca and Sieradz borders, either directly (Gniezno, Kalisz, the marches) or through his son Władysław (Odon's land, and perhaps Poznań). Kuyavia is no longer his: he gave it to Casimir II's sons in 1198, and Helen of Znojmo governs it for them (maz has it). Kraków: by the reconstruction the standard lists follow and the mlp krakow record adopts (Mieszko 1198-99, Leszek restored briefly in 1199, Mieszko back from 1199 to his death in 1202), the old duke is senior in Kraków that morning, ruling through or alongside the Kraków lords; on the other reading (the palatine Mikołaj and Bishop Pełka (Fulko) expelled him in 1199 and he returned only under a new settlement in 1201 or 1202), Leszek's regents hold Kraków and Mieszko is in Greater Poland.

Confidence in the first reading: medium. The Sieradz land belongs to the senior province and follows Kraków. Across the borders: Pomerania under his grandsons Bogislaw II and Casimir II beyond the Noteć forests; Pomerelia (Sambor I at Gdańsk, Grzymisław at Świecie: pmr record) north-east beyond the Krajna and the lower Brda; Kuyavia (Casimir II's sons) east of Mogilno and Gniezno; the Łęczyca land east of Konin; the Sieradz land beyond the Prosna; Silesia (Bolesław the Tall) beyond the Barycz and round Głogów; the Lubusz land (Silesian) west of Międzyrzecz; Brandenburg beyond the Lubusz land and the Oder.

Wealth

Grain and cattle of the Greater Polish plain; fish, furs, wax and honey from the forests and lakes; the river roads of the Warta, the Noteć and the Obra to the Oder and the Baltic; tolls at the march castles (Santok, Drzeń, Nakło, Ujście, Międzyrzecz) on the roads and rivers to Pomerania, the Lubusz land and Brandenburg; dues at the castle markets; the dues, carting and castle work owed by the peasants under the ducal law; the mint. No salt or silver is mined in Greater Poland: salt comes from the Kuyavian brine springs round Inowrocław (now in the Kuyavian dukes' hands) and from Kołobrzeg in Pomerania.

Military

The duke's retinue (drużyna) and the knights of the castle districts, called out by the castellans; the garrisons of the march castles on the Noteć, the Warta and the Obra. Mozgawa (13 September 1195) was bloody and inconclusive: he was badly wounded, his son Bolesław was killed and he withdrew to Kalisz, while his Silesian allies, arriving late, beat Goworek's Sandomierz men. No figures survive.

Threats

• His age: about 73, and badly wounded in 1195
• The Kraków lords (the palatine Mikołaj, Bishop Pełka) who have expelled him before
• Leszek the White coming of age and taking power from his mother
• Strife between his son Władysław and his grandson Władysław Odonic over Odon's land
• Archbishop Henryk Kietlicz's demands for church immunity
• Silesian ambitions: Bolesław the Tall's son Henry the Bearded will want Kalisz and Kraków in time

Consort

Eudoxia of Kiev, his second wife, is last heard of after 1187; whether she lives on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Heirs

His son Władysław III Spindleshanks (born about 1161-67, so 33 to 39), married about 1186 to Lucia of Rügen and childless; his grandson Władysław Odonic (born about 1190), heir to Odon's land. In 1198 he came back to Kraków as the boys' senior (de.wikipedia: as guardian of his nephew Leszek); by the 1198 treaty, as the mlp krakow record reads it, Leszek was accepted as his successor at Kraków, so the senior throne is not promised to his own line.

Family in 1200

• Władysław III Spindleshanks, his son by Eudoxia: born about 1161-67; wife Lucia, daughter of Prince Jaromar I of Rügen (married about 1186; a match made to tie Rügen and Pomerania to Mieszko); no children. Governs Odon's land, and perhaps Poznań.
• Elisabeth, by Elisabeth of Hungary: born 1152, dies 2 April 1209. Widow of Duke Soběslav II of Bohemia (married about 1173; he died in January 1180); married secondly, about 1180, Conrad of Landsberg, margrave of Lusatia (alive; the Wettin march of Lusatia).
• Judith, by Elisabeth of Hungary: born before 1154, alive after 12 December 1201. Married about 1173 Bernhard of Anhalt, duke of Saxony since 1180; their sons include Henry (later count of Anhalt) and Albert (later duke of Saxony).
• Wierzchosława Ludmiła, by Elisabeth of Hungary: born before 1153, dies before 1223. Married about 1167 Frederick of Bitsch, of the ducal house of Lorraine (duke from 1205-06).
• Anastasia, by Eudoxia: born about 1164, alive after 31 May 1240. Widow of Duke Bogislaw I of Pomerania (married 26 April 1177; he died 18 March 1187); mother of the Pomeranian dukes Bogislaw II and Casimir II; she governed for them until 1189 (pom record).
• Grandchildren by Odon (died 20 April 1194) and Wyszesława, daughter of Yaroslav Osmomysl of Halych (alive after 1200): Władysław Odonic (born about 1190), Ryksa (born about 1191) and Euphrosyne (born about 1192-94; much later wife of Swietopelk II of Pomerelia).
• Grandchildren through his daughters: the young Pomeranian dukes Bogislaw II (about 22) and Casimir II (about 20); the sons of Judith and Bernhard of Saxony; the children of Elisabeth and Conrad of Lusatia; the children of Ludmiła and Frederick of Bitsch.
• Dead before 1200: Odon (20 April 1194, buried in Poznań cathedral); Stephen (1166 or 1177); Mieszko the Younger, duke of Kalisz (2 August 1193); Bolesław, duke of Kuyavia (killed at Mozgawa, 13 September 1195; his wife Dobrosława, probably of the Schlawe line; no children known); Salomea (about 1183), wife of a prince of the Schlawe line of Pomerania.

Officers

The duke's palatine (wojewoda, comes palatinus), who leads the host and stands in for the duke as judge, and his castellans (kasztelanowie) for 1199-1200 are not named in any charter we could check, and we give no names. Each castellan holds a castle with its district, judges, collects the ducal dues and calls out the knights. The court has the usual Piast household offices (the court judge, the chamberlain, the steward, the cup-bearer, the master of the horse, the master of the hunt, the treasurer), whose Greater Polish holders in 1200 are likewise not named.

Henryk Kietlicz, archbishop of Gniezno since 1198 or 1199, had earlier served Mieszko as an administrator (en.wikipedia; the office is not pinned). The chancery that wrote the Hospitallers' grant (1187) and his Kalisz foundations is not named for 1200.

Great families

The knightly kindreds (rody) of Greater Poland: the Pałuki (of the Topór arms) round Łekno, where their kinsman Zbylut founded the Cistercian abbey in 1153; the Nałęcz, the Łodzia, the Zaremba, the Awdańcy (whom tradition links to the founding of the Benedictine abbey of Lubiń near Krzywiń in the 11th century), the Grzymała and the Doliwa. Their later estate clusters (the Nałęcz round Szamotuły, Czarnków and Ostroróg; the Łodzia round Bnin and Kórnik; the Zaremba in the Kalisz land) are attested from the 13th and 14th centuries; their members and lands on 1 January 1200 are not pinned (see Greater Polish kindreds).

Castles and towns

Castles with market settlements, no chartered towns: Gniezno (the archbishop's see and St Adalbert's shrine), Poznań (the bishop's see on Ostrów Tumski, with Śródka market and the Hospitallers), Kalisz (the duke's residence at Zawodzie, with his collegiate church of St Paul), Giecz, Ląd (with the Cistercians), Santok, Drzeń, Wieleń, Czarnków, Ujście, Nakło, Międzyrzecz, Zbąszyń, Przemęt, Wschowa, Śrem, Kościan, Krzywiń. German town law comes only in the 13th century (Poznań 1253, Kalisz 1253-60).

Coinage

Silver bracteates (thin one-sided pennies). A group of them carries Hebrew letters: by the usual numismatic reading, his own name (Mszk, on some with krl, 'king') and the names or blessings of Jewish moneyers. That Jews worked his mint as engravers and supervisors is reported by en.wikipedia (History of the Jews in Poland); the readings of the legends are from the general numismatic literature, not checked in this run. The mint places are not pinned (Kalisz, Gniezno and Poznań are the usual guesses).

Kadłubek paints his rule as harsh and grasping, with heavy fines.

Church

Archbishop Henryk Kietlicz of Gniezno (Church map record), once in Mieszko's service, is a reformer of the pope's school who will clash with the dukes; the archbishop holds Żnin and Łowicz of his own. The bishop of Poznań on 1 January 1200 is not pinned: the list of bishops has Mrokota until 1196 and Arnold II from 1201 (en.wikipedia, List of bishops of Poznań; the campaign notes mark the see thin). Houses: the Cistercians of Łekno (1153) and Ląd (a daughter of Altenberg, founded by Mieszko by tradition about 1145), the Benedictines of Lubiń and Mogilno, the canons regular of Trzemeszno, the Hospitallers of Poznań (1187).

The collegiate church of St Paul at Kalisz is Mieszko's own foundation and will be his tomb. The papal legate Peter of Capua was in Poland in 1197.

Treaties wars feuds

• The settlement of 1198 with Helen of Znojmo and the Kraków lords: Kraków to Mieszko, Kuyavia to Casimir II's sons. Broken in 1199 when the Kraków palatine Mikołaj and Bishop Pełka (Fulko) put Leszek back; restored, on the usual reckoning, before the end of 1199. In force but fragile (confidence medium).
• The long war for Kraków with Leszek's party (Helen, Bishop Pełka, the palatine Mikołaj of the Gryfici, Goworek of Sandomierz): no fighting recorded that winter; last battle Mozgawa, 13 September 1195.
• No war on the Noteć: the Pomeranian dukes are his grandsons and the Pomerelian princes are at peace with him; no war with Brandenburg or Silesia. At Mozgawa the Silesian dukes Mieszko Tanglefoot of Racibórz and Jarosław of Opole came (too late) to his aid.
• The seed of a family feud: Władysław Spindleshanks holds Odon's land in the name of Odon's son; open strife between uncle and nephew begins after Mieszko's death (1202).

Relations

Silesia

Bolesław the Tall of Wrocław holds the Lubusz land west of Międzyrzecz and Głogów beyond the Obra; no war. Bolesław's estranged son Jarosław (bishop of Wrocław, duke of Opole) and his brother Mieszko Tanglefoot (Racibórz) were Mieszko's allies at Mozgawa in 1195.

Kraków and sandomierz

See status_1200. Leszek the White (born about 1184-87) is taking power from his mother Helen in 1199 or 1200; Konrad (born about 1187-88) is to have Masovia (1199) and Kuyavia (1199-1200 or 1205, sources differ).

Pomerania

His daughter Anastasia is the mother of the Pomeranian dukes Bogislaw II and Casimir II, who hold the lands beyond the Noteć forests under Danish overlordship; Pomeranian help restored Mieszko in 1181. Friendly.

Rügen

Prince Jaromar I is the father-in-law of his son Władysław. Friendly.

Pomerelia

Sambor I at Gdańsk and, in the south toward Nakło, Grzymisław of Świecie hold Pomerelia (pmr record; Mestwin I's share is not pinned). No war recorded in the 1190s; Nakło stays Greater Polish until 1220. As senior, Mieszko inherits the claim to overlordship over Gdańsk Pomerania that Casimir II exercised; whether Sambor recognises him that winter is not pinned (pmr record).

Brandenburg

Margrave Otto II's march lies beyond the Lubusz land and the Pomeranian Barnim; no common border of note and no war. Santok passes to Brandenburg only in 1260.

Empire

His sons-in-law are imperial princes on the Staufen side: Bernhard of Saxony, Conrad of Lusatia and Frederick of Bitsch. In exile after 1177 he sought help in Bohemia, in Germany and in Pomerania; in 1184 it was his brother Casimir who won Barbarossa's favour with homage and tribute. No tie to either German king is recorded for 1199-1200.

Bohemia and hungary

His daughter Elisabeth was the wife of Duke Soběslav II of Bohemia; his first wife was a daughter of Béla II of Hungary, great-aunt of King Emeric.

Rus

His second wife was a Kievan princess; Odon's widow is a daughter of Yaroslav Osmomysl of Halych. Roman Mstislavich, master of Halych and Volhynia since 1199, is an ally of the Kraków party.

Rome

No quarrel with Innocent III is recorded. His former servant Henryk Kietlicz now holds Gniezno and carries the pope's programme of church liberty.

Belts note

No raiding belt is drawn for Greater Poland. On the Noteć the Pomeranian dukes are Mieszko's grandsons and no raid by them or by the Pomerelians is recorded for the 1190s; Nakło stays Greater Polish until 1220. Toward Silesia, Brandenburg and Kraków there is no fighting recorded that winter: the war for Kraków is in abeyance under the 1198-99 settlement.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. During 1200 (no month pinned)Mieszko holds Kraków as senior under the settlement of 1198-99 while Leszek, now ruling for himself, keeps Sandomierz and Konrad takes Masovia. No battle between them is recorded in 1200; no event in Greater Poland is securely dated to 1200.Depends on: Mieszko actually holding Kraków on 1 January (not pinned); the Kraków lords staying quiet; his health. Stopped by: A new rising of the Kraków lords like that of 1199; his illness or death; a bargain between Leszek's party and another prince.
2. 1199-1200, or 1205 (sources differ)Konrad, Leszek's younger brother, is given Masovia, with Kuyavia (Mieszko's cession of 1198) at the same time or later.Depends on: Helen and Leszek keeping their arrangement. Stopped by: Mieszko reopening the cession of Kuyavia.

Later, on the likely course

1. 22 March 1201Jarosław of Opole, bishop of Wrocław and Mieszko's ally at Mozgawa, dies.Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: Play that changes his circumstances.
2. 7 or 8 December 1201Bolesław the Tall of Silesia dies; Henry the Bearded succeeds at Wrocław, and early in 1202 Mieszko Tanglefoot seizes Opole.Depends on: Natural course. Stopped by: Play that changes his circumstances.
3. 1201 or early 1202 (on the second reading only)If he lost Kraków in 1199 and did not get it back, Mieszko returns under a new settlement, keeping the senior title with reduced powers.Depends on: The reading that he was out of Kraków through 1200. Stopped by: Leszek's party refusing terms.
4. 13 March 1202Mieszko dies at Kalisz, about 76, and is buried in his church of St Paul there. Władysław Spindleshanks takes all Greater Poland and Kalisz, keeps Odon's land from Władysław Odonic, and is invited to Kraków by the palatine Mikołaj (after Leszek refuses the lords' condition that he dismiss Goworek; how long Władysław holds Kraków is disputed: until autumn 1202, 1206 or 1210).Depends on: His natural death on that date. Stopped by: Play that changes his circumstances; a settled succession.

Places of note

• Kalisz-Zawodzie: the duke's castle and his collegiate church of St Paul: Mieszko's residence and his chosen tomb.
• Gniezno: the castle and the cathedral of St Adalbert: The archbishop's see; St Adalbert's shrine.
• Poznań: Ostrów Tumski: The castle island with the cathedral, where Odon lies.
• Santok: The guard and key of the kingdom at the fork of the Warta and the Noteć.

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes Part 6 we make Bishop Pełka of Kraków co-regent for Leszek with Helen and the palatine. If Mieszko holds Kraków on 1 January 1200, as the standard lists have it (en.wikipedia, List of Polish monarchs and Seniorate Province: Mieszko III 1198-1199 and 1199-1202, Leszek 1199 only; the mlp krakow record takes the same view), the regency council governs Leszek's Sandomierz, Masovia and Kuyavia and claims Kraków rather than ruling it. The en.wikipedia article on Mieszko III instead has him deposed in 1199 and back only in 1202. The GM should rule, together with the mlp krakow record.
• campaign notes Part 6 we date Henryk Kietlicz to 1199; en.wikipedia gives 1198 or 1199 and adds that he had served Mieszko III as an administrator. No conflict, but the link to Mieszko is worth knowing.
• Kuyavia: en.wikipedia (Mieszko III) has Mieszko cede it to Casimir II's sons in 1198 and Helen of Znojmo governing it until 1199-1200, while the article on Konrad of Masovia gives Kuyavia to Konrad only in 1205. Either way it is not Mieszko's on 1 January 1200 (maz decides its holder).

Evidence: The dynasty, the births, marriages and deaths, and the struggle for Kraków rest on Kadłubek, the annals and the modern genealogies (Jasiński) as reported in encyclopaedias, and are fairly firm except for the months of 1199-1202. The division of Greater Poland between Mieszko and Władysław after 1194 is reported in different ways. The duke's officers in 1199-1200 are not named in any charter we could reach. Polish-language reference works (pl.wikipedia, the Polish biographical dictionary) would not load in this run.

On the map: The outline follows the later historical boundaries of Greater Poland with Kuyavia, Łęczyca, Sieradz and Silesia and the Noteć line toward Pomerania. In 1200 the edges were forest and marsh belts (the Noteć forests, the Obra and Barycz marshes, the Silesian forest belt), not lines. Least certain: the Krajna north of Nakło, the Wschowa land, the Ostrzeszów and Wieluń country (left out of the outline), and the Konin and Koło edge toward Łęczyca.

Primary sources for this realm

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