Bolesław I the Brave ( – 17 June 1025), less often known as Bolesław the Great, was Duke of Poland from 992 to 1025 and the first King of Poland in 1025. He was also Duke of Bohemia between 1003 and 1004 as Boleslaus IV. A member of the Piast dynasty, Bolesław was a capable monarch and a strong mediator in Central European affairs. He continued to proselytise Western Christianity among his subjects and raised Poland to the rank of a kingdom, thus becoming the first Polish ruler to hold the title of rex, Latin for King.
The son of Mieszko I by his first wife Doubravka of Bohemia, Bolesław ruled Lesser Poland already during the final years of Mieszko's reign. When the country became divided in 992, he banished his father's widow, Oda of Haldensleben and his half-brothers, purged their adherents, and successfully reunified Poland by 995. As a devout Christian, Bolesław supported the missionary endeavours of Adalbert of Prague and Bruno of Querfurt. The martyrdom of Adalbert in 997 and Bolesław's successful attempt to ransom the bishop's remains, paying for their weight in gold, consolidated Poland's autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire.
At the Congress of Gniezno (11 March 1000), Emperor Otto III permitted the establishment of a Polish church structure with a metropolitan see at Gniezno, independent from the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. Bishoprics were also established in Kraków, Wrocław, and Kołobrzeg, and Bolesław formally repudiated paying tribute to the Empire. Following Otto's death in 1002, Bolesław fought a series of wars against Otto's cousin and heir, Henry II, ending in the Peace of Bautzen (1018). In the summer of 1018, in one of his expeditions, Bolesław I captured Kiev, where he installed his son-in-law Sviatopolk I as ruler. According to legend, Bolesław chipped his blade when striking Kiev's Golden Gate. In honour of this legend, the Szczerbiec ("Jagged Sword") would later become the coronation sword of Polish kings.
Bolesław is widely considered one of Poland's most accomplished Piast monarchs; he was an able strategist and statesman, who transformed Poland into an entity comparable to a hereditary monarchy. Bolesław conducted successful military campaigns to the west, south and east of his realm, and conquered territories in modern-day Slovakia, Moravia, Red Ruthenia, Meissen, Lusatia, and Bohemia. He established the "Prince's Law" and sponsored the construction of churches, monasteries, military forts as well as waterway infrastructure. He also introduced the first Polish monetary unit, the grzywna, divided into 240 denarii,A. Czubinski, J. Topolski, Historia Polski, Ossolineum, 1989. and minted his own coinage.
Early life Bolesław was born in 966 or 967,Tymieniecki Kazimierz, Bolesław Chrobry. In: Konopczyński Władysław (ed): Polski słownik biograficzny. T. II: Beyzym Jan – Brownsford Marja. Kraków: Nakładem Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, 1936. . p. 248 the only known child of Mieszko I from his marriage to the Bohemian princess Dobrawa, known in Czech as Doubravka. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Boleslaus I, Duke of Bohemia.
His 11th century epitaph describes his father as "faithless" and his mother as "true-believing", suggesting that he was born before his father's baptism. Bolesław himself was baptised shortly after his birth.
Little is known about Bolesław's childhood. His epitaph recorded that he underwent the traditional hair-cutting ceremony at the age of seven and that a lock of his hair was sent to Rome, suggesting Mieszko wanted to place his son under the protection of the Holy See. Historian Tadeusz Manteuffel says that Bolesław needed that protection because his father had sent him to the court of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor in token of his allegiance to the emperor. However, historian Marek Kazimierz Barański says the claim that Bolesław was sent as a hostage to the imperial court is disputed.
Bolesław's mother, Dobrawa, died in 977, and his widowed father married Oda of Haldensleben, who had previously been a nun. Around that time, Bolesław became the ruler of Lesser Poland, through it is not exactly clear in what circumstances. Jerzy Strzelczyk says that Bolesław received Lesser Poland from his father; Tadeusz Manteuffel states that he seized the province from his father with the local lords' support; while Henryk Łowmiański writes that his uncle, Boleslav II of Bohemia, granted the region to him.
Accession and consolidation
Mieszko I died on 25 May 992. The contemporaneous Thietmar of Merseburg recorded that Mieszko left "his kingdom to be divided among many claimants", but Bolesław unified the country "with fox-like cunning" and expelled his stepmother and half-brothers from Poland. Two Polish lords, Odilien and Przibiwoj, who had supported Oda and her sons, were blinded on Bolesław's order. How long it took him to take control of all of Poland is a matter of dispute, but the consensus is within a few years. According to chronicler Adam of Bremen, Boleslaw supported an attack in 992 or 993 by his sister's husband, King Erik of Sweden, on King Swein Forkbeard of Denmark.
Bolesław's first coins were issued around 995. One of them bore the inscription Vencievlavus, showing that he regarded his mother's uncle, Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia as the patron saint of Poland. Bolesław sent reinforcements to the Holy Roman Empire to fight against the Polabian Slavs in summer 992. Bolesław personally led a Polish army to assist the imperial troops in invading the land of the Abodrites or Veleti in 995. During the campaign, he met the young German monarch, Otto III.
Soběslav, the head of the Bohemian Slavník dynasty, also participated in the 995 campaign. Taking advantage of Soběslav's absence, Boleslav II of Bohemia invaded the Slavníks' domains and had most members of the family murdered. After learning of his kinsmen's fate, Soběslav settled in Poland. Bolesław gave shelter to him "for the sake of [Soběslav's] holy brother",Life of Saint Adalbert Bishop of Prague and Martyr (ch. 25), p. 165. Bishop Adalbert of Prague, according to the latter's hagiographies. Adalbert (known as Wojciech before his consecration) also came to Poland in 996, because Bolesław II "was quite amicably disposed towards him".Life of Saint Adalbert Bishop of Prague and Martyr (ch. 26), p. 167. Adalbert's hagiographies suggest that the bishop and Bolesław closely cooperated. In early 997, Adalbert left Poland to proselytise among the Prussians, who had been invading the eastern borderlands of Bolesław's realm. However, the pagans murdered him on 23 April 997. Bolesław ransomed Adalbert's remains, paying its weight in gold, and buried it in Gniezno. He sent parts of the martyr bishop's corpse to Emperor Otto III, who had been Adalbert's friend.
Congress of Gniezno and its aftermath (999–1002)
Emperor Otto III held a synod in Rome where Adalbert was canonised on the emperor's request on 29 June 999. Before 2 December 999, Adalbert's brother, Radim Gaudentius, was consecrated "Saint Adalbert's archbishop". Otto III made a pilgrimage to Saint Adalbert's tomb in Gniezno, accompanied by Pope Sylvester II's legate, Robert, in early 1000. Thietmar of Merseburg mentioned that it "would be impossible to believe or describe" how Bolesław received the emperor and conducted him to Gniezno. A century later, Gallus Anonymus added that "[m]arvelous and wonderful sights Bolesław set before the emperor when he arrived: the ranks first of the knights in all their variety, and then of the princes, lined up on a spacious plain like choirs, each separate unit set apart by the distinct and varied colors of its apparel, and no garment there was of inferior quality, but of the most precious stuff that might anywhere be found."The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles (ch. 6), p. 35.
Bolesław took advantage of the emperor's pilgrimage. After the Emperor's visit to Gniezno, Poland started to develop into a sovereign state, in contrast with Bohemia, which remained a vassal state, incorporated in the Kingdom of Germany. Thietmar of Merseburg condemned Otto III for "making a lord out of a tributary" in reference to the relationship between the Emperor and Bolesław. Gallus Anonymus emphasised that Otto III declared Bolesław "his brother and partner" in the Holy Roman Empire, also calling Bolesław "a friend and ally of the Roman people". The same chronicler mentioned that Otto III "took the imperial diadem from his own head and laid it upon the head of Bolesław in pledge of friendship"The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles (ch. 6), p. 37. in Gniezno. Bolesław also received "one of the nails from the cross of our Lord with the lance of Saint Maurice" from the Emperor.
Gallus Anonymus claimed that Bolesław was "gloriously raised to kingship by the emperor"The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles (ch. 6), p. 39. through these acts, but the Emperor's acts in Gniezno only symbolised that Bolesław received royal prerogatives, including the control of the Church in his realm. Radim Gaudentius was installed as the archbishop of the newly established Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno. At the same time, three suffragan bishoprics, subordinated to the see of Gniezno — the dioceses of Kołobrzeg, Kraków and Wrocław — were set up. Bolesław had promised that Poland would pay Peter's Pence to the Holy See to obtain the pope's sanction to the establishment of the new archdiocese. Unger, who had been the only prelate in Poland and was opposed to the creation of the archdiocese of Gniezno, was made bishop of Poznań, directly subordinated to the Holy See. However, Polish commoners only slowly adopted Christianity: Thietmar of Merseburg recorded that Bolesław forced his subjects with severe punishments to observe fasts and to refrain from adultery:
During the time the Emperor spent in Poland, Bolesław also showed off his affluence. At the end of the banquets, he "ordered the waiters and the cupbearers to gather the gold and silver vessels [...] from all three days' coursis, that is, the cups and goblets, the bowls and plates and the drinking-horns, and he presented them to the emperor as a toke of honor [...] [h]is servants were likewise told to collect the wall-hangings and the coverlets, the carpets and tablecloths and napkins and everything that had been provided for their needs and take them to the emperor's quarters", according to Gallus Anonymus. Thietmar of Merseburg recorded that Bolesław presented Otto III with a troop of "three hundred armoured warriors". Bolesław also gave Saint Adalbert's arm to the Emperor.
After the meeting, Bolesław escorted Otto III to Magdeburg in Germany, where "they celebrated Palm Sunday with great festivity" on 25 March 1000. A continuator of the chronicle of Adémar de Chabannes recorded, decades after the events, that Bolesław also accompanied Emperor Otto from Magdeburg to Aachen, where Otto III had Charlemagne's tomb reopened and gave Charlemagne's golden throne to Bolesław.
An illustrated Gospel, made for Otto III around 1000, depicted four women symbolising Roma, Gallia, Germania and Sclavinia as doing homage to the Emperor who sat on his throne. Historian Alexis P. Vlasto writes that "Sclavinia" referred to Poland, proving that it was regarded as one of the Christian realms subjected to the Holy Roman Empire in accordance with Otto III's idea of Renovatio imperii — the renewal of the Roman Empire based on a federal concept. Within that framework, Poland, along with Hungary, was upgraded to an eastern foederatus of the Holy Roman Empire, according to historian Jerzy Strzelczyk.