Bolesław III Wrymouth
875 years ago, on the 28th of October 1138 (most likely in Sochaczew) at the age of 52 Bolesław III Wrymouth had died. In the years of 1102-1107 a prince of Lesser Poland, Sandomierz and Silesia, from 1107 a prince of Poland; a son of Władysław I Herman and Judith of Bohemia; he unified the lands by depriving his older brother Zbigniew of power and driving him out of the country , in its aftermath repelling an armed intervention (in support of his brother) of the king of Germany (and a Roman Emperor in spe) Henry V; later (1111) blinding his brother, causing his death and the necessity of performing a public penance by the perpetrator; after a long-term struggle with the Pomeranians’ he eventually managed to conquer Pomerelia and accepted homage from Western Pomerania bringing about its Christianisation, in 1134 he also took control of Rugia establishing the farthest reach of Poland’s western border known to history; at the congress of Merseburg (1135) he was granted a permission from Lothair III for Poland’s’ rule over Pomerania in return for payment of a tribute from those lands; he saved , in spite of wishes from the Archbishopric of Magdeburg, the independence of the Polish church’s organisation (Innocents II ‘s papal bulla from 1136); in the Succession Act (also referred to as a testament or statute), dividing Polish Princedom (Duchy) between his sons he instituted the tenet of ‘Senioral Principle’, or superior authority of the eldest representative of the dynasty (Piast) residing in the province of principal-seniority, however , this did not prevent an imminent break-down of this law leading to a period of nearly 200 years of Poland's feudal fragmentation.
prof. Jacek Bartyzel
translated by Arek Jakubczyk
Kategoria: Reactionary Diary
