960–1024 · the Piast state
The Baptism of Poland
Mieszko I, ruler of the Polans, holds Greater Poland, Kuyavia and Mazovia, and in 966 accepts baptism from Bohemia. The decision pulls the new state into Latin Europe and shields it from German expansion conducted in the name of Christianisation. From 967 he fights for the mouth of the Oder and brings in Pomerania, and around 990 he takes Silesia and Kraków from Bohemia.
Population
- about 1,000,000 (rough estimate, ±300,000) — Inferred from settlement archaeology — no records of any kind survive.
Rulers and leaders
- 960–992 Mieszko I — Duke of the Polans monarch
- 992–1025 Bolesław I the Brave — duke, from 1025 first King of Poland monarch
Events
- 966The Baptism of Poland 14 April turning point
Mieszko I is baptised, most likely through Bohemia and his Bohemian wife Dobrawa rather than through Germany — which, it is usually held, took away his neighbours’ pretext for christianisation by the sword. Poland enters Latin Europe as a participant rather than a target.
- 972The Battle of Cedynia 24 June battle
Margrave Hodo of the Saxon Eastern March invades Mieszko’s lands and is beaten at Cedynia by Mieszko and his brother Czcibor. It is the first battle in Polish history that we know of, and it keeps the lower Oder in Piast hands.
- 1000The Congress of Gniezno 7 March treaty
Otto III receives Bolesław the Brave as a partner rather than a vassal, and agrees to a Polish church province of its own at Gniezno. Ecclesiastical independence meant political independence.
- 1018The Peace of Bautzen 30 January treaty
Henry II makes a peace with Bolesław the Brave that leaves Poland Lusatia and Milsko. It ends fifteen years of war with the Empire; that same summer Bolesław marches on Kyiv.
Wars, uprisings and longer processes
- 1002–1018Bolesław the Brave’s German wars war
After Otto III’s death Bolesław the Brave seizes Lusatia, Milsko and, briefly, Meissen, and then defends them against Henry II through three wars in a row. The Peace of Bautzen leaves him Lusatia and Milsko; a few months later he rides into Kyiv.
People of the age
- 940–977 Doubravka of Bohemia — Bohemian princess, married to Mieszko I from 965; a year later Mieszko was baptised
- 956–997 Saint Adalbert — Bishop of Prague, killed on a mission to the Prussians; in 1000 an archbishopric was founded at his tomb in Gniezno
- 980–1002 Otto III — Holy Roman Emperor; at the Congress of Gniezno in 1000 he met Bolesław the Brave and agreed to an archbishopric at Gniezno
- 940–984 Jordan — first bishop in Poland