1025–1137 · Piast Poland
The Early Piast Monarchy
Bolesław the Brave is crowned in 1025, but the crown does not hold: Poland is a kingdom only in 1025–31 and 1076–79, and a duchy for the rest of the century. The state swings between brilliance and collapse: the crisis of the 1030s nearly destroys it, and Casimir the Restorer rebuilds it.
Population
- about 1,250,000 (rough estimate, ±350,000)
Rulers and leaders
- 992–1025 Bolesław I the Brave — duke, from 1025 first King of Poland monarch
- 1025–1031 Mieszko II Lambert — King of Poland monarch
Driven out of the country in 1031; his brother Bezprym sent the coronation regalia to the Emperor.
- 1031–1032 Bezprym — duke, seized power monarch
- 1032–1034 Mieszko II Lambert — Duke of Poland, no longer crowned monarch
At Merseburg in 1033 he submitted to the Emperor and had to share the country with his kinsmen for a time; he never regained the royal title.
- 1034–1037 Casimir I the Restorer — Duke of Poland, soon driven out monarch
Took power at his father’s death in 1034, in a state already in crisis; within a few years he had to flee to Hungary and then to Germany.
- 1037–1039 Interregnum — collapse of the state, pagan reaction monarch
The state breaks apart; Masław takes Mazovia, and Gniezno and Poznań are sacked by Bohemia in 1038.
- 1039–1058 Casimir I the Restorer — Duke of Poland, rebuilt the state monarch
- 1058–1079 Bolesław II the Bold — duke, from 1076 King of Poland monarch
- 1079–1102 Władysław I Herman — Duke of Poland monarch
- 1080–1100 Sieciech — palatine to Władysław Herman, in fact ruled the duchy de facto leader
He minted his own coin. Herman’s sons, Zbigniew and Bolesław, defeated him at Żarnowiec in 1099, and at the turn of 1100–01 he left the country.
- 1102–1107 Zbigniew — duke, co-ruler monarch
- 1102–1138 Bolesław III Wrymouth — Duke of Poland monarch
Events
- 1025The first royal coronation 18 April turning point
Bolesław the Brave has himself crowned king months before his death. Poland stops being a duchy on the Empire’s edge and becomes a kingdom — a category the rest of Europe has to recognise.
- 1038Bretislaus sacks Gniezno loss
With the country in revolt and pagan reaction, Duke Bretislaus of Bohemia sacks Poznań and Gniezno and carries Saint Adalbert’s relics off to Prague. Greater Poland is laid waste: Casimir the Restorer, on his return, rebuilds the state around Kraków.
- 1076Bolesław the Bold is crowned 25 December turning point
Bolesław II, allied with Pope Gregory VII in his quarrel with the emperor, is crowned king — the first since the monarchy collapsed in the 1030s. Poland is a kingdom again, but for three years only.
- 1079Bolesław the Bold is driven out 11 April loss
Three years after his coronation Bolesław II has Bishop Stanisław of Kraków put to death. The lords rise against the king, who flees to Hungary and never returns. His brother Władysław Herman rules as a duke: no one in Poland will wear a crown again for more than two hundred years.
Wars, uprisings and longer processes
- 1031–1039The collapse of the first Piast monarchy crisis
A Rus and German invasion drives out Mieszko II in 1031, and after his death the state falls apart: a revolt of the lords, a popular rising and a pagan reaction, Mazovia under Masław, the Bohemian raid on Greater Poland. Rebuilding begins when Casimir the Restorer comes back with troops from the Emperor.
People of the age
- 1030–1079 Saint Stanislaus — Bishop of Kraków; killed in 1079 on the orders of Bolesław the Bold, who had to leave the country soon after; canonised in 1253
- 1070–after 1116 Gallus Anonymus — chronicler; at the court of Bolesław Wrymouth he wrote the oldest chronicle of Polish history
- 1080–1153 Piotr Włostowic — palatine to Bolesław Wrymouth; blinded in 1145 on the orders of Władysław II, he sided with the brothers who drove Władysław out in 1146