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Boleslaw I the Brave (Polish: Boles?aw I Chrobry; 966 or 967 - June 17, 1025), in the past also known as Boles?aw I the Great, in Polish: Boles?aw I Wielki ), of the Piast Dynasty — son of Mieszko I and of his first wife, the Bohemian princess Dobrawa — ruled as Duke of Poland, 992-1025, and as King of Poland in 1025.
[edit] Biography
In 984 Boles?aw married Henilda, daughter of Rikdag (Riddag, Ricdag), Margrave of Meißen. Subsequently he married Judith, daughter of Geza, Grand Duke of Hungary; then Enmilda, daughter of Dobromir, Duke of Lusatia (their daughter Regelinde became the wife of Hermann of Meißen); and lastly Oda von Haldensleben, another daughter of the Margrave of Meißen. His wives bore him sons, including Bezprym, Mieszko II and Otton; and a daughter, Mathilde. After his father's death around 992, Boles?aw was able to expel his father's second wife, Oda, and her sons, and unite the country again.
In 997 Boles?aw sent Saint Adalbert of Prague to Prussia, on the Baltic Sea, on a mission to convert the heathen Prussians to Christianity — an attempt that would end in Adalbert's martyrdom and subsequent canonization.
From his father, he had inherited their principality, centered on Greater Poland, being along the river Warta ("valley of Warta"), and much smaller than today Poland.
By 997, Boles?aw already possessed Silesia and Pomerania (with its chief city, Gdan'sk) and Lesser Poland (with its chief city, Cracow). In 999 Boles?aw annexed present-day Moravia, and in 1000 or 1001, parts of present-day Slovakia.
In 1000, Emperor Otto III, while on pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Adalbert at Gniezno, invested Boles?aw with the title Frater et Cooperator Imperii ("Brother and Partner in the Empire"). Some historians state that the Emperor also pledged a royal crown to Boles?aw. During that same visit, Otto III accepted Gniezno's status as an archbishopric (see Congress of Gniezno).
After the untimely death of Otto III at age 22 in 1002, Boles?aw conquered Meißen and Lusatia, wresting imperial territory for himself during the disputes over succession to the Imperial throne. He and his father had earlier backed Henry II, Duke of Bavaria against Otto, and Boles?aw now accepted the accession, as Emperor, of Henry II, son of the earlier Henry.
Boles?aw conquered, and made himself Duke of, Bohemia and Moravia in 1003 - 1004, ruling as Boleslav IV.
At the request of his son-in-law Sviatopolk I of Kiev, the Polish duke intervened in Kievan affairs: not only did he expel Yaroslav the Wise from Kiev, but possibly he deployed his troops in Rus' capital for about half a year (see Kiev Expedition). It was during this campaign that Boles?aw annexed the Red Strongholds, later called Red Ruthenia.
The intermittent wars with the Holy Roman Empire ended with the Peace of Bautzen in 1018, which left Sorbian Meißen and Lusatia in Polish hands.
Emperor Henry II obliged Boles?aw to pledge his fealty again in exchange for the lands that he held in fief. After Henry's death in 1024, Boles?aw crowned himself king (1025), thus raising Poland to the rank of a kingdom and being the first Polish king, his predecessors having been "princes".
His successors as rulers of Poland long desired to be continuously kings, like their neighbors in Hungary, but like their neighbors of Bohemia, they were only occasionally granted such recognition by their nominal liege lord, the Emperor, or any such international recognition.
Boles?aw sent an army to aid his friend — probably also his nephew — Canute the Great in his conquest of England.
Boles?aw's son, Mieszko II, crowned himself king immediately upon his father's death.
Significance of Boles?aw's reign in Polish history
Boles?aw was the first Polish king, since it was during his reign that Poland became a kingdom, despite the fact that some Polish rulers before 1295 would never receive a crown. Poland had thus the royal status before their ethnic relatives and neighbors, Bohemia.
He was the first Polish ruler that had been baptised at birth, thus the first real Christian ruler of Poland. He founded the independent Polish province of the Church and made Poland a strong power in Europe.
Boles?aw for the first time unified all the provinces that subsequently came to comprise the traditional territory of Poland: Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Masovia, Silesia and Pomerania
He was a national hero to the Sorbs of Lusatia.
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Abt 925 - 1025 (100 years)