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- Boleslaw I Chrobry [Boleslaw I the Brave (or Valiant), Czech: Boleslav Chrabr?] (c.966-677 - June 17, 1025), in the past also known as Boleslaw I the Great, ruled as Duke of Poland from 992-1025 and as the Boleslaw was the first fully accepted king of Poland in 1025. He was a member of the Piast dynasty. Boleslaw was the son of Mieszko I and of his first wife, the Bohemian princess Dubrawka.
In 984 Boleslaw married an unknown daughter of Rikdag (aka Riddag, Ricdag) the Margrave of Meissen. However, this marriage alliance was cut short by the interests of power politics. His second marriage was to Thyra, the daughter of Harald Blaatand of Denmark; they had a daughter named Gunhild before the marriage was ended. Subsequently he married Judith Arpad, a daughter of Geza, a Grand Duke of the Magyars in Hungary; they had a son named Bezprym before the marriage was ended.
Then circa 988 he married Emnilda of Lusatia (b. 970-75, d. 1016-17), a daughter of Dobromir of Lusatia and the third wife of Polish king Boleslaw I the Brave. She was mentioned by Gallus Anonymus and Thietmar of Merseburg, both chroniclers noted she was a wise and charming person. Her children included two sons (Mieszko II Lambert and Otto Boleslawowic) and three daughters (Regelinda and two of unknown name). After Emnilda's death he married Oda (aka Hunilda) the daughter of another Margrave of Meissen - possibly Eckard I, (died 1002)?
His wives bore him sons, including Bezprym, Mieszko II and Otton; and a daughter, Matylda (Mathilde). After his father's death around 992, Boleslaw expelled his father's second wife, Oda von Haldensleben, and her sons, thereby attempting to unite Poland again.
In 992 Boleslaw inherited his father's principality, centered on Greater Poland, being along the river Warta ("valley of Warta"), and much smaller than modern Poland. In 997 Boleslaw 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. By 997, Boleslaw already possessed Silesia and the eastern parts of Pomerania (with its chief city, Gdansk) and Lesser Poland (with its chief city, Krak?w). In 1002 Boleslaw annexed present-day Moravia, and in 1001 or 1003, parts of present-day Slovakia.
In 1000, Emperor Otto III, while on pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Adalbert at Gniezno, invested Boleslaw 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 Boleslaw. During that same visit, Otto III accepted Gniezno's status as an archbishopric.
After the untimely death of Otto III at age 22 in 1002, Boleslaw supported Eckard I, Margrave of Meissen, for the German throne. When Eckard was assassinated in April, Boleslaw lent his support to Henry IV, Duke of Bavaria, and helped make him king, as Henry II. Boleslaw and his father had earlier backed Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, against Otto, and Henry IV was the son of the earlier Henry. With Eckard dead, Boleslaw laid claim to the Margraviate of Meissen as a relative of Eckard through marriage, but Henry only acquiesced to give him the March of Lusatia and detach it from Meissen. Henry remained suspicious of Boleslaw for his early support for Eckard and Boleslaw for his part remained committed to extending his own territories at the expense of the Holy Roman Empire. Boleslaw conquered, and made himself Duke of, Bohemia in 1003-04, ruling as Boleslav IV of Bohemia. He was embroiled in wars from 1002 through 1018 with Emperor Henry II over lands seized in Lusatia, Meissen and Bohemia.
At the request of his son-in-law Sviatopolk, the Polish duke intervened in the affairs of Kievan Rus: not only did he expel Yaroslav the Wise from Kiev in 1018 (placing his son-in-law on the Kievan throne), but possibly he deployed his troops in the Rus capital for about half a year. According to popular legend Boleslaw notched his sword (Szczerbiec) hitting the Golden Gate of Kiev. During this campaign Poland re-annexed the Red Strongholds, later called Red Ruthenia, lost by Boleslaw's father in 981.
Boleslaw sent an army to aid his friend and nephew, son of his sister Swietoslawa (aka Sigrid or Gunhild), Canute the Great in his conquest of England.
Emperor Henry II obliged Boleslaw to pledge his fealty again in exchange for the lands that he held in fief. After Henry's death in 1024, Boleslaw crowned himself king in 1025, thus raising Poland to the rank of a kingdom and being the first Polish king, his predecessors having been princes. Boleslaw's son, Mieszko II, crowned himself king immediately upon his father died in Poznan.
This database researched and compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 21 July 2015.
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966 - 1025 (59 år)
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