The Fall of the Monarchy of Mieszko II, Lambert

Abstract

BOLESLAS I the Brave (ruled 999-1025), was crowned first king of Poland in the year 1025. Less than a decade later, during the reign of his son Mieszko II (ruled 1025-1034),1 Poland ceased to be a monarchy, the royal insignia were sent to the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad II, and Poland became a fief subject to the suzerainty and authority of the Empire.2 This sudden turn of events raises fundamental questions concerning the causes which led to the fall of the monarchy of Mieszko II, a problem made all the more difficult due to the lack of sources dealing with the reign of the deposed king. The purpose of this investigation is to present an alternate explanation to that offered recently by Polish historians who have attempted to account for the decline of the Polish state of the mid-eleventh century. This divergent interpretation associates the fall of the early Polish monarchy with certain internal and foreign policies of Mieszko I and Boleslas I. The result should be a more positive view of the reign of Mieszko II, often seen so negatively by historians. In their recent studies, Polish medievalists attribute the fall of Mieszko II to internal causes, more exactly, to the magnates greater magnates who were members of old tribal dynasties, and lesser magnates from the ranks of the landed druzhina.3 Such is the opinion offered by Aleksander Gieysztor in his account of medieval Poland contained in the recently published History of Poland,4 and in a study by Danuta Borawska on the early Piast monarchy, one of a series of articles included in Polska Pierwszych Piast6w, edited by Tadeusz Manteuffel.6 A similar position is taken in the Historia Polski, published by the Polish Academy of Sci-