The Paradox of Piast Power: A Contemporary Observer in his Context

Abstract

The history and historiography of medieval Poland present an important tension between two very different understandings of the power of the ruler-duke, occasionally king, comprising the Piast dynasty. On the one hand, the ruler is understood as the central, ubiquitous, indeed indispensable actor, in all kinds of important transactions. On the other, he appears severely limited in his capacities across that same range of transactions. This is the paradox of Piast power. The article seeks to resolve, or at least reduce, that paradox by confronting several primary sources concerned with the dichotomy. The framing source is the Henryków Book, whose author, Abbot Peter, presents the tension explicitly within a short segment of the dynasty. Through close comparison and contrast between the dukes comprising that segment, Peter generates several criteria of strong, successful, or good exercise of power, and of their negative opposites. Peter's criteria resonate with the diplomatic output issued by the same group of dukes. Using several attributes of the diplomas-their quantitative output, the recruitment of witnesses, family commemoration, and repeated attention to youthfulness as a factor of flawed or weak rule-the article seeks to explain why and how specific rulers in this dynastic segment were perceived-by one another, their contemporaries, successors, and ultimately historians-as strong, effective, good, or otherwise. The result offers one explanation of the tension between the two clashing understandings, and so reduces the paradox.