Bolesław II (Poland)

Gravestone for Boleslaus II, the "mute penitent of Ossiach"

Bolesław II. , Called "the generous", also "the bold" ( Polish Bolesław II. Szczodry or Śmiały , Latin Boleslaus ; *  1042 ; † March 22, 1081 in Hungary ), was the son of the Polish duke Casimir I. Karl and the Ruthenian Princess Maria Dobroniega . He came from the Piast dynasty and was Duke of Poland from 1058 and King of Poland from 1076 to 1079.

Life

The father's policy BEYOND, Bolesław focused on the tasks of the internal structure of the state, particularly in the economic and religious area: mainly Bolesław has created a network of markets, promoted the coinage, the Benedictine Tyniec in Cracow and Mogilno in Kuyavian either established or generously equipped.

But Bolesław had from the beginning of his reign to the political difficulties of his relatives take into consideration: in 1060 he intervened in Hungary in favor of his uncle Béla I. , 1063 he got his cousin Géza I. to help, in 1077 he joined for his cousin Ladislaus I a and several times (1069, 1077) he helped his cousin and uncle, Grand Duke Izjaslav of Kiev, to regain his throne. Bolesław's good relations with Duke Vratislav of Bohemia , who had been married to Bolesław's sister, Świętosława of Poland , since 1063 , deteriorated for unknown reasons around 1070. The German king, Henry IV , demanded an end to the mutual raids. When Bolesław violated this royal instruction in 1072, a major campaign against Poland was prepared, which the Saxon opposition understood as a deception and contributed to the Saxon uprising of 1073 . Bolesław took advantage of the new situation: he refused to pay tribute to both the German king and the Bohemian duke for the possession of Silesia .

At the latest after the Roman Synod of Lent in February 1075, Bolesław turned to Pope Gregory VII , who in April of that year sent his legates to Poland to regulate the church and, in particular, to restore the Gnesen metropolitan rights . Political questions were not taken into account in the papal letter; they obviously belonged to the verbal assignments that the Pope had given the legates. The conditions under which Bolesław's coronation as King of Poland took place in 1076 are unknown. Should Gregory VII, in accordance with the principles of his feudal policy, have intended to bring Poland into a feudal relationship with the Holy See , he did not get beyond mere claims. One can assume, however, that Bolesław agreed to introduce the St. Peter's penny and that it was he who actually introduced it. However, since the Peterspfennig was a stove tax that was paid by the population, its levying could not lead to closer ties between the Polish kingship and the papacy.

Bolesław's military interventions in Kievan Rus and the Kingdom of Hungary showed how powerful the new kingdom was. The authoritarian features in Bolesław's government intensified after the coronation, probably in overestimation of his royal dignity. An open conflict between Bolesław and the aristocratic opposition broke out around the turn of 1079 at the latest.

When Bolesław dismembered Bishop Stanislaus of Cracow as an alleged traitor at the altar with the sword ("truncacioni membrorum adhibuit", † April 11, 1079), an uprising broke out: Bolesław finally had to flee the country and looked to Ladislaus I of Hungary for help and protection. He died in exile. He was succeeded by his brother Władysław I Herman , who ruled not as King, but as Duke of Poland.

The mute penitent at Ossiach

The legend, which is also widespread in Poland and is often even believed, tells that on a summer evening in 1082 a tired hiker in pilgrim garb knocked on the gate of the Ossiach monastery in Carinthia and made gestures to understand that he was mute and wants to serve as serving brother in the monastery. The stranger spent eight years in silence in the monastery, humbly and patiently performing the lowest of services, before a serious illness threw him, who was in his prime, into bed. When he felt his final hour approaching, his tongue loosened and he asked to make confession. He confessed to the astonished confessor who he was, why he had come to Ossiach and what crime he wanted to atone for.

Boleslaus is his name and he was King of Poland, a brilliant victor over his enemies. He had become haughty through his successes, he was uncontrolled and violent, cruel to his troops, hard on his people, on whom he had imposed prohibitive taxes, and therefore quickly hated by his subjects. When Stanislaus, the Bishop of Cracow, accused him of his crimes and even banned him, he killed him in rage during mass in the cathedral.

Before the embittered people who revolted against their ruler, he fled to Hungary, then secretly made a pilgrimage to the Pope for forgiveness, who had imposed on him as a penance to wander until he came to a place where the water flows upwards . So he said he would have to roam restlessly until the end of his life, but when he came to the Seebach, which flows out of the Ossiacher See in a south-westerly direction, he heard from the residents that the brook was flowing "up" because it was in Carinthia everything "above" that faces north. In the monastery by the lake, the hiker found the monastery, a quiet place where he could atone for his sins far from the world and serve the Lord in peace until his death.

The dying man gave his signet ring to the abbot and then passed away peacefully under the prayer of the brothers gathered at the deathbed. The king's body was buried in the church, and a tombstone still marks the place where the silent royal penitent found his final resting place. "Boleslaus, King of Poland, who killed St. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow," says the Latin inscription.

Numerous Poles have visited their king's tomb until very recently. His signet ring, however, was stolen by one of the visitors and is said to have been kept in the Polish treasury.

References

Web links

Commons : Bolesław II.  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

1. ↑ Izjaslav was Bolesław's maternal cousin, who was married to his aunt Gertrud and was therefore also his uncle
2. ^ Alois Pischinger: Legends from Austria . Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1949, p. 233ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Casimir I. Karl	Duke of Poland 1058-1076	Wladyslaw I. Herman
Mieszko II. Lambert (initially the last king of Poland until 1031)	King of Poland 1076-1079	Przemysław (King of Poland from 1295)