Władysław I Łokietek
Władysław I Łokietek, in English known as the "Elbow-high" or Ladislaus the Short, was King of Poland from 1320 to 1333, and duke of several of the provinces and principalities in the preceding years. He was a member of the royal Piast dynasty, the son of Duke Casimir I of Kuyavia, and great-grandson of High-Duke Casimir II the Just.
Władysław I inherited a small portion of his father's domain, but his dominion grew as some of his brothers died young. He unsuccessfully tried to incorporate the Duchy of Kraków in 1289, following the death of his half-brother Leszek II the Black and the withdrawal from contention of his ally Bolesław II of Masovia. After a period in exile during the rule of Wenceslaus II, Władysław regained several duchies and then Kraków in 1306 when Wenceslaus III was murdered. He temporarily took control of part of Greater Poland after the death of his ally Przemysł II, lost it, and then regained it.
Władysław was a skilled military leader, but also an administrator; he conquered Gdańsk Pomerania, and left it to familial governors. For the defense of this territory, he turned to the Teutonic Knights, who then demanded an exorbitant sum, or the land itself as an alternative. This led to an extended conflict with the Knights.
Perhaps his greatest achievement was gaining papal permission to be crowned king of Poland in 1320, which occurred for the first time at Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. Władysław died in 1333 and was succeeded by his son, Casimir III the Great.
Life
Background
In 1138, the Kingdom of Poland, which had been growing in strength under the rule of the Piast dynasty, encountered an obstacle which impeded its development for nearly two hundred years. In the will of Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth, Poland was divided into five provinces: Silesia, Mazovia with eastern Kuyavia, Greater Poland, the Sandomierz Region, and the Seniorate Province. The Seniorate Province initially comprised Kraków and western Lesser Poland, eastern Greater Poland including Gniezno and Kalisz, western Kuyavia, Łęczyca and Sieradz, and with Pomerelia as a fiefdom. To prevent his four sons from quarreling, Bolesław granted one province to each of them, while the Seniorate Province was to be given to the eldest brother on the grounds of primogeniture. This decision was meant to forestall dynastic feuds and prevent the disintegration of the kingdom. However, it proved inadequate, and began nearly two centuries of what it had sought to counteract: constant fighting and disorder. Władysław I succeeded in re-uniting most of these lands back into the kingdom of Poland.Władysław I Łokietek was the oldest son of Casimir I of Kuyavia and his third wife Euphrosyne of Opole. He was only third in seniority to be Duke of Kuyavia, however, as he had two older half-brothers from Casimir's second marriage to Constance of Wrocław: Leszek II the Black and Ziemomysł. He was named after his uncle, his mother's brother Władysław, Duke of Opole.
In contemporary historical sources he was nicknamed Łokietek, a diminutive of the word łokieć which means "elbow" or "ell". However, the origin and the intended meaning of the nickname are not certain. The earliest explanation appeared in a 15th-century chronicle by Jan Długosz, who speculated that the nickname referred to the short stature of the king. In 2019, a team of archeologists endoscopically reached the interior of the king's tomb and found that the body was laid at the bottom of the burial chamber without a coffin. Subsequently, they were able to determine that Władysław I was 152-155 cm tall, which meant that the king's height was just below that of an average person living in Europe during the Middle Ages. In the past, some historians hypothesized that the nickname Łokietek had nothing to do with the physical appearance of prince Władysław, but contemptuously described the actual size and political importance of his hereditary domain among the other principalities ruled by the members of the House of Piast, at least as compared to Łokietek's exaggerated ambitions. If this hypothesis is correct, Władysław Łokietek should be rather translated into English as Władysław the Petty. Historian Andrzej Nowak has speculated that Jan Długosz, who was born almost a century after Łokietek's death, may have misunderstood the political context and consequently misinterpreted the nickname
Prince in Kuyavia (1267–1288)
In 1267, when Władysław I Łokietek was seven years old, his father Casimir died. At this time, Leszek II the Black inherited Łęczyca, Ziemomysł gained Inowrocław, and Brześć Kujawski and Dobrzyń were held in regency by Euphrosyne on behalf of Władysław and his younger brothers Casimir II and Siemowit. After the death of his father, Władysław was sent to Kraków to the court of his relative, Bolesław V the Chaste. In 1273 Władysław participated in the arbitration by Bolesław the Pious, duke of Greater Poland, to reconcile him and his mother Euphrosyne with the Teutonic Knights. Władysław took responsibility for governing these territories in 1275, but they were actually held in a "niedzial" with his two younger brothers.In October 1277, lands destined for his younger brother Casimir II were invaded by Lithuanians, who, after the abduction of prisoners and seizure of loot, freely returned home. This was a result of being the proteges of Bolesław V the Chaste, who at this time was in the opposite political camp from Konrad II, Duke of Mazovia, through whose land the Lithuanian invasion passed. Two years later, in 1279, Władysław I Łokietek was considered to be one of the contenders to succeed in Lesser Poland after the death of Bolesław V the Chaste, according to the Hypatian Codex. However, the nobility abided by Boleslaw's will, which had designated Władysław's elder half-brother Leszek II the Black as his heir.
After Leszek II the Black's acquisition of power in Kraków and Sandomierz in 1279, Władysław, along with his younger brothers, recognized Leszek's sovereignty. This resulted in, among other things, the adoption of a coat of arms by all of the sons of Casimir I Kujawski: half-lion, half-eagle, and afterwards Władysław always served as an ally to his older half-brother. In 1280, Władysław militarily helped Leszek's ally, the Mazovian Prince Bolesław II, in a battle with Bolesław's brother, Konrad II, and during the expedition won the castle of Jazdów. It is also possible that at a meeting between Leszek II the Black and Przemysł II, Duke of Greater Poland, in Sieradz in February 1284, the marriage of Władysław to Jadwiga, a cousin of Przemysł, was discussed. The following year, in August, Władysław was present, along with Przemysl II and Ziemomysł of Kuyavia, when finalizing the reform of the Sulejów monastery, i.e., taking in the monks from the Wąchock monastic buildings. After this event Władysław again appeared in Mazovia, where he supported Bolesław II in combat with Konrad II, probably on behalf of Leszek II the Black. In retaliation for this action, Konrad II once again let the Lithuanian army pass through his land, which in 1287 besieged Dobrzyń.
Death of Leszek the Black and the struggle for control of Kraków (1288–1289)
On 30 September 1288, Leszek II the Black, Duke of Kraków and Sieradz, died without issue, thus transferring power in the principality of Sieradz to his eldest half-brother, Władysław I Łokietek. While Władysław now ruled over Brześć Kujawski and Sieradz, Casimir II inherited the duchy of Łęczyca, and Siemowit assumed control of the land of Dobrzyń.The death of Leszek initiated a struggle for supremacy in the duchies of Kraków and Sandomierz; the main candidates were Bolesław II, Duke of Mazovia, and Henry IV Probus, Duke of Wrocław. In this contest, Władysław decided to support the former. Henry IV Probus, using the support of the powerful German patricians, mastered the capital city at the end of 1288. Bolesław II did not give up, however, and aided by support from Władysław, Władysław's brother Casimir II Łęczycki, and perhaps troops from Przemysł II, he attacked branches of the Probus coalition—Henry III of Głogów, Bolko I of Opole, and Przemko of Ścinawa—who were returning to Silesia. On 26 February 1289, a bloody battle occurred on the fields near Siewierz, resulting in a great victory for the branches of Mazovia-Kuyavia.
Duke of Sandomierz and war with Wenceslaus II (1289–1292)
After the Battle of Siewierz, Bolesław II of Mazovia resigned from applying for the Seniorate Province for unknown reasons, and so Władysław the Short began to style himself the Duke of Kraków and Sandomierz. He occupied the capital of Lesser Poland, yet despite initial victories in the battles of Skała and Święcica, Władysław could not make it permanent. Soon Kraków was acquired by Henry IV Probus, and Władysław had to escape the city with the help of the Franciscans. In the second half of 1289 the Kujavian prince managed to consolidate his rule in the Duchy of Sandomierz. This resulted in a division of Lesser Poland back into the two distinct principalities, as they had been ruled by the same duke since Bolesław V the Chaste became High Duke in 1243.On 23 June 1290, Henry IV Probus died, and Przemysł II, Duke of Greater Poland, assumed the throne of Kraków. It is not known exactly how the relationship was between Przemysł II and Władysław I Łokietek, although it is very likely that they were friendly, as the division took place without bloodshed and may have been the result of a settlement between the princes. It is possible, however, that these relations could have been cool, and perhaps even hostile. Przemysł II mastered Wawel Castle without problems, but from the beginning he faced considerable internal opposition from within the principality of Kraków – some of whom supported Władysław the Short, while others supported Wenceslaus II of Bohemia – and by mid-September 1290 Przemysł II left Kraków to return to Greater Poland. Meanwhile, in order to further increase his contemporary significance, Władysław gave his niece Fenenna in marriage to Andrew III, the Hungarian king of the Arpad dynasty.
Przemysł II finally gave up power over Kraków in mid-January of the following year, and the principality then accepted the Czech monarch Wenceslaus II as their sovereign. Władysław decided to fight for Lesser Poland with the help of Hungarian troops granted to him by Andrew III. In 1292 Bohemian troops, through numerical superiority and with support from Silesian princes and the Margrave of Brandenburg, drove Władysław the Short first from Sandomierz, and in September of that same year surrounded him in a fortified Sieradz. The siege was soon successful, and Władysław and his brother Casimir II found themselves in captivity. On 9 October 1292 an agreement was signed under which Władysław and Casimir II were forced to renounce claims to Lesser Poland and to make fealty to the Czech ruler, in return for which they remained on their Kuyavian leases.