A high school history teacher rebuked you for calling the third Polish king "Bold"? Or maybe he even stuck your dick for it? We will not correct the grades in the journal anymore, but you can finally rest easy. But she was right on your side.
Bolesław was bold for hundreds of years. This is how historians of the partition era described him, as Stanisław Wyspiański called him in the drama from the beginning of the 20th century, and even the makers of the 1971 feature film. It was Tadeusz Grudziński, the author of the only post-war biography of the monarch, who put an end to this custom.
"Despite all my respect for tradition, I take the position that the decisive (...) should be the source in which the nickname appeared on the name of Bolesław II" - said the historian. - “[Meanwhile] in the first Polish chronicle of Anonymous Gall from the beginning of the 12th century, the term" Szczodry "appears several times, clearly as a nickname or a nickname. On the other hand, other terms of the king, such as "bold", "warlike" or "wild", were used by the chronicler in an adjectival sense. "
Bolesław the Bold as a persecutor of unfaithful wives ...
Grudziński's explanation was somewhat reluctant, but it was accepted both among historians and in school textbooks. The problem is, probably not quite right.
Who was Gall Anonymous making fun of?
We know Bolesław's generosity from the story of a greedy cleric quoted by Gallus Anonymus. It was in its course - in one short paragraph - that the chronicler used the proud nickname "Rex Largus" four times - "the king of generosity".
The story is about a clergyman who came to the ruler's court only to steal some of the great treasures that the monarch exposed to the public after his military expedition to Ruthenia. The cleric "was delighted to devour so much money with his eyes."
Since the king allowed as many treasures to be taken with him as a man could carry, the man greedily filled his cloak with gold - so much that it tore, and the loot landed on the ground. Then the generous Bolesław gave him his own coat and let him go with great riches.
Ignacy Gogolewski as Bolesław the Bold in a feature film from 1971.
Historians have interpreted this episode differently. For some it was just a "happy anecdote". For others - a point to the clergy thinking too much about worldly matters, or - praise of the king who fulfills his duty to care for the poor.
Przemysław Wiszewski in the controversial work Domus Bolezlai. In search of the Piast dynastic tradition proposes a completely different solution . According to it, Gall Anonymous did not praise the king at all. On the contrary.
Praise or mockery?
The key to this puzzle would be hidden in the last sentences of the anecdote. "The generous king charged the cleric with gold and silver in such a large amount that he shouted that he would break his neck if he put more money," said Gall Anonymous. And finally he added:"The king lives for fame, the poor man, enriched, is gone."
According to Wiszewski, the words and grammatical structures used by the author suggest that such reading of the text is incorrect. Rather, Gall Anonymous wrote:"The king lives by fame, the poor man, enriched, has died." The whole anecdote in which the chronicler so stubbornly praised Bolesław's generosity would, in turn, constitute a subtle, ironic attack on the king . Not openly offending a member of the Piast dynasty, but suggesting that Bolesław was rightly driven away and it is good that the younger line of the dynasty took power.
According to the historian from Wrocław, similar attempts can also be traced in other parts of Gallus Anonymus's text. When he praised Bolesław for his military successes, in fact - he described his defeats and shortcomings. Rather, in urging his readers to imitate the king, he suggested that they learn from the mistakes of a "generous" monarch.
This, of course, does not in any way contradict the fact that the author of the first Polish chronicle called the monarch "Szczodry". But should we really keep using that nickname if it was really one big joke?
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Another version of the article will also be published in the next issue of the magazine "Newsweek Historia" (8/2015).