He was a sadistic psychopath and a mass murderer. Polish historians prefer to remain silent about him. Wrong. Only through the prism of his character can we understand what was going on in the head of our first duchess:Dobrawa Przemyślidka.
Bolesław I the Cruel seized power in Bohemia in 935, even though she did not belong to him by virtue of the righteous one. His older brother, Wacław, was on the throne. Today, it is known primarily for its altars, because it is the same saint who is the patron of the Wawel Cathedral. It was Bolesław who made him a martyr:with the help of a few henchmen, he attacked the ruler when he was on his way to the morning mass and, amid insults, he hacked him like a dog.
There are many indications that Bolesław fathered his eldest daughter Dobrawa somewhere between purges, fights and executions accompanying the seizure of power after Wacław. Period texts say that the new prince ruthlessly murdered his brother's supporters. Most of all, those who managed to escape abroad survived.
Since she was a child, Mieszko's future wife struggled with the knowledge that her father had killed his own brother. In the illustration, Bolesław murders Wacław and the bribed priest cuts off the way for the victim to escape. Illumination from one of the most valuable Czech books - the codex from Wolfenbüttel.
However, the death and flight of members of the hostile party were not enough to silence Bolesław's anger. It is said that he had their children drowned in the Vltava River and forcibly married their widows or abandoned wives to other men.
The wrath of the new ruler
An atmosphere of constant fear prevailed in the Prague court. You don't have to look far for evidence. The chronicler Kosmas painted a typical, even quite trivial dispute at the top of the government. It must have happened at the very beginning of Bolesław's reign. After the bloodbath he prepared for those who chose the wrong sovereign, but before it became clear to everyone what kind of ruler himself he intended to be.
The prince's mind came up with an idea to transplant German architectural solutions to Bohemia and to strengthen the fortifications of one of the main strongholds in the "Roman way". "I want and I order you to build a very high wall for me around here," he said in a voice that could not bear any objection during the meeting with his officials.
His subordinates, accustomed to the easily suggestive and open-minded Wenceslas, immediately began to criticize the prince's whim. It seemed to be an ordinary whim - foreign to Czech traditions, costly, requiring great effort, and probably simply stupid.
The Prague manor house was a real nest of vipers. One careless step meant certain death. Pictured in the image of poisonous snakes from the 10th century Byzantine codex.
The husbands paler than boxwood
One of the nobles even failed to say that he would rather put his neck under the princely sword than agree to be led into a similar slavery. Hearing this, Bolesław, red with anger, jumped up, grabbed his sword and screamed:“O cowards and sons of cowardly fathers! If you are not half men, confirm your words by deeds and try whether it is easier to put your necks under the sword or under the yoke of slavery! ”. The prince could see perfectly well that his outburst had provoked the expected reaction. Kosmas stressed that these two sentences were enough to make the officials “paler with fear than boxwood” froze motionless.
Learn about the fascinating history of women who built Poland in the darkness of the Middle Ages. Ruthless, ambitious, talented. Kamil Janicki's "Iron Ladies" is now on sale !
However, Bolesław did not intend to let it be said that he was throwing words to the wind. He grabbed the hair of the first of the protesting old men, brutally pulled him to him, swung his sword and chopped off his head like - again, the chronicler's name - a poppy-seed cake. No one else objected.
Second Cain
Similar scenes had to take place many times. Moreover, Cosmas called the ruler "the second Cain", "a tyrant more cruel than Herod, more terrible than Nero, exceeding Decius in the wickedness of his crimes, and Diocletian in his sternness."
Was that the city of Dobrawa? Prague from the time of the Cruelnik according to a reconstruction of Czech archaeologists.
It was supposed to be a list of insults. However, if we take into account the realities of the politics of this epoch, Bolesław begins to appear almost as an ideal prince. Because a truly powerful medieval state could only be built by a "tyrant more terrible than Nero."
Indeed, during the lifetime of this particular prince, Bohemia became a real empire. Bolesław subdued the neighboring tribes, burned their castles, exterminated the elite and herded tens of thousands of slaves to the great marketplace in Prague. He became - and is by no means a hyperbole - the true king of European slavery. And at the same time it took control of a superpower that even encompassed Lesser Poland, Silesia and the borderland of Russia.
Like my father
All this happened in front of the adolescent Dobrawa. When in the throne room blood spilled from the unfortunate official's split neck, and the remaining members of the princely council threw themselves one by one at the ruler's feet, begging for grace, a few-year-old Dobrawa, hidden behind a curtain, drew lessons for the future.
A frat killer Bolesław escapes from the scene of the crime. Entire painting by Anton Petter.
In 965, on her way north to her future husband's country, she was certainly not a boisterous, timid handmaid of the Lord, focused on constant prayers. Her origin and upbringing are beyond doubt.
It had to be a ruthless and insanely ambitious politician. In short:daddy's little girl.
***
They have no place in the works of scientists, and the authors of the encyclopedia stubbornly repeat that nothing is known about them. Dobrawa, Oda and Emnilda have been almost completely erased from our history. Completely wrong. Kamil Janicki proves that if it were not for these women, Poland would not exist at all. And that a lot can be said about their lives without resorting to presumptions and fairy tales. This is the fascinating story of the ruthless, ambitious and power-hungry partners of the first Piasts.
Meet her today. "Iron ladies. The Women Who Built Poland ” just went on sale. You can buy the book with a discount on empik.com.