The first genocide of Poles. Did this damned prince slaughter the entire elite of the Piast state?

According to the Germans, he was a tyrant, not many. Polish chroniclers completely erased it from history. And no wonder. Everything indicates that Bezprym committed one of the greatest crimes in the history of Poland.

The cursed son of Bolesław the Brave did not mince his measures. In the fall of 1031, he seized the throne, serving to the Germans and the Rus. He carried out the first partition of Poland but not at all satisfied with his principals. We know this well thanks to the author of the so-called Hildesheimian annals.

The anonymous Saxon monk had every reason to support Bezprym's claim. The deposed king Mieszko II was his enemy number one. A usurper, a servant of Satan, an adventurer with impunity. One might expect that a yearbook, so prejudiced against the rightful ruler of Poland, would accept the change to the throne with satisfaction. After all, this castle clearly showed that the creator himself had pity on the world, depriving the wicked man of his influence! The author, however, did not try to powder the reality. He remarked shortly and viciously that Bezprym had barely taken power in Poland, and had already expressed "the most severe severity of his tyranny".

Tyrant of the age

We don't know what exactly was hidden under that bitter statement. However, Bezprym's steps can be guessed on the basis of the behavior of other early medieval rulers. And most of all:based on what the chroniclers wrote about them.

Death by beheading with a sword. A miniature from the Flemish codex from the end of the 15th century.

In the 11th or 12th centuries a very specific type of man was called a tyrant. Someone who couldn't separate war from peace and carried the rules of battle into the interior of the country. He condemned his subjects to torture, got rid of not individual opponents, but entire masses of society, and tormented those who could not expect help from nowhere. The tyrant was called, for example, the king of the Angles, Ethelred, who reigned more or less in the same years as Bolesław the Brave. On pages written down in the 11th century Deeds of Norman princes heaviest cannons were placed against him:

In a sudden frenzy, he ordered that one day the Danes who lived peacefully throughout his reign with unanimous consent should be killed in this country. He also ordered the women to be buried almost to the womb and that their breasts should be cruelly torn from the body by the wildest dogs. Breastfed babies, in turn, were to be smashed on house doors .

It doesn't matter if the account was real. From then on, Ethelred was called a ruthless and mindless despot.

The slaughter on the pages of the Flemish codex from the mid-15th century.

Single Use Rods

The prince of Bohemia Sviatopolk, who ruled at the beginning of the 12th century, was similarly perceived. He remained on the throne thanks to the support of the influential family of Varsovians. It happened, however, during the Polish invasion that one of the Varsovians, a certain Męcina, slackly joined the defense. Maybe he chickened out or decided the enemy forces were too great to be worth the risk. There are many explanations, but Światopełek's case seemed all too clear. He convinced himself that he had betrayed Męcina. And he flared up, as the chronicler Cosmas put it, with an anger hotter than a fiery furnace. “He gritted his teeth, flashed his eyes, and sighed deeply. He could barely wait for the day when he would pour out his anger on him, "we read in the work of the Prague canon.

It was not even an execution, but an ordinary murder. The prince, in front of his courtiers and state dignitaries, ordered the network of Munchies without mercy. The dribbler appointed to the role of executioner splashed the man with his sword twice, and only after the third blow - when he tried to get up - chopped off his head. The death of the alleged conspirator did not soothe Światopełek's anger. He decided to "put out his whole family like a candle." The chronicler said helplessly that he had failed to find out how many people had died in the enormous slaughter.

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The murders lasted many days and covered almost the entire territory of the country. Some were "led to the market and stabbed like cattle." Others were "beheaded on Mount Petrin." There were also those who were "killed in their homes and in the streets". German authors claimed that three thousand people lost their lives. Even if they multiply the true number of victims by five or ten, there is still a real sea of ​​corpses left.

Quick, almost bandit murders were intertwined with elaborate tortures. Adults were killed, as well as little children. Among the victims were, for example, two of Męcina's sons. Small boys were forcibly dragged to the market square. Along the way, they broke free, shouting "My mother, my mother!". Their pleas for mercy were useless. The executioner "killed both of them, like piglets under his arm, with a knife." The murdered could not even count on a Christian burial. "Like cattle, they were thrown naked into a ditch."

Rotation at the top of power

The Varsovians' family, capable of raising princes to power and taking the throne from them with a single wave of their patriarch's hand, in fact ceased to exist. And it was not the first such brutal and large-scale murder. Purges at the top of power in the Czech Republic were carried out every few decades.

The same Varsovians at the end of the 10th century helped in the ruthless extermination of another high-ranking family - Sławnikowice, whose representative was Saint Wojciech himself. It was then that everyone, from grown men to tiny children, was cut down in the trunk. Half a century earlier, prince Bolesław called the Cruel one organized his own purges. He ordered his enemies' children to be drowned in the Vltava River and their wives to be forcibly married off to other men.

Execution of a woman on a miniature from the French code. The turn of the 14th and 15th centuries.

And although it all sounds like a horror story, historians have no doubt that there was an almost continuous rotation in the ranks of the Czech elite. Among the important families known from the later Middle Ages, virtually none had a history dating back to more than the 12th century. Those who were at the side of the princes were almost without exception murdered or driven away. New magnates came to take their place, often taking over the same palaces, estates, and even coats of arms and calls ...

There is no reason to argue that in Poland politics was a more sedate and civilized art. After all, it was from the Czech Republic that Christianity came to us. And with it:also the rules of efficient government.

It is known that Bolesław the Brave did not feel reluctant to deprive his neighbors of his eyes but also his loyal subjects. Mieszko II had to act in a similar way. After him, it was time for Bezprym. A man who was explicitly said to be a "tyrant." Just like the Czech Światopełk.

Who knows if he wasn't cutting off his enemies' testicles, noses, lips and ears. The details of the execution will remain a secret. However, there are hard indications that the scale of the massacre was even greater than during the Czech massacre in Vrszowce.

Consequences of the murder

It was not a perfect crime. Bezprym could arrange for no one to report her on the parchment. But he was unable to… shut the genealogy's mouth. And if we can at least bring the prince to the judgment of history, it is because of this underappreciated science. Numerous researchers, both specialists and amateurs, reconstruct, down to the smallest detail, family connections of former knightly families. And invariably they come across a very peculiar phenomenon.

One would expect Polish families to be with the Piasts from the very beginning of the state. That representatives of at least some of them fought in the teams of Mieszko I, his son, grandson, great-grandson ... Meanwhile, when the first historical texts finally appear, dealing not only with the chiefs, but also with the state elites, they are ... exceptionally empty.

Execution on miniature from the 13th century French codex.

Of course, there are many nobles, but it is seldom possible to name more than a few of their brothers, uncles and cousins. The number of connections is strikingly modest. It is as if all these families began not in the times of Siemomysło and Mieszko I, but only somewhere in the first half of the 11th century.

Based on this reasoning, Professor Błażej Śliwiński has recently put forward a hypothesis as bold as it is macabre. In his opinion, Bezprym did what even none of the Czech rulers would have dared to do. He ordered the murder of not a few families, but almost all the important supporters of his brother and father. Instead, he brought completely new people.

Wind from the East

What kind of scoundrels have now filled the prince's palaces and strongholds, it is easy to imagine when reading the 11th century… annuals of Ireland. Their author described a bloody battle fought between two foreign armies. Each side gave a display of brutality and contempt for death. They were wild and dangerous people. With one army finally taking over the other, the victorious warriors organized a veritable bloodbath.

Execution in front of the monarch. Miniature from Paris. First half of the 15th century.

Each of the fallen enemies had their heads cut off. A feast took place at the battlefield itself. The corpses supported the cauldrons and lay around the fireplaces. Hands and feet were thrown into the fire like fuel. From the scarred bellies of the victims, guts and the remnants of undigested food poured out ... But the winners did not care. They ate and drank while singing glorious songs.

The antiheroes of the Irish annals were the Norwegians and the Danes, respectively. And, it seems, Bezprym brought both the first and the second to Poland. In part, they were mercenaries of the Ruthenian prince Jarosław, who, after the campaign was over, decided to stop by the Warta River. There were also soldiers recruited by Piast himself. Probably before crossing the borders of Mieszko's rule he promised them property and land ...

Now the warriors of the north would become the backbone of his rule. They replaced the indigenous Polish families. And if it can be said that the Viking element influenced the construction of the Polish state, it is probably with the excesses taking place at the behest of Bezprym in mind.

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Shameful tradition

Traces of the events of that time survived in the traditions of great families. The powerful, who had the coat of arms of the Swans, directly derived their ancestors from the Danes. Characteristically, the first known representative of this family was active in the times of Mieszko II and Bezprym.

There was even a theory that the nickname Włost (the famous Piotr Włost, who fought prince Władysław the Exile in the first years of the regional breakdown) carried it, was in fact a kind of spell. It meant "a rich man" gifted with great fortune. In this name, the traces of the loot that Włost's ancestors robbed from the killed underlings of Mieszko II could survive.

Similar traditions have survived among the Awdaniets. Centuries later, they remembered that some undefined treasure was at the root of their family's power. They even gave their sons the associated name ... Skarbimir. It was widely known about Awdańcy that they were not of Polish origin. And although they ascribed very distant roots to themselves, the source of their family stories was an unspecified war with the Polish prince. As for the direction from which the Awdańcy came, it is easy to determine by focusing on another name popular among them. After all, Jaszczołd is nothing more than a slightly polonized variant of the Viking Askold.

Cain murders Abel. A miniature from a French codex from the beginning of the 14th century.

There are many examples. And although we are talking about a theory, one that is extremely convincing. Single warriors, establishing new families in Poland - or stealing the titles of murdered families - half a century later could not boast of dozens of pitts. And the truly Polish officials, advisers and commanders of Mieszko's troops were simply annihilated.

It was all the infamous contribution of Bezprym. The prince hoped that thanks to the great purge he would be able to strengthen his position. Tyranny was to replace him with the support of his subjects. He couldn't have been more wrong:he lost his life in an assassination attempt just months after taking power. But the genocide he committed determined the fate of Poland for decades, if not centuries.

***

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Selected bibliography:

The article was based on materials collected by the author during the work on the book "Damy z skazą. The women who crowned Poland " . Some of these items are shown below. Full bibliography in the book.

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2. J. Bieniak, The Swan House [in:] Genealogy - studies of relatives and territories in medieval Poland against a comparative background , ed. J. Hertel, J. Wroniszewski, Toruń 1990.
3. D. Borawska, The crisis of the early Piast monarchy in the 1330s , Warsaw 2013.
4. T. Kiersnowska, On the origin of the family Awdańców, "Society of Medieval Poland", vol. 5 (1992).
5. K. Kollinger, Eastern Policy of Bolesław the Brave (992–1025) , Wrocław 2014.
6. J. Kurtyka, Tęczyńscy. A study of the history of the Polish noble elite in the Middle Ages , Krakow 1997.
7. G. Labuda, Mieszko II, King of Poland (1025–1034). Breakthrough times in the history of the Polish state , Poznań 2008.
8. M.R. Pauk, Homines novi? The problem of continuation and breakthrough in the Czech noble elite of the second half of the 12th century [in:] Hominem quaerere. The man in the historical source , ed. S. Rosik, P. Wiszewski, Wrocław 2008.
9. A. Pleszczyński, Germany towards the first Piast monarchy (963–1034). The birth of the stereotype , Lublin 2008.
10. A. Pleszczyński, Sobiesław I - Rex Ninivitarum. The Czech prince in the fight against the Prague Ordinary Meinhard, bishop of the Reich [in:] Monarchy in the Middle Ages. Power over people, power over territory , Krakow 2002.
11. W. Pole, Chronicle of Gallus Anonymus and the origin of the Awdaniec family [in:] Peregrinatio ad veritatem. Studies donated to Professor Aleksandra Witkowska OSU on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of scientific work , edited by U. Borkowska, Cz. Deptuła, R. Knapiński, Lublin 2004.
12. J. Powierski, Rus in the opinion of the earliest Polish chroniclers [in:] Poles about Ukrainians, Ukrainians about Poles. Materials from the scientific session , ed. T. Stegner, Gdańsk 1993.
13. W. Semkowicz, The Awdaniec Family in the Middle Ages , Poznań 1920.
14. B. Śliwiński, Bezprym. Firstborn son of the first king of Poland (986 – winter / spring 1032) , Krakow 2014.
15. P. Żmudzki, Ruler and warriors. Narratives about leaders, teams and wars in the oldest historiography of Poland and Russia , Wrocław 2009.