Were Polish warriors among the thousands of Vikings who traveled to England to steal, plunder, rape and take possession? And are you sure it was Bolesław the Brave who sent them there, not his great-grandson, Bolesław the Bold?
"Knut, a half-Pole, king of Denmark, invaded England in 1015, taking with him Polish warriors and his mother, Princess Świętosław," said British Foreign Minister David Miliband eight years ago. He wasn't quite right.
In 1015, a Viking fleet so large had never been seen before. Sources differ as to how many ships it counted - the numbers are from 200 to 1000. It was headed by Knut, about eighteen-year-old brother of the King of Denmark. Indeed, Piast blood flowed in him, because his mother - wrongly called Świętosław - was the daughter of Mieszko I and the sister of Bolesław the Brave. Of course, "half-Pole" is a rhetorical ploy, because Bolesław Bolesław Bolesław and Krzywousty were similarly "half-Czechs", Kazimierz Odnowiciel and the Righteous were "half-German", and Queen Jadwiga Andegaweńska was a "half-Bosnian".
Brave's nephew's army
Were Polish warriors among the thousands of Vikings who headed for England under the leadership of Knut to steal, plunder, rape and take possession? What a beautiful, imperial picture that would be! Bolesław the Brave not only victoriously emerged from the rivalry with the emperor of the West, he threatens the emperor of the East, conquers Prague, Meissen and Kyiv, but also helps his nephew to conquer England (you can read about the most important conquests of our brave king in another article of CiekawostekHistorycznych.pl) .
According to the former British foreign minister, Knut took Polish warriors to conquer England. The illustration shows a 14th-century image of the ruler of Denmark, Norway and England.
But, unfortunately, you have to say goodbye to this picture. There is no source confirming that Bolesław the Brave supported his nephew. Admittedly, Knut and their brother Harald came to Poland in 1014, but only to take their mother, who, abandoned by her husband, found shelter in the family home. Perhaps on the way back they were accompanied by some protection, given by Bolesław - but nothing more.
There is a track that the Slavs (not necessarily Poles) found themselves in the Danish armies, which at the beginning of the 11th century harassed the inhabitants of the British Isles. Book of Fagrskinn mentions that the Norwegian Viking Olaf Święty fought at that time with the Danes and Slavs belonging to the Danish king's army. The proof was to be a song in which Olaf was called Vin ð um háttr what the enemy of the Slavs meant. Currently, historians believe that he earned this nickname not during the fighting in the British Isles, but earlier, when he led a gang of pirates haunting the southern shores of the Baltic Sea.
Invasion of England
It turns out that the vision of Polish warriors who invaded England side by side with the Vikings is supported by sources. It was the year 1069. At that time, Poland was ruled by Bolesław Szczodry, great-grandson of Chrobry, and in Denmark by his distant relative, Swen Estrydsen, nephew of the aforementioned Knut the Great. Since the Battle of Hastings (1066), England had been ruled by the cruel Norman prince William the Conqueror. Estrydsen sent an army to oust the new ruler of England.
It was a fleet of, some say 240 and others 300 - not a hell of a force, anyway. Two or three royal sons were to gain military experience on this expedition. One of them was Knut the Saint, today the saint of the Catholic Church and the patron saint of Denmark. Their uncle - experienced Jarl Asbjørn - became the commander of the expedition. Estrydsen also took care of the reinforcements. According to the well-informed chronicler Orderyk Vitalis, he was supported by the Friesians, Saxons, Lutycy (that is, the Polabian Slavs) and ... Poles. Undoubtedly, the latter were sent by Bolesław the Szczodry, who at that time was an ally of the Danish king.
Ransom instead of battle
The Viking army, which also included Polish warriors, landed on the shores of the Humber. It then joined with the Anglo-Saxon insurgents rebelling against William the Conqueror. They headed for York. The local garrison had no chance of stopping such an onslaught - the Vikings captured the city, and the defenders were either killed or captured.
In fact, the successes of Sven Estrydsen's army ended there. The Danes retreated to the mouth of the Humber, where they were blocked by the forces of William the Conqueror. The king of England's priority was to deal with the insurgents and he did not want to bleed out in the battle with the Vikings. He offered the invaders a ransom in exchange for leaving the British Isles. The offer has been accepted.
Sven Estrydsen's trip to England ended with a large ransom. The illustration shows the nineteenth-century image of the ruler.
You can guess that the Polish warriors who took part in this expedition did not return home empty-handed, and many years later, many years later, stories about the capture of York were told and the spoils gained in distant England were shown.
The alliance between Bolesław Szczodry and Sven Estrydsen did not last long. In 1071, only two years after the invasion of England, the Danish king changed front and entered into an alliance with Emperor Henry IV.
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Thanks to the book by Michael Morys-Twarowski entitled The Birth of Power you will learn the history of all the conquests of Bolesław the Brave.
Studies:
- David Bates, William the Conqueror , crowd. Zbigniew Dalewski, Warsaw 2007.
- Matthew Bennett, Campaigns of the Norman Conquest , London - New York 2013.
- Tadeusz Grudziński, Bolesław Szczodry. Outline of the history of the reign , part 1, Toruń 1953.
- Gerard Labuda, Fragment of the history of the Western Slavic region , vol. 2, Poznań 1964.
- Marcellus Larson Laurence, Canute the Great 995 (circ) - 1035 and the Rise of the Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age , New York - London 1912.
- Jakub Morawiec, An anonymous poem by Liðsmannaflokkr and the problem of its recipient. Traces of the stay of the daughter of Mieszko I, mother of Knut the Great, in England? , "Studia Źródłoznawcze" 47, 2009.
- Jakub Morawiec, Vin ð a myr ð ir, Vindum hâttr. Scandinavian invasions
hovdingôw to the lands of the Slavs in the light of the poems of the skalds , "Przegląd Historyczny", 96, 2005, 4. - Hans Olrik, Knud den hellige , [in:] Dansk Biografisk Lexikon , vol. 9, 1895.
Others:
- David Miliband Achive, European Renewal amidst Global Adversity, [accessed on October 9, 2017].