Bolesław III Wrymouth
Bolesław III Wrymouth ("Boh-
LEH-swahf";
Polish:
Bolesław III Krzywousty;
1085 â€"
1138) was Duke of
Poland from
1102. He was the son of Duke
Władysław I Herman and
Judith of Bohemia, daughter of
Vratislaus II of Bohemia.
Bolesław Wrymouth defeated the
Pomeranians at the
Battle of Nakło (
1109) and took control of Pomerania (
1119-
1123), thus regaining Polish access to the
Baltic Sea. The local government of the Pomeranians was left in place.
Bolesław also defeated
Emperor Henry V (
1109) in the
Battles of Głogów and
Psie Pole (the latter also known, in German translation, as the
Battle of Hundsfeld). In the years 1113-1119 he had taken control over
Pomerania.[
1]In
1135, Bolesław gave a tribute to
Emperor Lothair II (Lothar von Supplinburg) and the emperor received from Boleslaw parts of Western
Pomerania and
Rügen as fiefs.
Bolesław also campaigned in
Hungary 1132 â€"
1135, but to little effect.
With his first wife,
Zbyslava, daughter of Grand Duke
Sviatopolk II of
Kiev, Bolesław had one son:
*
Władysław II the Exile (born
1105), King of Poland.
Bolesław subsequently married
Salome von Berg-Schelklingen, by whom he had 14 children (six sons and eight daughters), of whom four sons and five daughters are known:
*
Bolesław IV the Curly (born
1125);
*
Mieszko III the Old (born
1126);
*
Henryk of Sandomierz (born
1127);
*
Casimir II the Just (born
1138);
*
Rycheza of Poland (born
April 12,
1116), who married Grand Duke Volodar;
*
Dobronega of Poland (born
1128), who married
Marquis Dietrich of Niederlausitz;
*
Gertruda of Poland;
*
Judith of Poland (born
1132), who married
Otto I of Brandenburg; and
*
Agnes of Poland (born
1137), who married
Mstislav II of Kiev.
Before his death in 1138, Bolesław Wrymouth published his testament (
Bolesław Wrymouth's testament) dividing his lands among four of his sons. The "senioral principle" established in the testament stated that at all times the eldest member of the dynasty was to have supreme power over the rest and was also to control an indivisible "senioral part": a vast strip of land running north-south down the middle of Poland, with
Kraków its chief city. The Senior's prerogatives also included control over Pomerania, a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. The "senioral principle" was soon broken, leading to a period of nearly 200 years of Poland's
feudal fragmentation.
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*
History of Poland (966-1385)*
Map of the feudal dissolution 
