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The Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie; Latin: Regnum Poloniae) was a monarchy in East-Central Europe during the medieval period from 1025 until the Union of Krewo (Act of Krewo) was signed in 1385, the first step towards the forming of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth two centuries later.
The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: Corona Regni Poloniae) was a political and legal idea formed in the 14th century, assuming unity, indivisibility and continuity of the state.
The Kingdom of Poland was a monarchy in East-Central Europe during the medieval period from 1025 until the Union of Krewo was signed in 1385, the first step tow...
The Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons lasted from 1385 to 1569. It was created by the accession of Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Polish throne in 1386. The Union of Krewo united Poland and Lithuania into one monarchy.
- 10th–12th Century
- 13th Century
- 14th Century
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Mieszko I and the adoption of Christianity in Poland
The tribe of the Polans (Polanie, lit. "people of the fields") in what is now Greater Poland gave rise to a tribal predecessor of the Polish state in the early part of the 10th century, with the Polans settling in the flatlands around the emerging strongholds of Giecz, Poznań, Gniezno and Ostrów Lednicki. Accelerated rebuilding of old tribal fortified settlements, construction of massive new ones and territorial expansion took place during the period c.920–950. The Polish state developed from...
The reign of Bolesław I and establishment of a Kingdom of Poland
When Mieszko I died in 992, he was succeeded by his son Bolesław contrary to his wishes. In order to ascend the throne, Bolesław had to contest it with his widowed stepmother Oda, his father's second wife, and her minor sons. Bolesław was Mieszko's oldest son, born to his first wife Doubravka of Bohemia, who died in 977. His father intended to divide the duchy of Poland between his sons, but Bolesław succeeded in displacing his stepmother and stepbrothers to become the sole ruler of Poland. C...
Mieszko II and the collapse of the Piast kingdom
King Mieszko II Lambert (r. 1025–1034) tried to continue the expansionist politics of his father. His actions reinforced old resentment and hostility on the part of Poland's neighbors, and his two dispossessed brothers took advantage of it by arranging for invasions from Germany and Kievan Rus' in 1031. Mieszko was defeated and forced to leave Poland. Mieszko's brother Bezprym was murdered in 1032, whereas his brother Otto died in unclear circumstances in 1033, events that permitted Mieszko t...
State and society; German settlement
The 13th century brought fundamental changes to the structure of Polish society and its political system. Because of constant internal conflicts, the Piast dukes were unable to stabilize Poland's external borders. Western Farther Pomerania broke its political ties with Poland in the second half of the 12th century and from 1231 became a fief of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which in 1307 extended its Pomeranian possessions even further east, taking over the Sławno and Słupsk areas. Pomereli...
Relations with the Teutonic Knights
In 1226, Duke Konrad I of Masovia invited the Teutonic Knights to help him fight the pagan, Baltic Old Prussians, who lived in a territory adjacent to his lands; substantial border warfare was taking place and Konrad's province was suffering from Prussian invasions. On the other hand, the Old Prussians themselves were at that time being subjected to increasingly forced, but largely ineffective Christianization efforts, including Northern Crusades sponsored by the papacy. The Teutonic Order so...
Reunification attempts and the reigns of Przemysł II and Václav II
As the disadvantages of political division were becoming increasingly apparent in various segments of the society, some of the Piast dukes began to make serious efforts aimed at the reunification of the Polish state. Important among the earlier attempts were the activities of the Silesian dukes Henry I the Bearded, his son Henry II the Pious, who was killed in 1241 while fighting the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica, and Henry IV Probus. In 1295, Przemysł II of Greater Poland became the first...
The reunited kingdom of the last Piast rulers; Jewish settlement
Władysław I the Elbow-high and his son Casimir III, "the Great" were the last two rulers of the Piast dynasty, who ruled over a reunified kingdom of Poland in the 14th century. Their rule was not a return to the Polish state as it existed before the period of fragmentation, because of the loss of internal cohesion and territorial integrity. The regional Piast princes remained strong, and for economic and cultural reasons, some of them gravitated toward Poland's neighbors. The kingdom lost Pom...
The reign of Władysław I the Elbow-high
Władysław I the Elbow-high (r. 1305–1333), who began as an obscure Piast duke from Kuyavia, pursued a lifelong, persistently challenging struggle with powerful adversaries with persistence and determination. When he died as the king of a partially reunited Poland, he left the kingdom in a precarious situation. Although the area under King Władysław's control was limited and many unresolved issues remained, he may have saved Poland's existence as a state. Supported by his ally Charles I of Hun...
The reign of Casimir III the Great
After the death of Władysław I, the old monarch's 23-year-old son became King Casimir III, later known as Casimir the Great (r. 1333–1370). Unlike his father, the new king demonstrated no attraction for the hardships of military life. Casimir's contemporaries did not give him much of a chance of overcoming the country's mounting difficulties or succeeding as a ruler. But from the beginning, Casimir acted prudently, and in 1335, he purchased the claims of King John of Bohemia to the Polish thr...
Davies, Norman (2005) [1981]. God's Playground: A History of Poland. Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925339-0.Knoll, Paul W. (1972). The Rise of the Polish Monarchy: Piast Poland in East Central Europe, 1320–1370. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-44826-6.Górczyk, Wojciech, "Półksiężyc, orzeł, lew i smok. Uwagi o godłach napieczętnych Piastów" (Piast heraldic emblems on seals) Histmag (English)
Kingdom of Poland Polish state from the coronation of the first King Bolesław I the Brave in 1025 to the union with Lithuania and the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty in 1385 Statements
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The Kingdom of Poland (Polish: Królestwo Polskie [kruˈlɛstfɔ ˈpɔlskʲɛ]; Latin: Regnum Poloniae) was the Polish state from the coronation of the first King Bolesław I the Brave in 1025 to the union with Lithuania and the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty in 1385.
