Person:Mieszko I of Poland (1)

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Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was the ruler of the Polans from about 960 until his death. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was a son of the legendary Siemomysł, and a grandson of Lestek. He was the father of Bolesław I the Brave (the first crowned king of Poland) and of Gunhild of Wenden. Most sources make Mieszko I the father of Sigrid the Haughty, a Nordic queen, though one source identifies her father as Skoglar Toste, and the grandfather of Canute the Great (Gundhild's son), and the great-grandfather of Gunhilda of Denmark, Canute the Great's daughter and wife of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor.

The first Christian ruler of territories later called Poland, Mieszko I is considered the creator of the Polish state. He continued the policy of both his father and grandfather, who were rulers of the pagan tribes located in the area of present-day Greater Poland. Through both alliances and the use of military force, Mieszko extended ongoing Polish conquests and early in his reign subjugated Kuyavia and probably Gdańsk Pomerania and Masovia. For most of his reign, Mieszko I was involved in warfare for the control of Western Pomerania, eventually conquering it up to the vicinity of the lower Oder river. During the last years of his life, he fought the Bohemian state, winning Silesia and probably Lesser Poland.

Mieszko I's alliance with the Czech prince, Boleslaus I the Cruel, strengthened by his marriage in 965 to the Czech Přemyslid princess Dobrawa, and his baptism in 966 put him and his country in the cultural sphere of Western Christianity. Apart from the great conquests accomplished during his reign (which proved to be fundamental for the future of Poland) Mieszko I was renowned for his internal reforms, aimed at expanding and improving the so-called war monarchy system.

According to existing sources, Mieszko I was a wise politician, a talented military leader, and a charismatic ruler. He successfully used diplomacy, concluding alliances, first with Bohemia, then Sweden, and the Holy Roman Empire. In foreign policy, he placed the interests of his country foremost, even entering into agreements with his former enemies. On his death, he left to his sons a country with greatly expanded territories, and a well-established position in Europe.

Mieszko I also enigmatically appeared as "Dagome" in a papal document dating to about 1085, called Dagome iudex, which mentions a gift or dedication of Mieszko's land to the Pope (the act took place almost a hundred years earlier).

It is roughly his borders that Poland was returned to in 1945.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Mieszko I of Poland, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   MIESZKO I Prince of Poland, in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.