Boleslaus the Brave

Boleslaus the Brave (c. 967-1025), the first son of Mieszko I and the Bohemian princess Dobrava. After his father's death, he banished Mieszko's second wife Oda and her sons, and reunited the state. In his attempts at winning the royal crown for himself, he developed contacts with papacy and the empire. Thanks to his efforts, Bishop Adalbert, murdered by the pagan Prussians, was canonised in 999 and the first Polish metropolis (archbishopric) was established at Gniezno, the capital of the country, in 1000. The same year he welcomed in Gniezno the emperor Otto III, an event of considerable political importance. In the wars he fought in the west and the east, he extended his rule to Milsko and Lusatia along the Elbe and the group of strongholds called Grody Czerwienskie in Rus. He had himself crowned king of Poland in 1025, shortly before his death. [art]