Bolesław V the Chaste

Bolesław V the Chaste or the Shy (Polish: Bolesław Wstydliwy) (21 June 1226 – 7 December 1279) was Duke of Sandomierz in Lesser Poland from 1232 and High Duke of Poland from 1243 until his death.

He was the son of High Duke Leszek I the White, who was assassinated in 1227. In the following internal struggle for supremacy among the Piast dynasty, Duke Henry I the Bearded of Silesia prevailed, who unchallengedly ruled the Seniorate Province at Kraków from 1232 onwards and vested minor Bolesław with the Sandomierz duchy once held by his father Leszek. Several years after the death of High Duke Henry II the Pious at the 1241 Battle of Legnica, Bolesław with the support of the Lesser Polish nobility prevailed as prince at Kraków against his uncle Konrad I of Masovia, and thus became the predominant ruler in fragmented Poland.

In 1239 he married Kinga (Cunegunda), daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary. According to medieval chronicles, the marriage was never consummated. Kinga, being extremely pious, was averse to fulfilling her marital duties. At first Bolesław tried to change her mind, but she demurred and he reluctantly accepted the situation. His religious convictions forbade him to take a mistress, hence the epithet "the Chaste" or "the Shy."

During his reign the city of Kraków, which had been destroyed in 1241 during the Mongol invasion of Poland, was rebuilt, and mainly settled by German immigrants in the course of the Ostsiedlung. The new city was vested with Magdeburg rights and rebuilt on a regular grid pattern (the "location" of 1257). During his rule there was a second Tatar raid of the Golden Horde against Poland in 1259, when the lands were devastated and Sandomierz, Kraków and other cities were plundered by the invading forces led by Nogai Khan. Bolesław furthermore had to deal with the claims of his Upper Silesian cousin Duke Władysław of Opole, culminating in an armed conflict in 1273. Władysław was defeated, but the prestige of the title of High Duke was severely eroded.

As Bolesław had no heirs, he bequested the Seniorate Province to his nephew Leszek II the Black, the eldest son of his cousin Duke Casimir I of Kuyavia.

Ancestry

See also

• History of Poland (966-1385)