Dobrawa of Bohemia

Dobrawa of Bohemia
Dobrawa of Bohemia, by Jan Matejko
Duchess consort of the Polans
Tenure 965–977
Spouse Mieszko I of Poland
Issue
Bolesław I Chrobry
a daughter, wife of Swein Forkbeard
Vladivoj, Duke of Bohemia?
House Přemyslid dynasty (by birth)
House of Piast (by marriage)
Father Boleslaus I, Duke of Bohemia
Mother Biagota
Born ca. 940/45
Died 977

Dobrawa (Dąbrówka) (Czech: Doubravka, Polish: Dobrawa) (ca. 940/45 – 977) was a Bohemian princess member of the Přemyslid dynasty and by marriage Duchess of the Polans.

She was the daughter of Boleslav I the Cruel, Duke of Bohemia, by his wife Biagota.[1][2]

According to earlier sources she urged her husband to accept the baptism in 966. However, modern historians believed that the change of religion by Mieszko I was one of the points discussed in the Polish-Bohemian agreement performed soon before his marriage with Dobrawa, whose role in the conversion of her husband is now considered not as important as it was often represented by the medieval chronicles.

Contents

Life

Date of birth

There is no known date of Dobrawa's birth. The only indication is communicated by the chronicler Cosmas of Prague who stated that the Bohemian princess at the time of her marriage with Mieszko I was an old woman.[3] The message is regarded as tendentious and of little reliability, some researchers believe that the statement was made with malicious intent.[4] It is possible that in the statement about Dobrawa's age, Cosmas was making a reference to the age difference between her and her sister Mlada. That would give him a basis for determining Dobrawa as "old." It also found that Cosmas confuses Dobrawa with Mieszko I's second wife Oda, who at the time of her marriage was around 19–25 years old, a relatively advanced age for a bride according to the customs of the Middle Ages.

The chronicle of Cosmas does not lead to a more reliable conclusion. Consequently, the date of birth of Dobrawa remains unknown. Despite this, some researchers take up some speculative views, such as Jerzy Strzelczyk, who assumed that in the light of contemporary concepts and habits of marriage of that time (when as a rule marriages were contracted with teenage girls) is assumed that Dobrawa had passed her early youth, so, it's probable that she was in her late teens or twenties.[5]

Early years

About Dobrawa's childhood and youth are any notices. In 1895 Oswald Balzer overthrew the idea that previous to her marriage with Mieszko I, Dobrawa was married with Gunther, Margrave of Merseburg and they had a son, Gunzelin. This view is based on the fact that Thietmar of Merseburg in his chronicles named Gunzelin, Gunther's son, brother of Bolesław I the Brave, Dobrawa's son.[6] Currently, historians believed that Gunzelin and Bolesław I are in fact cousins or brothers-in-law.[7]

Marriage with Mieszko I and role in the Christianization of Poland

In the second half of 964[8] an alliance between Boleslav I the Cruel, Duke of Bohemia, and Mieszko I of Poland was concluded. In order to consolidate the agreement, in 965 Boleslav I's daughter Dobrawa was married to Mieszko I. There was a difference of religion between the spouses; she was a Christian, he was a Pagan.

Two independent sources attribute Dobrawa's important role in the conversion to Christianity of Mieszko I and Poland. The first is the chronicles of Thietmar, who was born two years before the death of Dobrawa; he wrote that the Bohemian princess tried to persuade her husband to accept Christianity (even at the cost of breaking their marriage and with this the Polish-Bohemian alliance); at the end, she finally obtained the conversion of Mieszko I and with him, of all Poland.[9]

In turn, the 12th century chronicler Gallus Anonymus says that Dobrawa came to Poland surrounded by secular and religious dignitaries. She agreed to marry Mieszko I, providing that he was baptized. The Polish ruler accepted, and only then was able to marry the Bohemian princess.

However, modern historians allege that the baptism of Mieszko I was dictated by political benefits and should not be attributed to any action of Dobrawa, who according to them had virtually no role in the conversion of her husband.[10] They note that the conversion of Mieszko I thanks to Dobrawa formed part of the tradition of the Church which stressed the conversion of Pagan rulers through the influence of women.[11]

On the other hand, literature doesn't refuse to give Dobrawa a significant role in the Christianization of the Poles. In her wedding procession, she arrived to Poland with Christian clergymen, among them possibly Jordan, the first Bishop of Poland (since 968).

Tradition attributes to Dobrawa the establishment of the Holy Trinity and St. Wit Churches in Gniezno and the Church of the Virgin Mary in Ostrów Tumski, Poznań.

Dobrawa's marriage cemented the alliance of Mieszko I with Bohemia, which continued even after her death. On 21 September 967 Mieszko I was assisted by Bohemians in the decisive Battle against the Volinians led by Wichmann the Younger.

When, after the death of Emperor Otto I in 973 the struggle for the supremacy in Germany began, both Dobrawa's husband and brother Boleslav II the Pious, Duke of Bohemia, supported the same candidate for the German throne, Duke Henry II of Bavaria.

Issue

The marriage of Mieszko I and Dobrawa produced two children:

  1. Bolesław I the Brave (Chrobry) (b. 967 - d. 17 June 1025).
  2. a daughter, perhaps named Świętosława, perhaps identical to the legendary Sigrid the Haughty (b. 968/72 - d. ca. 1016), perhaps married firstly with Eric the Victorious, King of Sweden and later wife of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark by whom she is said to have been mother of Canute the Great, King of Denmark, Norway and England.

There is an hypothesis who stated the existence of another daughter of Mieszko I who was married with a Pomeranian Slavic Prince; she could be the daughter of either Dobrawa or one of his previous pagan wives.[12] Also, exist the theory (apparently recorded by Thietmar and supported by Oswald Balzer in 1895) that Vladivoj, who ruled as Duke of Bohemia during 1002–1003, was another son of Dobrawa and Mieszko I;[1] although modern historians rejected this hypothesis, the Czech historiography supported mixed Piast-Přemyslid parentage of Vladivoj.[13]

Death and burial

Dobrawa died in 977. In his book published in 1888, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski wrote that her tomb was discovered in Gniezno Cathedral. It was a simple stone marked with a cross. Purple robes and a weighty gold loincloth were the only objects found in her tomb.[14] A similar view of Dobrawa's burial place was expressed earlier, in 1843, by Edward Raczyński in his work Wspomnienia Wielkopolski to jest województw poznańskiego, kaliskiego i gnieźnieńskiego (Memories of the Greater Poland districts of Poznań, Kalisz and Gniezno).[15] However, now the burial place of the Bohemian princess is considered to be unknown.[16]

Dobrawa's death weakened the Polish-Bohemian alliance, which finally collapsed in the mid 980s.

References

  1. ^ a b BOHEMIA
  2. ^ Complete Genealogy of the Přemyslid dynasty
  3. ^ Chronicle of Cosmas of Prague: translated, introduction and commentary developed by Maria Wojciechowska, Warsaw 1968, lib. I cap. 27, p. 149.
  4. ^ H. Łowmiański, Religia Słowian i jej upadek, Warsaw p. 338, footnote 889.
  5. ^ J. Strzelczyk, Bolesław Chrobry, p. 15.
  6. ^ Thietmari chronicon, vol. V, cap. 18, p. 274; vol. V, cap. 36, p. 300; vol. VI, cap. 54, p. 390.
  7. ^ View, inter alia, of Herbert Ludat.
  8. ^ Date fixed by H. Łowmiański, Początki Polski, vol. V, p. 548.
  9. ^ Thietmari chronicon, vol. IV, cap. 56.
  10. ^ J. Dowiat, Metryka chrztu Mieszka I, p. 79; Andrzej Feliks Grabski, Bolesław Chrobry. Zarys dziejów politycznych i wojskowych, p. 26; S. Trawkowski, Monarchia Mieszka I i Bolesława Chrobrego, pp. 116-117; H. Łowmiański, Początki Polski, vol. V, p. 549.
  11. ^ A. F. Grabski, Mieszko I, Warsaw 1973, p. 93.
  12. ^ According to one theory, this unnamed daughter of Mieszko I and her Pomeranian husband were the parents of Zemuzil, Duke of Pomerania.
  13. ^ Krzemieńska, Barbara (1999) (in Czech). Břetislav I.: Čechy a střední Evropa v prvé polovině XI. století [Bretislaus I: Bohemia and Central Europe in 1st Half of the XI Century] (2nd. ed.). Praha: Garamond. pp. 28–29. ISBN 80-901760-7-0. 
  14. ^ J. I. Kraszewski, Wizerunki, p. 12
  15. ^ E. Raczyński, Wspomnienia Wielkopolski to jest województw poznańskiego, kaliskiego i gnieźnieńskiego, Poznań 1843, vol. II, pp 356-360.
  16. ^ K. Jasiński, Rodowód pierwszych Piastów, p. 78.
Dobrawa of Bohemia
Born: ca. 940/45 Died: 977
Royal titles
Preceded by
Gorka		 Duchess consort of the Polans
965–977		 Succeeded by
Oda of Haldensleben