King Lech the Holy
Part 4: A Call in the South
King Lech Piast is remembered as an old, wise mystic of the long-forgotten Slavic faith
However much accomplished and successful, King Lech’s rule was far from over. Indeed, it was to become the longest out of all the Kings of this first Age’s time on the throne and the King long refused to give in to age or illness.
By the 920s, the kingdom’s expansion towards the Baltic coasts was mostly complete. The patient, careful King waited only for the expiration of the truce with Svitjod, which broke apart in a civil war, and declared another war of conquest for the Norse-controlled territory of Galindia in 924. It took only a year to drive the Vikings out and end their presence in this region of the Baltic coast. As the King’s lands prospered and organized, the raiders and invaders became much less feared in the Slavic lands. It could theorised that were it not for the sudden rise of the Polans, and the most powerful Norse realms “pushed” into domestic conflicts during King Lech’s reign, we would see a much different power distribution in the whole Baltic region.
The southern Baltic coast after Lech's conquests
While the King was careful to keep enemies at a distance, though, the recently conquered Pomerania was not exactly peaceful. High Chief Frantisek the Ill-Ruler was not a popular chief, as the nickname may suggest. Even though he still managed to incorporate Anhalt into his domain (and by consequence, the Kingdom) in 914, doing that he only brought more support for his enemies already within. Situation kept slipping from his hands with various disagreements and outright conflicts against his vassals until finally a large revolt topped him in 921, placing its leader, Walenty z Wieleci, in his stead. The family of Frantisek was to never again emerge on the pages of history.
High Chief Frantisek deserved his fall in a variety of ways
Walenty became subject of multiple attacks as well, as many hoped to repeat his feat or called him usurper, and armed conflicts continued to occur. King Lech watched, careful as ever, and did not engage in his vassals’ wars, but the new High Chief of Pomerania won his respect and quiet favour as he kept a steady grip on his lands despite unenviable odds and ruling justly yet decisively. He passed the title to his son, Dragovit, in 935, and the son proved well-prepared to continue in his father’s footsteps.
The King himself still had much to accomplish as well. His rule is also remembered as a time of nurturing strong ties and honouring the alliance with the southern neighbour, Bohemia. It is suspected that King Lech saw Bohemia as the most important and trustworthy partner in the task of maintaining the unity and strength of the Western Slavic lands, evidenced by the continuous support both sides gave each other in war time after the marriage of Grzymislawa, Lech’s sister, and High Chef Castolov, including the civil war in Bohemia in the year 900. Also the aforementioned unhindered Bohemian expansion in Werle, far north, near the King’s Pomeranian gains, suggests such an approach on the Polish side.
Around the time of the conquest of Galindia, a request for aid reached the King of Poland. Castolov of Bohemia sought to reclaim the Bohemian land of Olomouc, for it to again fall under a Slavic monarch rather than the Hungarian Tengri. At this time, Hungary itself fell apart as old King Árpád’s brother fought the King’s grandson for the crown. Castolov unexpectedly attacked the claimant, Bertalan of Transylvania, and called King Lech for help. Once again using others’ conflicts for his gain, the Polan King helped the endeavour he considered worthy and marched south, ending the Prussian conquests to get a revenge on the Hungarians.
Hungaran rider attacking Bohemian soldiers
Olomouc was swiftly taken in late 925, and High Chief Castolov was bent on taking reign over the county himself, throwing out the grandson of Závis Benesovic, who was of course a Reformed Tengri. Since the ties with the Benesovic family and the Polish crown died down after the separation of the realms and the death of Závis, King Lech conceded. It is important to note that the Benesovics were also now strongly tied to the Hungarian royalty, as a member of the family, Guta Benesovic, married the grandson of King Árpád, Almos, who soon also won his war against the Duke of Transylvania. This made Guta the queen and mother of kings, and one might say that the Benesovic blood continued through the Kings of Hungary. The family’s male line and name, however, never again rose to match the fame of old Závis.
Castolov himself did not have the opportunity to celebrate in his new land for long, though, as he passed away in the following year. That meant the throne falling into the hands of King Lech’s nephew, Chval Premyslid. Chval immediately found himself in conflict with the second most powerful land holder in Bohemia, Jaromir, count of Litomerice, Boleslav and Domazlice, who planned to put Chval’s relative Borivoj on the throne and control the entire Voivodeship through him. Soon, Chval needed his uncle’s help as war broke out again in Bohemia, half the realm raising banners in support of Jaromir and Borivoj. The rebels did not take into account that the King of the mighty Polan Kingdom would care about the nephew he never had much contact with, especially since power would nominally remain in the same dynasty. King Lech had his own plans for Bohemia, however, and wanted the realm strong and stable. He came, striking at the rebel army, which already besieged Prague, and drove them out. He then proceeded to take the traitor’s seat of power in Litomerice along with his nephew. This put a quick end to the rebellion and the year 929 saw Bohemia united again.
The Battle of Prague
Peace only lasted for both realms for as long as until the end of 932. Then, King Almos of Hungary decided to put an end to the long conflict with Bohemia. He did not settle for retaking Olomouc this time, but rather ordered the warriors of the Tengri faith to take all of Bohemia. One last time, King Lech gathered his warriors to stand beside their Bohemian allies and rode personally leading the army despite his advanced age. The conflict was to last a long time. Initially, King Lech tried repeating the old, tested strategy of riding forward and catching Hungarian bands before they have a chance to gather, while the Bohemians crossed the border to lay siege to the closest holdings.
The beggining of the conflict
This time, however, the Hungarian King was prepared for such bold diversions and disregarding the initial loss of a few small groups of warriors, he surprised the Polans as he caught them near the borders with superior forces. The defenders suffered a terrible defeat, setting the alliance back and allowing for the Tengri to capture Olomouc and Boleslav early on.
King Lech was forced to empty a considerable part of his treasury hiring foreign mercenaries, while his forces dispersed after returning home with their tails between their legs. Meanwhile, the Bohemians avoided a decisive battle as well as they could and both the armies regrouped slowly, never giving up since the stakes were too high. Despite the initial advantage, King Almos found himself in an increasingly difficult position. Khazaria appeared busy with their own internal struggles and unable to provide the help King Almos hoped for from his Tengri brethren. His great armies could not sustain themselves on Slavic land, and soon, he began to recklessly assault their holdings in hopes of forcing a quick surrender from Chval. While the Hungarian capture of Prague is a noteworthy achievement, he lost too many men in the process and the Polan-Bohemian army with the help of the Oborites soon gathered enough strength to fight back and won an important victory at Glatz.
The war still dragged on, and only ended in late 936, after many more back-and-forth skirmishes and assaults along the Bohemian border. Ultimately, the Hungarian King was left with no choice but to bow down and give up his hopes of domination in Bohemia, as a minor revolt started in Hungary in hopes of exploiting his absence for the front.
That was the Polan King’s final victory, and the next three years he spent fighting a terrible illness he likely brought back with him from the war; the sickness only bested him in late 939. He was 66, only 3 years older than his father when he died, but ruled for over a decade longer.
The Slavic god Weles collecting the souls of the dead
King Lech got his name after the mythical founder of Gniezno and the tribe of Polans, who was believed to have built the fort where he first spotted a white eagle, a good omen and the symbol he then took as his coat of arms. However, King Lech I expanded the realm’s borders so that they stretched far from Gniezno in all directions and ultimately established the core of what came to be considered inherently Polish lands. He was always careful and wise in his rule, which along with his constant struggle to aid other Slavic rulers and campaign against believers of other faiths who would think to invade Slavic lands, as well of course as his deep belief in the gods and rituals, built his fame and let history remember him as ‘the Holy’. In fact, it is suspected that he Polish word for ‘holy’, ‘
święty’, has to do with the name of the Slavic god Svetovid –
‘Świętowid’, to whom the King made regular sacrifices. About the King’s personal life, we are told by legends that his marriage with Malgorzata Mazowiecki, who was slightly older, was not at all forced and they loved each other dearly. Malgorzata gave the King three daughters until finally a single son was born, the much needed heir, Mieszko.
King Lech the Holy and his children
Lech cultivated and honoured his alliances, caring especially for the relations with Bohemia. He kept his relatives on its throne and he married his only son to his niece, Hedvika Premyslid, so that the ties would remain just as strong after his passing. Still, that did not stop the relations from gong sour after the new King took over and enacted his famous reforms.
Following the victory in the war for Könugardr, in 915, Igor Tyvercy announced himself Grand Duke of Ruthenia, forever carving his name in the history of the region as he began further expanding his reach over the lands. Meanwhile, following the example of the Polans and other Slavs, Kulnos Palemonaitis united Baltic pagans and made himself Grand Duke of Lithuania in 928. Lithuania, however, was born prematurely and would soon become divided again.
Further south, Emperor Basileios the Great ruthlessly conquered Venezia in 902. However, with his heir’s, Christophoros I Makedon’s ascension to the imperial throne in 929, much changed in the Empire. As fascinated with ancient Roman tradition as he was greedy, Christophoros moved the capital from Constantinople to Venice and pronounced Byzantium a republic, which he based on the Venetian model. The nobility of Old Byzantium were unhappy, and the Empire split into a long civil war until the Republican forces won, making Christophoros Makedon the first Grand Prince of the Byzantine Empire.
Further yet, while the Abbasids and Saffarids continue to establish themselves as rules of Arabia, in Abyssinia there started what came to be known as the Monophysite Revolution, soon erasing any Miaphysite presence in the region with the last Miaphysites forced into exile, scattered around the north.
In the Karling states, Louis the Wise died soon after King Lech’s enthronement, leaving only daughters behind. According to his kingdom’s laws, only men could inherit, which put Italy in the hands of Lothaire II. West Francia and Aquitaine go through a period of civil wars, only to be held together by King Carloman II.
On the British Isles, King Aethelric I felt powerful enough to call himself King of England in 917. After a succession of a few, violently removed kings his dynasty would be replaced by house of Ilchester as soon as 931 though. Denmark still managed to hold on to northern Wales and a few holdings in central England, but even these little realms started to fight among themselves in the bloody civil wars Denmark was engulfed in after the defeat in Weligrad.
On the Iberian Peninsula, Asturias made territorial gains on the cost of the divided Umayyads and the Norse on the coast, but then infighting started in the Kingdom itself. Another Norse invader got his revenge by taking Navarra.