King Lech I
Part 3: On the Shores of the Baltic
King Lech the Holy. Note especially the Slavic totem on the left signifying his devotion to the gods and the
laid down arms of his enemies in the lower and right parts.
King Lech I the Holy, known sometimes as ‘the Bearded’, due mostly to conscious attempts at rewriting the history of the period, as the fact that this devout King of the pagan times came to be remembered as ‘the Holy’ hindered the later efforts of uprooting pagan traditions and superstitions, he is believed to have ascended the throne at the age of 24 in 897 AD. Already, the young king had the opinion of a mystic and believed in the importance of the worship of the Slavic gods. His father made sure that his son entered the reign safely, having made alliances with the nearby rulers. The King himself married Malgorzata Mazowiecki, daughter of the High Chief of Mazovia, ensuring having a strong supporter within the realm. Meanwhile, the new King’s sisters guaranteed various alliances, as Gniewosadka, the eldest, married High Chief Traidenis of the Curonians, Grzymislawa was married to Bohemia’s ruler, Castolov Premyslid and Slawomira – to the brother of High Chief Igor Tyvercy of Galich. The green axe of the Tyvercy family was soon to be remembered and feared throughout the Russian lands, even if unimportant at the time. Later, as the youngest of the siblings, Dobromila, came of age, the King arranged for her to marry the son of Chieftess Smiechna of the Oborites.
With the realm’s position secured so, Lech first wisely turned his attention to ensure the loyalty of his subjects. As the son of the man who first created a kingdom in these lands, his right and worth of inheriting the crown were not at all certain. The first two years of his rule were spent on bestowing honorary titles upon his vassals, rearranging the council and spending his father’s money to create a favourable image of himself with feasts and fairs. The largest threat at this point, however, was the man closest to the King. Gniewomir, Lech’s younger brother and now-High Chief of Greater Poland ruling over the central lands of the realm, was understandably unhappy with his brother’s lone rule. A proud man, he considered himself more worthy of the crown than his brother, who got it based solely on the right of age. As Lech I found out about Gniewomir’s attempts at gathering supporters in a plot to kill him, he was furious. Gniewomir was surprised and successfully imprisoned in 899, and then swiftly executed. While the King’s decision of executing his brother was unpopular and branded him a kinslayer, leaving a black mark on his rule from this very early point, the earlier policy of pleasing his vassals came to fruition as nobody rose to oppose him. At the same time, Gniewomir’s childless death left the King with no more major claimants and more land, once and for all sealing his rule to never again be disputed.
A skirmish with the Magyars
It was just in time too, that the King dealt with internal threats. Later the same year he was needed to stand against the military might of the Hungarian kingdom, as King Árpád sought to complete the conquest of Moravia in the Hungarian Holy War for Olomouc, which was to last over 2 years. As the Hungarian forces were fierce and superior in numbers, it was clear the King needed all the carefully crafted alliances and even more help from all the Slavic chiefs with whom he kept good relations. Initially, the Polans made bold incursions into the Hungarian lands, catching a few smaller groups and harassing the Hungarians with hit-and-run tactics. As the bulk of the enemy army forced them out and pursued into Poland, the King avoided engagement and waited for the promised reinforcements, some of which were caught and cut off. Battle couldn’t be avoided forever, though.
The disastrous Battle of Olomouc
Even though Hungarian armies shrank after entering Slavic lands, and many allies had yet to join the King, certain defeat loomed on the horizon. When Khazar warriors made their appearance to reinforce the Hungarians besieging Olomouc, Lech saw that there is no hope of winning and surrendered in late 901 without unnecessarily dragging the war out. As a consequence, Olomouc became part of King Árpád’s realm. However, since Závis Benesovic was a Reformed Tengri, he remained in power and protected the Bohemian land, ensuring that the Hungarian rule was not cruel and oppressive like the Magyar invasions of the past.
In the year 900, war also broke out in Bohemia, when news of losses suffered by High Chief Castolov’s men reached opposition within his realm. As an ally in the ongoing war, Lech also had to delegate some his forces to help quench the rebellion led by the Chief of Plzen. The rebels were swiftly defeated and laid down their arms in the same year.
Following the devastating defeat in the war over Olomouc, Lech I decided to conserve his forces and keep wars as far outside of his realm as possible. About two years later, he was called to join Igor Tyvercy of Galich in a war for the Grand Duchy of Kiev, Könugardr, to claim it from the Norse ruler, Halfdan Oskyldr. Lech accepted the call but was conservative in his support, sending only his retinues and a small amount of his personal levies in order to lay siege to enemy holdings, while most of his warriors never left homes, staying to protect the land were the war to come closer or other threats to appear. Other Slavic rulers also aided Igor Tyvercy’s effort, while Könugardr found an ally in Holmgardr. Not long after the war began, Lech’s brother-in-law, Alexei, saw an opportunity to seize power in Galich and rebelled against his brother. In keeping with his policies, King Lech refused to pick sides between his brother-in-law and the rightful High Chief and ally. This proved to be a wise decision, as Igor Tyvercy soon quenched the rebellion himself, with the valuable alliance remaining in power.
Warriors of Poland besieging holdings behind enemy lines during the rebellion of Alexei Tyvercy of Terebovl
The war for Könugardr was rather long and extremely bloody, both sides suffering heavy casualties, until it finally ended in 908 with the victory of Igor Tyvercy, who came to be known for overcoming all obstacles by any means necessary. King Lech’s careful policies were popular with his vassals, whose levies were saved from suffering in the bloody Kievan conflict and thus regained full strength after the defeat at Olomouc. All the while, Polish lands felt a growth in prosperity as if they were in peacetime, while storms of blood swept through surrounding domains.
The exhausting conflict for Könugardr
King Lech was far from unambitious, however, and wanted the realm to grow rather than just prosper. With the war over Könugardr ended, he called his vassals to join in on a war of his own and turned on one of the former allies from Kiev, High Chief Frantisek the Ill-Ruler of Pomerania. The King considered Pomeranians part of the ‘Polan tribes’ because of various relations the two kept in their tribal times. The war was the first and most important of a series of the King’s wars over the Baltic shores. Pomerania was not tied to the Polish kingdom by ties of blood, and their own allies would not dare join in a war against the powerful Polish King. Another advantage from holding back in the Kievan conflict, the Polish army was at its full strength and their allies still loyal, while Pomerania had no time to recoup what they lost in the east. Once again, the war was kept outside of the lands Lech already controlled, and engagements only occurred when there was no possibility of losing. Still, the Pomeranians mustered quite an army and the conquest remains in the memory of the people as a great, hard-earned victory. By 910 AD, Pomerania was subjugated and Frantisek the Ill-Ruler – a vassal of Lech I.
Lech I presented as a warrior-king
Around the same time, the King's ally, High Chief of Bohemia, conquered the county of Werle.
The coast of the Baltic Sea during Lech's conquests
Lech then continued to keep the peace in his lands, building up his holdings and wealth, while looking for other potential targets. An opportunity soon presented itself in Prussia. The Pruthenians had been conquered by the far-away Lettigalians much earlier, but the Lettigalian homelands had been since taken over by the growing Lithuania. Prussia became prime target for conquest for Svitjod. Marienburg and Galindia have hence been subsequently conquered in 904 and 908, but the Norse rule was not to last. In 913, King Björn involved his levies in a war of conquest in Livonia. Lech saw this as an opportunity, and declared war for Marienburg in order to gain control of a larger part of the Baltic coast. He ordered an assault on the county, while half his troops left under his command to march north all the way to Livonia, surprising the unprepared Norsemen, destroying their armies and gaining a crushing advantage. Once again, lands of the Polans were spared suffering enemy presence or seeing any bloodshed. The war ended quickly in 914, leaving the Norse country weakened and humiliated.
War near the Livonian coast
It wasn’t until later this same decade, that Lech allowed himself to get involved in a war which would threaten to spread unto his lands. The Danish King ordered the conquest of Mecklenburg (or rather Weligrad, as it was called by the Pomeranians) from the much weaker Oborites. The Polan King declared war under the guise of help for the Oborites, while at the same time posing demands that the Danish Norse surrender Lübeck to him, justified by the fact that the lands were home to Pomeranian tribes, whom as was mentioned the King sought to bring into his domain. Denmark was not weakened or distracted like Svitjod was earlier, their forces already in the disputed region. King Lech struck the forces besieging Weligrad and came out victorious in the largest single battle between Slavic and Norse warriors known to that time with nearly ten thousand warriors on each side.
The battle near Weligrad
The war was far from over. While the Polans began the taking of Lübeck, King Knud of Denmark called his allies and regrouped his army. The Norse used their most mastered tactic – got across the Baltic in their much feared longboats to saw chaos and destruction along the coast, distracting and dividing Lech’s army in a long and fruitless chase for the enemy. With the allies coming to help, King Knud managed to break the forces of the Oborites and force the surrender of Weligrad, but with Lübeck taken and Holstein under siege after that, he had to end the war defeated, trading one Slavic province for the other, in 920. With Denmark’s King’s power shattered, the realm soon followed Svitjod into flames of a series of civil wars, allowing for the Oborites to reclaim their land not two decades later.
