283 Poland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
of Germany, who started a military expedition against Poland in 1109.Yet
Boleslaw Krzywousty’s military skills, his skilful appealing to patriotic moods,
together with his alliance with Ruthenia, based on his marriage with Zbyslawa,
daughter of the prince of Kiev, and a temporary alliance with Hungary,
which involved a diversionary raid on Bohemia, provided Poland with sup-
port. The determined defence of Glogow, the serious defeat of the German
troops in the battle of Psie Pole near Wroclaw and the defiant attitude of
Boleslaw, who would not give up under Henry V’s threat of marching toward
Cracow, the capital at the time, contributed to the failure of the expedition.
Three years later Boleslaw allowed his brother to return, but, on the pretext
of his arrival having been too ostentatious, had him blinded, thus causing his
death.
Despite Boleslaw’s family ties through his mother with the Czech dynasty
of Przemyslids, his relations with Bohemia were tense. This was due to the
Czech attempts to win control over the Silesian frontier castle-towns (Racib
´
orz,
Kozle, Kamieniec), to Bohemia’s continuing vassal dependence on Germany,
with which Boleslaw was at war, and finally to Boleslaw’s attempt to interfere
in the disputes over the Bohemian throne. These conflicts ceased in 1114 and
the peace treaty with Bohemia was made in 1137.
The question of Pomerania took priority in Boleslaw Krzywousty’s pol-
icy. By 1106 he had already led several plundering raids into this province,
which Zbigniew must have been trying to hinder. After Zbigniew’s banish-
ment, he launched the plan of the conquest of Pomerania. In 1113 he won
definite control of the frontier castle-towns, Naklo and Wyszogrod; by 1119
he had subjugated Gdansk-Pomerania (Pommerellen), and he then conquered
western Pomerania, reaching R
¨
ugen (Rugia) in 1123.In 1121 he imposed feudal
overlordship over Prince Warcislaw of western Pomerania; in 1124 he eased
the rigorous conditions of this suzerainty. Boleslaw Krzywousty’s undeniable
success was the second Christianization of Pomerania. The earlier attempts by
Poland in the late tenth century had no lasting effect, and the bishopric of
Kolobrzeg (Kolberg), founded in the year 1000, disappeared. The missionary
efforts of the hermit Bernard the Spaniard in 1123 did not succeed. The next
attempt was made under Boleslaw’s auspices by Bishop Otto of Bamberg. His
success encouraged him to form a new missionary expedition, which he led on
his own behalf in 1128. The posthumous achievement of Boleslaw Krzywousty
was the fact that his chaplain Wojciech (Adalbert) was to become the first
bishop of the newly founded bishopric in Wolin, which was moved to Kamien
Pomorski in the second half of the twelfth century. The establishment of the
bishopric of Lubusz (Lebus), bordering on western Pomerania, in the 1120s
and the establishment or perhaps reestablishment of the bishopric of
Wtoctawek, neighbouring Gdansk-Pomerania, were likely to be linked to this
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