Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Duchies of Poland
drawn on the map 1279–1304
The Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth (1138) divided Poland among his sons on the seniorate principle: the eldest member of the dynasty held the indivisible "Seniorate Province" (centered on Kraków) as High Duke, plus his own hereditary duchy, while juniors held the others (Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Masovia, Silesia, Sandomierz, and a Pomeranian vassal).
- Shown on the map
- 1279–1304
- Peak area
- 55k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
The Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth (1138) divided Poland among his sons on the seniorate principle: the eldest member of the dynasty held the indivisible "Seniorate Province" (centered on Kraków) as High Duke, plus his own hereditary duchy, while juniors held the others (Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Masovia, Silesia, Sandomierz, and a Pomeranian vassal). The system collapsed almost immediately into more than two centuries of feudal fragmentation, spawning the duchies below. Reunification was achieved only under Władysław the Elbow-high and Casimir III.
Common questions
- What was the Duchies of Poland?
- The Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth (1138) divided Poland among his sons on the seniorate principle: the eldest member of the dynasty held the indivisible "Seniorate Province" (centered on Kraków) as High Duke, plus his own hereditary duchy, while juniors held the others (Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Masovia, Silesia, Sandomierz, and a Pomeranian vassal).
- When is the Duchies of Poland shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Duchies of Poland 1279–1304. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Duchies of Poland?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Duchies of Poland covered about 55,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, academic works (John Fine on the Balkans, Halperin and Martin on Muscovy, Rady and Veszprémy on Hungary) and, for a few entries, the medieval Livonian Chronicle of Henry itself. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Testament of Bolesław III Wrymouth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testament_of_Boles%C5%82aw_III_Wrymouth
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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