76 PIAST
As well in Christian as in heathen places,
And ever honoured for his noble graces.
He saw the town of Alexandria fall:
Often, at feasts, the highest place of all
Among the nations fell to him in Prussia.
In Lithuania he had fought, and Russia...^8
Chaucer's remarks are generally thought to have been inspired by the expedi-
tion of Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, who in 1390-1 took part in the
Order's attack on Wilno. Inevitably, English opinions were coloured by the
nature of their sources. The inhabitants of Poland were often described as
'Saracens' that is, enemies of the Prussian crusaders. In Sir John Mandeville's
Travels, which first appeared in 1366, the country is variously described as 'the
land of Polayne' and 'the reme of Crako'. The greater interest of this period was
undoubtedly stimulated by the reconstruction of the Polish Kingdom which was
proceeding at that very time.^9
The period of fragmentation had lasted for nearly two centuries. It was
caused in the first instance by the growing self-sufficiency of the provinces, and
by that reaction against central authority which is observable in the second stage
of the history of many primitive states. Like the partition of Charlemagne's
Empire in 843, Krzywousty's division of the Piast realm in 1138 stood fair to
prove permanent. A divided Poland could not resist the incursions of Czechs,
Saxons, Prussians, Lithuanians, and Mongols. Yet the nascent Polish commu-
nity proved surprisingly resilient. Although the Piast princes of Wielkopolska,
Malopolska, Mazovia, Kujawy, Pomerania, and Silesia, and of several other
minor appanages, warred against each other incessantly, they had the good for-
tune to live in an era when their neighbours were similarly divided. The German
Empire was racked by the contest with the Papacy and by interminable adven-
tures in Italy; Ruthenia was still more fragmented than Poland. By the time that
Bohemia had been reconstructed by the Luxembourg dynasty, and Hungary by
the Angevins, the last two Piasts, Lokietek and Casimir the Great, had already
put their own house in order, and had reunited the Polish kingdom.
Wladyslaw I Lokietek (c. 1260-1333) was a warrior, small of stature but
great at heart. In his time, as for the past two centuries, the struggle of trying to
reunite the Piast principalities resembled a game of primitive pin-ball, where
each player sought to roll half a dozen marbles into their numbered sockets
whilst his adversaries, as they barged and rocked the table, tried to do the same.
He owed his eventual success partly to a charmed life, which outlasted that of
all his relations and rivals, and partly to his remarkable single-mindedness. A
grandson of Konrad of Mazovia, he inherited the principalities of Kujawy and
Leczyca at the age of seven, and succeeded to that of Sieradz in 1288. But in the
long civil war which followed the death of his elder brother, Leszek the Black,
in that same year, he failed to press his claim to the succession. He was repeat-
edly beaten to the Cracovian throne - first by Henryk IV Probus, Prince of
Silesia, next by Vaclav II of Bohemia, then by Przemysl II, Prince of
