Mieszko I of Poland - Marriages and Issue

Marriages and Issue

According to Gallus Anonymus, before becoming a Christian Mieszko had seven pagan wives, whom he had to get rid of as he married Dobrawa. Nothing is known for sure of any children from these relationships. Some sources show the possibility that Adelajda or Adleta (b. 950/60 – d. aft. 997), first wife of Duke Mihály of Gran (Esztergom) and then wife of her brother-in-law Géza, Grand Prince of the Magyars, was Mieszko's daughter (born from a chronological point of view from one of the pagan wives) and not his sister as is given in the majority of web sources.

In 965, before his baptism, Mieszko married Dobrawa (b. 940/45 – d. 977), daughter of Boleslav I the Cruel, Duke of Bohemia. They had two children:

1. Bolesław I the Brave (Chrobry) (b. 967 – d. 17 June 1025).
2. Świętosława (Sigrid) (b. 968/72 – d. ca. 1016), married first to Eric the Victorious, King of Sweden and later to Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark. From her second marriage, she probably was the mother of Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, Norway and England.

According to one hypothesis there was another daughter of Mieszko, married to a Pomeranian Slavic Prince; she could be a daughter of Dobrawa or of one of the previous pagan wives. Also, a theory exists (apparently based on Thietmar and supported by Oswald Balzer in 1895) that Vladivoj, who ruled as Duke of Bohemia in 1002–1003, was a son of Mieszko and Dobrawa. Although most modern historians reject this claim, Bohemian historiography supported the Piast parentage of Vladivoj.

In 978/79 Mieszko I married Oda (b. 955/60 – d. 1023), daughter of Dietrich of Haldensleben, Margrave of the Northern March. She was abducted by her future husband from the monastery of Kalbe. They had three sons:

1. Mieszko (b. ca. 979 – d. aft. 992/95).
2. Świętopełk (b. ca. 980 – d. bef. 991?).
3. Lambert (b. ca. 981 – d. aft. 992/95).

After a struggle for power between Bolesław I and Oda with her minor sons (Bolesław's half-brothers), the eldest son of Mieszko I took control over all of his father's state and expelled his stepmother and her sons from Poland.