Lusatia, Margraviate of

Soldiers from the Northern March, the March of Meissen, the March of Lusatia, as well as from the Bishop of Halberstadt and the Archbishop of Magdeburg, join forces to defeat the Slavs near Stendal.

Nevertheless, the Empire is forced to withdraw to the western banks of the Elbe river.

The successes of the Empire's Christianization policy towards the Slavs are nullified, and the political control over the Billung March and the Northern March (territories east of the Elbe) is lost.

Otto I's life work of converting the Slavs is thus undone a decade after his death.

The Slavic territories east of the Elbe will remain pagan for over a century before further missionary work resumes: it will not be until the twelfth century that the churches of Havelberg and Brandenburg will be reestablished.

Mieszko is considered the first ruler of Poland’s Piast Dynasty (named for the legendary peasant founder of the family), which endured for four centuries.

Between 967 and 990, Mieszko had taken over substantial territory along the Baltic Sea and in the region known as Little Poland to the south.

By the time he officially submitted to the authority of the Holy See in Rome in 990, Mieszko had transformed his country into one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe.

Mieszko's son and successor Boleslaw I (992–1025), known as the Brave, or the Mighty, is to build on his father's achievements and become the most successful Polish monarch of the early medieval era.

Boleslaw will continue the policy of appeasing the German Empire while taking advantage of its political situation to gain territory wherever possible.

The circumstances in which Boleslaw takes control of the country following the passing of his father anticipates what will later become a prevalent practice among the Piast dynasty: the struggle for control, usually a military one, among the offspring of nearly every deceased monarch of the Piast dynasty.

Boleslaw is no different, and shortly after the death of Mieszko I (May 25, 992), he banishes his stepmother Oda and his two half-brothers, as they are competitors to the throne.

The exact circumstances of Boleslaw's ascension to the Ducal throne are unknown, but it is known that by June, he was the unquestioned ruler of Poland—as Emperor Otto III asked for his military aid in the summer of 992.

Immediately after gaining the full control over Poland, Boleslaw also quells the opposition of powerful families by blinding two of their leaders, the magnates Odylen and Przybywoj.

As cruel a sentence as this is, it proves most effective as it results in such obedience of his subjects that from this point on there is no mention of any challenge to his position whatsoever.

Boleslaw has spent the first years as ruler more concerned about gaining the throne and remaining on it than trying to increase the size of his dominion, or so it appears from the lack of any record of international activity.

It is during this period of consolidation of power that he allies himself with Otto III, and in 995 he aids the German Emperor in his expedition against the Lusatians.

The German–Polish War consists of a series of struggles between the Ottonian Henry II (first as King of Germany and then Holy Roman Emperor) and the Polish Piast ruler Boleslaw Chrobry.

Fought from 1002 to 1018, the locus of conflict is the control of Lusatia, Upper Lusatia, as well as Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.

Eckard I, Margrave of Meissen, is of noble east Thuringian stock, the eldest son of Margrave Gunther of Merseburg.

In 985, the young King Otto III of Germany had appointed him to succeed Margrave Rikdag in Meissen, following severe Saxon setbacks against the Slavic Lutici tribes.

He was later elected Duke of Thuringia by the magnates of the region, an event which has been taken as evidence of the principle of tribal ducal election.

Eckard is high in the favor of the Emperor Otto III, who has rewarded him handsomely by converting many of his benefices (fiefs) into proprietas (allods).

In Otto's conflict with his rival cousin Duke Henry II of Bavaria, Eckard's military responsibilities as holder of the Meissen march consists primarily of containment of the neighboring Polish and Bohemian duchies.

Duke Boleslaus II of Bohemia had allied with Duke Henry and had taken the occasion to occupy the Albrechtsburg in 984; he nevertheless had had to withdraw the next year, after Otto III had prevailed.

Margrave Eckard had had to restore Thiadric, Bishop of Prague to his see after his expulsion by Boleslaus II of Bohemia.

When in January 1002 Otto III dies without issue and the German princes meet at Frohse (today part of Schönebeck) to elect a new king, Eckard even aims at the German crown, because the late emperor's Ottonian relative Henry of Bavaria, son of Duke Henry II, who is the preeminent candidate, meets with strong opposition.

Eckard is at this time the most obvious Saxon candidate, but the nobles are opposed to him.

They only agree to meet again at the Kaiserpfalz of Werla and to support no candidate before then.

Otto III is only twenty-one at the time of his unexpected death in January 1002, leaving no children and no instructions for the Imperial succession.

The emperor, dealing with a revolt against his reign in Italy in 1001, had sent word for Duke Henry of Bavaria to join him with reinforcements from Germany. 

In the Ottonian dynasty, succession to the throne has been drawn from the Saxon branch, not the Bavarian line of which Henry is a member.

As the funeral procession moves through the Duchy of Bavaria in February 1002, Henry meets the procession in Polling, just north of the Alps.

To legitimize his claims, Henry demands Archbishop Heribert of Cologne give him the imperial regalia, chief among them being the Holy Lance.

Heribert, however, had sent these ahead of the procession, possibility out of distrust of Henry and possibly because he favors the succession of his relative Duke Herman II of Swabia as the next king.

In order to force Herman II to relinquish the Holy Lance to him, Henry imprisons the Archbishop and his brother the Bishop of Wurzburg.

With neither the symbols of imperial authority, the crown jewels, nor the cooperation of Heribert, Henry is unable to persuade the nobles attending Otto III's funeral procession to elect him as king.

The Werla meeting takes place in April and Henry, through his cousins, Abbess Sophia I of Gandersheim and Adelheid I of Quedlinburg, the sisters of deceased Otto III, succeed in having his election confirmed, at least in part by hereditary right.

Nevertheless, Eckard receives enough support to commandeer the closing banquet of the Werla assembly and dine in state with Duke Bernard I of Saxony and Bishop Arnulf of Halberstadt.

Eckard is subsequently honored as royalty by Bishop Bernward when he arrives at Hildesheim.

Within days, however, he his assassinated by agents of his Saxon opposition in Pöhlde.

Among these rivals are Count Henry III of Stade, his brother Udo, and Count Siegfried II of Northeim.

The excellent relations enjoyed by Poland and the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of Otto III had quickly deteriorated following the emperor’s untimely death.

Boleslaw had supported Eckard I, Margrave of Meissen, for the German throne, but after Eckard’s is assassination, Boleslaw lends his support to Henry IV, Duke of Bavaria, and helps him ascend to the German throne as Henry II.

The death of Otto III had upset the ambitious renovation plans, which will never be fully implemented.

The less idealistic Henry II, an opponent of his predecessor’s policies, reverses the course of Imperial policy towards the east.

The nobles who survive the massacre secretly send messengers to Boleslaw and entreat him to come to their aid.

The Polish duke willingly agrees, and invites Boleslaus III to visit him at his castle in Kraków.

Here, Boleslaus III is trapped, blinded and imprisoned; he will probably die in captivity some thirty years later.