Michał Machalski

The proposed research project deals with the transformation of the ideas about bonds of loyalty between rulers and their subjects as expressed in the two turn-of-the-fourteenth-century Polish chronicles: the Silesian Chronica Polonorum and Dzierzwa’s Chronicle. Both works were an attempt at expanding upon the influential Chronica Polonorum of Vincentius of Cracow, modernizing this early-thirteenth century tradition for the times of socio-political upheaval. With the legitimacy of the Piast dynasty put into question by the struggle over the throne of Cracow (1279-1306), both chroniclers aimed to strengthen the authority of the competing Silesian and Cuyavian branches of the ruling family. By tracing the differences and similarities between these three narrative sources, I demonstrate the development of new ideas about the nature of the bonds of loyalty between rulers and their subjects.