BOLESLAW II

born 1039 died 1081 byname Boleslaw the Bold, or Boleslaw the Generous, Polish Boleslaw Smialy, or Boleslaw Szczodry king of Poland from 1058 to 1079. Boleslaw assumed the rule of Poland on the death of his father, Casimir I the Restorer, in 1058. During the struggle between the German kings and the papacy, Boleslaw was able to restore the international position of Poland. He helped Bla I to obtain the Hungarian crown (1060) against the Germans' protg and refused to pay the tribute for Silesia that his father had paid to the Czechs. In 1069 he intervened on behalf of a relative by marriage, Izyaslav, to give him the throne of the principality of Kiev. Boleslaw and Pope Gregory VII had common interests both in Hungary and against the German king Henry IV, and Boleslaw was recognized as king of Poland in the presence of papal legates in 1076. Catastrophe followed a second intervention in Kiev (1077): Polish nobles, with German and Czech support, rebelled, and among them was the bishop of Krakw, Stanislaus, who was accused of treason against the sovereign. Boleslaw had him put to death on April 11, 1079. The exact cause of the subsequent internal revolt is not clear, but the king had to flee from Poland, taking his son with him, and died in exile, traditionally at Ossiach in Carinthia or Wilten in Tirol. Additional reading Tadeusz Grudzinski, Boleslaus the Bold, Called Also the Bountiful, and Bishop Stanislaus: The Story of a Conflict (1985).