MIESZKO I

born c. 930 died May 25, 992 Piast prince or duke of Poland (from c. 963), who brought Poland into Christendom and expanded the state to the Baltic Sea. Mieszko accepted Christianity directly from Rome in 966 in order to resist forced conversion by the Germans and the incorporation of Poland into the Holy Roman Empirethe fate of Bohemia. Mieszko expanded the Polish state southward into Galicia at the expense of Bohemia and northward to the Baltic Sea through the incorporation of Pomerania.