Boleslav the Forgotten

Boleslav the Forgotten ( Polish. Bolesław Zapomniany ) is the legendary Polish prince from the Piast dynasty , who allegedly ruled in 1034 - 1038 .

Basic information about Boleslav the Forgotten is in the " Greater Poland Chronicle " of the XIII-XIV centuries. It is also mentioned in the " Mazovian Annals " of the XIV century.

According to these sources, after the death of Meshko II, power passed into the hands of his eldest son, who ruled extremely unsuccessfully. Because of this activity, he was allegedly condemned to eternal oblivion (“condemnation of memory”, damnatio memoriae ). Following the violent death of Meshko II, before the arrival of Casimir the Restorer in Poland, there was a crisis of statehood, temporary territorial disintegration, an attempt to pagan reaction and civil war, so this period is poorly covered in the sources.

The argument for such a hypothesis is the fact that Meshko's youngest son, Kazimir the Restorer, received spiritual education; thus, the father could have another heir. It should also be noted that in the manuscripts of the Tynetsky Monastery Boleslav II the Bold is called the “Third”, and in one of the editions of the Lesser Annals Boleslav III Krivousty is the “Fourth”. Most modern historians, however, consider Boleslav the Forgotten to be a mistake or a fiction of a medieval historian.