Misplaced Pages

Leszko I

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Not to be confused with Leszek the White.
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Polish. (April 2016) Click for important translation instructions.
  • View a machine-translated version of the Polish article.
  • Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages.
  • Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 347 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
  • Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
  • You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Polish Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution.
  • You may also add the template {{Translated|pl|Leszko I}} to the talk page.
  • For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.
Illustration from Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio (1581).

Przemysław (Premislaus), after coronation Leszko I (Lesko, Latin: Lescus), was a legendary ruler of Poland, a goldsmith by trade and soldier who strategically defeated the Hungarians and thus was crowned. He was mentioned by Bishop Wincenty Kadłubek (1161–1223) in the Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae (1190–1208). 18th-century historiography dated him to 750 AD, 760–780, or between 750 and 776. James Anderson (1680–1739) claimed he ruled for 20 years.

Story

A goldsmith and soldier, he assembled his friends to attack the powerful Hungarians (and Moravians). He made helmets and breastplates out of tree bark, and enameled them, put them on poles to illude soldiers; the Hungarians supposed they were enemies, and marched towards them. Finding only forests, the Hungarians were surrounded by Premislaus' troops who attacked from all sides. The Hungarians were unable to distinguish the real soldiers from the imaginary, and fled in fear. The captives were slaughtered, and Poland secured freedom. Premislaus took the name Lesko I and ruled peacefully. He died without issue, leaving Poland once again in conflict.

Legacy

A Primislav, wearing a helmet made of oak, was used in Ragusan writer Ivan Gundulić's epic Osman (1589–1638); influenced by the Polish legend.

References

  1. ^ The modern part of An universal history, from the earliest accounts to the present time. C. Bathurst, J. F. and C. Rivington, A. Hamilton, T. Payne, T. Longman, S. Crowder, B. Law, T. Becket, J. Robson, F. Newbery, G. Robinson, T. Cadell, J. and T. Bowles, S. Bladon, J. Murray, and W. Fox. 1783. pp. 331–.
  2. ^ James Anderson (1732). Royal Genealogies, Or the Genealogical Tables of Emperors, Kings and Princes. Bettenham. pp. 406–.
  3. Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf; Jodocus CRULL (1711). An introduction to the history of the principal kingdoms and states of Europe ... Made English from the original High-Dutch. The seventh edition corrected and improved. With an appendix never printed before, containing an introduction to the history of the ... states of Italy, etc. [The dedicatory epistle signed by the translator, J. Crull.]. Dan. Midwinter; Maurice Atkins. pp. 304–.
  4. Zdenko Zlatar (1995). The Slavic Epic: Gundulić's Osman. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-8204-2380-7.

Sources

Further reading

Polish legendary rulers
These rulers supposedly ruled in the Early Middle Ages.
Monarchs of Poland
Legendary
Proto-historic (before 966)
Piast dynasty (966–1138)
Fragmentation
period
(1138–1320)
Senior or Supreme Princes
Přemyslid dynasty (1296–1306)
  • Wenceslaus II
  • Wenceslaus III
  • Restored Piast dynasty (1320–1370)
    Capet-Anjou dynasty (1370-1399)
    Jagiellonian dynasty (1386–1572)
    Elective monarchy (1572–1795)
    Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815)Frederick Augustus I
    Romanov dynasty (1815–1917)
    • Italics indicates monarch of questioned historicity
    Stub icon

    This biography of a Polish noble is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

    Categories: