Nevěsta Dobrava a obrácení knížete Měška (genealogické, politické a transformační aspekty)

The marriage of Princess Dobrava to Prince Mieszko I is a specific example of acculturation in Central-Eastern Europe, when Christianity came from Bohemia, which was just striving to emancipate its own diocese, further east, to emerging Poland. The study first addresses the genealogical issues of the Boleslaus I family and considers the identification of Dobrava’s mother (Biagota?, Slavník family?). The impulse for the Christianisation of Poland was the defeat in 963; Prince Mieszko needed military allies and a certain crisis of identity can be expected (“culture shock” – the disfavour of ethnic “daemons”). The chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg rather obscured the information about the marriage, through a certain unfavorability towards Mieszko and especially towards his son Bolesław. The baptism took place before the establishment of the diocese, a cultural transfer “from court to court”, from Prague to Poznań, perhaps due to the similarities between the Czech and Polish dynastic traditions. The goals of Mieszko’s marriage were achieved in 967 (victory of the combined Polish-Bohemian army over Wichmann, birth of a son Bolesław).