CONCLUSION

This study has concentrated on the image of and its rulers which was created by German sources in the earliest period of the existence of the Piast state (963–1034). One of the prime goals of this work was to identify the cultural and political context of such remarks and opinions. Another important target set by the author of this book was to attain information which illustrated actions taken by , Boleslav Chrobry, and Mieszko II, who aimed to create a certain image of themselves in —their most significant political partner. The very first reference in sources pertaining to the Polish rulers and their country comes from around 963, so it is only three years older than the bap- tism of Poland. Its author, , called Mieszko I’s subjects ‘barbarians’, and he applied the same term to other Slavic tribes who inhab- ited the region. Another text, whose origin dates back to the pagan period in the —known as the Account by Ibrahim ibn Yacub addressed the Piast ruler as the king of the North. These two expressions bear a close resemblance and come from an old, ancient way of perceiving the geography of hardly explored areas of the Continent, which were termed the ‘northern’. In the Western Europe of the earlier Middle Ages this was the way intellec- tuals indicated in their texts an external, as though outside the Continent and civilization, location of not only Scandinavia, but also Slavic countries. This was practised irrespective of their real location in relation to the observer. In the case of the so called Account by Ibrahim ibn Yacub we are facing the adoption of this manner, which must have taken place during the traveller’s visit to Germany. The problem did not only boil down to the matter of nomenclature. The stereotype, which was present in the Mediterranean culture and was adopted by Christian authors, associated the regions of what was known as the North—which was later identified with the Slavic territories only—with those features which shaped the views of the elites of the West for many centuries. Among the most important properties ascribed to those areas, apart from the obvious cold weather, was their certain primeval nature of land and its simultaneous abundance of crops and people, the wildness of the inhabitants and their vulnerability to becoming subjugated as they were devoid of the 324 conclusion ability to maintain any political order, or in general a civilizational one. The consequences of these views were very serious for the inhabitants of Central Europe as they legitimized, or even provoked aspirations for invading them, often in the name of the civilizing mission, or at least for demanding a con- trol or tribute, allegedly due to the representatives of the communities which played a leading cultural role. Certainly, the Polish elites, when adopted linking them with the civilization of the West, cannot have realized the whole plethora of associations and ideological connections referring to them and their home- land. Some of these prejudices were of course known to them. The line-up of powers in the region of the day induced the integration of the Piasts’ power with the empire of the Liudolfings. This accession was beneficial for the state. The question remained as for the details of such a process. The facts indicate that Mieszko I was aware of the fact that if he wanted to act efficiently as a ruler, or at least an aristocrat in a new surrounding, he would have to cover over the impression of alienation and barbarism that his homeland made. He made such attempts by adopting certain accessories and manifesting con- ducts which were typical of the representatives of the social group he wanted to be identified with. The Liudolfings tried to maintain control over the vast territory of their state via different measures. One of the most significant means—as far as the secular aristocracy is concerned—linking the monarch and aristocrats was the arrangement known as amicitia, namely the institutionalized friendship. Thanks to such amicitia, mentioned by Widukind (in 967), which occurred between Mieszko I and emperor Otto I, the Polish ruler achieved in the eyes of the chronicler of Corvey a high position in the regional hierarchy of power. This belies the biased accounts by chronicler Thietmar concerning a low, tributary status of the Piast in relation to the power of the emperor. The titles and other expressions used to describe Mieszko I’s status show his promotion in the eyes of German observers. Mieszko originally appears as a hardly known ‘duke of the Wandals’, as he was referred to in the Miracles of St. Ulrich of Augsburg around 985, who lived on the periphery of the western civilization if not outside of it, only to become ‘one of the dukes of Europe’, which is the title he gets from the author of the Annals of Quedlin- burg in 991. Those attitudes changed because of some favourable political circum- stances, and in particular due to a threat posed by a very powerful Federa- tion of the Lutizi after the victorious uprising of the Baltic in 983. All those events contributed to the fact that the elite of the empire decided to appreciate and fully invest in their precious Piast ally (the emperor’s relative and a ’s daughter, Oda, as his wife).