under consideration

 

From A History of Poland, Norman Davies 1979

Royal marriages attested to the eminence of the Piast blood. . . .  Miszko II was married to Ryksa of the Rhine (Rycheza), granddaughter of Otto the Great ; Władys;ław II was married to a sister of Conrad III of Hohenstaufen. With increasing frequency, however, princely brides were found in the east. As from Kazimierz I, who married Maria Dobronega, daughter of Vladmir, Grand Duke of Kiev and of Anna, sister of Basil II, Emperor of Constantinople, no less than nine of the sixteen claimants to the senior Piast line were married to Ruthenian princesses. From these unions, arose the Piast claim to Red Ruthenia which Casimir the Great successfully pressed in 1340. At various times, marriage contracts were sealed with all the leading dynasties of Central Europe. Świętosława Storrada, the 'Proud', daughter of Miszko I, was first married to Eric, King of Sweden and then to Sven, King of Denmark, by whom she gave birth to Canute the Great. Of the four wives of Bolesław Chrobry, two were daughters of the Margrave of Meissen, and one the sister of Steven I, King of Hungary ; but none, if we are to believe the Anonymous Gaul, were so beloved as his favourite Slavonic bride, Eminilda.

New York : Columbia University Press 1982, vol. I, pp. 72-73.

 

 

 

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