Remarks on Lines of Research into the Descent of Zwinisława, a Wife of Mściwój I

Abstract

The origins of Zwinisława, a wife of Gdańsk’s princeps Mściwój I, attracted the interest of chroniclers as early as in the Middle Ages and early modern period. A desire to find her family was shared also by historians. Thus, she was recognized either as a daughter of Polish Duke Mieszko III the Old or a member of another dynasty ruling in Schlawe Pomerania at the end of the twelfth and in the first half of the thirteenth century. Some historians see her as a daughter of Grzymisław, the princeps ruling at Starogard (Stargord) and Świecie (Schwetz), others think she descended from the family of nobles ruling in the lands of Oksywie (Oxhöft) in tribal Pomerania. Some others, considering the originality of her first name — which betrays Slavonic/Ruthenian influences — look for her origins in the family of Silesian Duke Bolesław I the Tall and his wife, also Zwinisława. She was a daughter of Ruthenian Duke Vsevolod Olegovitch. Thus, Mściwój I’s wife was supposed to be a daughter of the Silesian couple. Yet some other researchers, taking into considerations ties between Pomeranian Zwinisława and the Norbertines, and at the same time the name of the wife of Duke Bolesław I the Tall, proposed to see in our Zwinisława a daughter of another Silesian Duke Mieszko I Tanglefoot and his wife Ludmiła.

The problems of Zwinisława’s descend are caused mainly by the lack of preserved sources which could clearly indicate the family of her origin. The present study attempts to collect all the references to her descent that have not been deprecated during a discussion on the subject. They include: the title of duchess, her relationship with the Premonstratensians, the repetition of the first names of some daughters and granddaughters of Mściwój I and Zwinisława (Eufemia, Salomea, Zwinisława) and political contacts of the Pomeranian dynasts with the Piast dukes and members of other ducal lines. Finally, a hypothesis has been put forward that we should look for Pomeranian Zwinisława’s origin in the Moravian line of the Přemyslid dynasty, related to the Ruthenian princes (also to the line of Duke Bolesław I the Tall’s wife), which descended from Emperor Otto I and Euphemia of Hungary. In this hypothesis, Pomeranian Zwinisława could have been a daughter of Otto III Dethleb and Ruthenian Princes Durantia (Durancia).