Topic: The Piast dynasty between the Empire and the states of Central and Eastern Europe

Target group

5th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

5th‑grade students of elementary school.

VI. Poland during the district breakdown. Pupil:

1) places Poland in the period of district breakdown in time and space;

2) describes the causes and indicates the effects of neighborhood breakdown;

3) places at the time the most important events related to Polish‑Teutonic relations and the threat of Tatar invasions in the period of regional disintegration.

General aim of education

You'll find out what the district disintegration was and what the consequences were.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• how Bolesław III Wrymouth divided his country;

• what were the rules of the seniorate and the principate;

• what were the causes of the fall and fragmentation of the Piasts' monarchy;

• what were the attempts to rebuild the Piast monarchy;

• why this time is called the period of fragmentation.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students recall the knowledge about the district division of Poland.

Introduction

1. The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

2. When referring to the homework, the teacher asks students why Bolesław Krzywousty has divided his country.

Realization

1. The teacher asks students to do Task 1. And then begins the discussion, asking students whether the division of the state and established principles of the principate and the seniorate had a chance to protect the sons of Bolesław Krzywousty from the struggle for power?.

2. Next, the teacher discusses the first years of the district disintegration and the struggle of the sons and grandchildren of Bolesław Krzywousty for power and lands. The teacher describes the influence of the rulers of the neighboring countries on domestic politics in the country and the subsequent divisions between the successors.

3. Then he presents the most important events that took place during the district disintegration in the 12th and the first half of the 13th century. He mentions imperial intervention in matters of succession; fighting for the Krakow throne and Mongol invasion of Silesia in 1241 and the downfall of plans for the unification of the Piast monarchy under the Scepter of the Silesian Piasts. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly completed and provides feedback.

4. The teacher explains the situation prevailing in Mazovia at the beginning of the 13th century and discusses how the Teutonic Order was brought to Polish lands. Students are doing Exercise 1. Then he asks the students, starting the discussion, was the decision right (without knowing the future)?.

Summary

1. Students do Exercise 2 and Exercise 3. Then the teacher makes sure that the task has been carried out correctly and gives feedback.

Homework

1. Homework: (Is not an obligatory part of the scenario) Look for information about your region, what happened to it during the district disintegration. Whose neighborhood was the city / village where you live and who held them?.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

The Piast dynasty between the Empire and the states of Central and Eastern Europe

When dying in 1138, Bolesław Wrymouth divided the power and territory of the country among his sons to avoid any conflicts between them. As the first successor (Princeps) he appointed the eldest of his sons, Vladislaus II, later called the Exile. His reign, however, didn’t last long. He quickly came into conflict with younger brothers and because of his ruthless behavior he had to flee the country in 1146. Despite the support of King Conrad III of Germany, he never regained power.

Following the rules of Bolesław Wrymouth’s last will, the oldest son, Bolesław IV the Curly, became the next Senior. He was in charge of the foreign policy of the Piasts, but despite his titular authority over the brothers, he failed to control their lands. The following disintegration and fragmentation of lands connected with the growing number of male descendants of Bolesław Wrymouth (sons, grandchildren, etc.) had devastating consequences for the Piast monarchy. Finally, from the mid‑12th century, the Piasts as a political community became deeply divided and were unable to conduct a common foreign policy. The so‑called period of fragmentation to provinces caused the Piast monarchy to fall into many independent principalities, and the new conflicts continually eroded and weakened the rule of the principate, strengthening the individual princes and their magnates. In the first decades of the 13th century, several princes fought for supreme power over the country. Finally, the grandson of Vladislaus II the Exile, Henry the Bearded, took the lead. He managed to take over the hereditary Silesia, part of Greater Poland and Lesser Poland. However, the opportunity to unify the country under the leadership of the Silesian Piasts was terminated by the Mongol invasion (and the death of Henry II the Pious on the battlefield) in 1241. The lands united by Henry the Bearded fell apart again. Eventually, in the 13th century, the power in the country was dispersed, and the exercise of power over Krakow ceased to play a decisive role.

In 1226, at the invitation of the Duke of Mazovia, Konrad, the Teutonic Knightscame to the Polish lands (the knights of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem). They received from him, as a fief, the Chełmno Land, on the border of his district and Prussia and the task of Christianization of these areas. Their mission proved effective quite quickly, as in the second half of the 13th century they occupied most of the pagan areas of Prussia, becoming an important factor in the local balance of power. The activity of the Teutonic Knights in many ways had positive sides for the Piasts. First, it weakened the invasions of neighboring Prussians and Lithuanian Yotvingians (through the conquest and Christianization of Prussia and expansion into the Lithuanian lands) and brought elements of Western European knights' culture. On the other hand, the presence of religious knights in these areas showed the political and military weakness of the Piast princes. With their domain expanding, they began to pose a threat to the Polish lands.