page_title: Przemysł II
section_title: Reconstruction of the murder
hierarchical_section_title: Przemysł II / King of Poland (1295–1296) / Reconstruction of the murder
context_page_description: Przemysł II, was the Duke of Poznań from 1257–1279, of Greater Poland from 1279–1296, of Kraków from 1290–1291, and Gdańsk Pomerania from 1294–1296, and then King of Poland from 1295 until his death. After a long period of Polish high dukes and two nominal kings, he was the first to obtain the hereditary title of king, and thus to return Poland to the rank of kingdom. A member of the Greater Poland branch of the House of Piast as the only son of Duke Przemysł I and the Silesian princess Elisabeth, he was born posthumously; for this reason he was brought up at the court of his uncle Bolesław the Pious and received his own district to rule, the Duchy of Poznań in 1273. Six years later, after the death of his uncle, he also obtained the Duchy of Kalisz.
  In the first period of his government, Przemysł II was involved only in regional affairs, first in close collaboration and then competing with the Duke of Wrocław, Henryk IV Probus. This policy caused the rebellion of the prominent Zaremba family and the temporary loss of Wieluń. Working with the Archbishop of Gniezno, Jakub Świnka, he sought the unification of the principalities of the Piast dynasty.
context_section_description: The death of Przemysł II as a result of a failed kidnapping attempt was a matter of interest between historians. Circumstances of the death of the last of the Piast Greater Poland line was specifically studied by Karol Górski, Kazimierz Jasiński, Zygmunt Boras, Bronisław Nowacki and Edward Rymar. The importance in Polish history of the death of Przemysł II was also relevant in the works of Władysław Karasiewicz and Jan Pakulski, due to the role of the Nałęcz and Zaremba families.
  In 1295 the King spent Christmas in Gniezno, where he met with Władysław I the Elbow-high. The reason for this meeting is unknown. Probably the possibility of the recovery of Lesser Poland was discussed, as was the defeat of Brandenburg. In any case, these conversations could be shown as a threat by the Brandenburg Margraves, who still are anxiously watching the inheritance of Pomerelia by Przemysł II after Mestwin II's death and his royal coronation. But the main concern of the House of Ascania was obvious to all: the union of the Kingdom of Poland, and that sooner or later Przemysł II would claim the lands seized by the Margraves in Greater Poland.
  After 25 January 1296 the King left his capital, and surely by 3 February he was in Pyzdry. For the last days of the Carnival (between 4–7 February) Przemysł II decided to spend these festivities in the town of Rogoźno.
  Leaving Pyzdry, the King certainly didn't think that about only 30 km away, in the Brandenburg town of Brzezina are staying the two brothers Margraves Otto IV with the Arrow and Conrad, and the sons of the latter: Otto VII, John IV and probably also the youngest, Waldemar. They were carefully informed by traitors from Przemysł II's inner circle about the King's itinerary for the next few days.
  In the meanwhile, Przemysł II participated in the traditional tournaments and religious services of the Carnival. The security guard of the King became weaker, especially since probably 8 February. On that day began the forty days of Lent, and before heading out again the entourage wanted to rest.
  The plan of kidnap the King by the Margraves of Brandenburg was widely detailed by the Roczniki małopolski. They probably wanted to obtain from Przemysł II the resignation of Pomerelia and with this, his plans for the unification of Polish Kingdom.  The contingent was probably consisted by dozens of people, because made the kidnapping in hostile territory require adequate preparation. Direct command of the army was entrusted, according to the Rocznik kołbacki to certain Jakub, who was identified by Edward Rymar as Jakub Guntersberg (Jakub Kaszuba).
  Although the personal participation of the Margraves in the kidnapping was stated in the Rocznik kapituły poznańskie and the chronicle of Jan Długosz, this fact seems unlikely, because they would not risk their lives, with no certainty of success. In any case, an army of a few dozen men set off in the evening on 7 February (probably after sunset), by the shortest route through Noteć to the place where Przemysł II stayed. As was stated by Karol Górski, the sunset of 7 February (or properly 30 January, if we taken into account the subsequent calendar reform) occurred at 16:48, and the sunrise had come about 7:38, which gave fourteen hours to the army to quietly reach to their target.
  The attack took place early in the morning of 8 February, on Ash Wednesday, when the bodyguards of the King were in a deep sleep. Despite this, they were able to organize a defense under the personal guidance of the King, but the attackers were too numerous to overcome. The primary objective of Jakub Kaszuba's people was the capture of Przemysł II; they succeeded only after the King, covered with numerous wounds, fell to the ground. The Brandenburg army seriously wounded his horse to flee towards the border with Silesia (probably with the intention to confuse the Polish army). Soon, the kidnappers realized that they weren't able to bring alive the King, and the prisoner only delays their escape. Then decided the murder of the King, a deed personally made by Kaszuba. A late tradit
caption: Assassination of King Przemysł II by Wojciech Gerson, 1881
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "8592", "Image ImageLength": "6635", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "MP 2020; Gerson, Wojciech (1831-1901) (malarz); \u015amier\u0107 Przemys\u0142awa; 1881; olej; p\u0142\u00f3tno; 154 x 231 [162 x 236 x 6]", "Image Make": "Leaf", "Image Model": "Credo 60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2021:02:27 22:57:02", "Image Artist": "Ligier Piotr", "Image Copyright": "\u00a9 Copyright by Ligier Piotr/Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie", "Image ExifOffset": "520", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1154", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7921", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:03:12 12:38:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:03:12 12:38:06", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "415241/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source", "EXIF FocalLength": "80", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "8142", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5507", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "54613333/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "54613333/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "5", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "00004C20007100000400E0580000474F", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "LH001085", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[80, 80, 16, 2]", "EXIF LensModel": "Mamiya Sekor LS 80mm f/2.8 D"}