‘So Vipers Nurse at the Breasts of Devout Loyalty!’ Loyalty in Vincentius of Cracow’s Chronica Polonorum

The article investigates how bonds of loyalty linking rulers and subjects were depicted in Vincentius of Cracow’s Chronica Polonorum. Vincentius tried to bolster the claims of his patron Kazimierz the Just (1177–94) and his sons to the throne of Cracow, while endeavouring to cast the history of Poland into the mould of historiographical tradition and political discussions of the twelfth-century Renaissance. Concerned with the central role of virtue in politics, he strongly criticised reciprocal relationships based on material rewards. Loyalty to individual members of the Piast dynasty hinged on their ability to embody the virtues of the ideal ruler, with the ecclesiastical and secular elites of Lesser Poland serving as the arbiters of Piast rule. With such a vision, Vincentius both shaped and expressed the ambitions of the non-dynastic elites of a rapidly transforming, fragmented Poland. This article is part of a Special Issue on Loyalty in Medieval Europe

Facet (psychology) · Historiography · Ideal (ethics) · Loyalty · Virtue · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Medieval European History and Architecture