Adelaide of Poland

Adelaide of Poland
Fragment of an image of Adelaide in the Dominican Church of Sandomierz.
Bornca. late 1170s / early 1180s
Died8 December 1211
HousePiast
FatherCasimir II the Just
MotherHelen of Znojmo

Adelaide of Poland (Polish: Adelajda Kazimierzówna) (c. late 1170s / early 1180s – 8 December 1211), was a Polish princess and member of the Piast dynasty.

She was the daughter of Casimir II the Just, Duke of Sandomierz and High Duke of Poland, by his wife Helena of Znojmo, a Přemyslid princess.

On the basis of the inscription of her tombstone at the Dominican Church and Convent of St. James in Sandomierz and two different reports by Jan Długosz,[1] modern historians agreed with the origin and facts from Adelaide's life. Today existed a dominant view in historiography consistent with her filiation and death date. According to them, Adelaide was indeed the daughter of Casimir II the Just and died in 1211, but wasn't the foundress of the Convent of St. James and only another nun there.[2] In the 19th century, appeared a theory which states that Adelaide was the daughter of Casimir I of Kuyavia, who entered in the Convent of St. James as a nun and died there in 1291.[3] This view, accepted by several scholars, has been disputed. More recent historiography recognized her as the daughter of Casimir II the Just, founder of the Convent, in which was she buried after her death in 1211.[4]

  1. ^ J. Długosz: Liber beneficiorum dioecesis Cracoviensis, vol. 3, Monasteria, Cracoviae 1864, p. 455; J. Długosz: Roczniki czyli kroniki sławnego Królestwa Polskiego, book VI, Warsaw 1973, vol. 3, p. 222.
  2. ^ O. Balzer: Genealogia Piastów, Kraków 1895, p. 338; K. Jasiński: Rodowód Piastów małopolskich i kujawskich, Poznań – Wrocław 2001, p. 17.
  3. ^ O. Balzer: Genealogia Piastów, Kraków 1895, pp. 337–339.
  4. ^ K. Jasiński: Rodowód Piastów małopolskich i kujawskich, Poznań – Wrocław 2001, pp. 17–22.