Popiel

Prince Popiel (or Duke Popiel) was a legendary 9th-century ruler of the West Slavic ("proto-Polish") tribe of Goplans or Polans, the last member of the pre-Piast dynasty, the Popielids. According to the chroniclers Gallus Anonymus, Jan Długosz and Marcin Kromer, as a consequence of bad rule he was deposed, besieged by his subjects, and eaten alive by mice in a tower in Kruszwica.

As the legend goes, Prince Popiel was a cruel and corrupt ruler who cared only for wine, women, and song. He was greatly influenced by his wife. Due to Popiel's misrule and his failure to defend the land from marauding Vikings, his twelve uncles conspired to depose him. However, at his wife's instigation, he had them all poisoned during a feast. Instead of burning their bodies, as was the custom, he had them cast into Lake Gopło.

When the commoners saw what Popiel and Ryksa had done, they rebelled against their rulers. The princely couple took refuge in a tower near the lake. As the story goes, a throng of mice and rats (which had been feeding on the unburnt bodies of Popiel's uncles) rushed into the tower, chewed through the walls, and devoured Popiel and Ryksa alive. Prince Popiel was succeeded by Piast Kolodziej and Siemowit.

On the shore of Lake Gopło stands a medieval tower, nicknamed the Mouse Tower. However, it can't be the site of the events described in the legend as it was erected some 500 years thereafter.

References

Tales of the Tower, Warsaw Voice Online, September 8, 2002. (Citing the book Stara Basn (Old Tale), by Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski.)
The Mouse Tower of Kruszwica
The Pomeranian and Kujawy Province
The Old Tale: When the Sun Was God (Polish film about Prince Popiel.)
Popiel (Website summarizing information from medieval chronicles.)
Legends of Poland

v t e Monarchs of Poland
Legendary	Lech I Krakus I Krakus II Lech II Wanda Leszko I Leszko II Leszko III Popiel I Popiel II Chościsko Piast the Wheelwright
Proto-historic	Siemowit Lestek Siemomysł
Piast dynasty	Mieszko I Bolesław I the Brave Bezprym Mieszko II Lambert Bolesław the Forgotten Casimir I the Restorer Bolesław II the Bold Władysław I Herman Zbigniew Bolesław III Wrymouth
Fragmentation period	Senior or Supreme Princes Władysław II the Exile Bolesław IV the Curly Mieszko III the Old Casimir II the Just Leszek the White Władysław III Spindleshanks Władysław Odonic Mieszko IV Tanglefoot Konrad I Henry the Bearded Henry II the Pious Bolesław the Horned Bolesław V the Chaste Leszek II the Black Henryk IV Probus Przemysł II See also: Dukes of Silesia Dukes of Greater Poland Dukes of Little Poland Dukes of Masovia Dukes of Kuyavia Dukes of Sieradz-Łęczyca Dukes of Gdańsk Pomerania Dukes of Pomerania
Přemyslid dynasty	Wenceslaus II Wenceslaus III
Restored Piast dynasty	Władysław I Łokietek Casimir III the Great
Capet-Anjou dynasty	Louis I the Hungarian Jadwiga
Jagiellonian dynasty	Władysław II Jagiełło Władysław III of Varna Casimir IV John I Albert Alexander Sigismund I the Old Sigismund II Augustus
Elective monarchy	Henry of Valois Anna Jagiellon Stephen Báthory Sigismund III Vasa Władysław IV Vasa John II Casimir Vasa Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki John III Sobieski Augustus II the Strong Stanisław I Augustus III Stanisław August Poniatowski
Italics indicates monarch of questioned historicity

References

See also