Poles in the Crusades to the Holy Land

On the same note as the thread,
has anyone seen Valhalla Rising?
IMBd doesn't mention that the "Viking" ship is on a crusade to the "holy land'.
It's a brutal movie about the crusades from the north, among other things. (maybe a bit boring or "manly" for some of yee but I thought it is worth mentioning).


The mod probably has a point and your input is interesting.

I know I know thanks SeanBM.

This was before Poland was Christened,


"would receive immediate remission of their sins"
You can just imagine the lads must have went absolutely balloobas before they got immediate and complete remission of their sins.

Anyone heard the story (probably an urban legend) about Poles under Leszek Biały being exempted from the regular crusade because their beer rations did not hold up well in the torrid climate of the Middle East. No beer, no fight to recapture the Holy Land!

There are historical documents to back it up.

I never heard about any Poles fighting in the Holy Land. Like, not our business.

Poles didn't do Crusades and they didn't colonize either!
But they expanded Eastwards just like the Germans were always dreaming about

There was a lot of "Vikings" like SeanBM said going to the Holy land, but no Poles really... Can't recall any Norse reading saying anything about Polish Crusaders...

Sure, why go colonize some natives in Africa or Asia, when you can colonize beautiful Ukrainian/Belarusian girls nearby?

Poles as a nation did not participate in the crusades, at the time they were more preoccupied with internal wars and struggles for control of Piast Dynasty (family feud more important then some distant land) but there were some individual knights and princes of Piast Dynasty that indeed did participate. Bolesław I Wysoki the eldest son of Władysław II Wygnaniec who in turn was the son of Bolesław III Krzywousty, both father Władysław II Wygnaniec and son Bolesław I Wysoki while in exile at the court of Conrad III of Germany went to Palestine with the second crusade. Similarly Władysław Odonic Duke of Greater Poland while in exile in Hungary participated in the expedition of King Andrew II of Hungary to Palestine.

Prince Henryk Sandomierski and his brothers Bolesław and Mieczysław and some other knights also went to Palestine in 1154 to defend Jerusalem. As for Leszek Biały he only promised to participate but he never did. It’s also said that another Polish crusading knight was Jaksa z Miechowa or Jaxa Gryfita whichever you prefer plus some other knights that went to Palestine in 1162.

There is a book on this subject by Gładysz "Polska wobec ruchu krucjatowego w XII- XIII w."

No, just asked the Germans to do it for them. That's why the colonization of Prussia and Lithuania is known as thee Northern Crusade.

Germans were the only ones who lost their chief(Barbarossa)not in the battle but from drawning when he tried to swim in a river.Germans did not have much swimming experience at resort at those times.

Since then Germans never bathe with their helmets still on....

Yes,they have adopted the monokini to be light.

Worse, southern....much worse.
Since then we prefer to go nude! ;)

Sorry I forgot.The swords are now biological.

Ours definitely...

This kind of Barbarossa's death caused quite a lot of laughter since his army went back to Germany after that.But in Germany he is regarded as hero.(operation Barbarossa stuck in the mud).

Where do you get the funny part from?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#Third_Cru sade_and_death

You got to agree it was not the same method as Colonists in Africa,North-America, South-America, Asia and so on...


By that standing we can say Britts were Nazi's as they had some individuals being in a Nazi party...
Come on!

Thanks ShortHair, I will have to read this book.
Good information.

Try also Szymon Wrzesiński "Polscy krzyżowcy. Tajemnice średniowiecznych krucjat."

Regarding the crusades the historian Adam Zamoyski (scion of the former masters of Zamost) quotes a letter from a Polish noble to the Pope which says that Poles weren't interested in going to the holy land because they'd heard there was nothing to drink there. Ah but i see now other posters have already cited this letter.

As far as I remember it was something like calling in sick. Leszek wrote to the Pope that his medicus prescribed him beer for some ailment, and since this medicine doesn't travel well and is hard to come by in Jerusalem, then sorry Your Holiness, looks like God's Will indeed...

I had supposed that.There was no vodka at the holy places but if they passed from Greece they would get some ouzo.

Oh, Come On! It’s not my fault you guys skewed the discussion in some other direction, are you forgetting what the OP of this thread asked for? I was simply responding to the original question not butting in on your debate, history is history and if he wants to learn more about the few that did end up in the Holy Land, more power to him.

Besides I don’t subscribe to the theory that crusades were motivated by some religion doctrine and it’s all about some moral or ethical question but rather it’s about a pursuit of fame and fortune medieval style by individual knights and their Lords. For the western knights the major motivation to participate was to gain favor with his senior Lord and perhaps even bring back enough treasure to get an estate of his own or one would be given to him by his Lord for his bravery. Polish knights did not need to look to Palestine for that, there was plenty of room to the east and north both for glory as well as land. So even if there was no internal squabble among the Poles themselves at the time, Polish rulers would still have a hard time to recruit a large enough army to go to Palestine for a simple reason, it was in no one’s interest do go there neither a lesser knight nor his Lord, the pay off was none existent.

The Berbers attacked some cities in England and captured quite a few English girls who they later sold as slaves in the markets of Tripoli.It made quite an impression at that time to see white blonde girls sold in masses to horny emirs.

Seconded. Nicely put.

There was a mention about Władysłąw Wygnaniec and his offspring. Although worth mentioning in the topic, I don't think they should be considered Polish knights, in circumstances. Maybe only as an illustration how difficult it is to find any Polish involvement in the Crusades.

Didn't each crusade practically pass through Constantinople? To ship across to Asia Minor?

Anyway, the "People's crusade" of late 11th century really got fed well, probably given ouzo too I imagine, and shipped across.. Very smart thinking by the Greeks, because these crazy people would have destroyed a lot of the city if they were let in. Instead they were fed, and sent on their way, to the crazy drunk rabble was slaughtered by Seljuk Turks :)


Thanks for trying to keep this on topic shorthair, appreciate the suggestions too...

If I were the Pope I would tell the polish knights that Jesus had turned all the water of Jerusalem into vodka and Cristians hid it in huge cellars.

I was looking at this stuff the other night and came across a passage that in essence said Spiritual works can be seen as equivalent to modern day health insurance given the lack of effective care at the time.

But your summary seems sound.

I would only add a slight detail:
Some of the barons, counts, knights that were taking part, were generally looking to carve out a piece of a kingdom for themselves in Asia Minor and surrounding the Holy Land. Like the Normans, for example...They had no intention on returning to Europe, unless they secured a few castles, garrison etc for a kingdom..

Then they would be free to come and go as they pleased.