Nowe źródła do kwestii datacji objęcia rządów na Rusi przez Władysława Opolczyka

Abstract

As yet it has been claimed in historiography that Władysław Opolczyk assumed power in Ruś Czerwona in 1372. The sources came from a document published by Ludwik Wielki, the king of Hungary and Poland in Bratislava on 10th October 13 72, in which the ruler gave the governor's position in Królestwo Ruskie back to the duke of Opole. It was only J. Krochmal who moved the beginning of his ruling in Ruś to the end of 1371, basing on duke's document released in Przemyśl on 7'h December 13 7 1. The very hypothesis was questioned by S.A. Sroka who treated the document, known only in the form of the copy, as the copier's mistake. The other w ho raised the issue o f moving the date of the on set of ruling o f Władysław Opolczyk in Ruś was Jerzy Horwat. Publishing a document of Witek from Groszowice, from 19'h May 1371, a starost in Opole, he paid attention to the titles of the duke in Opole, where the notion of dominus Russiae appeared. The author added one more source, i.e. an original letter of Władysław Opolczyk published in Lvov on 7'h November 1371, where he titled himself dux Oppoliensis, Welunensis et dominus Russiae. Thus these three documents settle the matter, proving that Ruś Czerwona was given to Władysław Opolczyk on 19'h May 1371 whereas formalized as late as in 1372 when the king published the document in question. So far the act of giving Ruś to Władysław Opolczyk has been perceived, above all, as a form of reward after his loss o f the position o f a palatine in Hungary. The author o f the article claims that the reason was an attempt to protect the Russian territories from Latvians. He associates it with the occupation of territories in Włodzimierz by Kiejstut and Lubart soon after the death of Kazimierz Wielki in late autumn in 1370.