„Rocznik krakowski” z rękopisu kapituły wawelskiej nr 209 – uwagi źródłoznawcze .......... 79

THE ANNALS OF KRAKOW’ FROM THE WAWEL CHAPTER MANUSCRIPT NO. 209 – A SOURCE STUDIES COMMENTARY

The ‘Annals of Krakow’, also known as the ‘Compiled Annals of Krakow’, preserved in the famous Krakow historiographic codex no. 209, is one of what are known as the seven Małopolska annals from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, also known as the great compiled annals, Annales Polonorum or Franciscan annals. These annals originate from a compilation of yearbooks created in the Kingdom of Poland, which was revived during the reign of Władysław Łokietek. It combines the most important threads from the historiography of the districts of the united monarchy, such as Małopolska, Kuyavia and Greater Poland. In this group, the ‘Annals of Krakow’ occupies a special place, as it is the only one of them to have been included in a manuscript containing a collection of very valuable historiographical sources for the history of Poland in the Middle Ages. Interestingly, the notes of this yearbook were clearly deliberately written in a similar handwriting on the free pages left in the text of the older one, because the ‘Annals of the Krakow Chapter’, a supplement, was in essence created in the 60s and 70s. Among the notes of the ‘Annals of Krakow’, a group of messages concerning Leszek Czarny, the half-brother of Władysław Łokietek, who ruled in Małopolska from 1279–1288, i.e.after the ‘Annals of the Krakow Chapter’ had been compiled, is particularly striking. In this way, the Wawel historical collection was supplemented with notes about the ruler whose reign in Krakow legitimised the authority of Władysław Łokietek and later Kazimierz Wielki. It is no coincidence that the death of Henryk Prawy, Duke of Wrocław, who also reigned in Kraków at the end of his life, was also recorded in manuscript no.209. This was a way of signalling the connection of the Silesian lands with the Kingdom of Poland, which, during the unification of the Polish monarchy, were gradually subordinated not to Poland but to Bohemia. In this way, they recalled the rights of the Polish king to Wrocław.