Duchy of Kraków

The Duchy of Kraków was the district duchy that grew out of the Seniorate Province of fragmented Poland after 1227, when the old unified kingdom dissolved and the Pomerelian lands broke away. Its capital was Kraków, the ancient seat of Polish kings, and control of the city carried symbolic weight far beyond its territory. The duchy was contested by Silesian, Greater Polish, Masovian and Kuyavian Piasts: Henry the Bearded briefly reunited Kraków and Wrocław, Bolesław V the Chaste ruled for three decades, and Leszek II the Black and Henry IV Probus died without heirs. In 1290 the duchy passed to Przemysl II of Greater Poland, who in turn ceded it to Wenceslaus II of Bohemia. Wenceslaus was crowned king of Poland at Gniezno in 1300, and Kraków became a fief within the Bohemian orbit. Władysław the Elbow-high recovered the city and secured papal consent for his coronation there in 1320, after which the duchy was absorbed into the restored Kingdom of Poland as the Kraków Voivodeship. Its story is that of the Polish crown's slow reassembly after two centuries of division.