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The
Mice Tower in Kruszwica, constructed in 1350, incorrectly associated with Popiel.
Prince Popiel (or Duke Popiel), legendary 9th century ruler of the Polanie or Goplanie tribe. According to legend, he was the last member of pre-Piast dynasty, Popielids. According to the chroniclers Gallus Anonymus, Jan Długosz and Marcin Kromer, as a consequence of bad rule he was removed from the throne and died, eaten alive by mice (or rats) in a tower in the Kruszwica settlement.
As the legend goes, Prince Popiel was an inadequate ruler who cared only for wine, women, and song and who was greatly influenced by his wife Ryksa, a beautiful German princess who desired power. Because he was a poor ruler, his twelve uncles tried to remove him from the throne, but at his wife's instigation he had them poisoned at a banquet. Instead of burning the bodies as was the custom, he had them cast into Lake Gopło.
When the commoners saw what Popiel and Ryksa had done, they turned against them, and the prince and princess 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 attacked the tower, chewed through the walls, and devoured Popiel and Ryksa. Prince Popiel was succeeded by Piast Kolodziej and Siemowit.
Near the lake shore stands a medieval tower, nicknamed the Mouse Tower after the legend. However, the tower was erected some 500 years after the events described by the legend.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Mouse Tower - legend about the cruelty of Hatto II (Archbishop of Mainz).
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