rebuttal of the Polish origin of Agatha

[Sjostrom]

About the almost desperate attempts to asign parents to Agatha,
the noted weathervane of medieval genealogy,
Stewart Baldwin (in the Henry Project) writes:
"The most recent new theory on the origin of Agatha is the "Polish
Hypothesis". Proposed by John P. Ravilious in 2009, the Polish Hypothesis
conjectures Agatha to be a daughter of duke Mieszko II of Poland [Ravilious
(2009)].

The author starts by pointing out that king Cnut of England and Denmark was
related to the Polish royal family through his mother, a daughter of
Mieszko I of Poland and sister of Boleslaw I, and thus had close relations
with Poland [Ravilious (2009), 71-2]. This connection is well documented by
a statement of Thietmar of Merseburg [Thietmar, *Chron.*, vii, 28, MGH SS
3: 848-9]. Ravilious then revives an argument of Johannes Steenstrup that
the *rex Suanorum/Suuanorum* of John of Worcester and the *rex Swevorum* of
William of Malmesbury is not the king of Sweden, but the king of the Slavs
[Steenstrup (1876-82); Ravilious (2009), 72-4]. Thus, he argues, Cnut sent
the two princes to a Slavic land, and the obvious choice would be Poland,
with which Cnut had close relations. The author then points out that until
1031, Boleslaw I and his son Mieszko II of Poland held Ruthenia ("Red
Russia") and thus was "effectively the 'king of Red Russia'." [Ravilious
(2009), 74-5] This leads to the key identification of the *Malesclodus* of
the *Laws of Edward the Confessor* as being not Iaroslav, but Mieszko II of
Poland [ibid., 75]. With Agatha conjectured as a daughter of Mieszko II,
William of Malmesbury is then called in to support the case, for a daughter
of Mieszko II was married to king Béla I of Hungary, and thus in this
scenario Agatha would also be a sister of a Hungarian queen. The fact that
a daughter of Mieszko II and his queen Richenza would also be a descendant
of emperor Otto II is then called into play to explain the references to
Agatha as a relative of the emperor.

The Polish Hypothesis is similar to the Russian Hypothesis in that both
make important use of the *Laws of Edward the Confessor* and both invoke
the support of William of Malmesbury by making Agatha sister of a queen of
Hungary. However, the Polish Hypothesis inherits most of the disadvantages
of the Russian Hypothesis, while gaining few of the advantages in return.
Relying heavily on the testimony of William of Malmesbury, it is subject to
the same process of elimination in trying to eliminate other Hungarian
queens as possibilities. Furthermore, the attempt to reinterpret the
sources by reading "king of Poland" for *rex Suanorum/Swevorum* or *rex
Rugorum* is unconvincing. This is especially the case with king *Malesclodus
*. The name may look closer to "Mieszko" than to "Iaroslav" at first
glance, but the name Iaroslav is known to have had some strange
corruptions, and the title *rex Rugorum* argues strongly against the
identification with Mieszko [see Appendix 6 for a discussion of the
identity of *Malesclodus*]. Mieszko holding some Russian territory for a
few years would not change this. Also, making Agatha a great-granddaughter
of emperor Otto II does not readily explain why she was called a relative
of an emperor Heinrich. As shown by Ravilious, the correctness of the
Polish Hypothesis would make her a third cousin once-removed of Heinrich
III, but it is unlikely that a relationship that distant would be mentioned
in the sources. (Her relationship to Heinrich II would be one generation
closer, but he was not emperor at the time Agatha married.) In addition,
the statement of John of Worcester calling her the daughter of a
*germanus*of Heinrich would have to be drastically emended in order to
fit with the
Polish Hypothesis, first by changing the gender of *germanus* to
*germana*(because
*germanus* would have to refer to Agatha's father), and second by seriously
revising the meaning of the word *germana* (see Appendix 3)."


Malesclodus (as well as Bullesclod) is quite obviously a mongrel of 'Julius
Clodius', a name which the Rurikid dynasty regarded to belong to them and
which was used. Apparently because they had concocted a claim to be
descendants and heirs of emperor (Julius Octavianus) Augustus' concocted
brother.