Gąsawa massacre

The Gąsawa massacre (Polish: Zbrodnia gąsawska, lit. 'Gąsawa crime') was an attack on the night of 23-24 November 1227, during a council of Polish Piast dukes that was being held near the village of Gąsawa in Kuyavia, Poland. The High Duke of Poland, Leszek the White, was assassinated, and Duke Henry the Bearded of Silesia was gravely wounded.

At the time of the attack, some of the victims were bathing in preparation for retiring for the night, and so the event is also known in Polish historiography as the Gąsawa bloodbath (Polish: krwawa łaźnia w Gąsawie).

Motive

Responsibility for the attack is generally ascribed by historians to Świętopełk of Pomerania. Świętopełk's aim was to make the Duchy of Gdańsk Pomerania, which his House of Sobiesław held as regents of the Polish rulers, independent of Piast overlordship. The murder of Leszek the White, Świętopełk's suzerain, thus served his interests. However, several historians have pointed to Duke Władysław Odonic, who had forged an alliance with Świętopełk shortly before the attack, as the main instigator. Odonic's actual target would have been his uncle, Duke Władysław Spindleshanks, with whom Odonic had been involved in a long-running conflict over control of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska). Under this hypothesis, Odonic provided Świętopełk's man with the information necessary for a successful attack.

Other historians have disputed this thesis, pointing out that Spindleshanks was not harmed in the attack, that Odonic did not profit from the death of Leszek (with whom he generally enjoyed amicable relations), and that there is no record that contemporaries or the families of the slain held Odonic responsible.