Seniorate Province

The senior duke or princeps was in the time of the Polish particularism 1139 to 1306 the title of the oldest Piastenherzogs in Poland. The senior Duke should also Duke of Lesser Poland, with its capital Krakow at the same time, which is why this duchy was also referred to as Senioratsprovinz.

Duke Bolesław III. Wrymouth Poland was divided in his will of 1138 in five duchies: Greater Poland ( went with the western portion of Mieszko III. ), Mazovia with eastern Kuyavian ( went to Bolesław IV ), Little Poland, Sandomierz ( to Henry of Sandomir ), Silesia ( went along with the Senioratsprovinz to Władysław II ) and in the main province of Lesser Poland, based in Krakow, the Sieradz with surroundings, Eastern Greater Poland, western Kuyavian and the supremacy over Pomerania and the Duchy of Pomerania contained.

Lesser Poland with Krakow received no hereditary Duke and became Senior Duchy: The respective family elders of the Piast dynasty should dress according to the plans of Boleslaw the dignity of the senior Duke ( Princeps ). This was associated with the preservation of the imperial insignia. The Senior Duchy, shrank with time on the western part of Malopolska. Also thronged multiple other Piast dukes, who were not the eldest son of all Piastengschlechter, in the position of the princeps, but basically kept the institution of the senior Duke until the restoration of the monarchy by Przemysl II 1295th