Mieszko I of Poland Pomerania, eventually conquering it up to the vicinity of the lower Oder river. During the last years of his life, he fought the Bohemian state, winning Silesia and probably Lesser Poland. Mieszko I's alliance with the Czech prince, Boleslaus I the Cruel, strengthened by his marriage in 965 to the Czech Přemyslid princess Dobrawa, and his baptism in 966 put him and his country in the cultural sphere of Western Christianity. Apart from the great conquests accomplished during his reign (which proved to be fundamental for the future of Poland) Mieszko I was renowned for his internal reforms, aimed at
Mieszko I of Poland Czech language and had to come from Dobrawa's entourage and the church elements that arrived with her. Perhaps with her also came the first Polish bishop, Jordan. It could be that the reason for the Czech preference of Mieszko was the existence in Bohemia of a mission which followed the precepts of the Byzantine Greek brothers and later saints Cyril and Methodius, who developed and performed the liturgy in the Slavic rite, more readily understood by Mieszko and his subjects. The Slavic rite church branch had survived in Bohemia for another hundred years after Mieszko's baptism. Through the adoption of