Casimir I the Restorer not supported by modern historians. Regardless, he left church work for good in 1031. Casimir's father, Mieszko II, was crowned King of Poland in 1025 after the death of his father Bolesław I the Brave. However, the powerful magnates of the country feared a strong central government like the one that existed under Bolesław I's rule. This led to considerable friction between the King and the nobility. Taking advantage of the King's precarious situation, Mieszko II's older half-brother Bezprym and younger brother Otto turned against him and allied themselves with the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II, whose forces attacked Poland
Mieszko I of Poland in the entry for the year 985 it is noted that Mieszko came to help the Saxons in their fight against some Slavic forces, presumably the Polabians. One year later, the Polish ruler had a personal meeting with the Emperor, an event mentioned in the "Annals of Hersfeld": According to Thietmar and other contemporary chronicles the gift given by Mieszko to the Emperor was a camel. The meeting consolidated the Polish-German alliance, with Mieszko joining Otto's expedition against a Slavic land, which "together they wholly devastated (...) with fire and tremendous depopulation". It is not clear which Slavic territory was