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Prince Popiel ІІ (or Duke Popiel) was a legendary 9th-century ruler of two proto-Polish tribes, theGoplans andWest Polans. He was the last member of thePopielids, a mythical dynasty before thePiasts. According to the chroniclersGallus Anonymus,Jan Długosz, andMarcin Kromer, as a consequence of his bad rule he was deposed, besieged by his subjects, and eaten alive bymice in a tower inKruszwica.
As the legend goes, Prince Popiel was a cruel and corrupt ruler who cared only for wine, women, and song. He was greatly influenced by his wife, a beautiful but power-hungry German princess.[1] Because of Popiel's misrule and his failure to defend the land from maraudingVikings, his twelve uncles conspired to depose him; however, at his wife's instigation, he had them all poisoned during a feast (some believe that she committed the act herself). Instead of cremating their bodies as was the custom, he had the corpses cast intoLake Gopło.
When the commoners saw what Popiel and his wife had done, they rebelled. The couple took refuge in a tower near the lake. As the story goes, a throng of mice and rats (which had been feeding on the unburnt bodies of Popiel's uncles) rushed into the tower, chewed through the walls, and devoured Popiel and his wife alive. Prince Popiel was succeeded byPiast the Wheelwright andSiemowit.
On the shore ofLake Gopło stands a medieval tower, nicknamed the Mouse Tower; however, it bears no relation to the site of the events described in the legend as it was erected some 500 years thereafter.
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