Mieszko III the Old

Mieszko III the Old (c. 1122–1202) was a Piast duke, the fourth son of Bolesław III Wrymouth. His father's 1138 testament gave him Greater Poland. In 1173 he succeeded his brother Bolesław IV as high duke at Kraków, but his taxes and curbs on the nobility and clergy provoked a revolt that ousted him in 1177.

He retook Kraków in 1191 and after years of civil war recovered the high ducal title in 1198, holding it until his death at Kalisz in 1202, while keeping Greater Poland as his hereditary base.