Current Affairs Bohemian royal Premyslid dynasty died out 700 years ago
Exactly 700 years have passed since the last male member of the Bohemian royal dynasty, the Premyslids, died. On August 4, 1306, king Wenceslas III. was murdered in the town of Olomouc at the age of just 16. The death of the young king marked the end of a 450-year Premyslid rule in Bohemia.
Prince Premysl
The name of the Premyslid dynasty comes from its mythical founder, Prince
Premysl, who was believed to reign in what is now Bohemia shortly after
the Slavic tribes settled in the area. The first historic Premyslid - and
also Christian - prince was Borivoj I. in the 9th century, and in 1212,
Premysl Otakar I. acquired the title of hereditary king for his
descendants. Marie Mzykova from the National Institute for Monument
Preservation.
"The Premyslid dynasty has a prominent place in Czech history. It was the Premyslids who founded Czech statehood. They weren't only the rulers of Bohemia. The last Premyslids ruled also Hungary and Poland and their kingdom stretched from the Adriatic to the Baltic. They started building the state in the 9th century and the peak of their power was in the second half of the 12th century."
Wenceslas III
The direct lineage was severed when young Wenceslas, king of Bohemia and
Poland at the time, was stabbed to death by an unknown assassin during his
visit to Olomouc in Moravia. After four years of turmoil and instability,
his sister Elisabeth of Bohemia maried John of Luxembourg, who became King
of Bohemia in her name. But some distant descendants of the dynasty still
live today. Genealogists have found some 20 noble families with some
Premyslid blood, including the British and Dutch royal families. Some
historians dispute the findings and say that in the long run, everybody is
everybody else's relative in Europe. However, Zdenek Sternberk, a member of
the Sternberg noble family, considers himself to be a descendant of the
Premyslid dynasty.
"In my view the dynasty was more important than the Luxembourgs
because they founded Czech statehood in the days when there were only
various tribes fighting one another. They lived on in the person of
Elisabeth of Bohemia, who was the mother of Emperor Charles IV. Charles
IV. would never have been such a competent monarch of such an outstanding
merit if he wasn't half Premyslid."
A number of events are being held this summer to mark the anniversary. The Czech National Bank has issued a silver commemorative coin and organised a two-day event bringing together the descendants of noble families which connect their lineage to the Premyslids. A new play with the title Wenceslas III. by Jan Sulovsky premieres in Olomouc on Friday and the church in Zbraslav where Wenceslas was buried is holding a commemorative service.
