Emma of Bohemia

Gumpold of Mantua, Vita of St. Wenceslaus. Wenceslas Martyrs; Emma venerates St. Wenceslaus. (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 11.2 Aug. 4 °, fol. 18v, written before 1006.)

Emma (also Hemma ) († 1005/1006) was a Bohemian princess. She lived in Prague Castle as the wife and widow of Boleslav II until 1002 . In the years 1002 to 1004, when Bohemia was going through a political crisis and several changes of rulers, she was in exile at the court of the East Franconian King Heinrich II . After her return, she spent about two years at her widow's residence in Mělník .

Emma is one of the few personalities whose name tells the older history of Bohemia . Their origin is controversial; she could have come to Bohemia as a princely bride from Burgundy , Anglo-Saxons or France . She became known through the coins she had minted and through an illustrated manuscript of the Wenceslas legend , which was created on her behalf.

Life

Wife of the prince

Emma is the only known wife of the Přemyslid Boleslav II, who took over the rule in 972 as the successor to his father Boleslav I. The Přemyslids rose to become the dominant force in Bohemia in the course of the 10th century, but the established knowledge about the royal family is often incomplete and is supplemented with hypotheses. So it seems likely that Boleslav II had several wives, possibly at the same time . He fathered four sons: heir to the throne Boleslav III. , Václav, Jaromír and Oldřich, who died early . Depending on the point of view of the research, Emma is said to have given birth to the two oldest, the two youngest, all or none of the four sons. This results from the different interpretations of the few written and numismatic sources and from chronological calculations. During Boleslav II's lifetime, only the vita of the Augsburg bishop Ulrich, written around 982, sheds light on the family situation: It reports about a wife of the prince who pleaded with Ulrich, the later saint, for help for her sick child. The child survived and the next son was given the name Udalrich (Oldřich in Czech) as a thank you. In gratitude, Boleslav II sent five pounds of silver and a pack animal with a load of wax to Augsburg; the mother added gold coins. Only the Chronica Boemorum mentions a woman of Boleslav II by name. In the entry for the year 998 she describes Emma as a woman of noble origin; she is mentioned a second time for the year 999, as a witness to the speech her husband gave on the deathbed.

Escape and return to Bohemia

The Mělník castle in place of former castle. It received its present form after many renovations at the end of the 19th century.

The death of Boleslav II in 999 put his widow in a dangerous position. Boleslav III. Apparently feared competition from his own brothers: he had Jaromír neutered, Oldřich barely escaped an assassination attempt. Emma and the younger sons fled to Regensburg in 1002 , where the East Franconian king and later Emperor Heinrich II welcomed them to his court. Boleslav III. however, could not hold on to power long. Between 1002 and 1004, Bohemia experienced several changes of government. In January 1003 the Bohemian greats called the royal family back from exile to offer Jaromír the throne and stabilize the situation in the country, but the plan failed. After a few days, Bolesław Chrobry's troops marched into Bohemia. Emma and the two younger brothers had to seek refuge in Bavaria again. Only in the following year was Jaromír able to conquer Prague with the military help of Henry II. Thereupon Emma also returned from exile.

After her return, the princess lived in the Mělník castle . Boleslav II may have given her the place of residence as a treasure - the castle was also the widow seat of Bohemian princesses and queens in later times. The oldest preserved building in the city, the collegiate church of St. Peter, was built around the year 1000. Emma is therefore considered the founder of the monastery in Mělník.

She died of a fever about two years after her return from Bavaria. Her grave inscription reproduced Cosmas of Prague at the beginning of the 12th century . The epitaph in which Cosmas titled the princess as " Hemma, feminei sexus gemma " (Hemma, a jewel of the female sex), is the third and last mention of Emma in the Chronica Boemorum and the only entry for the year 1006. Only two late ones Manuscripts from the Cosmas Chronicle omit the chronological entry, which means that Emma's death occurred in the year 1005. However, this is unlikely. The year of death 1006 is considered certain. The grave has not been preserved; it may be among the tombs of the early Bohemian princes in Prague Castle .

Legacy

Emma Regina coins

Coins Emma (left) and Boleslav II (middle and right)

One of the early mints in Bohemia apparently belonged to Emma's residence . In the first decades of Czech coin production - the oldest domestic coins date from the middle of the 10th century - minting workshops were established at important long-distance trading centers, which Mělník must be counted among; Only in the middle of the 11th century was production limited to Prague and placed under the direct control of the ruler. About 100 silver denarii with Emma's name have survived. In addition to some older finds without an indication of their origin, they belong to eight treasures in Bohemia, Poland and Gotland. Based on the number of dies used , their total number was estimated to be at least 100,000. The coins bear a stylized bust on the obverse with the inscription "ENMA REGINA", on the lapel a narrow hand between the letters Alpha and Omega and the inscription "MELNIC CIVITAS". The coin type imitates minting of the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred and is very common in Bohemia at the end of the 10th century. Boleslav II and the Slavnikid prince Soběslav used the same type for their denarii. Emma's coins could have been minted in 978 at the earliest, when Aethelred took office, and in 1006 at the latest in the year of her death. Most numismatists , however, date the denarii to the time before Boleslav II's death. The Emma Regina coins are controversial because the inscription "regina" suggests that she could claim the title of queen . But only on their coins; other sources call her “principissa” or “duchissa”, meaning princess , which corresponded to her actual rank. It is also unusual that the name Boleslavs is missing. The denarii were undoubtedly made in Mělník and under Emma's own direction. The embossing serves as a basis for argumentation for the different hypotheses about Emma's origin. It is undisputed that Emma was the first princess of the Roman-German Empire to have coins minted with her name and in her own mint; it remained the only one in medieval Bohemia.

Wolfenbüttel manuscript

The second much-discussed legacy of Emma is a manuscript containing an early version of the Wenceslas legend . The time and place of its creation are unknown. The style suggests a connection with a Saxon scriptorium, such as Hildesheim or Fulda . The copyist used a text that Bishop Gumpold of Mantua had written around 980 on behalf of Emperor Otto II and supplemented it with lavish illustrations. The handwriting is in gold letters, the pictures on a purple background in a gold frame. The original is preserved in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel .

The dedication picture shows that the unknown scribe and illustrator had made the work on Emma's behalf. It shows the client kneeling before the saint in Proskynesis while Christ puts the martyr's crown on him. The dedication is one of the few written sources that hand down Emma's name. It is:

"Hunc libellum Hemma venerabilis principissa pro remedio anime sue in honorem beati Vencezlaui martiris fieri iussit. (The venerable Princess Hemma had this book made for her salvation in honor of the blessed martyr Wenzel) "

- Gumpoldi Vita Vencezlavi Ducis Bohemiae, p. 212

Gumpold of Mantua, Vita of St. Wenceslaus. Wenceslas is murdered by his brother Boleslav . (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 11.2 Aug. 4 °, fol. 21r, written before 1006.)

Gumpold's version is one of the earliest versions of Wenceslas Vita; as a historical source it is nevertheless comparatively inefficient, since the bishop was far removed from the Bohemian conditions and in terms of content hardly differed from his known predecessors. Why Emma chose this version of all things remains unclear, especially since the illustrations show that the writer must also be familiar with other versions, especially the much more detailed Christian legend that was created around the same time . It is possible that the client wanted to prove its solidarity with the Reich with the choice. The purpose of the booklet is also controversial. The valuable work was extremely unsuitable for everyday use, for example in church services. The elaborate presentation is more reminiscent of a gift, intended to be kept in the treasure of the royal family and only shown on special occasions.

Hypotheses about Emma's origins

Research has been concerned with the question of Emma's ancestry since the late 18th century. The hypotheses can be summarized in three groups: There are representatives of a Burgundian, an Anglo-Saxon and a French origin.

In 1772 the Piarist monk and historian Gelasius Dobner was the first to propose the thesis that she had come to Bohemia from the Burgundian royal court. As an indication, he interpreted, among other things, her name and the exile in Bavaria. From this he concluded that she had been the daughter of the Burgundian King Konrad and had sought protection with her sister Gisela , mother of Heinrich II.

Dobner's conclusion remained largely unchanged until the 20th century. In the 1950s the numismatist Pavel Radoměrský developed the hypothesis of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. Some Bohemian denarii of the so-called Byzantine type, dated to the 960s and 970s, bear the inscription "ADIVA". This is reminiscent of the name of the Anglo-Saxon princess Edgiva, one of two brides who traveled to the East Franconian royal court in 929 . The older Edgitha married Otto I. The sources do not give us the name of Edgiva's bridegroom. Whether she became the first wife of Boleslav II, whether she was his only wife who took the name Emma as a widow, or whether there never was an Adiva or Adivea in Bohemia in the 10th century is unprovable based on the sources.

Numismatics developed a third hypothesis about Emma's ancestry when a treasure with over 8,500 coins was found in Fécamp, France, in 1963 , eight of which bear the inscription "EMMA REGINA" on one side and "LOTHARIUS RE (X)" on the other. The Emma on French coins has been identified as the Emma of Italy . Born around 948, she was married to the Carolingian Lothar from 966 and was queen of the west of France . After Lothar's death in 986, she came into conflict with his successors. Her last sign of life is a letter from the year 988. The similarity of the Czech and French coins led to the assumption that the French Emma married Boleslav II and spent the rest of her life in Bohemia. Accordingly, she could not have given birth to Boleslav's sons, because they were already grown up around the turn of the millennium.

All three hypotheses are based only on circumstantial evidence. There is no final, generally accepted solution. There is only agreement that Emma came to Bohemia from abroad and was probably of royal origin. As one of the few well-known women of the early Přemyslid rulers, she continues to attract the attention of historians and numismatists.

swell

• Bertold Bretholz and Wilhelm Weinberger (eds.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Nova series 2: The Chronicle of the Bohemians of Cosmas of Prague (Cosmae Pragensis Chronica Boemorum). Berlin 1923 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
• Gerhardi Vita Sancti Oudalrici Episcopi. Ed. Georg Waitz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, MGH SS 4, S. Hannover 1841, pp. 377-428
• Gumpoldi Vita Vencezlavi ducis Bohemiae. Ed. Georg Heinrich Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, MGH SS 4, Hannover 1841, pp. 211-223.
• Thietmar von Merseburg: Chronicle. Edited by Robert Holtzmann. Unchangeable Reprint of the Berlin edition, 1935. Munich: Monumenta Germaniae Historica 1980. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 6, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Nova Series; 9) digital edition

literature

• Jarmila Hásková: Emma Regina in numismatic and historical sources . In: Actes du 9ème Congrès international de numismatique. Berne 1979
• Peter Hilsch : On the role of rulers: Emma Regina in France and in Bohemia. In: West Central Europe East Central Europe. Comparisons and relationships. Oldenbourg, Munich 1992, pp. 81-89. ISBN 3-486-55970-2 Digital edition (abridged) .
• Eduard Hlawitschka : Duchess Hemma of Böhmen (d. 1005/1006): - was she a Burgundian or an English king's daughter or was she identical with Queen Hemma of France? In: Lectures and treatises from the humanities , edited by Friedrich Prinz. Düsseldorf 1996, pp. 67-98 (= writings of the Sudeten German Academy of Sciences and Arts , Volume 17).
• Zdeněk Petráň: První české mince. Set out, Prague 1998
• Luboš Polanský: Spory o původ české kněžny Emmy . In: Přemyslovský stát kolem roku 1000: na pamět knížete Boleslava II . (- 7. února 999). Lidové Noviny, Praha 2000, ISBN 80-7106-272-3 .
• Dušan Třeštík : Počátky Přemyslovců. Lidové noviny, Praha 1998, ISBN 80-7106-138-7 .
• Dušan Třeštík: Ještě ke královně Emmě . In: Od knížat ke králům. Sborník u příležitosti 60. narozenin Josefa Žemličky . Lidové Noviny, Praha 2007, pp. 23-37. ISBN 978-80-7106-896-9 .
• Petr Sommer, Tomáš Velímský : Iluminace Wolfenbüttelského rukopisu. In: Od knížat ke králům. Sborník u příležitosti 60. narozenin Josefa Žemličky. Lidové Noviny, Praha 2007, pp. 38-49.

Web links

Commons : Emma of Bohemia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ženy ve stínu Přemyslovců - díl 3. Tajemná Adiva a ještě záhadnější Emma Regina - summary of the state of research (Czech)

Remarks

1. ^ Gerhardi Vita Sancti Oudalrici Episcopi, p. 422 f.
2. ^ The Chronicle of the Bohemians of Cosmas of Prague, I, 32 and 33.
3. ^ Thietmar von Merseburg : Chronicle , V, 23 and 29.
4. ↑ Already František Palacký laid the foundation of the monastery in the time Emma. During the renovation work in 1913/1914, Kamil Hilbert came up with a date of the oldest parts of the building around the year 1000 , see saletini.cz ( memento of December 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
5. ↑ The Chronicle of the Bohemians of Cosmas of Prague, I, 39.
6. ^ J. Frolík, Z. Smetánka: Archeologie na Pražském hradě . Praha - Litomyšl 1997, pp. 130-139.
7. ↑ Luboš Polanský: Spory o původ české kněžny Emmy , p. 31, and Zdeněk Petráň: První české mince , pp. 105–125 and 182 ff.
8. ↑ Dušan Třeštík compares the text versions of the Wenceslas legend in detail in Počátky Přemyslovců . For the manuscript cf. Dušan Třeštík: Ještě ke královně Emmě pp. 27–33, and Petr Sommer, Tomáš Velímský: Iluminace Wolfenbüttelského rukopisu.
9. ↑ Gelasius Dobner: Monumenta historica Boemiae nusquam antehac edita . 6 volumes, Prague 1764–1786. Luboš Polanský summarizes Dobner's arguments in: Spory o původ české kněžny Emmy , p. 34.
10. ↑ The identity of Emma and Adiva was represented by the numismatist Pavel Radoměrský: Emma regina. Study o původu kněžny Emmy a její úloze v ražbě českých mincí 10. století . Časopis Národního musea 122, 1953, s. 157-212. Against this argued z. B. Dušan Třeštík: Počátky Přemyslovců , p. 474, who denies the existence of Adivea.
11. ↑ Peter Hilsch considered the identity of the Bohemian and French Emma to be probable. See: On the role of rulers: Emma Regina in France and in Böhmen , p. 89. Counter arguments can be found in Eduard Hlawitschka: Duchess Hemma von Böhmen (d. 1005/1006) , p. 67–98.
12. ↑ Luboš Polanský and Dušan Třeštík both recently represented the French theory. For a summary of the state of research see Luboš Polanský: Spory o původ české kněžny Emmy , pp. 27–48.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 2, 2010 .