Kunigunde of Staufen

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Kunigunde von Staufen or Kunigunde von Schwaben (Czech Kunhuta Štaufská or Kunhuta Švábská ), (* January / March 1202 ; † September 13, 1248 ) was Queen of Bohemia from 1230 to 1248 through marriage to Wenceslaus I.

Life

Kunigunde's gravestone in Agnes Monastery in Prague

Kunigunde was the daughter of King Philip of Swabia from the House of Staufer and his wife, the Byzantine princess Irene , daughter of Emperor Isaac II. Her older sister Beatrix became Roman-German Empress through marriage to Otto IV . Her younger sister, who was also called Beatrix , was married to Ferdinand III. Queen of Castile and León.

In 1203 she was betrothed by her father to Otto VIII von Wittelsbach , so that he would support him in the war against Landgrave Herrmann I of Thuringia in 1204 and 1205. However, Philip did not stick to this agreement and in 1207 agreed with the Bohemian King Ottokar I on the engagement of the meanwhile five-year-old princess to his two-year-old son and successor Wenceslaus I. This cost him his life because the Wittelsbach murdered him in revenge for them Dissolution of his engagement to Kunigunde on June 21, 1208 in Bamberg - the first regicide in German history. Two months after her father, her mother Irene also died. Bishop Konrad von Speyer initially took care of Kunigunde and her sisters .

The marriage to Wenceslas took place in Prague in 1221 or 1224 . In 1228 she was crowned with Wenceslaus I by Archbishop Siegfried von Mainz in Prague. In 1230 Wenceslaus I became King of Bohemia after the death of his father.

Kunigunde had shares in the Duchy of Swabia. In 1235 at the court day in Eger , Wenzel received a settlement of 10,000 silver marks from Emperor Friedrich II for renouncing this allod of his wife. Kunigunde was usually called Konstanze in Bohemia because that was the name of her mother-in-law Konstanze von Hungary . Kunigunde strengthened the influence of German culture at the Prague court. a. the stay of some German minstrels, among them Reinmar von Zweter and Walther von der Vogelweide shows.

She is considered to be the founder of the Cistercian convent of Marienthal in Upper Lusatia , Saxony , the oldest convent of this order in Germany, which has existed without interruption since its foundation. She also sponsored the Cistercian monasteries Vallis S. Mariae in Oslawan and Porta Coeli in Tischnowitz as well as the Benedictine monastery Břevnov .

Since the end of 1247 her son Ottokar II opposed his father. Supported by Moravian nobles, he rose against his father on July 31, 1248 and was proclaimed king in Prague. A defeat of the rebels at Brüx was followed by an agreement with Wenzel I at the beginning of November 1248, in which Ottokar II was granted at least an equal position with his father. Kunigunde died in the middle of these conflicts on September 13, 1248. She was buried in the Agnes Monastery of the Poor Clares in Prague, which was founded by her sister-in-law Agnes of Bohemia .

progeny

From her marriage to Wenzel I :

  • Vladislav (* 1227 - † January 3, 1247), Margrave of Moravia, 1246/47 candidate for the duchies of Austria and Styria
⚭ 1246 Gertrude of Austria

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hansmartin Decker-Hauff : The Staufer House , in: Württembergisches Landesmuseum (Hrsg.): The time of the Staufer. History - art - culture . Stuttgart 1977, Volume III, pp. 339-374, here: p. 361.
  2. ^ Stefan Weinfurter : Treaties and political action around 1200 . In: Karl-Heinz Rueß (Ed.): Philipp von Schwaben. A Hohenstaufen in the fight for royal rule. Göppingen 2008, pp. 26–42, here: p. 30.
  3. ↑ a b c d Josef Mühlberger: The way of life and fates of the Staufer women , Esslingen 1977, pp. 86–91.
  4. ↑ a b c d Hans-Wolfgang Bächle : The legacy of the Hohenstaufen , Schwäbisch Gmünd 2008, pp. 135-138.
predecessor Office Successor
Constance of Hungary Queen of Bohemia
1230–1248 		Margarete von Babenberg
personal data
SURNAME Kunigunde of Staufen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kunigunde of Swabia; Kunigunde of Bohemia; Kunhuta Štaufská (Czech); Kunhuta Švábská (Czech)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Bohemia (1230-1248)
DATE OF BIRTH January 1202 or March 1202
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1248