Swatawa of Poland

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swatawa of Poland ( Polish Świętosława , Czech Svatava Polská ; * before 1050; † September 1, 1126 ) was the second wife of the Bohemian king Vratislav II and the first Bohemian queen .

Life

One page of the Codex Vyšehradensis . The magnificent manuscript was made in 1085 on the occasion of the coronation of Vratislav and Swatawa.

She was born before 1050 as the daughter of the Polish ruler Kasimir I Karl and his wife Maria Dobronega , daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir I of Kiev . Dubravka , her great-great-grandmother on her father's side, was the daughter of the Přemyslid prince Boleslav I. Swatawa was therefore largely related to the Bohemian rulers. She married about fifteen years old in the winter of 1062, a year after the death of Vratislav II's first wife, Adelheid of Hungary. Vratislav already had four children at this point. Around 1063 came from the second marriage son Boleslav, who still followed Bořivoj , Vladislav , Soběslav and Judith.

At Easter 1085 Vratislav II., Duke of Olomouc since 1055, received the royal crown ad personam from Heinrich IV. In Mainz as Vratislav I (first) King of Bohemia. In June, he and his wife were crowned and anointed in Prague by Archbishop Egilbert of Trier . Swatawa thus became the first Bohemian queen. She supported the establishment and construction of the new collegiate chapter on Vyšehrad and generously endowed it with land, including an area around the town of Dolní Kralovice on the Želivka , which was named Svatavin újezd after the original owner .

After Vratislav's death in 1092, she lived as a widow in Bohemia for 34 years. She was involved in the settlement of disputes between her sons Vladislav and Soběslav. According to the Chronica Boemorum in 1125, it even played the decisive role in the settlement of a dispute about the succession that threatened to develop into war. Vladislav I, then terminally ill, appointed his cousin Otto II as his successor. This was older than his own brother Soběslav. The queen interfered and reversed the decision. With the saying “the shirt is closer than the coat”, the chronicler lets her take sides for her son. The successor and legal representative of the children of Vladislav was Soběslav I. Swatawa had experienced six subsequent rulers of Bohemia after the death of her husband, including three of his own sons as dukes and princes of Bohemia. Although none of these rulers regained royal dignity, she retained the title of queen throughout her life.

literature

  • Karel Stloukal: Svatava, první česká královna . In: Zdena Karešová, Jiří Pražák: Královny a kněžny české. Prague X-Egem, Nova Kniž. klub 1996, ISBN 80-7199-010-8 , pp. 51-55.
  • VV Tomek: Újezd ​​Svatavin na řece Sázavě . In: Památky archaeologické, Volume 1 Archeologický ústav ČSAV, 1855, pp. 320–321. ( online )

Remarks

  1. ↑ Chronica Boemorum in the edition by Berthold Bretholz, Berlin 1923, III, 58, p. 235 . The saying is, however, a learned allusion of Cosmas to the ancient comedy writer Plautus .
personal data
SURNAME Swatawa of Poland
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Świętosława (Polish); Svatava Polská (Czech)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of the Bohemian King Vratislav II.
DATE OF BIRTH before 1050
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1126