Vršovci
Vršovci or Wrschowetze (also Rawici ) is a medieval noble family . Members of the family had the longest struggle with the Premyslids for supremacy in Bohemia . The ruling Přemyslid dynasty tried three times to wipe out the powerful Vršovci clan: in 1003, around 1014 and 1108.
history
Vršovci were one of the oldest noble families in Bohemia and probably descended from an ancestral branch of the Přemyslids.
According to legend, the progenitor of the family, Warsz, came to Bohemia around 645 with his close relatives, Lech and Czech, from Weiss Croatia and founded the family seat there.
Later they fought the rival Slavnikid family on behalf of the Přemyslids . In the Battle of Libice in 995, which lasted two days, all residents were killed, including those holed up in the church. After that, the attackers burned the most important fortresses and castles of the Slavnikids. The Přemyslids occupied the area and gave Libice to the Vršovci in thanks.
On the orders of Duke Svatopluk II , the Vršovci were slaughtered in 1108 . The occasion was the accusation that one of their leaders, Mutina, had secretly made a pact with Poland and thereby committed treason. Polish troops had invaded Bohemia that year while the duke was out of the country. Mutina, as one of his deputies, was responsible for the defeat of the Bohemian army. Svatopluk then had members of the family executed and murdered in Vraclav Castle , in Libice, Prague and elsewhere. The chronicler Cosmas of Prague , who witnessed the execution of Mutina's little sons as an eyewitness, tries to legitimize Svatopluk's actions despite the cruelty. In his chronicle he depicts the Vršovci as the worst enemies of the ruling house, who have fought against the Přemyslids since ancient times and are guilty of countless crimes.
Few families survived the persecution of 1108. The Polish Rawicz family derived their origins from the Vršovci.
In 1907, Gustav Friedrich prepared the documents in the archive of the Vyšehrad chapter, which provide information about the ownership rights of the Vršovci from the period from 1100 to 1107 and which fell to the Přemyslids in 1108.
swell
- Cosmas of Prague : Chronica Boemorum
- Thietmar von Merseburg : Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon
- Gustav Friedrich: Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris regni Bohemiae . Vol. 1, 1907
- Wrschowitz, Wrschowetz, Wreschowitz, Wersewitz, Wersowitz, a family. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 59, Leipzig 1749, columns 681-685.
literature
- Josef Teige: Sheets from the old Bohemian genealogy. Slavnikiden - The Vrsovcen - The Lords of Lichtenburg , Damböck 2005, ISBN 3-900589-45-3 (reprint of the Vienna 1887 edition)
- Petr Kopal: Neznámý známý rod. Pokus o genealogii Vršovců . Sborník archivních prací 2001/1, 3–84.
- Petr Kopal: Kosmovi ďáblové. Vršovsko-přemyslovský antagonism ve světle biblických a legendárních citátů, motivů a symbolů . In: Medievalia Historica Bohemica 8, 2001, pp. 7-41.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marie Bláhová: Kosmovo podání vraždění Vršovců na podzim 1108 . In: Od knížat ke králům . Sborník u příležitosti 60. narozenin Josefa Žemličky. Lidové Noviny, Praha 2007, ISBN 978-80-7106-896-9 , pp. 82-86.