Ottokar I of Bohemia

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Czech. (March 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Czech Wikipedia article at [[:cs:Přemysl Otakar I.]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|cs|Přemysl Otakar I.}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Ottokar I (

Taking advantage of the civil war in Germany between the Hohenstaufen claimant Philip of Swabia and the Welf candidate Otto IV, Ottokar declared himself King of Bohemia in 1198,^[6] being crowned in Mainz.^[7] This title was supported by Philip of Swabia, who needed Czech military support against Otto.

In 1199, Ottokar divorced his wife

In 1200, with Otto IV in the ascendancy, Ottokar abandoned his pact with Philip of Swabia and declared for the Welf faction.[9] Otto IV and later Pope Innocent III^[10] subsequently accepted Ottokar as the hereditary King of Bohemia.^[4]

Golden Bull of Sicily

Ottokar was quickly forced back into Philip's camp by the imperial declaration of a new duke of Bohemia, Děpolt III.^[10] Subject to his recognition as duke, Ottokar had to allow his divorced wife to return to Bohemia.^[10] Having been completed this condition, he again ranged himself among Philip's partisans and still later was among the supporters of the young King Frederick II.^[11] In 1212 Frederick granted the Golden Bull of Sicily to Bohemia. This document recognised Ottokar and his heirs as Kings of Bohemia.^[6] The king was no longer subject to appointment by the emperor and was only required to attend Diets close to the Bohemian border. Although a subject of the Holy Roman Empire, the Bohemian king was to be the leading electoral prince of the Holy Roman Empire and to furnish all subsequent emperors with a bodyguard of 300 knights when they went to Rome for their coronation.

Ottokar's reign was also notable for the start of German immigration into Bohemia and the growth of towns in what had until that point been forest lands. In 1226, Ottokar went to war against Duke

Ottokar was married first in 1178 to

• Vratislav of Bohemia (d. bef. 1225).[12]
• Dagmar of Bohemia (d. 24 May 1212),^[12] married to King Valdemar II of Denmark.
• Božislava of Bohemia (d. 6 Feb bef. 1238), married to Count Henry I of Ortenberg.
• Hedvika of Bohemia, became a nun in Gernrode.

In 1199, he married secondly to Constance of Hungary (1181 – 6 December 1240),^[12] who gave birth to the following children:

• Vratislav of Bohemia (c. 1200 – bef. 1209).^[12]
• Judith of Bohemia (Judita) (- 2 June 1230), married to Bernhard von Spanheim, Duke of Carinthia.^[13]
• Anne of Bohemia (Anna Lehnická) (1204 - 23 June 1265), married to Henry II the Pious, High Duke of Poland.^[14]
• Anežka of Bohemia, died young.
• King of Bohemia.^[12]
• Margrave of Moravia.^[12]
• Přemyslid (Přemysl) of Bohemia (1209 - 16 October 1239),
  Margrave of Moravia, married to Margaret of Merania, daughter of Otto I, Duke of Merania.^[12]
• Saint Agnes of Bohemia (Anežka Česká) (20 January 1211 – 6 March 1282)

The Milanese mystic Guglielma (1210s – 24 October 1281) claimed to be a Princess of Bohemia^[15] and has therefore been identified as a daughter of Ottokar and Constance with the name Vilemína or Božena, but there is an absence of any corroborating Bohemian documents.

References

Sources

• Berend, Nora; Urbańczyk, Przemysław; Wiszewski, Przemysław (2013). Central Europe in the High Middle Ages: Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, c.900–c.1300. Cambridge University Press.
• Bradbury, Jim (2004). The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. Routledge.
• France, John (2006). The Crusades and the Expansion of Catholic Christendom, 1000–1714. Routledge.
  ISBN 978-1134196180
  .
• Klaniczay, Gábor (2000). Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses: Dynastic Cults in Medieval Central Europe. Translated by Palmai, Eva. Cambridge University Press.
• Loud, Graham A.; Schenk, Jochen, eds. (2017). The Origins of the German Principalities, 1100-1350: Essays by German Historians. Taylor & Francis.
• Lyon, Jonathan R. (2013). Princely Brothers and Sisters: The Sibling Bond in German Politics, 1100-1250. Cornell University Press.
• Merinsky, Zdenek; Meznik, Jaroslav (1998). "The making of the Czech state: Bohemia and Moravia from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries". In Teich, Mikulas (ed.). Bohemia in History. Cambridge University Press.
• ISBN 978-80-7106-352-0
  .
• Toch, Michael (1999). "Germany and Flanders: Welfs, Hohenstaufen and Habsburgs". In Abulafia, David (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 5, C.1198–c.1300. Cambridge University Press. pp. 375–404.
• Wihoda, Martin (2015). Vladislaus Henry: The Formation of Moravian Identity. BRILL.
  ISBN 978-9004303836
  .

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ottakar I.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 367–368.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ottokar I Premysl.