Boleslav

“ According to Count Lützow it appears that a Bohemian contingent of a thousand men formed part of the victorious army. Boleslav himself, with the greater part of his troops, remained to guard the frontiers of his country. The defeated Magyars suffered another defeat at the hands of Boleslav on their retreat through Bohemia, and their leader, Lehel, was taken prisoner. With peace and friendliness on his western front and his eastern enemy thoroughly beaten, Boleslav was in a position to carry out his ambitious plans. ”

“ Above it was unrolled a plan of the Castle island, showing the spots where ingeniously contrived man-traps, mines, and spring-guns awaited the trespasser--roughly calculated, there were over a hundred of them.
Boleslav shuddered. Surely this unhappy man had been punished enough for his misdeeds in the life he had been compelled to lead during his last few years on earth! Caged up like a hunted wild beast, his murderous contrivances were a perpetual source of menace to himself, for to have forgotten for a moment the position of one of his death-traps must have instantly proved fatal. ”

“ Boleslav, who had grown up in closest communion with Nature and her moods, could never have believed it possible that autumn's symbolic melancholy would affect him so profoundly and send such deathlike shivers through his limbs. ”

“ The Bohemians soon had ample cause to repent for inviting a foreigner to rule over them; and when, after a short reign, Vladivoi died, they offered the crown to Jaromir, who was still at the court of the German king. After Boleslav III had been released from his imprisonment in France, he went to Poland and cast himself upon the magnanimity of his chief enemy, Boseslav the Brave. When Jaromir was called to the government of Bohemia, Boleslav III was still in Poland ”

“ His great generosity to churches seems to have caused discontent among some of the nobles; and the ambition of Venceslas's younger brother Boleslav induced him to become the head of a conspiracy against the prince. Wenceslas had the pious habit of attending the anniversaries of the foundation of churches—posviceni, as they are called in Bohemia—in every part of his dominions, and on the invitation of his brother he repaired for a festivity of this description to Stará Boleslav, where Boleslav then resided. ”

“ His eyes were burned out, and he was cast into prison in a strong fortress, where, after many years, he ended his miserable existence. Boleslav the Brave then went to Prague, where he compelled the people to accept him as their rightful ruler.
The Polish yoke, however, soon grew too heavy to bear, and the people turned their eyes to Germany, where dwelt the rightful heirs, Ulric and Jaromir. A secret treaty was made; and while the Polish ruler was away from Prague, carrying on a war with the German king, the two brothers came with an army to the capital, whose gates were opened to them. ”

“ Wenceslaus might seem to have demanded. He granted, indeed, the free election of a bishop of Prague, and sanctioned, at the same time, the foundation of a nunnery of which Boleslav’s sister was to be abbess; but he clogged the latter concession by the condition that the Slavonic [29] ritual should not be used in the new nunnery. Perhaps it was a similar desire for compromise which led Boleslav to recommend to his clergy and people, for the first bishop, a Saxon named Dettmar, who, however, was noted for his knowledge of the Bohemian language. ”

“ I doubt whether any historian can be absolutely unbiassed; a warm-blooded man—and you must be that if you would record the doings of your fellow-men—is bound to feel sympathy with or dislike for one or other actors in the far-off pageant of history. I frankly admit myself biassed in favour of Brother Boleslav the hearty heathen, and somewhat bored by that saintly lady Ludmilla. A night out with Boleslav would have been more amusing, if less edifying, than a country walk with pious Wenceslaus, who would be sure to waste a good [Pg 72] deal of time at wayside shrines ”

“ Friendship with Saxony was doubtless attractive to the wiser men of Bohemia, for more than one reason. It was the centre of that resistance to the Hungarian power which they felt to be so vital to European civilisation. It contained a large proportion of men of Slavonic race; and Magdeburg, where Dettmar had been trained, was the great home of such learning and culture as were then to be found in Germany.
But the fierce heathen spirit, which had been strengthened by Boleslav the Cruel, could not be suppressed at once either by his conversion, or by the probably sincerer piety of his son. ”

“ Borivor and Ludmilla, the first Christian prince and princess of that duchy, had two grandsons, Boleslav and Vesteslav, or Venceslav, the first a heathen, the latter a Christian. Boleslav stirred up the pagan population against his brother, and murdered him while praying in church at Prague, on the 28th of September, 644, thus conferring on him the honour of a patron saint and centre of legends. The House of Luxemburg obtained the kingdom of Bohemia by marriage, and Venceslav was introduced among their appellations in the form of Wenzel ”

“ The King's favour-- ('Why does he harp thus on the King's favour,' thought Boleslav, 'when he might wind up the case and be done with it') --has been abundantly lavished on us, and we are almost overpowered with his blessings. Yet let all who reap the fruits of the harvest remember they owe it to the men of the Landwehr, and not least to their organiser, who sowed for them the seeds of undying fame. ”

“ These enterprises were unfortunately aided by that treacherous family, the Vrs̆ovici, who had already played so fatal a part in their country’s history. They seem to have again tried to carry out their treasons by stirring up family jealousy. Young Boleslav, a nephew of Boleslav the Pious, showed himself eager to assert his claims to the Dukedom of Bohemia. Mĕs̆ek of Poland encouraged his kinsman’s intrigues, and, by a sudden surprise, Cracow was seized, and Silesia was overrun by the Polish troops. ”

“ The Slovak Vekoslav, and Vekoslava, are Eternal fame.
The two animals used in Slavonic names are warlike; Vuk, the wolf, and Bravac, the wild boar; but both these are very possibly adopted from the German Wulf and Eber.
Section IV.—Names of Might. Boleje, strong or great, answers to the Teuton mer, and Boleslav is great glory. Boleslav Chrobry, the second Christian prince of Poland, was a devout savage and great conqueror, both in Russia and Bohemia. He was the first Pole to assume the title of king; and after his death, in 1025, there are many instances of his name in both Poland and Bohemia. ”

“ The representations of Sviatopolk rekindled the ardour of the Poles, who, animated as much by the desire of recovering those provinces which [108] Vladimir had formerly wrested from Miecelsas, as by the prospect of ulterior aggrandisement, readily fell into the proposals of the exiled prince to make an attempt for his restoration to the throne. Boleslav at the head of a powerful force, advanced into Russia. Iaroslav, however, apprised of the movements of the enemy, met them on the banks of the Bug, prepared for battle. The army of Boleslav lay at the opposite side. ”

“ The reign of Boleslav is noted for great centralization of power. From the time of Libuse till to the death of Václav, the form of government remained the same. The Bohemian rulers, generally called princes, were the elders of the people, their power being limited, and their actions governed by the decisions of their lords or lechs, as expressed in their assemblies. The lechs, on the other hand, possessed absolute power upon their own estates, being entirely independent of their prince. This state of things being very detrimental to the central Government. ”

“ Even during the life of his father, Bretislav distinguished himself in war against the Hungarians. During the reign of Ulric, similar feuds arose in Poland to those which had existed in Bohemia during the reign of Boleslav III. The brothers of the Polish king, thinking themselves wronged, appealed for help to Stephen, the ruler of Hungary. Taking up their cause, he succeeded in wresting Slavonia and Moravia from the Polish king ”

“ Accordingly the ethelings were sent to the "king of the Slavs," [174] who was instructed to remove them from the land of the living. This particular king was evidently Canute's maternal uncle, the mighty Boleslav, duke and later king of Poland. Boleslav took pity on the poor children and failed to dispose of them as requested. In 1025, he was succeeded by his son Mieczislav, who entered into close relations with King Stephen of Hungary. [175] It was probably some time after 1025, therefore, that the ethelings were transferred to the Hungarian court, where they grew to manhood. ”

“ On one occasion a woman, whom he had saved from her angry husband and sent into a nunnery, was dragged out and murdered by her husband. Boleslav desired to repress such violence by the sword; Adalbert at first persuaded him to abstain from bloodshed; but, when the insurgent nobles built a fortress on the banks of the Elbe, from which they harassed all the Christians who came that way, the king felt bound to act; so he marched against the insurgents and signally defeated them. ”

“ The power of Poland, which country had for some time taken the place of Bohemia as the most powerful West-Slav State, did not outlast the life of Boleslav the Brave. After his death (1025) dissensions broke out among his sons, and both Hungary and Bohemia became involved in these intestine dissensions. Ulrich sent an army under his brave son Břetislav into Moravia, which the Bohemians always considered a dependency of their crown, but which at that time was also claimed by the Hungarian King Stephen. Břetislav succeeded in defeating the Hungarians ”

“ Boleslav was apparently induced to submit to these severe terms, partly by his fear of the power of the Emperor, partly by a sense of the danger which was still threatening the civilised States of Europe, a danger which could only be faced by an alliance with the new ruler who had arisen in Germany. For while Bor̆ivoj and his successors had been struggling to assert their power over their heathen subjects, the old Saxon kingdom [27] had succeeded in producing a champion of European freedom and civilisation. ”

“ Boleslav is the Wendic name, filling up the cycle of strength and manly virtue.
Majesty and greatness are commemorated by closely resembling words—the Persian Mathista or Masistes, Megas and Megalos in their Greek compounds, Latin Magnus and Maximus, Keltic Mor, Teutonic Mer; it is only the Velika of the Slav that does not follow the same root. The crown names Stephanas and Venceslas, or crown glory.
Justice and judgment are the prevalent ideas in the Hebrew Dan and Shaphat, Greek Archos, Dike, and Krite, Latin Justinus, Northern Ragn; perhaps, too, in the Irish Phelim and Slavonic Upravda. ”

“ The accounts, however, of the details of the struggle seem uncertain and contradictory; and it is not until the Bohemians had in some measure re-established their independence that we once more find ourselves on firm ground.
Strangely enough, it is just when we have reached a point at which modern research and early tradition seem to be in practical harmony that we light upon a series of stories of the most romantic kind. Oldr̆ich, the brother of Boleslav III., had been established on the throne after the expulsion of the Poles. ”

“ Ludmila and Borivoi had two sons, Spytihnév and Vratislav. The elder, Spytihnév, first ruled in Bohemia, and was followed by his brother Vratislav. Both brothers were very pious, caring more for the spread of Christianity than for their own glory.
Vratislav married a Lutician princess named Drahomira, or Dogmar. Several children were born to them; but those that became of importance in history were Boleslav and Václav. Václav being the elder, was regarded as the heir to the throne ”

“ The nobility of Sandomir and Cracow assembled their warriors and advanced to meet the oncoming Mongols, but in the conflict which followed, they were defeated with great loss.
Boleslav IV at this time occupied the throne of Cracow. Fearing to remain in the citadel, he took refuge with his family in a castle at the foot of the Carpathians, and later on in a monastery in Moravia. Many of the aristocracy of Poland followed his example, escaping to Hungary or Germany; the common people sought refuge in the forests, swamps and mountains. ”

“ These persecuted and ill-used people—except, indeed, where humane individuals took compassion on them at their own peril, or when they could command riches to purchase protection—had no place of refuge left but the distant country of Lithuania, where Boleslav V, Duke of Poland, 1227-1279, had before granted them liberty of conscience ”

“ HRADČANY, THE KREMLIN OF PRAGUE.
The most beautiful place of Prague, a subject of wonder to the stranger and an object of national veneration to all Bohemians is a huge pile of buildings called: Hradčany.
The most prominent feature of the Hradčany is the Cathedral of St. Vitus, an imposing structure of pure gothic, originally founded by Prince St. Václav murdered by his pagan brother Boleslav in 935., and hero of the carol "Good King Wenceslas." ”

“ Being very wealthy and powerful, they often indulged in ambitious schemes, and consequently were regarded with suspicion at the court. When Swatopluk usurped the throne, there was war between the German emperor and the Hungarians and Poles, and the Bohemian king, in consideration of the services done him by the emperor, was obliged to render him his assistance. In this war, the two most powerful Wirsov lords, Bozej and Mutina, were placed in command of the army on the Polish frontier, and, being attacked by Boleslav, the Polish prince, they were obliged to fall back into Bohemia. ”