Wladislaw I

Notes:

Duke of Bohemia.

Family/Spouse: Richza von Berg-Schelklingen. Richza (daughter of Heinrich I von Berg-Schelklingen and Adelaide von Mochental) was born about 1095; died on 27 Sep 1125. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Wladislaw II, King of Bohemia was born about 1110; died on 18 Jan 1175.
2. Diepold I of Bohemia was born about 1114; died on 15 Aug 1167.

Vratislaus married Swatislawa of Poland in 1063. Swatislawa (daughter of Casimir I, Duke Of Poland and Maria Dobronega) was born about 1048; died on 1 Sep 1126. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Swatawa.

Notes:

Duke of Bohemia and Moravia. Called "The Bohemian Achilles."

Bretislaus married Judith of Schweinfurt after 1021. Judith (daughter of Henry of Schweinfurt and Gerberge) died on 2 Aug 1058; was buried in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, Bohemia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Czech: Jitka ze Schweinfurtu.

Notes:

Duke of Poland. De facto king.

"The Restorer"; "The Pacific." Educated in France.

Casimir married Maria Dobronega in 1038. Maria (daughter of St. Vladimir of Kiev, Grand Prince of Kiev and (Unknown mistress of St. Vladimir of Kiev)) was born after 1011; died in 1087. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Aft 1012

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 975
• Alternate death: 11 Nov 1034

Notes:

Also called Ulderich. Duke of Bohemia.

From Wikipedia:

Oldrich deposed [his brother] Jaromír on 12 April 1012 and recognised the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor. According to legend, Oldrich married a woman known as Božena, daughter of Kresina, after discarding his first wife on the grounds that they were childless.

Oldrich and his son Bretislaus sought to win back Moravia from the Poles and in 1029 Bretislaus drove the Poles out of the eastern lands. Bretislaus' efforts in today Slovakia against Hungary failed in 1030 due to the jealousy of the Emperor Conrad II. In the following year, Czech forces refused to take the field for the emperor.

In 1032, Oldrich was invited to the Diet of Merseburg and did not appear. His absence raised the ire of the emperor and Conrad, busy with events in Burgundy, charged his son Henry VI, Duke of Bavaria, with punishing the recalcitrant Bohemian. Oldrich was deposed and sent to Bavaria. He was replaced by Jaromír, but he in turn was captured, blinded, and deposed by Oldrich, who seized power again and drove out Jaromír's son from Moravia. Oldrich died abruptly on 9 November 1034 and later examination of his skeleton reveal his skull to have suffered a fatal blow. Jaromír then renounced the throne in favour of Bretislaus.

Oldrich married Božena. Božena (daughter of Kresina) died in 1052. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1052

Notes:

Also called Kresinová.

From Wikipedia:

The historian Cosmas of Prague recorded the legend of Oldrich and Božena, in his Chronica Boemorum ("Chronicle of the Bohemians"). According to the legend, the young (and married) Oldrich set out on a hunt and travelled to Peruc. There, he spied a beautiful peasant girl, Božena, by a well known today as Božena's Spring and was immediately entranced by her.

Oldrich abandoned his hunt and took Božena back to Prague, where she eventually gave birth to his illegitimate son Bretislaus. In the legend, Oldrich's first meeting with Božena took place in sight of the Oldrich Oak.

Božena was indeed the savior of the Czech House of Premysl. Oldrich had two brothers, but one of them, Jaromír, was castrated by the eldest sibling, Boleslaus III. Boleslaus himself was imprisoned in Poland, possibly having only a daughter. Thus Oldrich was the one Premyslid able to have a son and heir. His first wife is thought to have borne no children.

Božena's low birth is alluded to in the chronicle of Cosmas, which states that Oldrich first met her 'riding through the village'. The illegitimate birth of her son Bretislaus to a low-born mother is believed to have made it necessary for him to resort to abduction when he later sought to marry a noble bride (Judith of Schweinfurt). At any rate, she was held to be a peasant woman already by the author of the early 14th-century Chronicle of Dalimil.

Notes:

Margrave of the Nordgau.

Henry married Gerberge. Gerberge was born about 970; died after 1036. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From Leo van de Pas:

Gerberge was the wife of Heinrich von Schweinfurt, Markgraf auf der Nordgau. According to the chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg, Gerberge was the sister of an otherwise unidentified Otto, and that is evidently the slender thread on which various authors have tried to base her ancestry. The statement that she was the daughter of Heribert, Graf im Kinziggau, assumes that this Otto was Otto von Hammerstein (a plausible, but unproven, conjecture), and other guesses as to the identity of this Otto can lead to other guesses for her parentage. "Unknown" would appear to be the safest choice.

Mieszko married Richeza of Lotharingia in 1013. Richeza (daughter of Ezzo of Lotharingia and Mathilde von Sachsen) was born about 998; died on 21 Mar 1063 in Saalfield, Thuringia, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The church in which he was buried, popularly known as the Church of the Tithe, was destroyed when the Mongols overran Kiev in 1240.

Vladimir married (Unknown mistress of St. Vladimir of Kiev). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"[Maria Dobronega's] mother is thought by some to have been a German princess, daughter of Otto I; but this identification is not well established." ["Ryurik and the First Ryurikids", citation details below.]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 940

Notes:

Duke of Bohemia. Called "The Pious." Not to be confused with the Polish duke nicknamed Boleslaus the Pious.

"Boleslaus's first wife Adiva may have been a daughter of the English king Edward the Elder (Ælfgifu who married 'a prince near the Alps'), though the evidence for this is weak." [Wikipedia]

Boleslaus married Emma of Melnik. Emma was born before 950; died between 1005 and 1006. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Hemma.

Notes:

A peasant.

Notes:

"Berthold was mentioned in 941 as Count, in 960 as Count in the Radenzgau, in 961 as Count on the lower Naab, and in 973 as Count in the Volkfeld. In 976, after successful campaigns against Bohemia and Hungary, he was named as Margrave, and in 980 as Count of eastern Franconia." [Leo van de Pas]

Berthold married Eilika of Walbeck. Eilika (daughter of Lothar II von Walbeck and Mathilde von Arneburg) died on 19 Aug 1015 in Schweinfurt, Bavaria. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Boleslaw married Emnilda of Lusatia. Emnilda (daughter of Dobromir, Ruler of Lusatia) was born between 970 and 975; died between 1013 and 1017. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count Palatine of Lotharingia.

Ezzo married Mathilde von Sachsen. Mathilde (daughter of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor and Theophano) was born in 979; died on 4 Dec 1025 in Echtz, Düren, Germany; was buried in Brauweiler Abbey, Pulheim near Cologne, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Svyatoslav remained a pagan, saying that if he converted, 'My men would laugh at that.' He is the first Kievan ruler of the line to have a purely Slavic name and be given a proper history in the chronicle, yet much of this must have come from oral tradition. He set out to expand his realm by conquest and thought of moving his capital to Pereyaslavets on the Danube, but after a lengthy campaign against the Byzantines he was ambushed and killed in 972 by the Pechenegs, who are said to have made a drinking up out of his skull." ["Ryurik and the First Ryurikids", citation details below.]

Sviatoslav married Malusha. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Vladimir is stated in the chronicle to have been [a son of] Malusha, a high-ranking servant, '(female) keeper of the keys,' to his grandmother Princess Olga." ["Ryurik and the First Ryurikids", citation details below.]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 915
• Alternate death: 15 Jul 972

Notes:

Duke of Bohemia. Called "The Cruel" and "The Gruesome."

From Wikipedia:

Boleslav is notorious for the murder of his brother Wenceslaus, through which he became Duke of Bohemia. Wenceslaus was murdered during a feast; at precisely that time Boleslav's son was allegedly born. He received a strange name: Strachkvas, which means "a dreadful feast". Being remorseful for what he had done, Boleslav promised to devote his son to religion and educate him as a clergyman.

Despite the fratricide, Boleslav is generally respected by Czech historians as an energetic ruler who significantly strengthened the Bohemian state and expanded its territory. The pro-Christian religious policies pursued by Wenceslaus do not appear to have been a cause for Boleslav's fratricide, since Boleslav in no way impeded the growth of Christianity in Bohemia, and in fact actually sent his daughter Mlada, a nun, to the Pope in Rome to ask permission to make Prague a bishopric.

Boleslaus married Biagota von Stockow. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Walbeck.

Lothar married Mathilde von Arneburg. Mathilde died on 3 Dec 990. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mieszko married Dobrawa of Bohemia in 955. Dobrawa (daughter of Boleslaus I of Bohemia and Biagota von Stockow) died in 977. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count Palatine of Lotharingia.

Hermann married Helwig von Dillingen. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Otto married Theophano. Theophano was born between 955 and 956; died on 15 Jun 991 in Nijmegen, Netherlands. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Perhaps slightly less legendary than his supposed father Rurik, his actual existence is still hazy at best. His supposed spouse Olga and her son Sviatoslav are much more clearly real and non-legendary.

Igor married St. Olga of Kiev. Olga was born about 890 in Pskov, Russia; died on 11 Jul 969 in Kiev, Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Her name Ol'ga derives from Old Scandinavian Helga, and she is called Helga in Byzantine sources. Her christening name was Helen. She was the first of the princely family to accept Christianity and much later she was made a saint as 'precursor' of the faith in Rus. As the widow of Igor, she served as regent during the minority of her son Svyatoslav. Her official visit to Constantinople circa 955 is related in the Primary Chronicle and also by the Emperor Constantine, the differences between the two sources illustrating nicely the folk character of the early Rus annals. In her, the chronicle dramatizes the change from paganism to Christianity: a treacherous and vengeful Olga becomes Olga the saint, through still a trickster." ["Ryurik and the First Ryurikids", citation details below.]