Oldřich, Duke of Bohemia
Oldrich ( German also Udalrich ) ( † November 9, 1034 ) was from 1012 to 1034 Duke of Bohemia from the dynasty of Přemyslids. Under his rule, it came after the decline of Bohemia at the turn of the millennium to a first consolidation of the country and to a reconquest of Moravia from Polish occupation.
Life
Oldrich was the third son of Boleslav II and his wife Hemma. Before his brother Boleslav III. he fled to in 1001 with his mother and the second brother Jaromír to Regensburg and returned in 1004 with this back to Bohemia.
On May 12, 1012 he sat in agreement with King Henry II from his brother as Duke. He initially accepted the Roman-German king or emperor as suzerain over Bohemia, but later tried several times to move away from dependence on the emperor. In this phase dominion fell a slight consolidation of the turmoil- Bohemia. Oldrich eliminated 1014, the aristocratic opposition in the country. The act of violence were mostly members of the Vršovci victim, main competitors Přemyslids Dynasty. 1019 he conquered Moravia, which was under Polish domination. The rule in the conquered territory, he transferred to his son Břetislav The Moravian Connection contributed to a stabilization of the political and economic conditions in. Oldřich grandfather Boleslav I had conquered in the 10th century large areas in the north and east that had gone but lost to the turn of the millennium. Such expansion was against the stronger neighbors, Poland and Hungary no longer feasible at the beginning of the 11th century. Oldrich sent the "superfluous " warriors and officials to Moravia and began as a transformation of the medieval Czech state towards an organization that was no longer dependent on conquest. The territories of Bohemia and Moravia remained connected to each other since that time.
In 1033 the duke was summoned to the court day in Merseburg, appeared there but not. Then it took the son of Emperor Conrad II, the future Emperor Henry III. , Caught, the emperor was allowed to settle him and appointed Jaromír back to the prince. Oldrich was pardoned the following year, returned to Bohemia and let Jaromír capture and hide. Also his son Břetislav I, who had been enfeoffed by the Emperor Moravia, he was selling. But he died a short time later, on 9 November 1034.
Oldrich was married, his wife's name is unknown. The marriage remained childless. For the continuation of the dynasty he made with the help of his second wife, Bozena, the mother Břetislavs I. This was based on a story of the chronicler Cosmas of Prague, the daughter of a farmer who had met and married on his return from hunting in laundering the Duke, without dissolving his first marriage.
Reception
The romantic story of duke Oldrich and Bozena was the beautiful laundress since the Middle Ages a popular motif in literature, art and music. Among the works that made use of the subject, include, for example: