Vladislaus Henry East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450

Vladislaus Henry East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450 General Editor Florin Curta VOLUME 33 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ecee Vladislaus Henry The Formation of Moravian Identity By Martin Wihoda Translated by Kateřina Millerová LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Between 1213 and 1222, Vladislaus Henry used a single type of equestrian seal. Although he entered the public life as a margrave of Moravia, his shield bore the sign of a lion, which also appeared in the coat of arms of his brother, King of Bohemia Přemysl Otakar I. Photography by MZA (Moravian Land Archives) Brno. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wihoda, Martin, 1967- Vladislaus Henry : the formation of Moravian identity / by Martin Wihoda ; translated by Katerina Millerova. pages cm. — (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, ISSN 1872-8103; volume 33) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25049-9 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-30383-6 (e-book) 1. Vladislav Jindrich, Margrave of Moravia, approximately 1167–1222. 2. Moravia (Czech Republic)—Kings and rulers—Biography. 3. Moravia (Czech Republic)—Politics and government. 4. Premysl Otakar I, King of Bohemia, approximately 1165–1230 5. Group identity—Czech Republic—Moravia—History—To 1500. 6. Community life—Czech Republic—Moravia—History—To 1500. 7. Land tenure—Political aspects— Czech Republic—Moravia—History—To 1500. 8. Social change—Czech Republic—Moravia—History— To 1500. 9. Moravia (Czech Republic)—History—To 1526. 10. Bohemia (Czech Republic)—History—To 1526. I. Title. DB2091.V52W44 2015 943.72’0223092—dc23 [B] 2015027400 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1872-8103 isbn 978-90-04-25049-9 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30383-6 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Illustrations ix Abbreviations xxi Map xxiv 1 A Remote Mirror 1 2 An Heir 12 1 The Years of Fame and False Hopes 16 2 A Witness to a Dying Time 27 3 The First Man in the Duchy 45 3 The Margrave 61 1 The Epilogue of the Ducal Age 66 2 The Nuremberg Mission 80 3 Two Moravias 100 4 The December Agreement 112 5 From Hedwig to Heilwidis 134 4 The Land 141 1 The Ruler 145 2 The Governor 157 3 The Manager 168 4 The Founder 181 5 The Patron 205 5 Memory 223 1 Gerlach and the Others 227 2 The Gracious Duke 234 3 It Happened One Night 246 6 Legacy 254 1 From Margraves to a Margraviate 257 2 Transformation on the Periphery 277 3 The Making of Central Europe 284 vi contents Appendices 1 The Margraves of Moravia of the Přemyslid Period 297 2 Vladislaus’ Lineage 298 Bibliography 300 1 Sources 300 2 Literature 306 Index 337 Acknowledgements The remote beginnings of the treatise that was published in 2007 under the title Vladislav Jindřich [Vladislaus Henry] go back to the early 1990s, when my Brno professors Jaroslav Mezník and Josef Válka persuaded me to make my so far indiscriminate interest in the transformation of ducal Moravia into a margraviate the subject of my next research. By a twist of fate and because of some other urgent obligations, it took another ten years for me to organise variously scattered reflections into fixed coordinates. Then it turned out that the community of the Moravians had begun to take shape in the first two decades of the 13th century, hence at the time when the land was governed by Margrave Vladislaus Henry († 1222). The manuscript was then published by Matice moravská [Moravian Foundation].1 Hardly anyone anticipated that the book with the rather non- catchy title would become an ‘event’. Yet it was out of print within three months, and the subsequent discussion showed that some passages could be further elaborated or specified with new evidence. I gladly accepted the offer of Florin Curta (University of North Florida) and, with the generous support of the Brill Academic Publishers, began to make the changes that impressed its present form on the Czech original. The first words of thanks then go not only to Florin Curta but also to Brill’s Julian Deahl and Marcella Mulder. I am also indebted to Kateřina Millerová for having undertaken the translation with remarkable willingness and to Demeter Malat’ák for the time that he spent on proofreading the text. I am glad to mention here that the work presented emerged within the project of the Czech Science Foundation P 405/12/0358 ‘The First Czech Kingdoms’ and was finalized with the support of the Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University within the project ROZV/24/FF/HU1/2014. Equally sincere thanks are due to the reviewers of the Czech version. I especially appreciate the comments of Přemysl Bar, Karel Hruza, Dalibor Janiš, Wojciech Mischke and Martin Nodl. With respect and pleasure, I remember here my mentors and teachers, Jaroslav Bakala, Jaroslav Mezník, Dušan Třeštík and Josef Válka; it is a pity that I can share the joy of knowledge with only the last of them now. Jan Klápště deserves a symbolic prize for the patience with which he listened to my speculations. Dalibor Havel and Dalibor Prix have always been more than erudite counsellors for me. Both of them have become my kind and top-ranking guides to the places of memory of the Přemyslid Age. 1 Martin Wihoda, Vladislav Jindřich, Brno 2007 (Knižnice Matice moravské 21), ISBN 978-80-86488-00-4. viii acknowledgements I am grateful to Zdeněk Neústupný for making the maps. Last but not least, I thank my students and colleagues for providing me with an isle of creative freedom and liberalism at the Department of History of the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno. I owe thanks particularly to Libor Jan, to whom I am grateful for colourful discussions in Akademická kavárna, which became an involuntary and fortunately also silent witness to our contemplations. Maloměřice, St Stephen’s day, 2014 List of Illustrations 1 Mariazell became an important pilgrimage site already in 1399, when Pope Boniface IX granted the church plenary indulgences. The real heyday of the monastery, however, did not occur until the Baroque; this may be a reason that the monastic records mention only the legendary memories of 1157 and the monk Magnus, who built a hermitage where the Virgin Mary had allegedly appeared to him. Subsequently, the humble dwelling was purportedly rebuilt by some margrave of Moravia, whose health was restored through fervent prayers and the intercession of St Wenceslas. Although his work disappeared under the generously laid-out church of King of Hungary Louis, the Benedictines did not forget their first munificent benefactor, who has been identified as Vladislaus Henry, and in 1757 they asked the famous sculptor Balthasar Ferdinand Moll to cast statues of the king of Hungary and the margrave of Moravia. The latter was welcoming pilgrims on the right side before the main entrance. 5 2 Vladislaus Henry gave the Louka monastery the field at Loděnice which was connected with the memory of the clash of the Bohemians and Moravians in 1185 (campus iuxta Lodinic, in quo bellum habitum est inter Bohemos et Morauos). He himself supposedly emphasised that he was doing so to save his soul (pro remedio anime sue). In the past, the explanatory gloss was mistakenly presented as proof that the margrave had fought at Loděnice. 13 3 Vladislaus II constantly repeated, with pride that was hard to conceal, that he was the king of the Bohemians (rex Bohemorum). Nevertheless, the imperial privilege of 18 January 1158, worded by the imperial chan- cellor Rainald of Dassel, considered his title to be conditional. Not only did the recipient remain a duke (dux); instead of the crown (diadema, corona), he was acknowledged the much more modest right to wear the coronet (circulus) on selected days. 22 4 Despite all the restrictive conditions, Vladislaus II sincerely appreciated the title bestowed on him, which is implied by his ‘coronation’ denars. The first of them was minted after his return from Regensburg in the first weeks of 1158 and depicted the symbolic acceptance of the crown from the hands of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. 25 * Unless stated otherwise in the caption, the images are owned by the author himself. x list of illustrations 5 At the bleak castle Přimda, extending towards the Bavarian border, the unfortunate duke Sobeslaus spent twelve long years (1161–1172) before Barbarossa’s threats returned his freedom to him and he, after the intercession of his brother Oldřich and with the blessing of the emperor and his counsellors, assumed the government in Prague in 1173. Depictions from the 1840s. 26 6 The abbot Gerlach was not only a well-informed commentator on contemporary events but also a competent abbot, under whose long administration (he was inaugurated in 1187 and still held the post in 1221) Milevsko became an influential and most likely also rich community, which could proceed to the generously laid-out construction of the monastic complex.

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