Margraviate of Moravia

Who rules

Name

Vladislaus Henry (Vladislav Jindřich, Wladislaus Heinricus)

Title

Margrave of Moravia (marchio Moraviae). FMG styles him duke of Olomouc 1193-1194 and 1197-1222; Czech, German and English Wikipedia call him margrave from 1197 (and before that 1192-1194).

Since

6 December 1197; he had held the march once before, 1192 to 1194

Born

about 1160 (English and German Wikipedia) or 1160/1165 (Czech Wikipedia); so about 35 to 40 years old

Family

Přemyslid. Second son of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and his second wife Judith of Thuringia. Full brother of King Ottokar I (Přemysl Otakar). Half-brother of Adalbert III, archbishop of Salzburg (son of Vladislaus II by his first wife Gertrude of Babenberg), who dies on 8 April 1200. Wife: Heilwida (Hedwig), of unknown origin; Czech Wikipedia says perhaps of the Austrian lords of Trnava (not pinned). No children: he died without issue on 12 August 1222 and Moravia passed to Ottokar's line.

Confidence

high

Czech Wikipedia (Vladislav Jindřich, which follows Martin Wihoda's biography) for 1192-1197, the December 1197 agreement, his seat at Znojmo, his wife and the late unification of Moravia (1209-1213); English and German Wikipedia for his dates and the election; FMG for his death on 12 August 1222 (Canonici Pragenses: 'Wladislaus dux Moraviae, frater regis'); German Wikipedia (Speyerer Fürstenerklärung) for his place among the Staufen princes of 28 May 1199.

Overlord

His elder brother King Ottokar I of Bohemia: German Wikipedia says he took Moravia as a Bohemian fief, and the contemporary chronicler Jarloch, abbot of Milevsko (quoted by Czech Wikipedia), says the brothers were to rule one principality together, 'he in Moravia, this one in Bohemia'. Above both stands the German king. Moravia had been granted as an imperial fief by Frederick Barbarossa to Conrad Otto in 1182 and by Henry VI to Vladislaus Henry in 1192; whether he sought a new grant from Philip of Swabia after December 1197 is not pinned.

The Golden Bull of Sicily (1212), which settles Moravia's place, is later.

What the realm holds

• The Znojmo land in the south-west, held directly: Znojmo castle (his residence), and the princely border castles of Vranov (built by Bretislaus I, first named about 1100) and Bítov (first named 1061 as the prince's), both facing Austria over the Thaya. See Vladislaus Henry.
• The Brno land in the centre and south, probably held directly ('possibly' in Czech Wikipedia): Brno castle, the border castle of Břeclav on the lower Thaya (built after 1041 by Bretislaus I) and Hodonín on the Morava (first credibly named 1169). See Vladislaus Henry.
• Lordship in name over the Olomouc land (Olomouc, Přerov, Spytihněv and the north and east of Moravia), which on 1 January 1200 is held by its own princes or by the king's officers, not by him. See Olomouc land.
• The province of Opava (Holasice) with its castle at Hradec on the Moravice: Moravian ground; whose castellan holds it that winter is not pinned. See Province of Opava.
• The ruler's rights over the land as a whole: leading the host, the provincial courts held at the castles, tolls at fords and castle markets, the mint, the frontier forests (the wooded Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, the Jeseníky, the Beskids and the White Carpathians) and the right to grant land.
• Patronage of the princely monasteries: Louka by Znojmo (Premonstratensians, founded 1190 by Conrad Otto), Třebíč (Benedictines, 1101), Rajhrad (Benedictines) and, in the Olomouc land, Hradisko by Olomouc (Premonstratensians). Velehrad (Cistercians) is founded only in 1204 or 1205. These houses and the bishop's estates are Church map records.

How it was acquired

Moravia had been divided since the eleventh century into the appanages (úděly) of Olomouc, Brno and Znojmo, held by junior Přemyslids under the duke of Bohemia. In 1182 Frederick Barbarossa granted Moravia as a fief to Conrad Otto of Znojmo, the first margrave; the title lapsed when Conrad Otto became duke of Bohemia (1189), and he died near Naples on 9 September 1191. In 1192 Henry VI gave the march to Vladislaus Henry (in practice probably only the Znojmo and perhaps the Brno appanage).

In June 1193 the diet of Worms deposed Ottokar and Vladislaus Henry and gave Bohemia to the bishop of Prague, Henry Bretislaus, who in 1194-1195 drove Vladislaus Henry out of Moravia, set one of his own supporters (not named in the source reached) over the march, and kept him under watch at Prague Castle. Henry Bretislaus died at Eger on 15 or 19 June 1197; the nobles freed Vladislaus Henry and elected him duke (22 or 23 June 1197); Ottokar invaded, and on 6 December 1197 the brothers settled: Bohemia for Ottokar, Moravia as a hereditary margraviate for Vladislaus Henry. No place for the meeting is given in the sources reached.

He had the rival Brno prince Spytihněv blinded (date not pinned).

Allies and rivals

Allies: his brother King Ottokar I, with whom he rules in close agreement; King Philip of Swabia; Daniel II (Milík), bishop of Prague, whom Vladislaus Henry himself put into the see in 1197 (his confessor, in English Wikipedia); his half-brother Archbishop Adalbert III of Salzburg. Ottokar's marriage to Constance of Hungary (1198 in German Wikipedia) ties the brothers to King Emeric. Rivals: what is left of the old appanage lines (the Olomouc princes; the blinded Brno prince Spytihněv); Ottokar's put-away wife Adelaide of Meissen and her Wettin kin, whose appeal is before the pope.

Neighbours: Duke Leopold VI of Austria over the Thaya, a fellow Staufen signatory at Speyer, who sheltered Emeric's rebel brother Andrew in 1199; King Emeric of Hungary over the White Carpathians and the Morava; Duke Mieszko Tanglefoot of Racibórz (with Cieszyn) over the Ostravice and beyond the province of Opava; the bishop of Wrocław's land of Nysa and Otmuchów over the Jeseníky (a quarrel over the gold of Zlaté Hory is attested only from about 1205).

The realm that morning

On the morning of 1 January 1200 Vladislaus Henry is margrave and lives at Znojmo. He holds the Znojmo land and probably the Brno land through his castellans. Olomouc and its land are not his: Czech Wikipedia says that after the deaths of the local appanage princes the Olomouc land came under Ottokar I's administration, and that all Moravia was united under Vladislaus Henry only in 1209-1213; who sits in Olomouc castle that morning (a last prince of the Olomouc line, or the king's castellan) is not pinned.

The province of Opava is Moravian ground under a castellan at Hradec who is not named. The see of Olomouc has been vacant since Engelbert's death on 18 December 1199; John (Jan Bavor), a Premonstratensian canon of Strahov, is listed as bishop from 1199 to 1201, so he is either just elected or not yet chosen. No war is known on any Moravian frontier that winter, and no raiding belt is drawn: the margrave and the dukes of Austria and Bavaria stand on the same side in the throne war, Hungary is absorbed in Emeric's quarrel with Andrew, and the Silesian frontier is quiet as far as the sources show.

Wealth

Grain and wine lands: the Haná plain round Olomouc and Přerov, and the warm south round Znojmo, Brno and the lower Thaya. Tolls at the fords and castle markets on the long-distance road that crosses Moravia from the Danube by Břeclav or Brno to Olomouc, Opava and Silesia (part of the old Amber Road), and on the Morava (the bishop's market village of Kroměříž lies at a ford of the Morava where toll was taken). The Moravian penny (denar) was struck by the Moravian princes at their seats; Vladislaus Henry's own coinage was not checked here.

No mines are worked yet: Jihlava's silver is found in 1234, and the gold of Zlaté Hory, which the margrave seizes from the bishop of Wrocław, is a quarrel of about 1205-1213. Wide forests on every frontier.

Military

The host of Moravia is raised through the castle districts: each provincial castle has a castellan who leads its men and holds its court. Frontier castles face Austria (Vranov, Bítov, Znojmo, Břeclav) and Hungary (Břeclav, Hodonín, Spytihněv). The Moravian nobles serve the margrave for land and office, not as great vassals; their family names appear only later (the ancestor of the Pernštejn lords, Stephen of Medlov, first in 1208, and of the Kunštát lords, Gerhard of Zbraslav, first in 1222), and no Moravian noble's castle or estate is pinned for 1 January 1200 in the sources reached.

No military order is known to hold land in Moravia that winter (the Hospitallers' Kroměříž house dates from 1238). No numbers in the sources. In December 1197 he brought an army against his brother but they settled without battle.

Threats

• The Olomouc question: the land goes to the king's officers, not to him, when its princes die; until 1209-1213 his writ runs in only part of Moravia.
• His brother's marriage case: Adelaide of Meissen's appeal against her repudiation lies with Innocent III and could bring censure on the Přemyslids or a quarrel with the margrave of Meissen.
• The throne war: both brothers are committed to Philip; a papal sentence for Otto IV would expose them.
• The vacant see of Olomouc: an election against his wishes, or a long vacancy in the land's only bishopric.
• Hungary's civil war between Emeric and Andrew (settled only in the summer of 1200), on the White Carpathian frontier.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. early 1200 (not pinned)The Olomouc chapter chooses Engelbert's successor: John (Jan Bavor), a Premonstratensian canon of Strahov and probably of the Bavor family of Strakonice, is listed as bishop 1199-1201.Depends on: Agreement of the margrave and the king; confirmation by the archbishop of Mainz as metropolitan. Stopped by: A disputed election, or a papal or metropolitan veto.
2. 8 April 1200His half-brother Adalbert III, archbishop of Salzburg, dies at Salzburg; Eberhard of Regensberg, bishop of Brixen, follows him later in the year.Depends on: Natural death on its date. Stopped by: Nothing in play.
3. 1200 or soon after (not pinned)The Olomouc land passes under Ottokar I's administration when its last local princes die (if it has not already).Depends on: The princes' deaths; the king keeping Olomouc for himself. Stopped by: A surviving prince, or the margrave seizing Olomouc first.
4. about 1200 (tradition)Mariazell in Styria: the foundation legend credits a Moravian margrave Henry and his wife (taken to be Vladislaus Henry and Heilwida) with building the first pilgrim church after a cure, on St Wenceslas's bidding in a dream.Depends on: The margrave's health and piety; it may be legend only. Stopped by: Treat as legend unless the campaign wants it.
5. summer 1200King Emeric and his brother Andrew make peace through the legate Gregory; Andrew again receives Croatia and Dalmatia. The Hungarian frontier stays quiet.Depends on: The legate's mediation succeeding. Stopped by: A renewed Hungarian civil war.

Later, on the likely course

1. 6 October 1201Bishop John dies at Milevsko during an altar consecration; Robert (bishop 1201-1240) follows.Depends on: Natural death on its date. Stopped by: Nothing in play.
2. 1201-1204Ottokar I goes over to Otto IV (crowned again by the papal legate in 1203, recognised by Innocent III in 1204) and later returns to Philip. Whether and when the margrave follows him is not pinned (the Bohemian record has the detail).Depends on: Rome's sentence on the throne and Philip's fortunes. Stopped by: Philip winning early, or Ottokar staying loyal.
3. 1204 or 1205With Bishop Robert he founds the Cistercian abbey of Velehrad, settled from Plasy, as the margraves' burial church.Depends on: Peace and a bishop of his choosing. Stopped by: War or a breach with the bishop.
4. 1209-1213All Moravia is united under Vladislaus Henry; in 1213 he founds Uničov, the first royal town in Moravia (Bruntál probably slightly earlier).Depends on: Ottokar handing over the Olomouc land. Stopped by: A breach between the brothers.

Places of note

• Znojmo castle: The margrave's residence; Romanesque rotunda of St Catherine with paintings of the Přemyslid princes.
• Brno castle: Princely castle of the Brno land, built between 1021 and 1034; the settlement first named 1091.
• Olomouc castle: Seat of the Olomouc land and of the bishop (St Wenceslas cathedral within the castle).
• Vranov castle: Princely border castle over the Thaya, built by Bretislaus I.
• Bítov castle: Princely castle first named 1061, part of the defence against Austria.
• Břeclav castle: Border castle on the lower Thaya, near Austria and Hungary.
• Hradec castle: Centre of the province of Opava (Holasice).

Where the sources disagree

• campaign notes Part 6 D leave Olomouc thin and name no bishop. Engelbert (of Brabant by tradition), bishop since 1194, died on 18 December 1199 (German Wikipedia, Engelbert von Brabant), so on 1 January 1200 the see is newly vacant or his successor John (Jan V Bavor, listed 1199-1201, died 6 October 1201) has just been chosen. Robert, the Englishman, is bishop only from 1201.
• campaign notes Part 6 D call Adalbert III of Salzburg Ottokar's brother: he is a half-brother, son of Vladislaus II by Gertrude of Babenberg (German Wikipedia), while Ottokar and Vladislaus Henry are sons of Judith of Thuringia.
• FMG styles Vladislaus Henry duke of Olomouc 1197-1222, but Czech Wikipedia (after Wihoda) says the Olomouc land was not his until 1209-1213. This record follows the Czech account.
• His election as duke in 1197: 22 June (FMG, English Wikipedia) or 23 June (Czech and German Wikipedia). Henry Bretislaus's death: 15 or 19 June 1197.
• campaign notes Part 6 D call Daniel II of Prague 'Ottokar's bishop'. English Wikipedia says it was Vladislaus Henry, as duke of Bohemia in 1197, who put his own confessor Daniel Milík into the see; Daniel served Ottokar after December 1197, so both can stand, but the margrave has a claim on his gratitude.
• Vladislaus Henry's first grant of Moravia: 1191 in English Wikipedia (from Ottokar, with Henry VI's consent), 1192 in German and Czech Wikipedia (from Henry VI, secured by Henry Bretislaus).
• German Wikipedia (Ottokar I. Přemysl) dates Ottokar's coronation 'a few days after' the agreement with Philip of 8 September 1198 at Mainz and places it at Boppard; the brief's trap list asks for the date and place to be checked, which is the Bohemian record's task.

Evidence: The 1197 settlement, the title, his side in 1199 and the bishop's death are documented. Who held Olomouc and Opava on 1 January 1200, the castellans, and the Moravian nobles of these years are thinly attested; the Czech Wikipedia pages on the appanage princes could not be reached in this run, so the Olomouc princes are left unnamed.

On the map: In 1200 the western border ran through the frontier forest of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and the Hungarian border through the thinly settled White Carpathians: both are drawn as later lines. The realm colour covers the Olomouc land and Opava although the margrave did not govern them directly that winter.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Jarloch (Gerlach), abbot of Milevsko, Jarloch of Milevsko (about 1200 to 1220). The last Bohemian narrative before 1200, continuing Vincentius of Prague. Read online
• The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online
• Charters and letters of the kingdom of Bohemia, volume 2, 1198 to 1230 (documents of 1198 to 1230, edited 1912). The critical edition of every Bohemian and Moravian charter and letter from Ottokar I's accession to 1230.